Inspired by this thread, and particularly Master Wang-Ka’s post, I was reminded of my dog, Mercy and all the wierd stuff she does.
She is a really sweet and lovable dog, but man, does she have some odd habits.
My favorite is how she plays with her toys. Simply put, she de-fluffs them. But more important is her method. She begins with the nose or eyes, whichever is made with plastic. If no plastic is to be found, she always starts with the eyes and then moves on to remove the greater part of the face. She then removes any squeakers or noisemakers or internal hardware of any kind. Then, a little bit at a time, she removes the stuffing from her toys until they are flat as roadkill. She leaves the stuffing around, and we’re always careful that she doesn’t eat it.
But just imagine, you’re coming downstairs int he morning and spread out before you on the dark green rug are 2-3 small, flat, faceless animals lying prone and helpless with their erstwhile stuffing surrounding them like blood after a bloodbath. It’s a little like a horror movie, and I swear I hear violins playing eerily in the background.
So now it’s your turn, what kinds of wierd crap do you put up with from the otherwise wonderful dogs (or cats) you live with?
Mine, Sagan the Dalmation, will, if she’s sitting beside you on the couch and you call her closer to you, fall over backwards rather than get up and actually mosey on over there. Watching her go all straight and then topple in a direction she can’t even see is pretty friggin’ hilarious. And just plain odd.
In other news, I used a lot of commas in that sentence. It must be later than I thought.
Julius, our Australian Shepard, will chew any rope toy to complete destruction. With a standard bone or plastic chew toy, he’ll give up after an hour or two. But with a rope, he keeps at it until the separate strands have been torn apart. Any attempt to take the rope away gets met with biting and snapping.
Julius will eat any human food, except for lemons and onions. If you try to prepare an apple or some strawberries, he begs until he gets a piece. He’s not nearly so enthusiastic about meat.
Poppy, my staffie, will stand on her head to get her tail in her mouth. She eats my bras. She talks to her reflection. Unlike most dogs, she doesn’t sit on her haunches, but with her back legs stuck out in front of her like a little girl. Further to that, under no circumstances will she sit on the floor, she has to have a seat - whenever I take her to the vets’ she insists on sitting in the chair beside me in the waiting room. I think she’s just a little crazy.
Murphy the Wonderpup (American Bulldog, 18 mos old, 75 lbs) cheats when you tell him to stay. If he’s sitting, he’ll stay in a sitting position and scoot on his butt to where he wants to go. If he’s lying down, he’ll belly crawl. He also eats bras and socks. And ice; he looooves ice. And the other day he let the cat (Sophie, silver tabby, 6 lbs) take over his kennel. He was whining because she wouldn’t let him in. What a wuss.
My previous dog (last August) Alpine would bury tennis balls in the snow so she could dig them back out.
The routine was - I would through the ball, it often would come to rest next to the side of the driveway where the snow was deep.
Alpine would find it, rear up and stomp on it with both her feet, pushing the ball a foot or so into the snow. Then she would go in after it. Digging, snorting tail waggin machine. Every 10 seconds or so she would look up at me and give a silly snow covered grin.
Our old dog Knickerbocker (passed away a year ago today, on Thanksgiving sniff) liked all kinds of people food, unless it was round. Olives, grapes, whatever, he insisted that you cut them in half for him. If you didn’t, you got to hear a dog go “Patooeee” as he spit it across the room.
I had a dog that would play hide and seek. One person would cover his eyes while another person would hide a ball. He never had a problem with hands over his eyes either. He just sat there calmly until some one said okay. If we told him the ball wasn’t in the area he was looking he would turn around and look some where else.
I once hid the ball in a shoe. He got his head stuck for a minute or two trying to get it out.
My dog Rex does exactly the same DaisyFace - do you suppose it’s an instinct thing. BTW there is no such thing as “an indestructable dog toy” in fact I get the impression that he treats such claims as a challenge because they seem to last half as long as any others!
My dog always makes me laugh when she scratches herself with her back leg. After she’s done giving her ears a good scratch, she pauses, and delicately sniffs the foot that was doing the scratching.
She does it every time. What the hell is she smelling for?
My dog…I mean, my husband’s dog…is mostly just destructive, but he has one habit that leads me to believe he may be obsessive compulsive. He licks the carpet. Lick, lick, lick…you think he’s done, but no…lick, lick, lick…and so on. At 3 in the morning, it’s disturbing, somehow. He doesn’t stop until we yell at him.
Our Yorkie is The Most Adorable Dog on the Planet[sup]TM[/sup].
When we ask him to “bark” for his dog treat, he puts all the energy and motion into a bark but no sound comes out~! We call it his “silent bark” and it cracks us up every time.
He also won’t scratch if someone is watching him. He looks embarrassed and puts his foot down until you turn away.
My dog follows me through the house because she knows I eat a lot and I am a sucker for her cuteness so I give her pieces. I don’t give her pieces very often, but I love to turn around while she’s following me and pretend like I’m going to pick her up - she HATES to be picked up, and this makes her run, sometimes backwards, sometimes bumping into stuff, sometimes doing that amusing run-in-place because she can’t get a grip on the slick kitchen floor. It’s so funny watching her freak out and hearing her ticky toenails make noise.
She also barks when no one is home or when no one is on the same floor of the house as she is.
She knows when it’s 11:00, time for her milk-bones… and she is scarily accurate.
Sadly, she’s old and gone deaf - she used to react really amusingly to things we’d say.
Our Isaac does something even worse. He has itchy ears a lot because he has constant problems with yeast infections. (Shut up. I know. He’s a lab and has floppy ears, which can lead to problems.) So he scratches his ears…then he LICKS HIS FOOT.
i LOVE my 3 month old red and white spoted cocker spaniel puppy lol, everytime she want you to pet her, she comes and lies on your tummy, then digs on your face until you do lol, if im gone a long time, when i come back, she RUBS!! on you just like my cat does its soo funny lol then she proceeds about telling you her day with a mixture of whimpering, growling and barking she digs on my matress and turns on herself 3 time before lying down, and the weirdest thing!!! she digs in her water bowl until all the waters gone!! what is up with that?? or if i bring her to the beach, she will try to dig out the water before lying down in it and drinking lol
She can bark just fine at the ATVs next door, and when a diesel truck goes by (only diesel)…but if you present her with the possibility of a treat and ask her to speak, she can’t do it. She just goes “mwar…MWAR! MOOF! MOOF!! AMOOF!” and drools a lot. Never a solid “WOOF!”
or if i bring her to the beach, she will try to dig out the water before lying down in it and drinking lol