Every Dog Deserves to have Adventures

It's hard sometimes not to overcoddle your small dog. There's so many dangers out there: hawks, coyotes, careless children (Mr. N had a leg fracture from a kid stepping on him in his previous life), aggressive dogs.
 

Sometimes you feel like putting them in a giant bubble and never letting them out. And there are small dog people who do that whose dogs are exercised indoors and their feet barely touch the ground outdoors. 

And I've been tempted. Mr. N has almost been attacked twice by aggressive dogs while out on a walk. But he would hate it. And so despite my fear, I try to give Mr. N a variety of experiences and let him explore.

Because every dog deserves to have adventures (thanks to Pamela for the phrase). And Mr. N doesn't believe in limits.

So earlier this week, we met up with Sage, a lovely Border Collie/Kelpie to go for a hike at Thousand Acres. It was really windy when we got there so we headed for the wooded area to escape the wind.They got along pretty well which meant that Sage didn't try to herd him and Mr. N enjoyed chasing after Sage. He was thrilled to have a new playmate that had no trouble keeping up with him.

Sage is a mud and water aficionado which Mr. N is not. She jumped into every mud puddle and body of water we came across. Mr. N went exploring instead.

She clearly thought Mr. N was crazy for not wanting to come into the water so Sage kindly shared the water and mud experience and he got a little wet and muddy as well (baths for everyone!). Luckily, she did not transfer the green "fragrance" that she found in a mud puddle to Mr. N. Sage's human and I took turns telling her not to come too close.

Later on, Sage got entangled with a thorny branch and Mr. N helped get it off her. Although honestly, I'm still not sure if he thought it was a game or if he sensed that it hurt and she needed help.

Whatever the reason, he looks so proud of himself in this picture.

And then Sage found a stray ball and it was time for river fetch.


After about two hours, we said our goodbyes and headed home so the dogs could get baths. They both really needed them! Mr. N and I both enjoyed ourselves (he had a good nap in the car but was perky again afterwards lol) and we hope to meet up with Sage and her human again soon. 

Wordless Wednesday #26 - Window Display

Monday Mischief #24 - Right This Minute

Onyxx was really naughty during his last training class. He kept barking and breaking his stay. As the instructor diplomatically put it, "I saw him making a few mistakes today." Thankfully, during the group exercises, he held it together and his "come" was impeccable. He ran to me as fast as his little legs could carry him. And he held his stay at the end when I went up to receive his graduation certificate.

He's an obedience school graduate! And as I told him, he may never have to learn another new thing again. He knows the basic commands and some fun tricks (more tricks than any Chihuahua I've ever met!) and he's pretty content that way. Unlike Mr. N and his busy little brain.

The dogs love to wrestle by me and on me which doesn't really bother me unless they're doing something like wrestling on the laptop. The boyfriend on the other hand is not fond of said activity on him. They'll stop if I tell them to but for the most part, I just let them be. I think Mr. N likes using me as a fort.

Mr. N would happily play like this all day (except for sleeping, eating and walking). Onyxx gets tired much faster and likes to play like this maybe once or twice a day. Mr. N can be bossy (anyone surprised?) and will insist that they must play together right this minute. He normally bats at Onyxx's face to get him to play. But yesterday, he decided his argument might be more persuasive if he was on top of Onyxx.

Are your dogs matched in energy level?

Taken by the boyfriend. He was shocked that I don't attribute his photos to him lol! 

BW Sunday #28 - New Sidekick?

K9Kamp Around the Kampfire Blog Hop: Hide and Seek

At the beginning of K9 Kamp, I declared my intention of having Mr. N find my keys for the "hide and seek" theme. Well we kind of got caught up with other flashy tricks like rebound and weave and I barely worked on it. So I scrambled to put something together. Luckily, something clicked in Mr. N's brain during our last session and he's been pretty good about finding the keys. We need to work on him alerting to my keys once he has found them next.

Basically I dabbed some essential oil on my keys and let him sniff the oil bottle then told him to "find it." We've worked on "find it" before only with food. Once he found the keys and started sniffing at them, I would jackpot reward him right next to/on top of the keys.

There's other methods of training this and I don't know if I necessarily picked the easiest way! Oh well. He picked it up pretty quickly once he figured out that essential oil + keys = food. I'm looking forward to him being able to alert me to where my keys are, I often misplace them. He'll be glad too. Lost keys mean delayed walks. 

For our second hide and seek exercise, can anyone spot Mr. N? Any guesses as to which statue he's standing next to? Think folklore. 

Wordless Wednesday #25 - Keeping Warm

Monday Mischief #23 - Hide and Seek

If the dogs are not in the same room as me (and I don't know what they're doing), I immediately become suspicious (in Onyxx's case) and curious (with Mr. N). Onyxx is usually scavenging for food. He tries to go into the kitchen or licks the carpet in hopes of crumbs or tries to steal food off the desk/table/other surface.

Sometimes though he is just hanging out in his special spot. When he first started hiding, I would look around the house but I couldn't find him. I then said the magic word "treat" and he came flying out from under the couch. Mr. N has never really shown a desire to go under the couch. He'll go after toys that have rolled under it but other than that, he ignores it. So Onyxx has it all to himself.

Some of the neighbors reported their lights flickering (we're under a wind warning) and a tree fell right by us so I took Mr. N to investigate. I just had my phone with me so here's a terrible flash photo of the damage.

Also I'm getting a new tag for Mr. N and I need to come up with a tagline. It has to be roughly 10-12 characters and preferably several short words although one long one might be squeezed in. Some of the ideas we're tossing around:

Boundless
Trix 4 Treats
Evil Genius!
Some Dog
Fuzzball
Show-off
High-spirited
Pure Terrier
Real Dog!
Joie de Vivre (Cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit) 

Which one fits Mr. N best? Other suggestions?

BW Sunday #27 - Happy Together

FitDog Friday #21 - Snow Workout

I was wondering how to categorize Mr. N's snow activities for the exercise diary on PetsMove. It's definitely something more intense than just walking when the snow is taller than your legs and you have to wade through it! I was tempted to put down swimming. 

Wordless Wednesday #24 - Photobomb

I'm a real dog!

Mr. N would like to clear up this misconception about him not being a "real dog." He is a real dog. As much as he looks like a stuffed toy, he isn't one!

Real dogs play chase with other dogs in the snow.

Real dogs do crazy, crazy things like going into the river in the middle of a snowstorm to chase ducks.

Real dogs refuse to let snow bring them down.

Real dogs play for two and a half hours in the snow and still don't want to go home.

And real dogs (like real men!) cuddle.

*Addressed partly to the Boston Terrier owner in the park who told his dog that a "grandma dog" was chasing him and said Mr. N wasn't a real dog. Yes, my dog is wearing three layers but he's not FAT like your dog. He doesn't have that blubber to keep him warm. And he can outrun your dog and breathe better than your dog can too! And you have a Boston Terrier! It's not like they're macho dogs either.
*And partly to the people who thought I was "abusing" Mr. N by making him walk in the snow with snow all over him.

BW Sunday #26 - Uh Oh

Sepia Saturday #1 - Snowfall

Sepia Saturday Hosted by Ruckus the Eskie

Barks and Bytes #2 - Hodgepodge

Onyxx's Class:
I forgot to give an update on Onyxx's class last week so here it is. The kids + aggressive dog didn't show. Not sure if they dropped out or if they just missed but it was a very peaceful class. And quite lovely. Onyxx was a little worked up for the first half of class but then he settled down.

We practiced loose leash walking which Onyxx excels at. Really if he would only be quieter around food, he would be perfect in class. We have class again today and next week is graduation week! I don't think this class has the dogs wear gowns though. Pity. I've tried to take pictures but dark room + dark dog + phone does not make for pretty photos.

Socialization visit to the hardware store

Mr. N's Class:
Despite training, Onyxx's recall is probably better than Mr. N's (if you have food/pretend you have food). Because Onyxx doesn't care if there's other dogs, humans, squirrels etc. You have the food! Mr. N wants to go say hi to everyone.

So Mr. N is going to go to class too. We're starting a recall class this week (unless it gets canceled due to weather!). I'm excited because I haven't taken a class with Mr. N in forever (six months?) and I love working with him and seeing the little wheels spin in his head.

His photo posing skills are good though! 

Winter Walks: 
We're finally getting a cold snap over here in Oregon (for us anyway). It was in the 20s today with a fair amount of wind chill. We're also under a winter storm warning. Onyxx doesn't believe in cold or wet conditions so he stayed home aside from quick bathroom breaks.

I bundled Mr. N up in layers and we set off. He gets cold fairly easily (small dog, hair instead of fur, and little body fat) but he believes that he should get his walk(s) no matter what. Some days when I'm feeling sick or the weather conditions are horrible, I think about how nice it would be to have a dog like Onyxx who is perfectly content to stay home. In the long run, Mr. N is good for me though. Even if it means I suffer sometimes!

We went walking in the park. It was a little eerie at first because there was no one else there that we could see. Normally, there's kids playing and joggers and other dog walkers. About halfway through the park, I spotted a guy with two Labs(?) playing fetch off-leash. Now this is not an off-leash park. It was highly aggravating as it meant we couldn't walk through a decent portion of the park because the dogs were running everywhere and Mr. N was getting agitated.

The rest of the park was tranquil though and as my friend's daughter describes it, "smelled like Christmas" due to all the pine branches that were strewn about. Mr. N would start shivering with cold if we stood still in one place for too long so it was a brisk walk. To the point where I had trouble taking this photo because he was getting too cold. He wanted to keep walking though!

This is the Thursday Bark And Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like A Dog.

Wordless Wednesday #23 - Way Up High

Pet Training: No, You Leave It

Welcome to the second Positive Pet Training Blog Hop hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Dachshund Nola, and Tenacious Little Terrier.

It's rare a walk goes by without my saying "leave it" at least once. It's a multi-purpose word for us. I use it to tell Mr. N (and Onyxx) to stop sniffing other dogs' poop, ignore food on the ground and dead animals. As well as ignoring people.

It's especially important in the case of food because the dogs both find so many things that could make them sick.

So far Mr. N has found:

• Chicken bones multiple times
• Part of a chocolate donut with sprinkles
• A strip of bacon (who throws bacon away?)
• And other things that don't come to mind right now.

Onyxx has found:

• A corn husk
• Chicken bones
• Some kind of white sauce
• Pastry crumbs

I teach "leave it" by putting a low-value treat on the ground and rewarding for ignoring it with something high-value like liver. I think what also helps is that they have to wait for permission to eat so they learn self-control around food. 

Both dogs are pretty proficient at "leave it" now. It was probably one of the hardest things to teach Onyxx because his little Chihuahua brain could not comprehend the concept of leaving perfectly good food alone.

They can both do the balance food on your paws and nose without eating it trick. Which is fun but "leave it" can also be a life-saving command if your dogs are prone to finding weird things like the pups.

What do you tell your dogs to "leave it?"

BW Sunday #25 - Feeling Blue

*Long vent ahead. Scroll down for the picture.

For some reason, there were a bunch of runners on our street today (they had hand-printed signs so not an official marathon I think). Mr. N tends to be motion sensitive (runners, bikers etc.) if they are in close distance (on the same sidewalk, he doesn't care if they're on the street or across the street).

A couple of runners zoomed right past us and almost ran into Mr. N. He was a little agitated so I started treating him when we saw runners. After holding it together for the first couple, he lost it and started barking at every person we came across because he was worried that they were going to step on him. One person called him "vicious."

We were two blocks away from home when this first started and towards the end of the last block, I finally scooped him up and carried him the short distance home. And he was fine.

I feel horrible because I feel like I pushed Mr. N way past his threshold. And I should have picked him up earlier. I don't blame him for getting agitated, I would too if I felt like much bigger creatures were about to step on me constantly.

I get so frustrated whenever anyone calls the dogs "vicious," "yappy," "little ankle biters" or "they think they're pit bulls (I do realize some of these people think they're being funny)!" I try so hard to have the dogs be "good canine citizens" (neither of them have the official title) and people criticize them for barking. That they sometimes start! I've seen people bark and yell at them and then call them vicious.

It's almost like there's a higher bar for small dogs because there's so many bad stereotypes surrounding them.

I have to admit Onyxx loses his mind around food and gets barky. I'm working on trying to curb that habit. We were at the hardware store, and one of the store dogs followed us around and kept barking in hope of treats for at least ten minutes. Onyxx barks for about ten seconds when I pull a treat out and one of the employees says, "If you don't quit being so yappy, you're never going to get adopted." WTF?

As for Mr. N being vicious... He has never ever tried to bite a human or a dog. He has excellent bite inhibition and a soft mouth. Onyxx has stolen food from Mr. N's mouth and Mr. N didn't even snap at him. He stoically stands still for blood draws and his temperature taken and getting a microchip inserted (have you seen the size of those needles?). A groomer said he was the only dog that didn't try to bite her all day.

The boyfriend thinks I need to be more thick-skinned and maybe I do but it still upsets me.

My "vicious" wee beastie