Jake loves going to the park. Ok, Jake loves going anywhere but he really loves the park. We have a great park by our neighborhood with a big soccer field, a playground and a track. Lots of people walk their dogs there. Usually the other people are walking for exercise and they're just being nice and taking the dog with them. I just walk there to walk Jake. I have a treadmill under the AC and a TV mounted in front of it for my exercise. But, with Jake, a walk in the park is never just a walk in the park.
When I first started this blog, I introduced Jake as a Schneagle. A Schneagle is a schnauzer/beagle mix. Back in the old days (ie, up to about 5 years ago) Jake would have been known as a mutt. Now he's a "designer breed". Really. Just Google "schneagle" and you'll see. When I was reading all the puppy training books when we first got Jake, one of the books actually said not to call your dog a "mutt" in his presence. According to the author, the word "mutt" has a certain negative connotation and dogs will pick up on that. I would love to tell that author that I have a dog that barks at his own shadow so I really don't think he's bright enough to pick up on the negative connotation of a word. But desiring to be politically correct, I refer to Jake as a schneagle. But I digress. I really think Jake is more beagle than schnauzer. He loves to stick his big nose to the ground and follow it. Jeff or I take him to the park just about every morning and every evening. Once we get close to the park, his nose starts working. When we get to the park, his nose goes into overdrive. Sometimes, instead of just making him walk around the track, I give him a loose leash and follow him. I'm sure it looks funny to anyone watching us. A woman following a dog making a crazy, increasingly circular path that always, eventually, leads to a pile of dog (or deer, rabbit, possum, raccoon) poop. After a good sniffing, we can continue our walk.
The other thing Jake likes to do in the evening is play with his friend Trixie. Trixie is another mutt, uh, designer dog, that loves to run. Some evenings I take Jake there, let him loose in their backyard and then visit while he and Trixie run until he's about to collapse. Anyway, when I take Jake to the park, sometimes he decides he would rather play with Trixie than sniff around the park that evening. He communicates this the same way each time. He just stops walking. I'll be walking along, daydreaming, and suddenly there's a tug on the leash from behind me. I turn around and Jake is standing there staring at me. He always looks for a second and, I promise I'm not making this up, he tilts his head a bit in that cute way that says "pretty please, may I go see my friend Trixie?" then he turns his head and looks back to the neighborhood. If I say, "come on", he just pulls back on the leash more. (really, I'm not making this up!) Usually, I give in and let him lead the way. He always goes straight to Trixie's house. I've tried taking a picture of him when he flashes "the look" just to show everyone that I'm not crazy, but I never seem to get it. (Side note: As I sit here writing about how cute Jake is and how smart he is, a very unhappy Jeff just walked in and showed me his reading glasses that had been chewed on by the cute, smart dog. Yikes! Run, Jake!)
So, on the days that Jake decides he does want to walk in the park, we have to go see the bunny. We have bunnies that live around the park and I'm pretty sure they live there just to torment dogs with big noses. When we get to the back area by the trees, I tell Jake to "look for the bunny". There is one huge rabbit in particular that I've named Bruiser. Judging from the size of Bruiser, he must eat small dogs for breakfast....after toying with them a bit. So Bruiser comes out in the evenings and waits for us. Yes, I'm sure he's waiting just for us. Jake sees him, runs a little ways, stops, does kind of a weird crouching position and then runs full blast at Bruiser...dragging me behind him. Bruiser waits until Jake gets within a few feet before he easily bounces off into the woods leaving Jake very frustrated. We then have to spend the next 5 minutes sniffing the entire area and, once again, tracking down some rabbit poop. I'm sure if Jake could, as we walk away he would turn around, shake his fist and say "I'll get you tomorrow!" It's the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote all over again.
But the bunny hunt has changed this past week. Bruiser and his buddies are at the back of the park close to a huge utility pole with big lights on top for evening soccer games. There's nothing special about the lights, they're just big silvery lights. The other day Jake and I were walking and for some reason he looked up at the light. It totally freaked him out! He growled, he barked and then he ran behind me and hid. Thanks, Jake. No birds up there, no squirrels, Bruiser wasn't up there taunting him, just lights. It was daylight, they weren't even on! I kept pulling on him to get past the pole but he wasn't going to walk past those lights. He kept trying to run the other way so I just turned around and left with him. Jeff has walked him the past couple of mornings and he said he doesn't want go to the pole. He said he keeps trying to walk by them because Jake needs to face his fears. I asked him if Jake was smart enough to understand the concept of facing his fears and Jeff said, "No, but I just want to walk around the park and get exercise". (See the first paragraph. And yes, Jeff has access to our air conditioned treadmill but chooses to walk the park with the others. I just don't get it.)
Jake also likes to go to the Dog Park, which I'm pretty sure is his version of heaven. But that's a story for another time.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Dog Show
I have always loved going to the Houston Dog Show. It has a much longer name than that but, it's just the Houston Dog Show. Jeff and I started going to it back when we were dating and back when it was at the Astrodome. Jeff really doesn't care too much about dog shows, but he's always been a good sport about going with me. Going to the show this year felt different. Now that I'm a dog owner I felt like I was one of "them". Of course, I was deluding myself because "them" have very expensive, well trained, well groomed dogs and I have a $50 marginally trained, scruffy mutt. But the dog show is a celebration of those regal canines, those dogs that are true to their breeds. Ok, ok, I know. The dog show is fun but it just seems a little like those little girl beauty pageants. Just a bit over the top. I can't go to the dog show without thinking of the movie "Best in Show". But I still like it. I would really like it if I could take Jake to a show and let him see what these well mannered dogs are capable of. But that would probably destroy his self esteem. Or mine.
Every year I go to the Dog Show, I always say I'm going to take Abigail and her friends one day and go by myself one day. My idea of a perfect Dog Show itinerary would be to get to the show, browse the breed judging and see which breed I want to check out. Since flyball and the agility trials run continuously, I would see those in between. They have something called canine musical freestyle which is dogs dancing with their owners. Sounds silly but I've seen clips of it and I've always wanted to see it there. I can't dance at all so I think dancing with a dog would be very difficult. Anyway, they had 2 dancing dog shows scheduled and I wanted to see one of those. Then, I would go by the "Meet the Breed" area and see which dogs are there. Then go through all the vendors and get free samples and head on out. Yes, that's the way I would do it....if I had been by myself.
This year Jeff and I took Abigail and 2 friends. When we got there, immediately the girls wanted to walk through and see what the vendors had to offer. They all had money in their pockets and it was burning a hole. After walking up and down every aisle and getting all the free stuff we could, the girls decided on their purchases. Abigail's friends both bought something for their dogs. Makes sense. We were at a dog show, get something for the dog. Abigail bought an ankle bracelet. For herself. It didn't even have a dog charm on it. I think the charm said something like "dream" on it. Anyway, we got that out of the way. Jeff took the bags out to the car for us. Next, I thought it would be great to go watch the Jr. Showmanship competition. What could be better than kids showing off their dogs in the ring? The dogs don't even have to be pedigree dogs! Ok, kids, we're going to watch Jr. Showmanship. We went to the ring and sat. They were judging toy poodles (probably one of my least favorite breeds) but I thought they were just a little behind and would finish quickly. We waited 40 minutes....still judging toy poodles. The kids were saying they were hungry and wanting lunch for 35 of those minutes. We finally gave up and went for lunch, spending an exorbitant amount of money for some little pizzas and sodas. After lunch was over, so was the dancing dog show. Ok, well, maybe next year. We decided to go watch some flyball. We watched that for awhile and the girls loved it. Then we went over to the agility trials. We watched 2 dogs go through the course and then everyone walked away. I guess they were done. We heard the music at another arena and decided to get some seats and see what was going on. It was Frisbee dogs. That's always fun. We got through the people, got some seats and watched one guy and his cute Border Collie perform before the announcer thanked everyone for coming. I hadn't even settled back in my seat. At this point, the girls were tired, I was hungry (Jeff and I had split one of those little pizzas) and Jeff was still being patient. I asked the girls if they were ready to go and they were.
As I mentioned earlier, we got some free stuff at the show so I was anxious to try it out on Jake. The market area at the dog show is interesting. They have booths for dog food, accessories and treats, jewelry, teeth whitening (people, not dogs) and the ShamWow. Some of the people at the booths try to talk to you about their products, while others know you're just there for the sample so they're not going to waste your time or their breath. They just hand out the freebie and let the product speak for itself. Those are my favorite booths. One booth's biggest selling point was that their food wasn't made in China. I suppose that would have been a big deal several months ago but I really wondered if that was the best selling point they could come up with. Several places offer all natural dog food now. I think if I wanted to feed Jake all natural dog food, I would just make it myself. Anyway, I came home and tried giving Jake and Freddie (my dad's doxie that we were dog sitting that weekend) some of the samples we received. One of the all natural ones said it was made out of whitefish and sweet potatoes. That didn't even sound good to me. Jake wouldn't touch it. He likes sweet potatoes but he didn't like this version of it. Jake and Freddie's favorite one was from Natural Balance. I had never heard of it before but they ate it up. Natural Balance was "developed" by that world renown dog expert.....Dick Van Patten. Huh? Not Cesar Milan or Victoria Stilwell. Dick Van Patten. He's the guy from "Eight is Enough". I think they had a dog on that show. He and his son Tim came up with this food. They must know what they're doing cause Jake loved it. I was fortunate to snag 2 bags of their food at the show and each time I put it in the bowl, Jake didn't just eat it, he devoured it. The bigger news is that so did Freddie. Freddie is the pickiest eater I have ever known, of people or animals (and I work with 3 year old preschoolers....I know picky eaters). He will only eat if you hand feed him or if it's in the cup holder/dog dish in my dad's pickup. But he ate this food. I think Jake could do a commercial for them. Then maybe next year he would be invited to the Houston Dog Show as a spokesdog. That would be one way he could get in there.
Every year I go to the Dog Show, I always say I'm going to take Abigail and her friends one day and go by myself one day. My idea of a perfect Dog Show itinerary would be to get to the show, browse the breed judging and see which breed I want to check out. Since flyball and the agility trials run continuously, I would see those in between. They have something called canine musical freestyle which is dogs dancing with their owners. Sounds silly but I've seen clips of it and I've always wanted to see it there. I can't dance at all so I think dancing with a dog would be very difficult. Anyway, they had 2 dancing dog shows scheduled and I wanted to see one of those. Then, I would go by the "Meet the Breed" area and see which dogs are there. Then go through all the vendors and get free samples and head on out. Yes, that's the way I would do it....if I had been by myself.
This year Jeff and I took Abigail and 2 friends. When we got there, immediately the girls wanted to walk through and see what the vendors had to offer. They all had money in their pockets and it was burning a hole. After walking up and down every aisle and getting all the free stuff we could, the girls decided on their purchases. Abigail's friends both bought something for their dogs. Makes sense. We were at a dog show, get something for the dog. Abigail bought an ankle bracelet. For herself. It didn't even have a dog charm on it. I think the charm said something like "dream" on it. Anyway, we got that out of the way. Jeff took the bags out to the car for us. Next, I thought it would be great to go watch the Jr. Showmanship competition. What could be better than kids showing off their dogs in the ring? The dogs don't even have to be pedigree dogs! Ok, kids, we're going to watch Jr. Showmanship. We went to the ring and sat. They were judging toy poodles (probably one of my least favorite breeds) but I thought they were just a little behind and would finish quickly. We waited 40 minutes....still judging toy poodles. The kids were saying they were hungry and wanting lunch for 35 of those minutes. We finally gave up and went for lunch, spending an exorbitant amount of money for some little pizzas and sodas. After lunch was over, so was the dancing dog show. Ok, well, maybe next year. We decided to go watch some flyball. We watched that for awhile and the girls loved it. Then we went over to the agility trials. We watched 2 dogs go through the course and then everyone walked away. I guess they were done. We heard the music at another arena and decided to get some seats and see what was going on. It was Frisbee dogs. That's always fun. We got through the people, got some seats and watched one guy and his cute Border Collie perform before the announcer thanked everyone for coming. I hadn't even settled back in my seat. At this point, the girls were tired, I was hungry (Jeff and I had split one of those little pizzas) and Jeff was still being patient. I asked the girls if they were ready to go and they were.
As I mentioned earlier, we got some free stuff at the show so I was anxious to try it out on Jake. The market area at the dog show is interesting. They have booths for dog food, accessories and treats, jewelry, teeth whitening (people, not dogs) and the ShamWow. Some of the people at the booths try to talk to you about their products, while others know you're just there for the sample so they're not going to waste your time or their breath. They just hand out the freebie and let the product speak for itself. Those are my favorite booths. One booth's biggest selling point was that their food wasn't made in China. I suppose that would have been a big deal several months ago but I really wondered if that was the best selling point they could come up with. Several places offer all natural dog food now. I think if I wanted to feed Jake all natural dog food, I would just make it myself. Anyway, I came home and tried giving Jake and Freddie (my dad's doxie that we were dog sitting that weekend) some of the samples we received. One of the all natural ones said it was made out of whitefish and sweet potatoes. That didn't even sound good to me. Jake wouldn't touch it. He likes sweet potatoes but he didn't like this version of it. Jake and Freddie's favorite one was from Natural Balance. I had never heard of it before but they ate it up. Natural Balance was "developed" by that world renown dog expert.....Dick Van Patten. Huh? Not Cesar Milan or Victoria Stilwell. Dick Van Patten. He's the guy from "Eight is Enough". I think they had a dog on that show. He and his son Tim came up with this food. They must know what they're doing cause Jake loved it. I was fortunate to snag 2 bags of their food at the show and each time I put it in the bowl, Jake didn't just eat it, he devoured it. The bigger news is that so did Freddie. Freddie is the pickiest eater I have ever known, of people or animals (and I work with 3 year old preschoolers....I know picky eaters). He will only eat if you hand feed him or if it's in the cup holder/dog dish in my dad's pickup. But he ate this food. I think Jake could do a commercial for them. Then maybe next year he would be invited to the Houston Dog Show as a spokesdog. That would be one way he could get in there.
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