Dogs – especially the smarter ones – do eventually acquire a surprising vocabulary, but they are also incredibly attuned to our tone of voice and our emotions. In effect dogs’ comprehension is a combination of verbal understanding and mind reading!
Sometimes when speaking to mine I would look at him and say “Would you like …” which would cause him to instantly stop what he was doing and stare at me in wide-eyed expectation, and when I concluded with “… go for a walk?” he would launch into the Doggy Dance of Joy.
I finally got my lawn mowed this morning and as such we have discovered Bob’s mortal enemy - the lawn mower. I had him tied on a short lead on the deck so he couldn’t get to the lawn but he could get in to the back door into the garage. He started barking the minute I fired that thing up and didn’t stop until I turned it off. He had a couple spells of getting tired of barking and he would wander into the garage, but I think it was only to get a drink of water so he could come back out and start barking again. When I was mowing close to the deck I could look over to him and snap my fingers and get half hearted shut-up and look from him, but it would only last ten or twenty seconds until he was off again. When I was done and wheeled the mower back into the garage he went right after it, biting the wheel and dragging it. I nipped that in the bud and actually had a bit of a fruitful session of getting him to relax on his side and calm down right next to it. He was still pretty hyper when we came inside, though.
This will definitely be another work in progress, though not a frequent one - I won’t have to mow again for a while.
Now he’s completely zonked out on the living room floor.
My pocket pets (little dogs) are so scared of the vacuum cleaner. The Yorkie pees herself. The Beagle hides her head under the couch. The rest of her won’t fit.
I only have carpet upstairs so I don’t vac enough to get them used to it. Lets not even discuss what the Siamese do on vac day.
Bob is acting normally. He don’t want his favorite guy close to that mean ol’ monster mower!
ETA, listen close and you can tell the difference between his barks. A warning bark, a scared bark, a happy bark.
I love Bob. Please keep posting photos! Just looking at his goofy grin makes me smile, and it sounds like he’s already working his magic on your psyche. So glad he picked you!
Ok. Some pics I literally just took. I tried to do some me and Bob selfies, so here’s what I got. They’re a bit blurry and I feel I must explain that A) I’ve been up since 6am, I’ve taken Bob on two mile-and-a-half walks, I’ve mowed the lawn … and I haven’t taken a shower yet and 2) I look like a bit of a dope in the non-licky picture because I was concentrating on getting the picture snapped and that is the limit of the breadth of my abilities. Enjoy.
I wouldn’t put Mort in a crate and leave Bob loose, if that’s what you mean. I’d keep Bob in the crate or on leash and let Mort come to him, if he wants to. Mort really needs to feel that he’s in charge of the situation.
And I would definitely not try to carry Mort into a room with Bob in it in order to put Mort in a crate – or, at this point, for any other reason. But Mort may have gotten that one across to you already.
You could try crating Bob and coaxing Mort upstairs with treats.
Bob and I had a pretty good weekend. I had a couple issues with his distraction on walks, but he’s getting better. I’m starting to figure out a good routine, based on his energy level. I think taking him for a long walk right out of the crate is a bit of a fool’s game because he is way to amped to walk politely. I get frustrated and end walking like fifty feet and stopping, fifty feet and stopping, not that he’s out of control, just walking in front of me and I don’t want him to do that.
Today after work, he stayed calmly in his room for about a half an hour while I checked on Mort who’s spending a little more time upstairs while Bob is in his room, but he’s still more than willing to stay downstairs most of the time. Slow and steady. It’ll work out. After I sprung Bob, I took him for a quick pee in the back yard and walk down to his poopy spot and then I got him fed. Afterward we went into the back yard and played for about a half hour. Then he relaxed in the grass with a bone while I made myself a turkey-burger. Once he was inside on his bed, nice and calm, gnawing on a chewy, I took him for a mile-and-a-halfer and he did great. There was a rogue dog that dragged his owner trying to get to Bob and it looked like Bob would have been up for a go, but he was easy enough to hold back and get to sit. Bob was pretty alert when he saw the dog, but I don’t think he triggered anything. We walked past three other dogs in yards on the walk with nary a hitch. So, good Bob. This routine seems to work with his energy level so far. I can’t get to the dog park as often as I’d like so back yard play-time is key.
Bobby-Boy! It does sound like Bobby Orr in my dog dialect, I suppose.
Bob’s still doing well, steadily better with a ways to go toward ideal. This morning’s walk was a B-. He got distracted and it took me a little while to get him back on track. I’ve been doing this thing on a walk where if he starts to tug, or gets distracted at something, I stop and get him to sit and try to get him to look at me before we take off again. I think it’s working. This afternoon’s walk was a solid A. Except for a ten second flip out over a cat in a driveway, it would have been an A+. Not really a flip out, I mean I could keep walking at my pace and have him come along, but he twirled and walked backwards and wanted to go back and see the cat … who looked friendly, he was just ambling up the driveway toward us - in retrospect, I should have used that cat as my guinea pig to see how calm I could have got Bob, but we were in ninth inning of a perfect game, so to speak. I only gave up a hit, I didn’t want to give up a tater. Sports analogies notwithstanding, I digress.
Say, here’s a dog behavior that I’m curious about. Here’s the thing, I make no judgements and I respect any living being’s right to live the way that he or she chooses, but, um, Bob pees like a girl. He just squats and lets loose - about half the time peeing all over his front paw if he’s really got to go. Will he start lifting his leg as he gets older? Is there something I can do to encourage him to do it or do I just live with the shame … I mean judgement-free contentment of him squat-peeing?
He sounds like a Very Good Boy[sup]TM[/sup]