My dog

July 17, 2004 | self / vanity

[The Other Harry]

I've had my SPCA mutt, Peppi, for about 2 1/2 years now. The amount of knowledge he has accumulated in just the past 6 months absolutely amazes me.

Cars come and go all the time. People walk up and down the street. He knows who is who. He used to be indiscriminate in his reactions. Not anymore. He now has everyone sorted out.

If a neighbor pulls up in their car, he doesn't move an inch.

If a UPS truck pulls up, he goes nuts.

If the postman walks down the other side of the street, even while the TV or stereo is on, he goes completely berserk.

He now has the garbage collectors as okay. He doesn't react to them.

Any person who is delivering something is cause for growling, snarling and barking.

I really should make a tape and convert it into burglar alarm. I think I may do that.

It isn't just that.

If I get up from the computer in order to take him for a walk, he knows. He is out wagging is tail within seconds.

How can he know that? I might be getting up to go to the bathroom or for some other reason.

I can't imagine how he can hear me pick up a sock. That seems impossible. But he can do it.

The other day I made a conscious effort to be completely silent. It did no good. He had it immediately.

The knows that thunder follows lightning. He doesn't like thunder, so he cowers when the lightning goes.

He can find the house, even from anywhere.

He is stupid in some other ways, though. When we are on walks, he always goes on the wrong side of posts and trees.

[GeronL]

When we are on walks, he always goes on the wrong side of posts and trees

Maybe he is left-pawed?

[Lokibob]

My dog must be a clone. Identical traits. even to the garbage man being ok.

I figured out how she knows when I have eaten the last Ritz cracker, even if there are more in the tube. I always rub my hands together, getting the crumbs off. when I do that, she sniffs, and walks back into the living room.

Explain this trait if you can. when I come out of the shower, she trots into the bathroom and licks my left knee dry. I think it is similar to when the alpha male comes into the cave during a rain storm, the alpha female assists him in drying off, but, why only the left leg? I can offer her my right leg, and she will not pay it any attention. It is something I can not figure out.

I became single 13 years ago, and told my son "we don"t want any women or dogs around this house". 2 weeks later he came home with this little ball of fluff that I just loved. Dad agreed, only if my son would take care of her. A month later, he joined the Army. Guess who had a new dog.

She is 1/2 lab, 1/2 Samoyed and 100% devoted to me.

Well, enough, I could go on for a week.

[The Other Harry]

Explain this trait if you can. when I come out of the shower, she trots into the bathroom and licks my left knee dry. I think it is similar to when the alpha male comes into the cave during a rain storm, the alpha female assists him in drying off, but, why only the left leg? I can offer her my right leg, and she will not pay it any attention. It is something I can not figure out.

You got my attention there.

My dog -- a male -- almost always comes into the bathroom when I get out of the shower. He will lick me too. I'm not positive about this, but I think he only licks my left foot and shin.

As they taught me in CPR, our left is their right, so perhaps that has something to do with it? Don't know.

I had assumed this was simply a canine grooming instinct, but I really hadn't given it much thought. If it is only the left foot and shin, that would be amazing. There is a dog behavior discussion group on UseNet that I read sometimes. I may have to ask them about this -- especially if mine, likes yours, only licks the left side.

I will have to study exactly what he does more closely.

[HairOfTheDog]

Dogs are amazing critters!

Ping!

[HairOfTheDog]

Our dog ~hates~ the garbage man. She can hear the garbage truck coming from far away, long before it is in view... She leaps up, panics to find a stuffed toy to hang on to, rushes to the gate and thrashes that toy while the garbage man watches sortof amused. Dog is convince that guy is stealing our stuff. Thanks to her, he always leaves. ;~D.

[The Other Harry]

One other thing I didn't know about dogs is that they generally actually like to be in enclosed places like cages.

After reading up about that, it started to make sense. They are by nature cave-dwellers.

Mine prefers to sleep under the bed than on it, and a good thunder storm will send into into the basement and under the work bench. At a minimum, it will send him under my legs. He also likes to get under my desk.

[sinkspur]

We walk our three Bichons twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.

They learned what "walk" meant real quick, and we couldn't even discuss, between ourselves, when we were going on the "walk" without them goin to the door.

So, I picked a phrase totally unrelated to walks; we now go "put air in the tires."

Well, after about two weeks, they made that association, too, so, when I actually DO go put air in the tires, and tell my wife, they run to the door.

These are such amazing little creatures. I sometimes sit and watch my oldest boy Bichon and realize how close we've become. He's 10, and I'll have him another five years or so.

So, we do special things together, just him and me. He's like a third son, only he spends a lot more time with me than my boys ever did.

[The Other Harry]

She leaps up, panics to find a stuffed toy to hang on to, rushes to the gate and thrashes that toy...

Laughing!

[Lokibob]

I tried a little experiment this morning.

I backed out of the shower so she couldn't get around me. She first licked the back of my right leg, about twice, then immediately went for my left leg. Even back wards, she was able to figure out MY LEFT leg.

Here is another thing to see dog behavior:
Put your dog on the top of a set of stairs, then you go down 2 or 3 stairs and sit down. Try to get your eyes below the level of the dogs. If your dog is anything like mine, it will slowly lower its head until its head is on the ground. If you continue to lower you head BELOW the level of the ground (down the stairs), your dog will look away, so that it can't see its eyes are above yours.

I once was in a local pub, and a practical joke came to me. The bast practical joke is one based partially on reality. I said "Did you know that if you lick a dogs lips just after it eats, it will throw up". 10 minutes of discussion followed, where the other patrons decided that it was true, because of the pack behavior and the cave living. When a pack brought down an animal, the dogs would gorge themselves, then come back to the cave. The puppies would lick the parents lips and food would come up for them. That is the truth part. Now.... 4 days pass... I'm in the same bar when this lady approaches me, really mad.... it seems that her husband overheard the conversation, and had tried for 4 straight nights to make his dog throw up. He kept licking the dogs lips. She refused to kiss him till he stopped.

[The Other Harry]

Here is another thing to see dog behavior: Put your dog on the top of a set of stairs, then you go down 2 or 3 stairs and sit down. Try to get your eyes below the level of the dogs. If your dog is anything like mine, it will slowly lower its head until its head is on the ground. If you continue to lower you head BELOW the level of the ground (down the stairs), your dog will look away, so that it can't see its eyes are above yours.

Interesting.

I have noticed that if I look over at my dog, he will often be looking at me. If I continue to look at him, he will usually close his eyes.

The rest of your post (which I deleted) was also interesting -- and quite amusing.

[JockoManning]

whaddya mean stupid? he's doing it on purpose ... see, he thinks you two are taking the walk because YOU need the exercise, not him. So, he pulls stunts like that just to make it more work for you.

I love dogs. Love 'em.

[JockoManning]

my dogs hate the trash collectors too! They bark their heads off at them. At our house we say the dogs think the garbageman is stealing our stuff. They even mope the night before when we do a clean sweep of all wastebaskets and haul everything out to the curb.

[JockoManning]

we say we are going to let the dogs "O-U-T" and their ears perk up. I think they have learned to spell! Really, they are conditioned that when they hear one of us say O-U-T the next thing that happens is we herd them to the back door. Oh, joy!

[The Other Harry]

whaddya mean stupid? he's doing it on purpose ... see, he thinks you two are taking the walk because YOU need the exercise, not him. So, he pulls stunts like that just to make it more work for you.

It does make it more work for me. He gets his butt all tangled up when he does that. He can't untangle it, so I have to.

[JockoManning]

laughin' myself silly here.

[JockoManning]

whenever one of us gets home, the dogs get all worked up and start toward the back of the house, with yipping and tailwagging, and prancing around.

Even if they were just out five minutes before. We say, well, they think they go out there to give the humans some exercise, that's why they are excited no matter who lets them out, even if one of the other humans had let them out recently. They are so good for us.

[tob2]

Dogs are wonderful. Got my dog at the SPCA also. He's a source of endless delight.

[tob2]

Of course dogs can spell! And mine has learned to say NO. Good dog.

[Flyer]

Oh boy, Saturday night dog stories!

The best one I can tell before I have to step away from the computer. .

My first Golden Retriever, Ginger - God rest her soul - was nuts for balls. One time she was driving me nuts so I set the ball of the day on the top of a roll up blind. She barked at it and jumped at it for it for several minutes.

She then looked at the ball. . . looked at the pull string for the blind. . . reached up and pulled the string and the blind unrolled and released the ball.

Really!

Ginger