Dutch Shepherd Forum

Today is H's second birthday! And while he has yet to kill me, seriously injure himself, or cause a nuclear meltdown of the world, he has managed to turn into a freaking awesome dog. I absolutely adore him and he just gets better and better every day; his stranger aggression is 99% gone (the 1% for people he just doesn't inherently like but he controls himself), still working on certain DA, his OB is fantastic, he is quickly proving to be way smarter than me in tracking, causes high hilarity with derpness wherever we go, has yet to eat the laundry he helps me with, and has somehow melded his on/off switch with my energy level. Wouldn't trade him for the world and certainly not our up and down path to get to this spot.

Pics of today's derpness to follow!

Woohoo!!! So..........your not dead...........yet??? LOl So glad he is awesome, he has an awesome mom!

H should be glad he can't hear me singing the happy birthday song.

And yeah...he has an awesome mom. Good team.

Owned-By-Hendrix wrote: has yet to eat the laundry he helps me with, and has somehow melded his on/off switch with my energy level

Thor, too!

I think my payment for singing it to him at midnight last night horribly off key (seriously dogs were howling in the distance) was the toxic fumes he had this morning... He's trying to perfect his gas attack to kill me, or at least that's what I decided. Seems to only happen when he's highly annoyed with me... hmmmm...

Awwww you guys are making me blush over here and it's not even my birthday! I couldn't have done it without the awesome support and knowledge on this forum! So really you guys are the ones who made us awesome.

Sharon - isn't the energy level meld awesome? That one didn't come in the instruction handbook for these brindled beasts....

Owned-By-Hendrix wrote:Sharon - isn't the energy level meld awesome? That one didn't come in the instruction handbook for these brindled beasts....

Of all dogs, I never-ever-ever expected that with Thor. Never-ever. If that hadn't happened, I'm sure I'd have been in AA a couple years by now.

Happy Birthday H! Tyson says "WOOF!"

Thanks guys! H rounded off the day with a rousing game of "open and run out the front door while she's not looking and give mom a heart attack." You know where he was? In the back of the house sitting on top of my car, like "What?" Freaking deadbolt is being installed tomorrow and I'm pulling out the BIG bottle of wine tonight!

Happy belated birthday to h! I'll be sure to remember his as demon just turned 1 on the 14th.

But, but, his birthday wasn't over yet... Time to go have more fun, mom! ROFL

Deadbolts. We laugh at deadbolts in this house.

Thor did TWICE in his first month living with us something I'd been trying to do for YEARS: locked the old man out of the house using the deadbolts.

(And he sneaked out of his previous owner's house on four different occasions in the middle of the night.)

Deadbolts. Silly Kira.

Raven wrote:

Owned-By-Hendrix wrote:Sharon - isn't the energy level meld awesome? That one didn't come in the instruction handbook for these brindled beasts....

Of all dogs, I never-ever-ever expected that with Thor. Never-ever. If that hadn't happened, I'm sure I'd have been in AA a couple years by now.

I went to a few meetings.........Hi My name is Lisa, I own a DS...................Begin the blank stares.

I never thought Sadie would meld, many many months of trying to get up from my office chair, oh so quietly as not to wake the crazy puppy, never worked.

Happy Birthday H, from me and Xander.

Owned-By-Hendrix wrote:Thanks guys! H rounded off the day with a rousing game of "open and run out the front door while she's not looking and give mom a heart attack." You know where he was? In the back of the house sitting on top of my car, like "What?" Freaking deadbolt is being installed tomorrow and I'm pulling out the BIG bottle of wine tonight!

Like the one day where I was upstairs in my bedroom and just happened to look out the window and wonder why there were two wolves in my neighbors yard?????????

Dutchringgirl wrote:many many months of trying to get up from my office chair, oh so quietly as not to wake the crazy puppy, never worked.

I still have that with Thor...getting up, turning off a light, saying goodbye on the phone, and a million other things result in him poising for action, but he gauges the feel of energy where he didn't used to.

At some point he just starting reading whatever energy level I'm at and matches mine. He'll still respond to the click of the light switch, etc.

The really peculiar thing, though, is the last few months he's taken to resting on the back deck, as in LAYING DOWN. Holy crow. That boy never relaxed outdoors. Even if nothing had his attention, he'd stand at attention and looooook for something...scan the woods, the sky, waiting, waiting, waiting....

Let's say our last name is Johnson. The husband calls the boy: Thor Give-Me-A-Reason Johnson.

Sadie is better now, she knows if I am just getting up and coming right back, if I dont then she will follow me, my house is small so she can see me from most rooms, She has found the spots where she can stay and keep an eye on me.

Thalie found her spot on the couch and dosnt care where I go.

Happy belated birthday to h! I'll be sure to remember his as demon just turned 1 on the 14th.

Happy belated birthday to Demon!!!! Things keep getting better from there I promise!!!

Deadbolts. We laugh at deadbolts in this house.

Thor did TWICE in his first month living with us something I'd been trying to do for YEARS: locked the old man out of the house using the deadbolts.

(And he sneaked out of his previous owner's house on four different occasions in the middle of the night.)

Deadbolts. Silly Kira.

Oh yes. I'm waiting for the "why the heck is the deadbolt undone? I thought I just locked it..." I'm thinking maybe one of those medieval times type bars that go over the door and padlocking it... That should work for all of, what, two minutes?

Thanks again guys for the bday wishes for H!!!!

And Sharon and Lisa - H still is a jack in the box if I shift or twitch a muscle. "Is it go time??? Where you going? Is there a ball? IS THERE FOOD???" But will settle back down if I don't twice again... or breathe... But now he can look at me and see "oh she's not feeling good so we'll be chilling" or "oh excitement! Let's run around! GRAB THE BALL!" Still have to meet that initial energy siphon called a walk first but he's fine chilling on the kitchen floor until I'm ready to go versus his younger days of bouncing off the walls faster than a superball on fire. Really loving this part!

Owned-By-Hendrix wrote:
And Sharon and Lisa - H still is a jack in the box if I shift or twitch a muscle. "Is it go time??? Where you going? Is there a ball? IS THERE FOOD???" But will settle back down if I don't twice again... or breathe... But now he can look at me and see "oh she's not feeling good so we'll be chilling" or "oh excitement! Let's run around! GRAB THE BALL!" Still have to meet that initial energy siphon called a walk first but he's fine chilling on the kitchen floor until I'm ready to go versus his younger days of bouncing off the walls faster than a superball on fire. Really loving this part!

Sadie does this too, from 0-100 in no time ! Ball!!! Out !!! What What are we doing.. Im ready!!! Oh, nothing? OK, plop.

Owned-By-Hendrix wrote:And Sharon and Lisa - H still is a jack in the box if I shift or twitch a muscle

Perfect wording.