Dog Writings General!

Blog, Nigel and Life!

Those of you who have a dog (or two) as part of your daily life, are probably wondering “Whatever happened to Nigel? You would think more Posts would be published by now about his progress (or lack of)!”

Life has presented me with a number of challenges recently which have resulted in neither the time nor the drive to be creative in the context of Blogging. Sadly I am not expecting much to change in the immediate future however, these challenges will eventually be resolved and I fully expect a return to publishing regular Posts.

In the meantime ……….. Nigel?

Nigel is the most loving dog that I have known, and we formally adopted him a few weeks ago. The best way we describe him to anybody who asks, is that he is like a big cuddly teddy bear … and he generates his own heat! As much as we love to cuddle up to him, he is just as likely to cuddle up to us. Is he perfect? Of course not but then … are any of us? Given that he was born with the intent to become a Guide Dog, but had some difficulties with the necessary training program, it was eventually determined that he needed a “career change” …. hence becoming available for adoption.

Nigel has been with us for around 6 weeks now and, apart from ensuring that his future is with us, he is making progress controlling some of his idiosyncrasies (I prefer to just call them the results of a poodle brain).

Pic below was taken a little over a week ago and, while we are discouraging him from reaching up to lick faces, “poodle brain” still rules at times!

Our Education Begins!

Two aspects of Nigel have become immediately apparent.

1. He loves physical contact. His preference seems to be caressing under his chin, but this is closely followed by the top of his head; any neck area, shoulders and along his spine. The only area which he does not invite is his tummy area. He has no problem with a tummy rub, but does not roll over and invite such.

He also gives as readily as he receives. He has met a few people for the first time (who were clearly dog lovers), and had no reservations about reaching up to lick their faces! In our case, he so readily also licks hands and pretty much anything else within reach of his gentle tongue.

2. When we are sitting down and he wants to chill out, it is invariably on the floor at our feet. There does appear to be a strategy here in that he will place his head on (or up against) one of our feet. Any slight movement on our part triggers an alert on his part.

This could be simply him making sure that wherever we go, he has the chance to decide what he wants to do, but I rather suspect that this is trained into him. It would seem very important that a guide dog be always in contact with its owner and, while we know that Nigel was deemed to need a “Career Change”, I have to wonder whether that constant contact was in fact trained into him. Regardless, it is a positive boon because we always know where he is. (Memories of the opposite personality …. “Have you seen Ray lately? Did you leave any food on the counter in the kitchen?”).

“You think these front legs are long? You should see my back ones!”

The Learning Curve!

I see no reason to assume that dogs are any less of a learning curve than people. Each one of us humans is, after all,  a unique product of our upbringing and life experiences. It would seem totally logical that dogs are also unique, each also being the result of a myriad of influences.

In the very short time that Nigel has lived with us, we are inevitably making comparisons with Ray. This is probably a very natural thing to do but, apart from satisfying a curiosity factor, it serves little purpose as the two dogs had nothing in common except having an opportunity to share our home with us.

Nigel is physically a larger dog than Ray, but an overall “lighter” body structure. We knew he weighed around 20lbs less than Ray, but only just realized how he can use his longer back legs when necessary. This evening he was sleeping on his side on our living room carpet when he decided to stretch out. Just looking at him, I guessed that from the tip of his nose to his back claws he would have measured about 5ft.  Earlier I caught him standing on his back legs and looking out of our back door window. It was impressive! We also caught him reaching up to “kiss” Carol on her face. His front paws were placed on her shoulders with minimal effort. Of course we had to discourage that, but it was no less impressive and gives us some thoughts to ponder, such as “What else can he do which we should perhaps be prepared for?”

Nigel is very happy charging around the garden catching a toy and tossing it up in the air. Ray was not much of a game player, but would prefer to chill somewhere where he could supervise whatever we were doing in the garden. We have a quite busy garden but Nigel takes it all in his stride  (literally). I was in awe as I witnessed him charging across our patio, and then taking a flying leap over some plants in order to land on the grass area. He had his front and back legs stretched out to maximum, and I have to guess that he cleared around 8 to 10ft of patio, plant pots and shrubbery.

Life is certainly going to get more interesting around here.

So who is Nigel?

Nigel was born just over two years ago, and was taken into a training programme offered by our local Dog Guides training facility.  Unfortunately, while he apparently did respond quite well to the training, he did not meet the necessary minimum performance expectations of a future service dog. He was therefore deemed to be a “Career Change” dog and was posted on their website as available for adoption.

We met with the Dog Guides representative this afternoon, during which time his shortcomings were discussed, and it was ultimately agreed that we could foster him for a month. At the end of that time, we could either return him …. or proceed with a formal adoption of him.

He has only been here a very short time but his personality is starting to show already and, unless he really surprises us in a negative way, I think it is pretty safe to assume that he will be living with us for many years to come!

Damn Dog?

A number of things come to mind when I think of Ray but one, that would likely not be understood by anybody who has not had a relationship with a dog, is that they can draw attention to our own shortcomings. Whether we choose to acknowledge such flaws is another matter, but at least we have the option to reflect and perhaps adjust our actions next time.

I have seen so many dog owners reprimand their dog for being nothing more than a dog! When I looked at the circumstances, it was so often the dog owner that was at fault, but sadly it was the dog that paid the price. This can easily happen if the dog is suddenly attracted to something, at the same time that the owner is distracted. We had occasions where we were distracted in conversation just as Ray picked up the scent of something disgusting but perhaps edible very close by! There are many potential circumstances where the dog is just being himself/herself, but creates a problem because the owners are not being as thoughtful and/or attentive as perhaps they should.

I wonder how many of you can, upon reflection, see a set of circumstances which resulted in your dog being reprimanded (and possibly punished), but where your own “due diligence” (lack of) was the root cause of the issue?

One such experience of mine is covered in the Post below (originally posted Nov. 8, 2014):

“Pumpkin Pie & Whipping Cream.”

Ray knows how to behave around food. When visiting the Lululemon store, he will automatically sit close to the biscuit bowl and wait for me to give him some pieces of biscuit.

While he will always get excited when he knows that his morning or evening meal is imminent, he will respond to “Wait” until he hears “Take it”. Of course he needs to be reminded, especially after his food bowl is put on the floor, but he is generally very good. I find this particularly impressive because of his background as a stray, where food would most certainly be a “take it now” commodity, because who knows when the next snack would be found? The effort required for Ray to exercise this degree of self-control is very evident as he sways slightly and dips his head towards his food bowl while he is waiting for those two magic words “Take it!”. Once he hears them, all his “coiled springs” release and he dives in to devour another meal.

Even if we are eating while sitting on our sofa, Ray will initially hover around but will soon wander over to one of his beds, curl up and watch us carefully. If we feel so inclined to share a tidbit with him, we will walk over to him and offer it. The idea is to stop him from being a nuisance at meal times, and for him to realize that good things can come his way if he is on his bed. Ray is not perfect, but then neither am I, so I give him some latitude; some flexibility, to just be himself.

Homemade pumpkin pie topped with whipping cream is a particular love of mine and on this day it was dessert! I went into the kitchen and cut myself a good sized piece; topped it off with a generous portion of whipping cream, and also cut Carol a similar sized piece but with no cream (her choice) and brought both plates into our living room. Ray got off his bed and followed me over to the sofa whereupon he just sat and watched me give Carol her plate, and watched me sit down and get myself organized so I could enjoy this wonderful dessert. It probably does not need to be mentioned but, just to clarify the circumstances, we already knew that Ray loved pumpkin pie and would almost kill for whipping cream!

As I was getting comfortable so that I could give my dessert the undivided attention it so deserved, I decided to loosen the laces in my shoes. After that, the setting would have been as perfect as it could possibly get. Unfortunately, that setting was never to be. As I bent over to reach my shoes, holding my pumpkin pie topped with whipping cream away from Ray, I saw him leap towards it. I quickly moved my arm out of his reach however, the motion of the plate triggered movement from the pie which gracefully took off and landed rather ungracefully on the mat near our front door. My intuitive reaction was to follow its flight and I clearly remember the pie landing relatively unscathed and the whipping cream being splattered over the pie’s landing spot. I also remember seeing a large brown furry head seemingly vacuum up the pie which disappeared so fast that by the time I got to the “Leave it” command, there was nothing but traces of whipping cream on the mat!

My immediate reaction was annoyance (and I clearly showed it) because Ray knows better than that however, after more thought, I had to conclude that it was me who was at fault. It is so easy to blame “the dog” when anything goes wrong and once I have allocated blame, I no longer have to deal with it and certainly don’t need to accept any responsibility for it. It has been my experience with Ray that many of his misdemeanours are in fact my fault and that not only should I not be annoyed with him, but I should accept full responsibility and make changes to avoid a repeat performance.

In this particular situation, I knew that Ray loved my imminent dessert, and I also knew that he would go to his bed and lay down if told to do so. Why therefore would I allow him close to the sofa when I am clearly going to eat something that he particularly likes? Why did I not stand up and put my plate somewhere out of his reach before adjusting my shoe laces? Why did I not tell him to go to his bed? The answers are simply that I did not think, which then poses the question – why does an incident become Ray’s fault simply because I was not thinking? While he still should not have hijacked my dessert, it becomes quite an understandable reaction given the circumstances and, more importantly, one which could have been avoided given more thought on my part. 

Sorry Ray. I should not have been upset with you. I really, really, really, hope that you enjoyed my homemade pumpkin pie topped with whipping cream!

The Price of Freedom.

Ray left us on January 18 and here we are, 7 weeks later, adjusting to our life without him. A suncatcher directs the colours of the rainbow onto my bed cover on a regular basis to remind me of my dear friend… as if I could ever forget him!

Carol and I go out for daily walks and, inevitably, we follow routes that we used to use for Ray’s walks. We can now walk closer to the Canada Geese, as well as a variety of other birds, because we don’t have Ray to make them nervous. We can also now both go into a coffee shop and order a couple of lattes. It was not that long ago that one of us would have to stay outside with our furry friend!

Our “dates” for the past 10 years were dependant on the one other person Ray was comfortable with being available to dog-sit for us. The alternative was that Ray had to come with us, which ruled out all the local restaurants. We do however have one local pub which allowed Ray on their outdoor patio. Now we can go wherever, and whenever, we feel like it. Sadly COVID and various variants have made us less than enthusiastic about being in an indoor environment where nobody is wearing a mask!

When one of us is out shopping or at an appointment, the other can freely go wherever they want without having to consider Ray in the decision making process. In fact we have all the freedom we could possibly ask for, but our beloved Ray is always in the background. He is always in our thoughts, in the context of “If Ray was with us… “.

Our Spring season is just starting to impact our garden, and our grass is just taking on a healthy green colour. Our immediate thought was that it would not be looking that good if Ray had been pounding around on it chasing a squirrel! His paws were very good at throwing clumps of soil and grass into the air as he tried get his almost 80lbs weight to follow a sharp turn that a squirrel, or rabbit, had just made.

Our lives are not the same without Ray, but we do have to acknowledge the choices we now have. We have a lot of freedom to celebrate but, as in life, there are always costs. In fact, in our context, I would suggest that our freedom came at a very high cost.