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Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on September 5, 2010 at 11:49pm

Glad you liked their craziness! Yeah, Maggie definitely knows that the coat (and the leashes) are an important part of the getting-out-of-the-house process and gets impatient. The girls also attach a larger-than-life signifigance to my brushing my teeth and putting on socks. These things frequently happen after a meal and before a walk, so they're on hyper alert when they see them happen!

If I'm putting my socks on but can't take them out, I have to put a very sad and disappointed voice on and tell them "Sorry girls, but I have to go to SKOO!" Years ago when I was in nursing school I used to tell Maggie I had to go to SKOO, and now she understands that any outside excursion to which she isn't invited is a sad SKOO experience! I'll tell her I have to go to SKOO and she should go upstairs and go SEEPY-SEEPS (dog-speak for sleeping). Usually she hangs her head low in a display of disappointment and then rushes upstairs to go to her room (a beloved closet with her bed and blanket in it) to take a nap!

Ha! I love the Buddy story about his nose at the door. Don't you love the concentration and the total belief that if they just want it and point their nose at it, they WILL get it?!?

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on September 6, 2010 at 5:39pm

Wow, Buddy sounds amazing! I wish my fuzzy kids knew a few more words. Let's see, Miss Maggie knows seepy-seeps, drinky-drinks, treat/cookie/biscuit, potty, walk, ride, skoo (and it's alternative sopping, for shopping - to her it means the same as skoo). I think she also kinda knows UPstairs and DOWNstairs (She probably just knows the up and down part, really.) If I ask "Where's (fill-in-the-blank-name)?" followed by "Can you LOOK out the WINDOW?", she goes to the front window in the living room and looks for cars coming down the street. I think she knows her own name, but she's REALLY clueless about the names of anyone else in her life! Oh yeah, she does know sit and down, though she only complies briefly!

In addition to the above, Fernie knows baby (she has a whole basketful of squeaky babies that she bites and carries around and washes and loves), breakfast, wun-sees (for lunch), and din-dins. She's a VERY food-motivated dog!

Oh yeah, they also both know all gone (with hands held palms facing the girls). That's a VERY sad one! When there are no more table scraps to be had, sometimes I have to resort to all gone. They just immediately hang their heads and trudge slowly away, usually looking pathetically over their shoulders once or twice to see if it could REALLY be true that there's no more food coming!

I guess for my girls, English isn't even a second language. More like a 4th or 5th!

Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on August 3, 2010 at 11:33am

This is my dog, Lulu, and one of my cats, Jynx, taking good care of me last night. I broke my toe yesterday morning and when I went to bed they seemed to have a silent argument for the best spot. Jynx won and Lulu chose her spot after leaving temporarily.

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on August 3, 2010 at 7:09pm

Dogs just make the best nurses, don't they? (And cats are a very close second!)

Permalink Reply by Sarah Phillips on August 4, 2010 at 11:33pm

Oh yes, except she kept trying to use my blanket as a bed for herself after I had it all bunched up to prop my foot on. Once she stopped trying to steal my foot rest she made a very good little nurse. She even tried to lick it better... Unfortunately, as sweet as it was I wouldn't let her do that because it's broken, and hurts. She has been a very good little nurse though, lots of cuddling and adorableness to take my mind of being injured.

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on August 10, 2010 at 3:30pm

I just finished reading Peter Pan (for the first time!) and LOVED the dog Nana as the nursemaid to the children. What a fantastic and hilarious idea to make the dog the responsible party!

Permalink Reply by Johnny on August 19, 2010 at 9:37am

This is Rocky, he's a Japanese Chin (mostly). He is a tireless hiker and loves the beach, but can be a lazy lapdog sleeping the day away curled up on the couch. One of his greatest features is that he almost never barks.

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on August 21, 2010 at 1:25pm

Maggie used to be a believer...but then she grew up and gave up her imaginary friends.

**Maggie May is a chow-shepherd mix who has a THICK double coat and gets way too overheated in the summer. Every summer she gets haircuts - shaved belly and just a trim elsewhere. Lest you think I'm exploiting this poor, chubby dog, know that she LOVES it when her belly is shaved! She spends a lot of time lying with her bare belly on the cool kitchen tiles and very much appreciates her grooming. And the "fancy cuts" are always the first bit of the haircut - just for my amusement and for a photo op. Then the rest of the fur comes off!

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on August 27, 2010 at 6:08pm

Wow! Hilarious video! I'm going to show it to chubby Miss Maggie and hope that she's motivated to exercise with me!! Actually, Maggie's problem really is motivation. She's got that Chow stubbornness in her and it's really hard to persuade her to do anything other than what she wants, when she wants. I think I will try the click training, though. I'll let you know how it works out!

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on September 3, 2010 at 11:26pm

Today I let Fern out into the back yard while I was cutting some herbs for dinner. She walked straight over towards the ONLY pile of poop in the yard. With a look of concentration on her face, she started licking her crazy black lips.

“Fern! Do NOT eat that poop!” I instructed her sternly.

Fern froze in her tracks with her head lowered just slightly and her tail down. She was about 10 inches from her perceived treat at this point. She stood there like a statue, perfectly still, not even moving her eyes – just staring at me. I stood by the herbs, about three feet from her, staring right back. After about 30-40 seconds of this, Fern broke eye contact with me and slowly started moving towards the poop again! I think she really thought I couldn’t see her because she wasn’t moving!!

(Not to worry, disaster was averted by another stern warning to her…followed by a swift yard clean-up! I know, I know! I need to get a damn clicker and train her!!)

Permalink Reply by Gwen F. Blunt on September 4, 2010 at 6:04pm

Another Fern "sneaky" story from a few years ago just came to mind. Fern is usually a sweet, innocent, lovable mutt. She seldom dares to try and help herself to food and is a pretty polite table-scrap begger. The extra dog treats and extra boxes of biscuits are kept on the workbench in the basement. No dog of mine has EVER tried to counter-surf there and get the treats, as they're all in boxes and all pushed pretty far back from the edge.

Well, Fern LOVES Greenies (those green chewy toothbrush-looking thingies that are supposed to clean their teeth). I had gotten a package of them, handed out most of them to the girls, and then bagged up the remaining two Greenies in a ziploc sandwich bag. I forgot about them for a few months and they remained on the workbench with the other treats.

Fern must've suddenly remembered them, or spied them from below, or something. I was loading the dishwasher one night after dinner when I saw Fern walking up the basement stairs. That's not unusual at all as she loves the basement (it's where she keeps all her squeaky toys). She was, however, walking very slowly and was holding her head down a bit and very still, not looking at me at all. That is VERY unusual for bouncy, enthusiastic Fern. I knew something must be up.

"Whatcha doin', monkey?" I asked as she passed by.

Fern stopped dead just inside the living room, facing away from me. I think she was trying the old "if I stand really still I'll become invisible" routine. By this point I knew she was up to something. I followed her and found, dangling from her mouth, the ziploc containing two Greenies! I couldn't help bursting out laughing at her daring feat and at the way she continued her invisible statue routine even though I was now directly in front of her, laughing and pointing! She just flicked her greying eyebrows this way and that as she looked around, trying to work out how to salvage this situation.

Of course, being the softie that I am, I took the baggie from her, called Chubby Miss Maggie, and gave them each a Greenie to chew. So Fern won, even though I don't think she realized it at first. She just seemed bewildered!

And 30 minutes later I found her by the workbench AGAIN, standing with her front paws up and nosing around! The Greenies were gone, though, and everything else was out of reach. Laughing, I told her she could look, but her thieving days were over. Even though I never yelled at her or even spoke sternly to her, I have NEVER again found her with her paws up on a counter looking for food! I think her failure at being sneaky was quite a blow to her self-esteem!! What a weird little dog!!

Permalink Reply by 0uvz0ojrhcpag on September 12, 2010 at 10:36pm

Blackie (big black lab) is so funny. When I walk him if we go by a house with a cat laying in the driveway or whatever - he stops and looks longingly for a few moments and then he turns and we go on our way. I just know what he is thinking "if only"....

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