He Can Do This All Day Long...

One of the things we wanted when we moved was a fenced yard. The reason...a young standard poodle. If you're not familiar with poodles, they're not just fru-fru dogs in dog shows. They are extremely intelligent and they have energy in buckets. 

In other words, they'll run and run and run.

In the summer, something we loved doing was going out at dusk and playing fetch with the dog. We'd take out several of his toys and spend time throwing the balls around the yard. He'd chase them down and bring them back. We noticed if we brought out more than one ball, he'd drop the one in order to track down the other. With one ball, it many times turned into a "game of wills" for him to drop it so we could throw it.

Seasons change, as they do, and since this is the first autumn and winter with our fence, we didn't know how the dog would act once the weather turned told and the days became shorter.

Turns out, the colder and shorter days didn't stop the dog from going outside and playing fetch at all.

In fact, because it's getting darker earlier, the dog has been going to my office door and scratching because he wants to go outside. The problem is, I'm still working. We've got three more weeks of reduced daylight, then the days will get longer. I hope the dog doesn't keep scratching at my door earlier and earlier the next couple of weeks. But, he probably will.

Still, it's been so much fun having a fenced yard and I love tossing the ball to him and having him run and run and run. He could do it all day long.

A Dog And His Toy...

You probably can't see from these pictures, but this dog is smiling...

Smiling Big.

Ah...a dog's life.

And another thing you can't see (or hear...) from these pictures is the sound made by the big pink bone that happens to be our dog's favorite toy. Around the same time every evening, the dog will pick up the bone, hold it in his mouth and and start chewing. When he chews, the high pitch screech emanating from the toy echoes throughout the house and bounces around in all our heads.

It's adorable, and terrible.

But, what can we do? The dog loves that toy.

There's another interesting annoyance when it comes to that toy. It's rubber and covered with rubber spikes. It's so big that if you happen to bump it when walking, it won't move...won't budge, be it on carpet or hardwood floors. It's so big that it freaks you out because you think you've hit the edge of the coffee table or a couch. 

The other alternative is if you step on it directly, it screams. Imaging giving a two-year old a recorder or a set of cymbals. There's a reason you don't do that. But we give these toys to our pets. Of course, you can't "test drive" a dog toy in the store so you never know if the animal will like it. Turns out in our case, he did...a lot.

Yes, it's a dog's life. With his toy he's the happiest puppy in the world. 

The Well-Groomed Puppy...

 If you have an hypoallergenic dog, you know the drill. The benefits of a non-shedding dog are replaced by the need to get those dogs groomed. We have a standard poodle, or my son has a standard poodle and he lives with us in our house. We love him and we believe the feeling is mutual. But, every couple of months we take him to the groomer and he comes back looking like a completely different animal.

That's when the craziness starts.

If you have one of these dogs and get them groomed, you know what I'm talking about. Personally, I can't imagine the feeling he is going through--having all the hair on your body cut to the shortest length possible after having long soft curly hair for so long. It's got to be tough, and we think this because for several days after the grooming, the dog runs around, shakes, rubs up against the furniture, and tries to dig holes in our chairs and couches.

The scratching and itchiness must be driving him crazy.

Thankfully, this is temporary. He'll get used to it, and if he could talk, I'll be he would thank us for the grooming because having all that long hair during the hottest part of the year (and he's a black dog, to boot...), the shorter hair has got to be a blessing.

But, today as he sat on one of his favorite chairs, he looked up at me with a look that said, "you did this to me." I know we did, buddy, and once the itchiness wears off, you'll be so much more comfortable.

Trust us.

The Killing Floor...

 

Dogs are weird.

We are dog people, but not "dog people." For a majority of my life, I've lived with a dog in the house, but we had multiple dogs only once. The first dog I remember was Waldo, a black lab that was big (we were little kids then and the dog was HUGE...), and uncontrollable. Waldo didn't last long. Then came Tasha. She lived for seventeen years. I got her when I was a barely a teenager and she passed away after I graduated from high school, finished college, got married, and had our first child. Great dog.

Next came Patch. She was another wonderful dog. She only lived thirteen years, and we had to put her down last year due to health reasons. She was my kid's dog, a great example of a family pet. Now, we have Bec. He's really my son's dog, but he's also a family dog. He's a poodle, which is a much smarter breed than Patch, a shih tzu.

The poodle is scary smart.

But, still weird sometimes (I'm sure they think the same of us, on occasion...).

Dogs are famous for destroying things, furniture, homework, shoes. Thankfully, our poodle has been good, but there's one thing we allow him to chew up...junk mail. For some reason, the dog will take his prized possessions to the killing floor, which happens to be the landing on our staircase. I don't know why he's chosen that particular spot to destroy his victims. But, that's how things go.

It's possible the poodle will continue to tear apart junk mail (and bones...) on the landing. He may choose someplace else to wreak carnage. Maybe we'll have a Killing Basement, or Killing Couch. For now, though, a small part of the stairs works just fine.

Missing Friends...

 When you work from home, you get to see what happens around the house, every day. Personally, I love it. I've heard that some don't and I can respect that--not everyone's the same. Earlier this week, my wife took my son to the dentist. Since we've moved, we haven't changed dentists so the trip took several hours.

Everyone in the house seemed to take the missing house members pretty well...

Everyone, except the dog.

He did not have a good time.

About two and a half years ago we rescued a poodle and that dog has been wonderful. In fact, we can't imagine life without him in our family. Poodles are high-energy animals. In some ways, there's more we could do for him. Hopefully, next spring we'll put in a fenced yard so he can run around more. But, in other ways, that dog is spoiled.

He's almost never alone.

I understand that modern living means there are times when pets are left alone during part of the day. Growing up, my little dog Tasha was alone when my mom worked and us kids were at school. Lots of pets spend some time alone--it's not optimum, but that's life. With homeschooling and now me working from home, our dog always has people around.

When my wife and son left for the dentists, our dog saw two of his biggest friends leave and after a few minutes, they didn't come back. That's when the howling began. He didn't howl constantly, but every once in a while, he remembered they were not in the house and he'd begin howling again.

It's sweet, but also a little sad to hear. I recorded a few seconds of him expressing himself. I had to keep the door closed in case anyone called. I tried including the clip on this post, but since google changed to format, I can't seem to post any videos now. Too bad. When my wife and son returned, the dog literally jumped for joy. He's not been alone since. No, there's not a lot of time our dog's alone. And we like it that way.

So does he.