Dog coat

Here's the recipient of the dog coat I made last month:Although she doesn't look too thrilled in the photo, she's actually quite happy wearing coats.

I don't know if you can see in the photo, but she has blue eyes. "People eyes", I call them. It's kind of spooky to look her in the face. She's my brother's dog and he adores her (and she, him). They go everywhere together. She's part Shiba Inu, and hardheaded, but very sweet.

Best dressed doggie

This has got to be the cutest dog coat ever, even if I do say so myself! I was paper piecing heart blocks a couple of weeks ago for the Pike River mine disaster charity quilts effort in New Zealand, and said "Red hearts would look very nice on my brother's dog." So, a dog coat was born.

Having no dog to model it, I pressed my trusty Juki into service:

I can't wait to see this on Pepper!

I liked it so much I made this one too in animal print for the diva that she is! Note the red lining.

Puppy news

Well, last night my neighbor's younger son told me that she had called the local animal shelter to come and pick up the puppy, and this evening I peeked around the fence and didn't see it anywhere, so I guess it's gone. I know that puppies are adopted at a much higher rate than older dogs, and he was very cute and personable and friendly, and had a good temperment, but I am so scared he will be put down before someone wants him. The local shelter is a low-kill, not a no-kill, shelter, but there are so many animals there right now.

The other bad outcome would be if he were adopted by someone who wanted a pit bull dog because of their reputation and trained him to be mean. He's a big love bug right now but such awful things could happen. Please pray that he finds a good home. I'm going to have nightmares about this.

Puppy trouble

My neighbor, owner of the two "rat dogs", the miniature pinschers about which I have written, has taken to feeding a stray puppy. It's a pit bull mix, perhaps part retriever of some sort, caramel tan brindle with the most striking gray/green eyes and white toe tips. He's a young dog, probably less than three months, but obviously going to be big when he's grown. Her daughter is calling him Caramel, in fact. He's an attractive animal but I'm hoping that she doesn't keep him.

Her twenty-something son, according to her youngest daughter, is in favor of keeping the puppy and finding a new home for the min pins, a difficult task because they are over 10 years old and not reliably house broken, and she doesn't want to split them up. When you think about it, the son's preference is obvious, though. What pet would a young man want - a pit bull mix or a couple of yappy rat dogs? But none of the family seem to be very pet-oriented past the "have a dog out in the back yard" level. The min pins were the late husband's dogs, and my neighbor has already said that she's only keeping them because he liked them so much. She's a self-admitted non-dog-person. The youngest daughter is even allergic to dogs. No one in the family seems to give them a lot of attention, although they get good treatment - food, water, shelter, vet care. It just seems that they don't get much interaction, socialization or love. I feel sorry for them and try to fill in with love and attention with I can. They were both consummate escape artists and were constantly slipping out of the fence and roaming the neighborhood. Neither dog has any road sense at all and were in danger of being hit by a car. Thank goodness it seems that the neighbor has finally solved the escape problem because neither has been outside of the fence in several weeks. I go to the corner of the fence to talk to the poor dogs and toss dog biscuits.

The puppy and the min pins aren't getting along - the pup's already bigger than they are and very rambunctious, and the other dogs are older and probably don't appreciate rough play. If she is going to keep this puppy, she needs to instigate some rules right now or the min pins are in danger of being harmed. The male min pin has hip issues an the female dog is very small and fragile. Even unintentionally, the puppy could hurt them. I don't discount pit bulls out of hand, but I have known several people with pit mixes, and while they were great people dogs, they were intolerant of other animals.

Since my neighbor and her son work a lot of hours, and the daughter goes to school and is allergic to boot, I can't imagine that this puppy with get the attention and training that he's going to need to start him out right and make him a good pet. I envision an awfully lot of barking and car chasing in the future, as well as unmannerly behavior and possibly aggression. So it's kind of a mess. I've already started my "the neighbor lady is really nice" training this morning with petting and dog biscuits and also trying to instill some manners by discouraging jumping and clothes tugging, and making him sit down to be petted. It's only smart to be on this dog's good side if he's staying. Hey, it's worked for years with other neighborhood dogs. Haven't met a dog yet who couldn't be bribed with a cookie.

In the meantime, the local shelter probably isn't the place to take a stray dog right now because the Humane Society yesterday raided a pet store in the local mall and carted off all the puppies and other animals because of substandard treatment. This has contributed to the city Animal Control's chronic overcrowding issues. I'm all for this raid because the puppies in that pet store looked sickly (products of puppy mills), but there is only so much room in the shelter. While it's not a no-kill shelter, it does keep the animals longer than other places I've seen and has a pretty good placement record. They try to only put down animals that are non-adoptable due to aggressive behavior reasons or bad health. But, if you look at their "Pet Parade" program of dogs available for adoption on the cable On-Demand channel, almost every one there is part pit bull. It's obvious. So this little guy may not have a good chance if he's taken to the shelter. It's a mess, all right.

A difference between cats and dogs

I have to sweep the house in preparation for a surprise house guest, so I put the cat in the bedroom with my husband, who is still asleep, and closed the door. Molly is deathly afraid of the sweeper, and I'm hoping his proximity will calm her. I have never figured out how to assuage her fears of the vacuum cleaner. She wasn't afraid of anything when she was a kitten, but as she grew up the sweeper became her major nemesis. I once found her hiding under a skirted ottoman after I cleaned the house, and let me tell you, how she crammed herself under there I'll never know. She's a big girl.

Animal trainers tell you to associate a good thing like a favorite food of your pet's with a bad thing like a sweeper so they will transfer the pleasant feelings from the treat to the sweeper and displace the fear. That might work with a food-oriented dog, but I have never seen a cat eat when it was upset. Cats must have a better sense of priorities:

"You're giving me a treat. Are you insane? There's a kitty killing machine rampaging around the house. Right now I have to hide. Get out of my way. I might have a bite later."

And dogs? "What's that big noisy ---SNACKS!"

I have serious doubts about anything that can be distracted from danger by a Pup-a-roni.

Outdoors

Here is what my mowing guy built in the back yard yesterday. He put in the landscape timbers around my birdbath flower bed earlier (you can't see them because they're covered by the last of the angelonia) and I laid out an addition on either side to hold tomato and pepper plants, herbs and flowers. The new beds are each seven feet long but only three feed wide, so I can reach the back to weed. It will be an improvement at watering time because the large pots I used to grow tomatoes before, while effective, dried out too fast.

One of my backyard neighbors had the mowing guy build garden beds in his back yard yesterday, too. It must be the nip in the air; everyone is already looking forward to next spring. I thought he had placed one in a rather funny location; it was too near the side fence and shaded by the small trees on the other side in his neighbor's yard. Well, this morning I heard chain saws and looked out to find two guys with a saw and a ladder reaching across the fence and chopping the trees down to a four foot tall bare trunk. I'm a little confused. His neighbor had been clearing out the scrubby trees in her back yard because their proximity to the house worried her. She also had taken out an old shed building which was next to these threes that were topped. I don't know if she struck a deal with the guy across the fence to help cut them down, or what. I hope she's not going to have a really big surprise when she gets home from church.

And, since I was joined by the dogs next door while I was outside, consummate escape artists that they are, here are some pictures of them too: This is Fritz, erstwhile alpha dog of the little pack. He's far too nervous to make a good leader, but hey, someone had to do it. He's only about 10 pounds and not exceedingly smart. He looks a little mean but he's not. I think he would have loved to be an ankle biter but he was too scared. We're great buddies now. Funny how dog biscuits can do that...

And this is Sparkle. She's a tiny thing, barely five pounds. Fritz is small but he towers over her. He also tries to boss her around but she does what she wants. She's the leading escape artist of the pair, finding places they can get under the fence. Sparkle is needy. That's actually an understatement. If you're outside with her and not paying attention to her, she barks at you as if to say "Look at me!" She's a complete mess but you can't help but love her.

Their owner tries to keep them home but they are so small they can slip out nearly anywhere. They come scampering over whenever they hear us outside, to get a cookie and a little pat. I think they are lonely since my neighbor died last year. They were his dogs exclusively and they took it very hard. So, I'm trying to give them a little affection. I can't resist a hard luck story.

The Cesar Millan approach to dogs

You might think this is a funny topic for a post, seeing that I don't have a dog and all, but with my neighbor's little miniature pinschers (aka the rat dogs), I have seen first hand how his methods are grounded in a dog's innate mental state, and that they really work.

The rat dogs visit us at regular intervals, being consummate escape artists. The chain link fence around their yard isn't even a serious deterrent. They get out often no matter what the owners do, and roam the neighborhood. I have heard brakes screeching followed by car horns when they get in the road, particularly the smaller female dog, Sparkle. She hasn't got the sense of a chipmunk and I would be afraid to try to estimate the close calls she's had on the street in front of her house. Her doggy guardian angel must surely be on duty, because she's never to my knowledge gotten hurt. It's a miracle.

The male dog named Fritz is a little more savvy and a lot smarter than his pal. I think he's smart enough to stay away from cars, but he's a nervous little thing and a consummate barker at anyone and everyone he doesn't know. Since his owners don't do very much with the dogs besides feed and provide water for them and give them a house to sleep in, they pretty much run amok and do whatever they please, including giving the fence the slip and roaming the neighborhood. Since his people haven't assumed a position of control in their lives, Fritz has taken it upon himself to be the alpha dog in this little pack, but he doesn't really want the job. His personality is way too nervous and timid to be an assertive leader, but in the way of animals who naturally live in packs, he stepped up to the plate since his humans weren't taking control by his way of thinking and Sparkle surely wasn't leadership material. Someone had to give the orders, so he appointed himself.

Now, for several months they have been visiting us for a pat and a cookie. Those two would walk through fire for a Milkbone. For a while I was admittedly nurturing their bad sides, because I am a cat person at heart and I treat an animal as a friend, not a minion. Unfortunately, this was making Sparkle more demanding of attention and Fritz more nervous.

My husband has more innate skills with dogs, but he doesn't enjoy the task. We have been watching Cesar Millan's "Dog Whisperer" show for years, and my husband already knew what Cesar was telling his clueless clients. If you don't want your dog to become a complete nuisance, you have to clamp down on them from day one. They have to understand that you are the leader of the pack and you won't tolerate any nonsense from them. This isn't being cruel or mean to your pet, it's clearly defining the social structure of the family and making sure the dog knows he's not at the top of it. It actually makes dogs more secure and happier. If a dog sees a vacuum in the power structure, he will try to take over the position of leader simply because as an animal that evolved living in packs, he thinks somebody's got to be the boss - why not him? Without a clearly defined leader, a pack animal can't function comfortably. They're nervous without structure in their lives. That's why most people's dogs run all over them. I don't think my husband feels there's a dog alive that is worth all the work it takes to keep them tolerable. We both would rather be a cat's buddy than a dog's boss.

The rat dogs were a textbook case. My neighbor John passed away last year. He was the one who got the dogs and the one who cared for them. His wife isn't a dog person and only keeps them because there wasn't anywhere else for them to go and I suppose she would feel guilty getting rid of John's dogs. I felt sad for the dogs because no one next door seemed to give them much attention; the youngest girl is even allergic to dogs. When they started slipping out and coming over, I would give them a little affection and a dog cookie, and they started to like me. Sparkle was an instant fan; it took Fritz longer to trust me. Now, whenever we are outside, two little faces appear at my gate for a visit.

I used to let them sit on my lap, but that's bad for two reasons: they are flea-bit and they STINK! I mean seriously; I had to change clothes after cuddling them. Doling out all this constant attention and petting and lap-cuddling was having a bad effect on them. Sparkle was becoming even more demanding of attention and Fritz was getting stressed trying to control her. Every time Sparkle started the "min-pin dance", jumping on her little back legs and waving her front paws in the air to attract attention, Fritz got very nervous and ran around her in circles, trying to calm her down.

I took a clue from my husband and Cesar. No more jumping and pawing at me - not allowed. No more 100% attention when they were around. They had to listen to me. They had to calm down and sit down before they got any treats or pets. Sparkle actually started to do little growly-barks at me when she felt she wasn't getting enough attention. Let me tell you, a seven pound dog trying to dominate you is funny looking, but it is very serious business. Thus are ankle-biters born.

The last few days I'm seeing results when they visit. After some corrections (mostly a finger point and "ssshhh" noise, delivered with the proper command presence) they are starting to get it. They mostly sit down and quit trying to climb in my lap, and behave themselves. Only when they are calm do they get any attention. The change in their demeanor is remarkable. Nervous gestures like lip-licking are diminished. Sparkle's almost-hyperventilating is diminshed and she's breathing more normally. They can sit or lie down beside us and relax. It's their natural state. Dogs don't like to live all spun up like that. Imagine yourself being anxious and nervous and adrenalized 24 hours a day. Horrible thought, isn't it?

I'm trying to make their little doggy lives better and I think we are succeeding. They still listen to my husband better than they do me, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Of course, since we only see them maybe an hour a day, this won't change them completely, but I would like to see them calmer and happier. Fritz doesn't see me as the leader 100%, but it's coming along. Sparkle, she of the little brain, is a much more pleasant dog when she's not bombarding you with the hopping/barking/pushiness.

Cesar, you're absolute right.