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Last Five Entries
Veteran's Day and an Etiquette Question
2002-11-26 - 8:57 a.m.
Sphygo-Buddy
Well, I got an introduction into having a "real" dog last night. Not to say that Honey isn't a real dog, but she doesn't do "dog things".
Here's an example... We had decided to crate the new dog while we're at work this week (three days) and then put him outside in the fenced in back yard on Thursday, when we'd be home just in case... The cage went to gether reather well, and it found a home on the linoleum in the kitchen against the wall on the other side of the oval dining room table. Well, he went into his crate just fine. And he seemed happy there, til he spotted one of our cats. (I'm not sure if I mentioned that he was a cat-hunter in another life).
The cats have started to come out when they can't hear him moosing around....One of the cats came into his path and he started barking and shaking the cage. The cat hightailed it back to his safe spot between the dryer and the wall. I saw a towel in the kitchen and got the bright idea of covering his cage with the towel. I'd done it to honey's cage a few times with no problems. I threw the towel over the front of his cage and we went off to work.
We got home from work to find the bottom "pan" out of his cage and his cage had somehow managed to walk from the space we left it in, halfway around the table and into the middle of the kitchen. The towel... well, what's left of it, is pretty much shredded. I've checked to make sure that most of it is there, and it appears to be, and he's been outside several times to "go" and it doesn't appear that he's really eaten any of it... he just chewed it because it was in his way.
We took him outside and got his cage put back together and now it resides in a corner. I'm not sure how that will help, but it sure beats where it was.
He's outside today. He wants to go out every chance he gets, so we're obliging him as much as possible to give the cats a chance to come out and eat and be sociable. We miss them. I had no idea it was going to be this difficult on them. As I told Gorm this morning, he's only been ours for about 24 hours.... and the cats are coming back out of hiding.. this is PROGRESS!
Now if we can just get him to sleep through the night. He's starting to get more calmer in the evenings. That's good. We're hoping he'll spend the day romping and etc., and then at night when we're ready to sleep, he'll settle down a bit. Right now, he's always on constant alert, so the slightest noise or movement wakes him up and he's ready to root out the source of the problem, but he rarely, if ever barks. He has a very loud, deep bark and I can see why it scares the cats. The few times I've heard it, I jumped too.
We're all adjusting, and it's taking time. He's a good dog and he desperately wants to please, so we're using that. He only has a couple of bad habits that we'll work through.
Honey has established herself as the head of the ir little twosome, and both defer to me and Gorm as head of the pack.
In reading over the paperwork we got when we adopted him, he's about a year and a half old. I'm guessing that means that his puppy-ness is just about over. He might always have some of the energy he has now, but Lordy, I hope it's about 50% less than what he has now. This dog can jump as high as my shoulder when he's in "full out" mode.
I'm already attached to him, so we'll work through these things. He's a sweet loveable dog, but he still has quite a bit of puppy in him.
Please don't forget to answer my survey... it's research for a small business idea... all comments appreciated, no reasonable offer refused!!! It won't take five minutes, I PROMISE!
