First days with Greta

As I said in my earlier post, it was two years ago that we adopted Greta. I can't believe we've had her for that long. And I can't believe how far she's come. We now call her our "good dog." Wow, looking back on those first few months I never thought we'd say that about her. But I'll save that for another post.

The day we brought her home from the shelter, I don't remember much about it. She was pretty groggy from her spaying surgery the day before. I think we put her in her crate and let her sleep most of the time. And she didn't protest.

The next day though, was another story. I'd never had a dog before. Only fish. So waking up that morning, I had no idea what to expect. I specifically remember her peeing in a corner of the dining room and my husband getting really upset. He then went to work and I was left with her for the afternoon before I had to leave for work. Not long after, she peed in a corner of the living room. I remember scrubbing up the spot and she laid beside me on the carpet after I sat down to let it dry. I wanted to cry.

Then we went for a walk. I remember that we ran, more like bounded, through the empty lots of our not-yet-developed neighborhood. She ran like she hadn't run in months. I suppose perhaps she hadn't. I had trouble keeping up. I took my little digital camera with me and took some pictures of her on our walk.

Then later that day, she had to go in the crate so I could leave for work. I remember this being a HUGE challenge. A friend had told me about using hot dogs to coax her in. Worked for getting her front two paws in, but not her whole body. I eventually shoved her in, which wasn't an easy task. And I know I didn't win her trust with that move.

I don't remember what my husband said he encountered with her when he came home from work that evening, but I like to think that I had the more difficult day.

Two years with our sweet Greta

It was two years ago that we adopted Greta.

We'd been talking for a few months about getting a dog. But I was really insistent that was wait until we put up a fence in our backyard.

One Saturday morning, I woke up to my husband bounding into the bedroom and bouncing on the bed, exclaiming "Wake up! Wake up! I found our dog!" At the time I worked a second-shift job and usually didn't get out of bed until 11 am or noon. So he had been up and about for hours. And he told me that he had visited the local animal shelter with a buddy of his, and had found "our" dog.

A female boxer mix. She apparently gave him those sweet eyes and he was in love. And he said no one else would want her because her tail was broken, so we had to get her.

I reluctantly, and a little angrily, got out of bed, threw on some clothes, and went with my husband to the animal shelter. I was tired and not really excited at all.

We wandered into the shelter, and walked the long walk, passed all the yelping and jumping dogs. My ears had never heard such things.

Then there she was. I honestly wasn't very impressed with the way she looked. She was skinny, and a little emaciated. But she wasn't barking at us. So that was a plus. We took her out to the open area so we could get to know her better, and she wouldn't come near us. She wandered around, sniffed, drank some water.

But my husband thought she was the best thing he'd ever seen. He has a soft spot for boxers. So I said what the heck. We signed some papers and arranged to pick her up in a few days after her spaying surgery.

Our first couple days with Greta.....more later....

I haven't seen that in awhile

I just broke up the first real fight between the girls in I don't know how long.

On Thursday I blogged about their "challenges for dominance." Those aren't real fights. They're just playing.

This was a real fight. You can tell the difference. They were barking about something so I went outside to see what was going on. After they both greeted me they started playing, then it turned ugly real quick. I have no idea what happened. But Greta had Cassie pinned and Cassie was squealing for dear life and Greta was growling like she wanted to rip her head off.

I yelled at them. It did no good. Cassie wormed her way out of Greta's lock, but Greta got her again in a position where Cassie's front paws were up at her head and Cassie was squealing and yelping. She had this pleading look on her face. She was looking at me, as if to say "Mom, help me!" Greta wasn't really doing anything except holding her down with her body and growling this deep and demonic sound that should never come out of my sweet baby's mouth.

So I ran over to them, careful not to get my hands near their mouths in case either was biting. I went behind Greta and grabbed her by the collar and pulled her off Cassie.

Then Cassie (the tough girl she thinks she is) started barking at Greta, and trying to bite her ankles. I suppose she was saying "Yeah, you're not so tough now! You want some of this?!" I then got on to her. She doesn't know when to stop pushing Greta's buttons. I guarantee she triggered the fight in the first place.

Let's get ready to rumble!!!!!!

In one corner, the challenger, Cassie. Her motto: "I'll bark you into submission."

In the other corner, the undisputed champion of the backyard, Greta. Her motto: "I'll pin you or mount you in a matter of minutes."

And they're off.

They romp, they run, they tackle. They bite each others' ankles. Cassie goes for Greta's collar. Greta bites at Cassie's ear.

If you find yourself in the middle of the yard, you better watch out, cause you might end up flat on the ground. I know from personal experience. The porch is a safer place to watch this daily challenge.

In the end, the result is always the same. Greta is the victor. She either pins Cassie or mounts her. I have to put a stop to either action. But Greta has proven that she is the dominant one.

Cassie then barks at Greta for a few minutes, and Greta grows bored with the whole thing. And so we'll do it all again tomorrow.

Oh my gosh...

A friend just sent me the link to this video. I've seen owners dancing with their dogs on TV before, but nothing like this before. While you would never see me cutting a rug with Greta or Cassie in a million years, this definitely brought a smile to my face.

http://www.koreus.com/video/chien-danseur.html

From Tues., Dec. 04, 2007

So here is my last flyball blog from the fall. It was a very eventful one. I also have a link to video at the end, so check it out.

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Flyball is over...for now

Today was our last flyball class and Cassie did great...at least for the most part. She jumps those hurdles like a pro. She had fire in her eyes when she was running toward me. I think she really loves it! She's not as crazy about turning on the box. I think she's just not sure what it's all about yet.

Our one really embarrassing moment today was after some really good jumps, we decided to take her off leash, to see what she would do. I was pumped and decided it was a good idea. Cause she jumps over those hurdles all by herself and runs right up to me and gets her treat. I just have to step on her leash or grab it so she doesn't run off. So I was thinking the same thing would happen, I would just have to grab her collar.

But Cassie had other ideas. She ran over those hurdles like nobody's business. But about a foot away from me and her victory treat, I could see the look on her face change. She veered left, and took off to go sniff around the field. She ran, she peed. She had a grand ol' time. She caused a scene is what she did, and embarrassed me because I haven't been able to train my dog to come when she's called.

But I'm not going to let that one moment spoil the rest of the day. Jeremy and I just need to work really hard with her before we enroll in another round of classes. Cause she won't get much further if we can't get her off the leash.

Video of Cassie at her last flyball class:

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=23379071

Cassie's taking lessons

Back to the present...I'm signing Cassie up for a couple private training sessions with a dog trainer. Our biggest (and really only) issue: Recall. Recall is the fancy word for "coming when called." She doesn't do it. Except when we're sitting on the couch late at night watching TV, she's wandering around the kitchen, and we call her. She comes then, because she knows she'll get lots of butt rubs. (She loves to get her butt rubbed).

To be honest, Greta isn't terrific with recall either. But she's much better than Cassie. Let me break down a typical backyard situation for you:

I'm inside the house. The girls are in the backyard. They start barking madly. I go outside to see what's going on. They're both running around, barking like crazy, running along the fence line. I peek over the fence. It's a stray dog. I walk back toward the porch and back door saying, "Come here!" Greta, still very hyper, follows me. She keeps looking back at the fence. She may run back to it. But I say it again. "Come here!" And she comes right to me. I make her sit so she calms down. All is then well with Greta.

No such luck with Cassie. She's running circles, in defiance. Barking, as if to say, "Mama, there's a DOG out there, why aren't you DOING anything about it?" I say over and over again, "Cassie, come here!" And she just keeps running and barking. Looking me in the eye the whole time.

Now, if either of the dogs get loose, it'll just be by the grace of God that we'll get them back home. When Greta is outside the house or the backyard, she doesn't listen to "come here." And we know Cassie doesn't.

So I'm hoping these lessons will help teach Cassie to listen to that command. And maybe we can teach Greta to obey it at all times. I'll keep you posted.

From Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007

More tales from flyball:

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Our dog is fat

This isn't news to us, we've known it for quite some time now. Cassie is a little chubby. Basically, she was growing at the same time she got her winter coat last year. But when she shed it, we noticed that she was still pretty big.

But now that she's in "training" for flyball, her weight is apparently an issue.
I got a lecture yesterday from the flyball coach. Cassie needs to drop some pounds or she'll never make it in the sport, is basically what I heard.

So now she's on a diet. We're subbing green beans for some of her food. She's loving the green beans so far, so I guess it's not so bad. Better her than me.

On a happier note, she did great in class yesterday, even though she's fat. :)

Oh, and she turns to the right. Does that make her left-pawed or right-pawed? I don't know. But anyway, when she runs away from you and then turns to come back to you, she turns to the right.And she jumped over all four hurdles yesterday!

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More later...

From Wed. Nov. 7, 2007

This is the first of several entries I've blogged about on my MySpace page about Cassie's experience last fall in Flyball class. I'm sharing them with you now:

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Today our border collie Cassie began her first flyball class. Flyball is basically a relay sport for dogs. They jump over hurdles, retrieve a tennis ball, then run back.

We wanted to get her involved in something because she has all this energy and nothing to do with it. Playing with Greta and walking everyday just isn't cutting it anymore. It never really was. And border collies are working dogs anyway. And since we're not running out to buy sheep anytime soon for her to herd, this seemed like a good option.

So there are four other dogs in the class. Mandy, Angel, Cricket and Diva. Cassie is the least obedient. I don't know if maybe she's the youngest or maybe we just haven't worked with her enough. Or maybe these other dogs have just been through professional obedience classes and she hasn't. So these other dogs can be let off leash and they don't run off. Not Cassie. We let her off leash and she just took off around the field and wouldn't come back. I knew that would happen. She's only recently started to learn what "come" means. So we have to keep her leash on her for now. But the instructor didn't seem to be bothered by it.

When it came down to actually learning to jump over the hurdles, Cassie was a pro! I stand on the other side of the hurdle with a treat in my hand and the command is 'Over!" She comes a-running looking for her treat! She mastered two hurdles today. I was very proud of her!

We have homework though. We have to work on her ball retrieval skills and I have to figure out if she's right-or-left pawed. Basically we need to know when she runs in a circle, does she turn to the left or the right. So we go back next week for more fun!

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More later...

Will we fly again?

It's time to consider whether we'll enroll Cassie in another set of flyball classes for the spring. For those of you who don't know, flyball is a dog relay sport where hurdles are set up and the dogs run over four hurdles and retrieve a ball from a box at the end, turn around on the box and run back over the hurdles. Then the next dog goes, and so on. It's a timed sport, with four dogs on a team. In the fall, Cassie took her first flyball class and I blogged about it on my MySpace page.

We skipped the winter session because Cassie had a few kinks to work out. So now it's time to sign up for the spring session and I'm wondering if we should go ahead and do it, or perhaps sign her up for an obedience class instead to work out those issues that haven't improved.

Since those stories from her flyball classes are so much fun, I'll repost them here over the next few days.

When I suffer, the dogs suffer

I've been sick for about a week now. It seems to be going around. But when I tell my dogs that, they don't understand. They still want to go for a walk. Greta still sits on the back porch, looking in the door, waiting for me ... for hours. And I feel guilty. And everytime I go outside to give them water, or just to let them know I'm still alive, Cassie jumps around the yard in her usual happy dance, flinging her body in the air like the svelte, agile dog she thinks she is.

I'm the main dog walker in the household. My husband walks them only when necessary. I'm not exactly sure what his aversion to it is, but he leaves it up to me. But that's fine because I love walking my dogs. It's a great bonding time for the three of us. I look forward to it and I hate it when we miss out on it. I hate it for me, and I especially hate it for them.

When they don't get a walk they have more energy and are more problematic. When they're in the yard they bark at more dogs walking by and jump on us more when we go into the yard. And when they're in the house they play and won't settle down and relax.

Out of the last seven days, they were only walked twice. That's the worst walking record we've ever held with them. One of those days my husband did walk them, so I thank him for that.

I'm just very thankful that dogs have very short-term memories and aren't able to hold grudges. When I get home tonight they won't even remember that I didn't walk them today or yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that.... and will love me anyway.

Tough morning

My dogs and I were insulted this morning. I picked them up from the kennel after we were out of town for the weekend and I asked if they'd been fed yet. The woman said yes, she'd given them a little bit of food. Then she said, with a concerned voice, "Greta is very skinny." I replied, "Yeah, she's always been skinny." Then for some reason I felt the need to justify it even more and said, "She was just at the vet."

Then that was the end of the conversation...for the moment. I paid my bill and walked outside to get the girls. The woman met me outside and the girls were inside a fence. She then said to me, "Are they fed together?" And this pissed me off.
"No, they're fed separately," I said. "Why?"
"I was just wondering if Cassie was getting into Greta's food," the woman said. I was fuming inside. So not only was this woman calling Greta skinny, she was implying that Cassie was fat. (Even though we've already established this...how dare she).

That was the end of the conversation, but in a matter of five minutes she had insulted me as a dog owner, and insulted my dogs' physical appearances. It's no wonder they don't both have complexes.

The past

When I see stray dogs roaming my neighborhood, I can't help but wonder if my dogs were doing the same thing before they found a temporary home at the local animal shelter. The shelter didn't give us any information on either of their pasts.

Greta was about 1 and a half when we adopted her. She was very skinny and a little rough around the edges. I don't think she was anyone's pet because she just didn't know how to do certain things. She didn't even know to pee and poop outside. We kept her in our garage for awhile before our backyard fence was built, and she would only use the bathroom in the garage. We would take our walks and she wasn't even interested. I remember that first glorious day when she finally did her business on our walk. It was in an empty lot where a house would eventually be built. That's all I can think about when I look at that house now...Greta pooped in your yard. YAY!

Cassie was a skinny, 6-month-old puppy when we adopted her (which you can see in the picture of the day we brought her home). It's hard to know if she had a previous owner out there because she didn't have the same issues Greta did in the beginning. Cassie adjusted to us pretty easily and fell right into place. Greta showed her the ropes. When we were teaching Cassie to "sit" she was having a hard time getting it. Greta would be sitting there, waiting for her treat and Cassie was just looking at us like we were nuts. On several occassions Greta would bop Cassie on the butt with her paw. With Greta's nudging, Cassie figured out what to do.

I get sad when I think about what might have brought them to the animal shelter. Were they out in the world by themselves looking for food and shelter? Or were they given up by their owners? Regardless of what brought them to the shelter, I'm so happy and proud that we adopted them.