Hair like Medusa

Last week, Finley chewed up one of my hairbrushes. Undaunted, I pulled out the second brush, and used that one instead. Yesterday, he chewed that one into tiny wooden splinters too. You know what I had to use to brush my hair this morning? The teeny tiny plastic comb that came in the baby toiletry set that we received at our son's baby shower.

Clearly he wants my hair to look tangled and ugly. But why?!? Why do you want to me look ugly, Finley?!?

Note to self: pick up more doggy chew toys soon.

In other news, I took this extremely telling picture this morning. Polly was, in her own special dysfunctional way, attempting to solicit play from Finley. When it failed to work, they ran in to the kitchen in anticipation of breakfast.


His face completely illustrates the emotions Polly inspires in other dogs. Shall we zoom way in?

"Run away! Keep an eye on that one, but avoid eye contact at all costs. She's crazy. Look small. Look small! Get away before she notices me again!"





Poor Polly. She has good intentions, and she wants to be friends with other dogs so badly, but she honestly has no clue how to interact normally with them. Poooooooor dogs'o'mine!

Finley & Tuni <3 each other

Finley and Tuni could spend all day long doing this, if I let them. Polly HATES it. She can't stand the noise, the chaos, the dogs about to bash into her. She blasts in to the middle of their play and gives Finley the smackdown for daring to be so obnoxiously annoying.

Sometimes she wants to play, too, but she doesn't know how. She hops into a play bow and then when Finley starts to play back, she corrects him with a quick, noisy, inhibited muzzle grab, and he turns away and sinks to his belly.

Then Tuni gets angry with Polly, because look, WE WERE HAVING FUN HERE AND YOU RUINED IT.

So whenever Tuni and Finley get playful, I put Polly in a crate, so that she won't interfere. This makes her sad, and she cries and barks and cries some more. Or I put her out back, but then she runs to the back of my yard, stands at the base of the dead pine and the swamp maple, and barks and barks and barks and barks at the squirrels who stand in the tree and mock her mercilessly with their very presence.

I suspect that she thinks that if she barks long enough, she'll scare one of them into having a heart attack and falling directly into her open mouth. I have tried to point out to her that perhaps the stealth approach would be more effective, but Polly doesn't do subtle.

I think the squirrels are up there sniggering and giving her the squirrel equivalent of the finger.

You know what one single little thing I want to know, though? Why do they insist on wrestling in my house, on my couch, on my living room floor? If I ask them to take it out back, where all the furniture is made of plastic, they act like I've wounded them mortally, and then stand at the back door and cry until I figure that since they're no longer playing, I may as well let them back in. Inside! Whoo hoo! So happy! SO HAPPY! TIME TO CRASH AND BASH AGAIN!!!!

Repeat ad nauseum.

Pretending to be dignified

Here's Finley pretending that he is a noble and dignified animal who doesn't do things like miss the top step on the deck and land on his butt so that his front legs are left scrabbling on the deck while his rear legs slide under the steps, or wear embarrassing hats or pink collars. Because he is noble and dignified and manly. Right? Right. I mean, look at that face. Definitely dignified.

I took him out for a walk the other morning. Before the husband and son wake is about the only time of day that I can get some alone time or sneak out of the house with just one dog, without the others whining and crying like life is a terribly unfair tragedy and they can no longer bear the loneliness and injustice so they are just going to chew their way out the front door so that they, too, can be free. Which, my poor door! My beautiful front door! It is slowly being splintered! Not happy.

Anyway, I digress.

When I took Finley for a walk, it was before he'd had his breakfast, which in retrospect made him a little frantic for the training treats I'd slipped into my pocket, and probably made him a little more crazy in general. We were walking towards that house where they keep the pet goats, and the man let his two Boston Terriers out into the yard. Fin started hackling and barking at them. He also hackled and barked at the Mutt Strut, but there were supposed to be about 500 dogs there, and I figure that situation is more on the extraordinary end of the greeting new friends spectrum, so I wasn't too concerned about that.

I was surprised when he barked at the Bostons, though. He has not shown any animal aggression or reactivity in the time that I've had him. Even when he was surprised by a Shiba behind a gate, he was somewhat phlegmatic. He seems slightly uncomfortable around new dogs, but his response to uncomfortable situations has been to immediately submit and do whatever the other dog says. He was even attacked and punctured by a strange dog when he was in foster care, and he had no defensive response. So, for him to react to a dog in the distance by barking and pulling is definitely somewhat surprising.

Is it me? Do I somehow make reactive dogs out of normal ones? Do I not provide enough input on how the dog should behave when it sees another dog, and leave them hanging, with no clear guidance? Has his previous lack of response been due to the behavior suppression that you tend to see from dogs who are in shelters or new homes (AKA "the honeymoon period")? Is it his real personality, finally coming out? Lack of manners? Excitement? Animal aggression? Learned response, from watching UberBitch Polly bark out the front door every time a dog passes?

Whatever the cause, I've got plenty of experience with reactive dogs, so it's not particularly problematic. But it does leave me to wonder if, you know, the problem is ME. o_O

Breakin' the law, breakin' the law

Oh noes! Finley touched The Bitches without their permission, and now The Bitches are giving Finley the smackdown! Oh, Bitches. Oh, Finley.

*sigh*