The loss of a dog articulated so well...

Neil Gaiman, brilliant author that he is, also has a blog. I had no idea until another blogger linked this post about the loss of his dog, Cabal.

It's a touching story and a sad one.

He quoted Kipling:

THERE is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day; 
And when we are certain of sorrow in store, 
Why do we always arrange for more? 
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

For some light relief after reading Neil's post, here are my dogs, tearing up my heart, or fighting to win it.

It's Froufrou's birthday!

I tried to explain to Bender and Barbie that cats are not like dogs, they aren't so much into big celebrations, or road trips, or anything much other than lying around on the couch. They didn't listen to me and insisted that we do a birthday photo shoot for Froufrou, who turns 7 somewhere around Christmas time.

I consented, if only because I thought it would be cute for the blog. I had to tie Barbie's party hat elastic into a knot so that it would stay on her head.

They protested that I took too long to take the picture, but it's done now.

Happy Birthday Little Frou Cat!

Pig Murder

While grocery shopping yesterday, I noticed this little pig with a solid rubber ball inside was on special. Bender had one before, and it lasted him an unusually long time. As the piggie was half price, I grabbed one and continued my shopping.

Unfortunately for the piggie, if you replace a toy that Bender once destroyed with an identical toy - the new toy is destroyed at a quicker rate. This is the damage after a couple of hours.

He ripped piggie's back open and then spent a while chomping on his solid rubber ball core. He also managed to destroy the toy I bought for Barbie in less than 5 minutes. I didn't take any pictures of that one, it went straight into the bin. 

Oh Bender, when will you learn! The more toys you destroy the less you have to annoying shove into our faces in your attempts to start a game of fetch! 

Bender had the time of his life this morning...

Just goes to show, you don't need to have a huge backyard in order to have fun. Our courtyard is more than enough. You can ignore the fact that it is just mud with patches of long grass. Dogs don't care about aesthetics!

Stuffie Hunting - Barbie catches a Snake!

Australia has a reputation for it's dangerous wildlife. We have snakes that are not only venomous, but will fight to the death if they are attacked. It is not difficult to tell if a snake is venomous or not - odds are that it is, there are not many harmless snakes in Australia.

Usually snakes are shy and avoid humans at all costs. People are only usually bitten if they try to catch or kill the snake. The same goes for dogs.

It is very rare to find a snake just hanging out in your house, that is for sure.

Barbie the Fierce captured her prey in the living room after an intense battle. It was not easy, but with her lightning-fast Greyhound reflexes, she finally bagged herself a green-ringed-snake.

Turns out that this is one of the rare non-venomous snakes in Australia. Good thing too, because Barbie decided she would like to keep it as a pet, and carried it gently back to her bed.

Where was Bender when all this was happening? He was ripping apart his newest stuffie, of course.

Stop the Stuffie Massacre!

A lot of my regular readers will remember this post, where you were all introduced to this charming pink monkey. The monkey came to an agonising death last night - torn limb from limb.

Of course, Barbie was not the culprit. It was in fact N & Bender whose spirited game of tug of war resulted in monkey's grisly end.

Unfortunately Bender refused to pose with the pieces - instead he grabbed the monkey's head and threw it at me like a ball - somewhat macabre, I think.

So this leads me to a question - does anyone know of a 'tougher' stuffie which I can order online? I have heard of a tough dragon stuffie, but I cannot seem to get it into Australia. The problem is that Barbie will only play with stuffies, but if Bender gets hold of them, well, you can see what happens.

Thursday Flashback

I did this back in 2005.... inspired by my first dog, Lucy (RIP)

Wordless Wednesday

Sibling Love

The dogs have been enjoying the way I rearranged the house for Barbie's Dancing with the Doggie Stars routine.

I went shopping at K-mart on the weekend. I don't go to K-mart often because it requires riding up a rather steep hill, and then negotiating a car park full of rubber-burning feral locals. It was a little bit wet too, which ensured there were a few vehicles deliberately losing traction and fishtailing in the wet. What happened to the old code that if you can't light 'em up in the dry, you have no right to in the wet?

Anyway K-mart sells a variety of things. I went to look for some cheap sporting attire, and some cheap bike bits (a $3 bell and $8 kickstand for Nic's bike, and a $18 bike computer for mine). I just happened to see a bin full of dog squeakies shaped like junk food. I selected a burger for Bender's fat mouth, and a hot dog for Barbie's skinny one.

I then gave them the toys and sat back to watch what happened.

I have taken photos of them playing tug-of-war with their toys in the loungeroom before, so I decided a video would be better this time.

Barbie does play with toys, really.

Quite a few people who know Barbie in real life would have trouble imagining this:



In public she is generally pretty reserved. Even offleash she runs but she doesn't really wrestle or play biteyface with anyone.

Last night the dogs were particularly wound up. I took them for a 45 minute walk, and I walked them back through the park, which might have been what got them so excitable.

After the walk, Barbie had a drink, and I went outside to work on a bicycle. The dogs came outside with me and spent the whole time playing full octane chasey. Our yard is only 150 sqm but it is sort of a narrow U-shape around the house, Barbie reckons it is a perfect race track. What gets me is how effortlessly she clears the 4 foot retaining wall while at top speed. Added into this game of chasey was some frantic digging in the sandpit we call the yard, and more chasey. Bender doesn't usually dig, but he started when Barbie started doing it. I told them both off for digging, Bender stopped straight away, but Barbie needed to be told more than once :P

Bender's first words

I found my old hard drive and got old videos off. This includes quite a few puppy videos of Bender. I thought you guys would like this one, it was an early indication of the kind of attitude he has!

Blast from the Past - Bender's soccer skills

Here's a one year old Bender showing off his neat soccer skills. I was renting this house with a massive backyard. I think Barbie would have loved it there!

Memories - Bender's Problem Solving

One of my fond memories of a young Bender involved a kong, a galvanised metal bucket full of water and a backyard BBQ.

Bender was playing his favorite game with the BBQ guests - fetch with his Kong. He got very hot and tired, so he ran to his water bucket to get a drink. He still had his Kong in his mouth. He released the Kong when he went to drink the water, and the Kong fell to the bottom of the full water bucket.

Bender was very attached to his Kong, but he isn't the type of dog that will stick his head underwater. He hates water up his nose and in his eyes. Being a very young dog, he didn't really know how to get his Kong back. The bucket of water was very full.

It took him a minute or so, examining the problem before him. He wanted his Kong. His Kong was at the bottom of a bucket of water. He didn't want to dunk his head into the water. There was only one way he could see - drink all the water so that he could get his Kong.

I had been sitting on the back steps of the house watching him, and it took me a while to figure out what he was doing. At first I thought he was just thirsty. Then I saw the look on his face, he was forcing himself to drink. He would pause for a bit, and then resume drinking. He even had a puke and went back to drinking. He was very determined.

Eventually, after he had made himself vomit, I decided he wouldn't give up, and I fished the Kong out for him. I would like to think that he would tip the bucket over now instead of trying to drink the whole bucket of water, but I am not too sure that his problem solving abilities have gotten that far. Maybe I should test him?

Sharing is Caring

Bender asking.... "can I play with your monkey little sis?"

OK, but you aren't going to win....

We're going to tear this monkey limb from limb....

Mum decides that we should play with a different toy

We pulled and pulled, but in the end the contest was a bit uneven

Bender was the winner, but notice how Barbie is ready to pounce and reclaim her end of the rope

Sugar High

When N came home last night, I bought out the lolly bowl, it contained the left over lollies from Ikea (crunchy caramel things) and a bunch of Minties (which are pretty much mint flavoured gelatine mixed with sugar). We went out to dinner, left the dogs inside, and forgot about the lolly bowl. Barbie had investigated the lollies a couple of times but for some reason I didn't think about putting them away before we left.

We walked around the corner to our local favorite restruant, and had a leisurely dinner. We left about an hour and a half later because, as is typical for her first night back from work, N was falling asleep.

I walked into the living room and noticed the lolly bowl was empty. There were empty caramel wrappers on the floor, and the Minties had disappeared. I suspect that Barbie was the one who unwrapped the caramels before eating. They had fairly loose wrappers so it wouldn't be that hard. The Minties are harder to unwrap so they got eaten, paper and all.

Barbie and Bender then proceeded to play tug of war, wrestling and chase for over an hour. They were like little kids who had gotten into the red cordial and soft drink at a birthday party. Barbie's new monkey toy was almost torn limb from limb. When Bender eventually (and somewhat inevitably) won the battle, I had to trade him a piece of cooked chicken breast from my leftover dinner the night before so that he didn't proceed to disembowel it. We took them for a little walk around the block, and Barbie was pulling on the lead. By the time we got home though, maybe two hours after they had eaten all those lollies they had both calmed down. They slept well last night.

A night of training/play in our house

I generally do about 5 to 10 minutes of training every night with the dogs, and then take them on a half hour walk. Tonight on our walk, I spotted a white thing running across the road. I realised it was a dog by it's gait, and it was hassling another pedestrian on the other side of the road. It's owner stormed after it yelling it's name over and over... 'ROXY ROXY ROXY SIT STAY ROXY ROXY!' I realised that it would probably run to us but was hoping that he would get it back under control. He got it back into the park and I thought he would have the sense to put it on a leash. Then I saw it running after someone else in the park, barking and yapping at this person. The owner was yelling at the dog like he was going to kill it. Then it noticed us and came to us. It has a really aggressive demeanour and Barbie was having none of it. She barked at it, and when she did it darted away. I went wide so that if it ran it would only run to the park. Eventually the owner's yelling convinced the dog to move away from us and it zipped back into the park again. I told the guy that he needed to take her someplace with a fence or keep her on the leash. I hope she doesn't end up in a shelter, or worse get killed by a car. He really had no clue.

Barbie got to run offleash quite a bit in the previous 5 days, and I think more off leash time makes her more feisty. We didn't go out at all last night because I was busy doing other things, and she decided that she would just roll around on the carpet talking to try and convince me.

When I get home she now does the same thing as Bender, she goes straight for her toys! Anyway I decided to harness that energy. Who would have thought a greyhound could crawl so fast?



I then bought Bender in for some work. Bender demonstrates his version of 'commando' - Barbie does a great down/stay with distraction (considering how much she loves to commando herself), then Barbie does roll over and Bender does a spin for good measure.

Finding voice...

Since I have been making Barbie sleep in her crate, and she has decided to whinge about it... she has become more vocal all round. I'm not sure if I like this new trend.

Last night she started up a conversation off her own bat. We were watching TV, having just finished eating our dinner, and Barbie was lying on the carpet near my feet.

Barbie: Hey, I think you have forgotten something
Me: I am really getting sick of the sound of your voice, Barbie.
Barbie: Get your ass off that couch, there is something you are meant to do before you get too comfortable
Me: Are you sure there is nothing wrong with you? The way you are carrying on, I might have to take you to the VET!
Barbie gets up off the floor and moves to the spare couch, groaning loudly as she flops down.
Barbie: You humans are so damn LAZY
Me: Do you want to go out then?
Barbie leapts up off the couch, ears swivelling into full antenna mode, and begins dancing in front of me.

We took them out for their walk although it was very windy out. They were both a bit on edge because of all the strange noises and smells. Barbie was also quite disappointed that we went on our usual boring route, so she dragged her feet, or heeled perfectly expecting treats. She wasn't that interested in sniffing the world around her.

I think they are both looking forward to summer and more daylight, which means more off leash exercise, and trips to the beach and the river. I suppose to make them more satisfied I could always get up early and take them out at dawn, but am I that devoted? Not so sure!

As for the crate, well, Barbie still hates it and refuses to accept it without a whingefest. I put some classical music on for her to keep her company and she still whinged a little after she was bored with her peanut butter stuffed Kong. She went to sleep after that, only to wake up and whinge at 2.30, then 3.30, then 4.30ish, then 6. This was the 7th night in the crate. She is as stubborn as ever. I am not sure she is ever going to accept being crated overnight at this rate. It is a great pity because I thought it would be a really handy thing to get her used to. I also think it's the only way to ensure that she is 100% house broken, though we are going to rip the carpet in the living room up soon - maybe once the stinky carpet is gone she will stop peeing on it!

Mischief!

I was in the kitchen doing the dishes last night when I heard the familiar sound of greyhound claws gripping the carpet in the act of running, as well as her collar rattling like she was shaking her head. I flicked the suds off my hands and made for the living room. In the minute it took me to get there, Barbie had stopped what she was doing, and was standing, tail swishing slowly, looking sweetly up at me.

I could not figure out why she had been running around like a maniac.

Then I looked at her bed. Two of my shoes were right there, from different pairs. I threw her her kittie fluffy, and she ran around with that instead.

She definately has a shoe fetish.

Training Update

I think Barbie is starting to understand 'roll over' but I don't think it's her favorite trick. 'Paw' has also turned into 'flail your legs around like a dieing cockroach'.

Here is a really crappy video of 'commando'.

Silly things that I am teaching Barbie

Barbie does all kinds of strange contortions on the ground in an effort to avoid getting up and repositioning herself. Last night, I started teaching her to go 'commando' and crawl across the floor to me by getting her to lie down, and then holding a treat a bit further out of reach than usual. Lo and behold, she crawled to it. I think she'll figure this out quickly.

I tried to get her to sit and then 'shake' but putting my hand out for the shake, apparently looks too much like my 'down' signal and she lies down. Will have to rethink that one.

The next silly thing I started with last night is 'spin'. I just lure her round in a circle with the treat. Bender has mastered this with me standing close to him but I want them to do it when I'm further away as well.

When I first got Barbie, she would lie on her bed, and if she was excited when you came up she would roll on her side and stick her paw out at you. I said 'paw' and praised her back then, so now she things 'paw' means lie on your side on the ground. I want to progress from this to 'bang' (play dead) eventually I want to do that trick that people usually teach their chihuahuas, I make 'gun fingers' and go 'bang' and she 'plays dead'. Not sure if I'm going to get the effect because she will probably be too leisurely in going down.

From that I will go to 'roll over'. Oh that is going to be funny.

I'm also working on 'through' which means go through a hula hoop. She won't do this without a treat, even if it is on the ground. Ideally I want both dogs to be in a down-stay, and be able to call each one through the hoop individually. They both need work on their 'stays' to do this though. Barbie's stay is very shaky at the moment but we will get there!