Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here!

It's been an on and off kind of day. And I'll carefully avoid my soapbox, as I can easily hop up on it, and spend the next several hours ranting about slime-balls who perpetuate fraud without scrupals, and make life difficult for others who are trying to make it through life as best they can with real difficulty. See, there's this guy who's apparently in Seattle, selling service dog vests on e-Bay, with part of his advertisement saying something to the effect of "Take your beloved pet shopping with you. You may have to play blind or stupid, but hey, you love your pet, right?" Needless to say, that got my ire up, and I spent some time this morning fixated on it, and my day was a bit of a roller coaster, thanks to the boys, who try so very hard to make us laugh.

So, rather than ruminating on all the jerks in the world, I thought perhaps I'd spend some time writing about our sweet boys, and what makes each of them special. Much like people, dogs have individual personalities, and communicate with their own vocabulary and body language (so there all you science-geek doctoral types out there who think that dogs are lower life forms who aren't intelligent enough to communicate!). They each have their own individual style of play, eating, sleeping, and working.

You've met Freedom before. He's growing up, and has had his "big boy" hair cut already. He's also maturing mentally very fast, and is starting to reason through challenges, and figures out how to get to what he wants when there's an obstacle in his way, including playing to Mom and Dad's sympathies when nothing else seems to be working for him. He's a willing worker, and has been since he came home just shy of 6 weeks old. He still alerts to Brian's blood sugar highs in the middle of the night by going straight to Brian's mouth, and laying down, refusing to go to his crate until Brian has checked his sugars. One night recently, Freedom refused to go to bed at all, sleeping at the foot of the bed the entire night. It's the only time he's done that, and the only thing we can point to, is that Bri's blood sugars were high that particular evening when we went to bed. He's not repeated the behavior since.

Freedom is still very fearful of other dogs outside of Mom's pack, and the pack of dogs next door to Mom. If it walks on 4 legs, you can bet he'll be whining and crying like someone's got him by the throat, even if said other dog is still 100 feet away. We're working on this, slowly, and we've now met 2 or 3 other dogs that Freedom has gotten nose to nose with. Anything else, person, wheel-chair, car, basketball, scooter, bike, R/C airplane, you name it, he'll walk by, or greet happily and without hesitation, but you can forget about other dogs. This is just the way my sensitive little guy is, and it's something we have to work on.

He is truly a Cocker Spaniel. Leaves, pine cones, sticks... they simply aren't safe from the retrieving mouth of my little black puppy. Flowers are his absolute, all time favorite thing to carry around for Mommy. A few times now, I've caught him walking around, blossom gently tucked between lower and upper lips just below his nose, with just the bloom sticking out, and on two occasions, while playing fetch outside, he's left the ball behind, to bring me a flower from the grass instead. I remember each of my kids doing this for the first time, but I never thought my dog would do that! Freedom's great on walks, other than when that perfect leaf is on the sidewalk, and is just too much temptation for a 13 week old pup... I've had to correct him more than once, put him in a down position, and make him leave the leaf alone. Most of the time, though, we can just see it coming, and remind him to "leave it" and he can walk by with just a longing glance (if you've ever dealt with a Cocker, you know they are born with that look mastered).

A perfect gentleman, Freedom has taken to being the defender of his beloved Bella. Even if she can't stand him anymore because he's not so tiny, he'll defend her when play gets too rough and she can't get away fast enough because of her stiff legs. Little as he is, he'll brace himself in the path of Sparky the 20 pound freight train, and growl and bark, warning the bigger pup to chill out. He's also been seen laying down along her back when she's stiff. She'll tolerate him then, and I've wondered if perhaps he's warming her up; don't know if that's his intent, or if that's why she's letting him lay there, but it's one of those moments that leave you wondering. He relates to her in an entirely different way than he does the other two dogs in our pack, whether due to age, gender, status, or a combination of the above, I don't know. But it is amazing to watch.

Tall and slender, Freedom may be the lighter of the boys, and he takes his sweet time eating, but don't mistake him for a pushover at the dinner bowl. Mealtimes are generally supervised (at least until Tardis is done eating), so that we know who's done eating. Freedom doesn't let any other dog near his bowl, except of course, the lovely Miss Bella (pictured below), who gets the privilege of being allowed to sit right beside him while he eats, and is allowed the choice bits that he pulls out and drops on the floor at her feet (any other dog that close would get snapped at and run out of the room). He'll also willingly give her his treats, something that he won't do with any of the other dogs.

Let's see... my little guy is also a snuggler. Work is 24/7 for him, so he'll take play and cuddles 24/7 as well. After early morning potty break, he knows he gets to come to bed with us, if he'd like (and sometimes, he'd prefer to go back to his own bed, which is fine), and there are times he knows I need a rest, or just time to sit quietly with him. He will raise a fuss when he thinks I need a break, and will only quiet down when I sit or lay down with him, and he defends those quiet times (today during a nap, he actually jumped up and barked at a guy yelling downstairs from our balcony until I told him it was okay for him to lay back down and go to sleep). If you tell him it's time for a walk, he's ready with wagging tail and a back side plopped on the ground (followed by a whole body wiggling and jumping up to get at the leash-a bad habit we're trying to break before it gets ingrained-but I appreciate his enthusiasm!).

Meet Tardis, the newest member of our pack. He will be 9 weeks old tomorrow, and is a mix of American Cocker Spaniel and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He rounds out the pack nicely, but is the polar opposite of Freedom in many ways. Don't get me wrong, I love Tardis just as much... he's a clown!

Tardis wakes up ready to do four things: play, eat, potty and sleep, and not necessarily in that order. He is about a half pound heavier than Freedom, and 1-2 inches shorter. He plays hard, snores like a buzz saw (we call it his impersonation of deforestation), chows heartily, defers to his older pack-mate in all things, and detests walks.

He wakes up ready to play, forget that cuddling thing. "Let me up on that bed, so I can pull Freedom's ear!" seems to be his battle cry every morning, followed by "Oh, my goodness! I've got to go potty right now!!!" Amazingly, all this bundled energy gets contained into a very polite package while meals are prepared for the dogs, and he waits quietly, right up until permission is granted for the dogs to eat; then it's a race to the finish for this little guy. One-half of a cup of dry food mixed with a teaspoon of canned food is gone in 5 minutes flat, if not less, and his first thought is to turn around, and plunk down, waiting for Freedom to walk away from his bowl (he learned fast to wait at a safe distance).

If you ask Brian, he'd tell you that walks with Tardis are an exercise in patience, as Tardis doesn't always approve of his post-meal exercise. In fact, he makes his protests clear when he flops down, spreads out all four legs in opposing directions, and does a very convincing impression of a dust mop! He is getting better about walking, though, I think. Brian is a better judge of that, though, as he's the one on the other end of the leash more often than not, other than when I'm taking the boys down to the potty stations for a quick pre-meal trip.

If Freedom is a willing learner and worker, Tardis takes a little more convincing, but learns a lesson thoroughly. Tardis took several days to learn that his crate was a good place to crash, and wasn't a prison or a punishment, and now (mostly) he goes willingly after walks, and crashes out for hours at a time. Tardis is completely captivated by anything tasty smelling- have food, will listen. He's doing excellent with his commands as he and Freedom demonstrated for a potential trainer today.

Back in the house, though, Tardis is all about the toys. Whether they bounce, roll, can be chewed on or pushed, he's all over them; and when the toys get boring, there's always that fuzzy buddy that can be bounced, rolled, chewed on and pushed. And the best part about that? Freedom bounces, rolls, chews and pushes back! Their play is always supervised, because, as puppies, they can quickly become too rough and excited, and what was fun 5 seconds ago, can become aggression and a fight in a heartbeat. Sure, there's lots of growling, and some barking, and a strange sound known to Cocker Spaniel breeders as "purring" that sounds something like part growl, part whine, part bark and part howl. Unless you've ever heard it, it's rather hard to describe the warbling, odd sound that comes out.

If Freedom is an explorer/adventurer, then Tardis is the vacation guru. While outside, Freedom will be checking out every leaf and blade of grass, and Tardis is stretched full length on the lawn, watching. He does have moments, though, and we get our entertainment out of it, as he stalks whatever has his interest like a cat, creeping up slowly, crouched down low before plowing into whatever the victim is. In that regard, Tardis is more like a tank than anything else. He's built low to the ground and wide, and has a tendency to just plow his way through anyone and anything in his way--thank heaven he's only 7 and a half pounds, with an expected full-size weight of only 25-30 pounds, and not something like 70-100!

In the end, the guys make us laugh, and they challenge us to think about our actions. They live in the moment, and enjoy everything around them. They make us get up in the morning, eat 3 times a day, and get exercise. We get out, we meet other people, and we have to get away from the computers. And we get rest when we need it. Thank heaven for dogs!