Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Oh, puppies....

I'm in constant flux trying to decide if puppies are adorable and cuddly or a huge pain in the ass.  I'm guessing that's why God made puppies into the cutest thing on earth, because they are so damned annoying no one in their right mind would want them otherwise.



Generally I'm exaggerating, but not always.  Like when we're walking and he decides instead of walking we have to play tug with the leash, and we have a heated 5 minute discussion in the middle of the road about letting go of the leash and then all the neighbors think I'm crazy.  Any recommendations on breaking a puppy of this?  I'll take anything!

We also have long discussions about where we're going to hang out.  Like I say "Hey, we're going to sit on the couch upstairs and you're going to stay up here with me."  And then Rooney says "whine, I want to go downstairs and harass Quinn and see if Dad will give me treats."  And I say "No, because when you're out of my sight you either pee or chew on the carpet." And then he says "WHINE."



Other than these two discussions, we usually see eye to eye.  Today he met his first cat at the pet store, I thought was funny but Rooney was just distraught.  The cat was very brash and followed us all around, keeping right out of reach.  Eventually Roo got so frustrated he just started barking, the cat seemed very pleased with itself.





We're also working on training.  I want one of those dogs that always listens to you, even when there's other fun dogs around or a giant piece of meat or something.  Well, mainly I just want to be able to take him off leash (in safe areas, of course!) and have him always come back when I call him.  We're nowhere close to that, but I've often wondered about dogs that are trained that well.  Is it the training or the disposition of the dog/the breed?  For example, I see border collies who are awesomely trained, and a lot of retrievers will always come when called, and obviously they have been very well trained, but would another type of dog with the same training still do that?  I had a Dalmatian growing up, and even though we didn't spend that much time training her I can't imagine her EVER listening to us that well.  She understood the commands we told her, but she absolutely did not care whether or not she pleased us.  Occasional she would work for food, but to please her masters?  Never.  (On a side note, she was an awesome dog, even if she didn't listen to us).  Do you know any dogs who are that well trained?  Do you have a dog like that?  How do you get a dog like that?!

Whippet mix....  maybe

So that was a lot on dogs.  I'm sorry if this turns into a dog blog.  Well, only a little sorry, I like dogs....


1 comment:

  1. Dog blog? I'll love it even more. Also I am loving "Roo" as the nickname. Also, while I am no professional, Liza, with much border collie only comes when she wants to in spite of how much dog whisperer I watch. I'm going to guess that if he's smart enough to let you know where he'd like to spend his time, he's smart enough to understand when you want him to come. Also if he had any Scottish terrier in him (aunt of sophanne's dog) he would hear your request and do the opposite so maybe be glad he's not that.

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