Being a Doggy Mama - Puppy Dog's Peccadilloes 1

No cuddle if you wriggle

One of Puppy Dog's more annoying peccadilloes is that, if he is lying next to you on the couch or on the bed, and you make the slightest movement, he jumps off, sometimes with a low growl.

The other day he was curled up next to me on the couch and his head was leaning on my leg.  His soft little ear was flapped over my shin and I reached out to stroke it.  Grr! Jump!  He was gone.

He's a rescue dog so it's hard to know why he does certain things.  Was he invited up onto the couch and bed and then kicked off it?  Poor little thing.  If you ask really nicely, sometimes he comes back and lays with you again.

 

Unwind

Puppy Dog has been taught the command "Unwind".  This is for when he has run around something - a tree for instance, and his leash is caught on it.  We say "Unwind! Unwind!" and he usually understands that he has to retrace his steps to undo the damage.

Sometimes, though, Unwind doesn't cut it, especially if has has gone under a tree with low branches and completely tied himself up in knots, like he did outside the coffee shop this morning.  His back left leg was trapped, pulled up along his side, the leash was curled all around him like Shibari rope bondage.  He just stood there, perfectly still, looking up at me.  I burst out laughing and ran to call Fluffy Bear out of the coffee shop to see it, but he somehow managed to disentangle himself while I was away.

Unwind can also sometimes be confusing for Puppy Dog.  He isn't always sure which way he came around the object so, when he's trying to undo the leash, he makes things worse.  This is how things were in the park today when he went around a wooden post.  The more Fluffy Bear yelled "UNWIND" the more loops of leash snaked around the post.  Fluffy Bear gave up, went up to the post and tried to pull the leash off it.  Of course it snagged on something and he had to yank and yank until a thwock! of wood coming loose occurred simultaneous to a swish of leash coming off the top and, this being an extendable leash, a fssst! of leash retracting, full speed, into the handle.  Fluffy Bear got a nice little jolt, 

I laughed my ass off and Puppy Dog, sensing the issue was resolved, gambolled off to sniff something or other.

Comments

[Debineezer]

Yeah, at least Puppy Dog is short. Lily is an Italian Greyhound, and she can't seem to help getting tangled even in a piece of string. She should learn the location of those deer legs.

[Itty Bitty Crazy]

I love greyhounds! Elegant. Although not, I guess, when tangled in a piece of string...