Like An Animal

I’ve been home since Monday, which means the dog has seen a lot more of me. When I’m actually HOME I’m downstairs with him, and he’s out of his crate. Today I think he’s finally had enough. He’s turning into a little brat — lots of demanding and tugging and sulking. I can’t make a move without him trying to destroy something.

He’s had two walks already today, and about an hour playing in the yard. I’d think he was overtired, but he had a two-hour nap while I was out of the house. Of course, he’s used to having 8-10 hours downtime during the day, so maybe this is too much stimulation for him.

He makes noises like Snoopy when he yawns - usually when he’s bored and wants to express his irritation that we’re taking too long to go for a walk.

A few minutes ago I heard this crash and rattle. When I looked, Cardiff had taken his food bowl out of his crate and was carrying it into the living room. He dropped it and just looked at me like “I can’t believe I had to do this myself.”

I was sitting on the living room floor tonight, with Cardiff asleep near me.  Robin the cat was on the sofa, behind me.  Every time Cardiff moved closer or touched me, Robin would growl.  He eventually turned over so his back was pressed against my shoulders and I could hear him huffing every once in a while.

When he realized that Cardiff had actually made it all the way into my lap and was asleep with his head on my thigh, Robin threw a fit. Fortunately a flap of a hand shut him up right away, and Cardiff didn’t even wake up much.

The good news is that it’s just a lot of noise and hurt feelings. Robin will eventually get used to the dog and will eventually realize that I love both of them and they can share.

Anime, on the other hand, will never accept Cardiff, and that’s fine.  It took her about 12 years to decide she liked me enough to let me pet her.

Cardiff got a hold of a nearly empty, very small bottle of AquaSafe tonight and managed to put some good punctures in it.  After spending about half an hour on hold¹ with Animal Poison Control, I was told that he might have an upset stomach. There could be vomiting or diarhea.  And I should give him a slice of bread twice a day for the next three days in case he managed to swallow some plastic. But mostly the worst that might happen is an angry Kitti.

Excessive vomiting and/or diarhea is bad. Which is sort of a given, but … you know. I think they’re required to point that out.

Kitti is incredibly pissed off that this happened (he was with the dog when the dog got a hold of it) but it’s a lesson learned.  Up to this point the dog’s never even noticed it was there, but now that he knows about it, he’d have gone looking for it again.  All the fishtank stuff has now been put away.

Just when you thought you’d babyproofed the whole house, huh?

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¹Fortunately it wasn’t horribly toxic.

Cardiff is starting to show his true colours. He’s a little bit clumsy.  Well, not so much clumsy as comedic. He’s mastered the prattfall.  He’s also really good at getting distracted while he’s walking or running, and therefore bumping into things and then looking totally startled.

And while he does fetch, he doesn’t catch.  In fact, throwing anything at all in his general direction makes him duck and run.  Even if you aren’t throwing it directly to him. If it’s coming near him or maybe even well over his head, he hits the dirt and scuttles sideways.

Probably much to Kitti’s shame, since Kitti is kind of athletic.

So throwing things away from him is no problem. He’ll trot after them (and sometimes bounce or even race) and he’ll bring them back, but if you toss something to him?  No. He’ll also be so offended that you threw something at him that he won’t even bring it back to you.

He gets that from my side of the family.

1. Cardiff’s issues with food seem to be mostly resolved.  Some of the time we mix half a can of food in with his crunchy stuff and he devours it.  Which isn’t bad and isn’t bad for him.  The real fix seemed to be changing his bowl. Kitti initially bought two stainless steel bowls, but since switching to a blue plastic bowl, Cardiff is more interested in eating.

   It’s suspected that dogs can see colours, but that they’re limited to violet, blue, yellow, and red (green and orange are apparently perceived as yellow).  Maybe it’s the appeal of blue. Maybe it’s the fact that he could actually smell or taste the aluminum and it was putting him off his food (and the smell of the canned food overpowered the smell of the aluminum).

2. He still does not like Nylabone products.
3. We spent 40 minutes this morning, in the dark and the cold, walking around while he looked for the perfect spot to poo.  Yes, from 6:35 until 7:15 we walked and walked and circled until he finally stopped to poop.  Which meant we had no social time before I had to leave for work.  And I have a really bad feeling that he needed to poo again.

   You don’t know how much I hate leaving him in a crate all day.

4. The only thing that wears him out is roughly 9 hours of non-stop running.  The only time he’s tired is on Daycare days, where  (we’re told), he runs from the minute he gets there to the time Kitti shows up to bring him home.    I knew terriers were high-energy dogs, but seriously?  Seriously?
5. He’s a pacifist. For all his wrestling and playing and growling noises, he really doesn’t like it when other dogs are upset. This is one of those “you had to be there to see it” things.  We were at the dog park and a brown dog was getting a little too rough with this other dog (Kevin).  It wasn’t dangerous or scary — it was just more aggressive than Kevin likes.  Kevin’s owner and the brown dog’s owner were about to step in and distract them with other things when Cardiff charged in and tackled the brown dog, encouraging him to play and leading him off to another part of the park, leaving Kevin to play with someone his own speed.

   I think he may have learned that from Molly the Golden Retriever, who has done a similar thing when it was clear that Cardiff was getting frustrated with the attentions of another dog.

Molly (photo on Flickr)

Two unexpected things at the dog park.

1. Brian was there with his dog, Two. He claims he’s there all the time, but we’ve never seen him. It could be because his dog is usually on the small side of the park, and we’re normally on the big dog side. And why were we on the small side tonight, you may ask?

2. THERE WAS ANOTHER WELSH TERRIER. Bernie, who was just about 10 weeks old and tiny and adorable and so fierce and stubbourn. We went over to ooh and ahh and meet the owners and let them meet Cardiff (and so Cardiff could meet the puppy).

It’s so weird because I still think of Cardiff as a puppy, but compared to this wee guy, he looks so big and sturdy.

The pup was absolutely adorable and playful and much more dominant than Cardiff was at that age, but we did choose the most mellow, quiet, reserved one of the litter. The wee pup was more like Cardiff’s littermates.

They seemed to know they were “related” and played together. Cardiff got a little tiny bit protective, and I think once or twice he got a little grumpy that this pup was trailing after him, but mostly he loved it. Bernie was sitting down at one point and Cardiff came over and goosed him to get him to chase.

Everyone had fun, and it’s just made us more determined to possibly get a little sister for Cardiff later.

Earlier today, Cardiff was also put in his place by one of the cats. About time! Hopefully this is the start of Cat/Dog negotiations in the house.

Is there any sort of toy (specific or brand) that is really good for terriers?  Cardiff is not a large dog and will never be a large dog, but his jaws are powerful.  Toys that are the right size for him have proven to be not strong enough.  With a little concentrated effort he’s managed to destroy several toys in a matter of days — if not hours — as he has with most of his plush toys.  We throw them out the minute they show signs of wear, and a few times that’s been less than a week after he’s gotten it.

Things that do seem to stand up to his chewing are things that are meant for much larger dogs.  As a result, they’re heavy or just too big for him to carry around.  Or they make a really loud thud when you throw them, and then he’s not interested in bringing it back to you because it’s heavy or awkward.

The biggest problem is finding something that we can leave in his crate while we’re at work, so he can stay occupied.  We have a few of those “will dispense treats if your dog chews on it long enough” things, but only one has managed to hold his interest because it really does require mostly chewing.  The others we have need to be played with (dropped, rolled, chased, etc) in more area than he has in his crate.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dataangel/2916088305/