Anecdotes from the WEIRD, WILD, WONDERFUL WORLD of our DS

[Asha]

Seriously smiling right now

[Stacy_R]

Hey John!!!
Here is one for you...

So Tyson was chewing on a bully stick this morning when my husband spilled cereal all over the floor. My husband does what he always does in situations like this and says: "Hey dogs!!! Come clean the floor!!"
Tyson immediately jumps up, still carrying his bully stick, and walks over to the bounty of cheerios laying on the floor. This silly dog was not about to lay his bully stick down, so he starts trying to eat the cheerios off the floor while still holding the bully stick in his mouth. It was too stinking funny and I immediately thought of you!!!

[Sugars Mom]

LOL, that is so funny. You should have grabbed some video!!

[Stacy_R]

I know...I couldn't move fast enough to get my phone...LOL

[Stacy_R]

Ok, John...got another one for you!!!
Tyson, the problem solver...
So sometimes Tyson likes to bring me his antlers to hold while he chews standing up. Sometimes I oblige, and others I tell him to go lay down and chew it on his own. Well, the other night he decided he wanted to chew standing up. I wouldn't hold the antler for him so he wedged it in between the couch cushions and the couch "held" it for him. We laughed so hard!!

[Sugars Mom]

lol smartie pants!

[feraloup]

We just got our first real, significant snowfall of the year yesterday, that actually stayed as groundcover. It's only Moko's second winter, and he was delighted when we went out in the yard after work yesterday and he discovered the snow had arrived! He just made an absolute goofy dufus of himself romping in exultation. Elderly Maiyou just squinted at him through the snowflakes, like, "What the hell is up with YOU?" He was just SO over the top happy and silly, pouncing and chasing the little balls of snow that flew from his paws from the first pounce-slide, and spinning and leaping and bowing and dashing and leaping... He eventually got Freyja to join in on the fun, his exuberance was so contagious, and then even Maiyou joined in, not wanting to be left out if both the other dogs were clearly having a good time. Makes me grin. I'm gonna teach him to pull this year... he loves the snow so much and it'll be an awesome use of his energy (and my son's!) to have Moko drag him in a sled.

[Stacy_R]

too bad you didn't get video!!! I bet it was hysterical watching him chase those little balls of snow! We better see some video of him "mushing" with your son in tow!!!

[Raven]

Your son and dog will have so much fun!

Have you already started conditioning him incrementally with weight?

[johninny]

that's the kind of stuff that makes everything else - life in general - so worthwhile. there is nothing like a DS in fresh snow - not less a puppy [ Moko still qualifies in my book - he's not yet 2 is he? ]

[Dutchringgirl]

such funny stuff!! Sadie and Thalie give me the daily dose of laughter !

[feraloup]

Yes, Moko definitely still qualifies as a puppy. He only just turned 1 at the very end of summer. Big-boy body, puppy brain! I will be sure to get some video of him in snow, we're supposed to get more this weekend, it'll be fun to see him in the first deep stuff of the year! As for teaching him to pull, I haven't yet started incrementally building him up to weight, yet, haven't started him at all. I wanted to get a quality, comfortable and safe harness, first, but once his harness arrives I'll start with just an empty sled, then add weight slowly. In the meanwhile, on our walks I'm beginning to introduce him to "gee" and "haw," "on-by," "whoa," etc... I've a feeling he'll be all about it. Then he can help haul hay from the storage barn to the goats and give my son rides after he's built up to weight. He loves to have purpose! He does a crazy happy-dance when he sees me get his prong collar off the hook by the door, because he knows it means a training session-walk as opposed to just going out. I'll bet money he'll come to react with similar exuberance to his harness!

[feraloup]

Here's another fun tale... forgot to share earlier, I had posted it to my fb but not here. Uncle Steve, my fiancee's uncle who is staying with us for a few months while his new home is being worked on, had put a bunch of big overalls on the clothesline in the back yard to dry after laundering them. I brought the dogs out upon arriving home from work and Moko charged, barking madly, at this "group of intruders" "standing" about in our yard! He circled them, hollering his head off for a few laps, gradually circling in tighter to investigate, sniffing at the hem of a pantleg and dodging back, then in again, and finally, doing his best impression of a meerkat, trying to look inside the magic pants and see who was in there... "I don't get it... where's the person???"

[Stacy_R]

LOVE THIS!!!!

[johninny]

love that you captured him standing! good posture!

[johninny]

just as i was re-activating computer screen, i look up and see Tracer fly into the air from a sofa [ the dogs' own sofa -- don't worry ] with all 4 legs spread-eagled [ think flying squirrel ] to land on Xander's head [ precisely, Tracer's chest landing on Xander's ears with his front paws on Xander's rear quarters; all in a head-to-head stand-off broken by Tracer's leap].

accustomed to TraceDog's tactics, the specific aim here was terror - like the Scottish use of bagpipes in battle.

[johninny]

inspired by a new QUIRKS post, thought i would relate 1 bit of Xander's over-caffeinated silliness from less than 2 hours ago. [ i have the feeling that both he and Stephanie's Odin must have Red Bull for blood.]

whenever i start doing anything that points to the possibility that i might go outside [ change from sweat pants to jeans, put another shirt on, put something in my pants pocket, etc. ] Xander goes into a complete multi-faceted frenzy that i am trying to tone down despite how amusing it can be at times. so i have started telling him to SIT. at other times, he is very good at an instantaneous response to a SIT command, but he struggles to respond at these times - almost like he has lost control of his body. invariably it is necessary to repeat the command for him and do so very SERIOUSLY.

w/r/t other obedience matters, he has achieved really remarkable milestones in the last 24 hours [ he knows it, he knows i know it ]. given how proud he is of this and basking in extra approval from me, i think he took emergency measures to comply with my SIT command during this last frenzy. when i did the very serious ''SIT'', he flung his body to the ground - back first as if he had been shot in the chest while doing a hind-leg stand. he then spun around 180 degrees on his back so that his head rather than his tail was now closer to my feet, and then started barking at me upside-down with a goofy smile/laugh look about him as his body violently squirmed back and forth in this position.

oh well. i love this dog!

[Raven]

John, I've always loved how you describe your dogs.

Just a thought: when it comes to outside, have you considered a spot that you'd purposely designate a quiet little butt to sit when the intention is to go outside?

Their butts, John, when you want to take them out--not your butt when they want you to take them out.

[johninny]

thanks Sharon,
well, this particular frenzy was set off in my bedroom as i decided to put on an extra layer of clothes as temperatures here plummet. wasn't going anywhere. if i pick up my wallet because i want to make a payment over the phone or internet - another frenzy. so there is no particular location - like near an exit door - where these frenzied episodes take place.
it is not a going-out frenzy per se; it is a pick-me frenzy. if they are ALL going out, i open the door and they go [ as he recognizes THIS intention, he goes to the door more or less calmly and sits for the release]; i may or may not follow out the door, with or without a lag. but since i got very serious about training after 2-puppy training frustrations and my panic about Tracer's emerging,menacing demeanor [ and especially with the arrival of very cold weather so that i am not just hanging out in the yard with them ], the dogs get to go out [ of the yard on walks or in car ] WITH ME only one at a time. the others accept this and wait their turn, but red-bull Xander does not. [ he is the only one of the 3 that had a prior [ unknown ] family of his own.]

anyway, he and i will sort it out soon enough from my point of view. i usually do nothing that will unduly restrict the dogs' ability to express themselves. today's antics to me are bizarrely a sign that he is trying very hard to comply with my desires by giving me less physicality even if he has to tie himself in knots. it was very funny, but it was also the first sign i have seen that he has determined that he will learn to control these frenzies.

[LyonsFamily]

The jeans bit reminded me off the first time Odin wandering into my sewing room at the old apartment. He immediately got low and started growling. It was a tiny room, I was standing at one end, so I knew nobody was in there. It turns out the manequin was freaking him out. Not the plastic clothing display mannequin that I have for finished clothes, but my headless, leg and armless, adjustable body parts, fabric one.