Monday, March 21, 2005

The Cuteness

I took a ferry ride out to Bainbridge a couple days ago with the Monkey-dog to explore the possibility of a Monkey-buddy. The rain and low clouds made the trip somewhat less scenic than it could have been, but Monkey had a great ride thanks to the tendency of strangers to want to offer her treats at every opportunity. Maybe I should try drooling more and try and get my ears to perk up? I got no treats. I had to get my own dang treats.

Now I'm all mad again.

The place I was visiting is called Furrytale Farms () and has rescued horses and donkeys as well as a whole pack of dogs in various stages of health. Despite the corny name, it was a beautiful place with a gorgeous Craftsman-style house that is arranged so that the dogs have continuous indoor-outdoor access and many communal areas. Monkey got a very vocal welcome from the pack, and got to run around a bit on her own in a little garden by the side of the house before we brought in Cleo. Cleo was a stray, much like the Monk was, and skinny. She's all black with longer fur, and a total sweetheart with all people. When we put the two pups together they immediately started playing with each other and racing around the small garden. Monkey did just fine keeping up with the much-younger Cleo, but soon got distracted again by something that smelled good in the corner of the yard. Cleo didn't like that.

(cue ominous music)

She started barking. A high-pitched flinch-inducing cutting knife of a bark, that didn't stop for almost the entire duration of my stay there (Monkey hid). I learned that she's been doing that more and more lately, and that it kept another family from adopting her. I told the owner of the place (who is wonderful, if a bit lecture-y) that I live directly beneath my housemates and couldn't have a dog that barked all day, and she agreed but also mentioned that training could probably fix that and that Cleo was likely just trying to assert herself with a stronger dog and would stop after a while. She also said that they were getting another Kelpie/Australian Cattle Dog mix in from Oregon next weekend (nicknamed "Cutie pie")(cue "awwwwww!"), and that she sounded like a good fit for me also. Once the dog comes in and she gets to do an evaluation on it, I'm probably going to go back out there and see how that one works out. Cleo is still a possibility, but the barking is a big issue considering my current living arrangements (and my dislike of constant flinching). I don't know what I'd do about it, besides the electroshock collar (yikes) or spraying her with water or some other aversion training. I hate aversion training. I'd just give up and try with another dog, but Cleo's so darn adorable:

And of course I would change her name.
To what, I'm not telling yet...

posted by LadyJay @ 10:42 AM

2 Comments:

At 10:05 AM, Blogger Casual Observer said...

Have you seen this?

http://www.healthypetonline.com/citronella_collar.html

It’s a voice activated bark collar that sprays a fine mist of citronella. It’s non-harmful and it works. My brother bought this for his dog who would wake up the kids from their naps with his urgent barking any time someone came to the door.

The dog doesn’t wear the collar all the time, but when he has it on he does not bark. It is also worthwhile to note that despite nearly 100% effectiveness, the collar hasn’t broken the dog’s spirit. He has learned exactly how sensitive the spray mechanism is, and now voices a muffled woof, loud enough that he can still alert members of his “pack” in the immediate area, but not disturbing to anyone else.

The collar is expensive and the refill cartridges aren’t cheap either, but beyond the initial learning stage, the dog isn’t using up the cartridge because he is no longer barking. In my brother’s case, the collar has been worth every penny he spent.

 
At 3:42 PM, Blogger LadyJay said...

thank you thank you thank you!

Now Cleo looks like an even better prospect, though I have to admit that I'm imagining her using the citronella as a weapon (do you see how it's pointed out from her neck?). All she would have to do is bark and look up, and she's got a weird-smell gun.

 

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