In Memorium: Trinity, Faithful Guardian

Trinity at the vet

Two weeks ago she was fine. Last week her breathing started to suggest a constricted airway. Three days ago she started to become lethargic. Two nights ago I realized that all of her lymph nodes were dramatically enlarged. Took her to the vet yesterday, and the diagnosis was lymphatic cancer. X-rays showed significant involvement in the lungs as well. Last night, she refused to eat and wanted nothing more than to lie down quietly. Overnight she was unable to maintain control of bodily functions.

My initial thought was to wait for the feedback from the radiologist and the cytology report. Lymphatic cancer can often be held at bay for a while. At my request, my vet put her on an immunosuppressant dose of Prednisone while we waited for the reports. It's a very fast-acting drug (relatively speaking). By this morning, after one dose, she ate, though not with her usual enthusiasm (Dyson has nothing on this girl). But prednisone creates a deceptive appearance of recovery; what's actually happening is that the immune system is suppressed leaving the cancer to proceed. And even on the prednisone she continued to be lethargic and unenthusiastic about her usual interests, including the cat. Given the involvement of the lungs and the sheer size of the lymph nodes, I didn't feel that the prognosis was good. Perhaps more importantly, Trinity made it clear that she could not comprehend why her body would not work as expected, that she was confused, and afraid, and wanted to be at peace.

This afternoon, after a long conversation with my son Alex (who is holding her in the photo), we took her to the vet to say goodbye.

R.I.P. Trinity to cancer, age six. Willful friend. Faithful guardian. Majestic, gentle companion.

Negotiating for Sheep

The power of Faith. Maybe there is a doG.

In the last two weeks, three different people have met Faith, and decided within minutes that they wanted to take her home. I swear that dog needs an OKCupid page. I mean, who can resist this sort of thing (right).

As dog divas go, Faith is pretty cool. She has a remarkable ability to get humans eating out of her paws. Fur and all. And she is perfectly willing to inform you that no, you really aren't done giving her scritchles.

Since the world is all about her, Faith decided that a bidding war is in order. She told one suitor - well, she signed, and I translated; you all know how this works - that if the suitor would get her a sheep, Faith would happily move in with her. The suitor's apartment, it should be noted, is around 300 square feet, so I thought this was pretty hardcore of Faith. I helpfully offered her (the suitor) some help.

Since I was traveling down to California as this came up, I offered to bring back a sheep. You know: one of those famous California surfing sheep. There are a bunch grazing over at Stanford; given the local mountain lion population it's unlikely anyone would miss one. "Please, don't", she said. Yeesh. I mean, it's not like it's that hard to keep a sheep in a small apartment, right? When I got to the airport in San Francisco on the way back, I texted her claiming that I had forgotten the sheep at the Stanford barn.  "Thank God", she said. Somewhere in the process, as I was having fun shearing this story for all it was worth, somebody pointed out that if I tried to bring a sheep back I might get stuck at TSA. Frankly, I thought it more likely that the sheep would get stuck by TSA, but let's not go there.

Then there was the question of what to name the sheep. And of course, there's really only one name for a sheep that is going to be the focus of the kind of overwhelming publicity that patterpatter is likely to bring her. But you're going to have to wait for it. "Oh no," I can just hear you saying, "this is really going to hurt."

There was also a discussion about sheep needing grass to graze on. I said that California produces lots of grass and I could bring some of that back too. Garberville isn't that far north of San Francisco, and I had some time to kill, so why not? Strangely enough, Faith's suitor (who works in a respectable professional field) wasn't interested in California grass. I guess the folks in Garberville need a better advertising slogan or something.

It's frustrating when people won't take your carefully thought out, wildly inappropriate gifts, isn't it? And for pesky practical reasons, too. When this happens, there's really only one thing to do: get creative.

And it turns out that biologists have been working for years to come up with a kind of sheep that is specifically engineered for small apartments and won't eat your carpets.

Folks, meet Dolly.

Don't tell Faith, though. A sheep in a small apartment is doable. But a Border Collie?

Holiday House Guest

Trinity likes to ride shotgun.

This is Trinity, our house guest for the holidays. She seemed very disappointed to learn that she is not a Border Collie. She thought it was some sort of club you could join to make play dates. Kind of a dog version of those dating services for two-foots, perhaps. Faith says she can be an honorary Border Collie this week if she behaves. Faith has also graciously loaned her the title of "Miss Underfoot" for the week.

Trinity's current people are going through a family emergency, so Trinity and her sister Roxy (below, not staying with us) are looking for a new home. Trinity will be staying with us through the holidays. Yes, I do have a nine year old child and I'm not a complete idiot, but it's still possible that her people will manage to find a pair placement for her and he sister. Roxy is a little more assertive than Trinity. Nothing out of line for the breed, but after what happened to Tater earlier in the year I wasn't willing to take a chance hosting her for the holidays.

Faith and Tater have decided they like Trinity, though there have been some language barrier issues. Trinity only speaks German, and Faith and Tater only speak English and Faith's special sign language. Faith has been watching out-takes of Sergeant Schultz to try to pick up the language, but she doesn't have much of an ear for accents, and Trinity isn't buying it. Trinity likes to play, and has decided she wants to play with Faith, who couldn't care less and (as we all know) can be totally deaf to things that don't interest her. And for that matter, things that do. Thankfully she has Tater to act as her hearing ear dog.

Trinity's attempts to play with Faith have escalated from an initial, happy, "Let's play", to bowing and barking, to "What's wrong with you, you idiot Border Collie? Play, dammit!". Faith, true to her breed, is very much of the "get a job, slacker" school, and is responding by nipping Trinity mildly to tell her to behave when Trinity is too insistent. Trinity gets this "I really don't get it" look that would be hilarious if Faith's response weren't so obviously turning her poor puppy brain into confused mush. Eventually it will occur to Trinity to try playing with Tater. She may have more success there. And, you know, I may break down and find a tennis ball at some point. She's really a very good girl, and I'd like her to have a good time while she's here.

Food, glorious food!

Trinity likes all of the usual things that Rottweilers like to do. Like lay on the bed (above). Note that the allegedly lazy Rottweiler is paying close attention, while the jaded Border Collies know that there's no upside for them in mere photos. Especially when it's just me taking the pics and not Food Lady.

Trinity also likes to eat. Though since she arrived with a pretty unhappy tummy I kept her off food and served her metronidazole for the first 24 hours to let her guts straighten themselves out. This is her starting to make up for lost meals. Obviously she will need a bigger bowl if she is here for any length of time. Eating is something Rottweilers are really good at. In vast quantities. It's part of what makes them so solid.

What's that Faith?  No, Faith, "solid", not "stolid". No, Faith, Rottweilers are not useless, no matter what Food Lady may have told you. Food Lady just suffers from agility obsession. Well, that and owning Dexter "real men don't do weave poles" Morgan. I bet Trinity could do that first weave pole (Pbbbt! ☺), though we'd have to see about the rest of them. Think of it this way, Faith: when you're done herding all of the sheep, dogs, small children, and household trinkets together, who's going to hold their leashes for you? Do you want to pull the cart to the market in Rottweil? That's a pretty heavy cart.

What? Oh. You want to drive the cart? So Trinity can pull it and that's OK with you? Oh, good. Can we get back to the story now? Yes, I promise the next story will be all about you, Faith, because, you know, it's really all about you. See? There. Problem solved.

What's that, Tater? You want to know why Snickers the cat used to call Trevor and Morgan the "big stoopid" and the "really big stoopid"? Well he is a cat, you know, and Morgan did keep trying to make friends with him, and you know how cats don't like to associate with "that sort". Can we get back to things Trinity likes now?

So finally, we get to the thing that Rottweilers like more than anything else, which is eating - err, I mean snuggling - children. As you can see, Faith is keeping an eye on things to make sure that Trinity doesn't go too far and exceed her daily protein requirement.

Actually, this part has been really good. Alex is a hugger, and 35 lb Faith tends to feel embraced and enveloped when 84 lb Alex attempts to give her a bear hug. Hang on...

No, Faith, I don't know why it's called a bear hug. No, I wouldn't hug a bear either. Well, because I'm more of a mountain lion hugger kind of guy. But only really little mountain lions. Yes, Faith, I'll always be glad to hug you, but could you please go find a toothbrush? Yes, Tater, I'll hug you too.

Trinity is pretty stolid. Err, I mean solid (dammit, Fatih, now you have me doing it), so she actually appreciates the hugs that make Faith kind of uncomfortable. She seems to have decided that the Border Collies will settle down eventually (ha!) and she should just wait them out while she plays with Alex and me.

Welcome, Trinity.

For those who may be interested in Trinity's half-sister Roxy (left), drop me your email address and I'll put you in touch with the owners. They are trying to place Roxy and Trinity as a pair if possible.

Bagel Ambassadors

Hmm. Well, it's been an embarassingly long time since my last post. As you can see here, the dynamic duo were recently seen scouting the street for other dogs or small children to play with. They both love being ambassadors to little kids. Faith, who is nothing if not full of energy and "go" (because, you know, it's really all about her), will happily stand perfectly still for a hesitant child. Tater nearly so, but he doesn't move abruptly to begin with.

The kids love it. There's invariably a conversation about what Border Collies do, how strange (or weird, or gross - it's kids) it is that they both have different colored eyes, and are they related? How Faith is soft like a bunny and Tater's coat is rougher. Both of them will very happily sit still and lap up the attention. For the kids, I think they present a bunch of puzzles and questions that catch their attention.

I often spend time talking about breeds for kids, and how BCs and puppies probably aren't good first-time choices. For little kids, I tend to like a larger, adult (or at least post-adolescent) dog, and preferably not a purebred. Older because they are calmer. Larger because it seems to me that the larger breeds tend to be less excitable once they mature (perhaps because it takes too much energy). Mixed-breed because that seems to moderate the extremes. As opposed to, say, a Husky, who will basically be an adolescent until the day it keels over from old age, knows only two speeds (full bore and stop-and-quiver-energetically), and actually enjoys running around the house at top speed doing four paw drifts around corners. To paraphrase Enzo Ferrari: they build Huskies to go, not to stop. And if you're toddler's in the path of the Husky, well...

So we did the ambassador thing again this morning at Blazing Bagels. Faith expressed disappointment that this morning's toddler didn't have cream cheese on his face. Tater just enjoyed the moment.

Tater has become well settled in. He wants a lot of attention, but is characteristically reluctant to ask for it. Whenever he does, Faith intervenes because, well, it's all about her. She's committed to her beauty rest, as you can see here. The purple thing in the background is a stuffed Parakeet. Neither dog could care less about stuffies. Typical BCs. I was trying to explain to someone yesterday about how typical BCs are so work-driven that they don't deign to notice toys. It seems to be a hard concept for most dog people to grasp. I suppose you have to see it in action before you really believe it.

Several new people have moved in around here in the last year, and Tater has made a new friend (left) - sorry about the camera phone's excuse for focus. That's Solomon, who is eight months old and already 75 lbs. But then, he's a Great Pyr, so I suppose that's to be expected. When we first met him, he was six weeks old and around 10 lbs. That's an awful lot of dog food! Solomon is great fun.

Meanwhile, we have another new neighbor with a very friendly and extremely submissive golden lab bitch who really doesn't like Tater. Whenever she sees him her hackles go up and she starts growling at him. And no casual growl either. Tater, given his history with Trevor, doesn't take well to this. It's kind of puzzling, because I don't remember seeing any sort of cause for it, and her owner says this is a first for her. The lab gets along with me fine, but doesn't seem to care much for Faith either. Hard to know what's going on there.

One of the casualties of the whole incident with Tater and Trevor was that I didn't much want to write for a while. I'm hopeful that I'm over that, and I look forward to telling more stories about the dynamic duo. In any case, welcome back to those of you who have stuck with this, and hopefully we'll have more tails to come.

Unmeasured Responses

Losing a dog fight

I've been sitting on this post since September, not quite sure how to say what needs to be said here. In fact, it's been keeping me away from the blog.

On Thursday (9/25/2012), Trevor decided that he was tired of Tater getting attention. He decided he would screw with Tater by stealing his (empty) dog bowl. Tater didn't back down. What started as a testing incident escalated into a fight where Trevor did his best to kill Tater, and failed only by the grace of doG. Both of Tater's ears were mauled. The right one needed reconstruction. Tater was lucky not to lose his right eye, and there are injuries close to Tater's jugular. Trevor was definitely playing for keeps here.

I screwed up. There were signs of escalation that I didn't process correctly. The consequences of my blindness fell on Tater.

Two weeks later, matters got worse. After some fairly serious surgery Tater was starting to heal, and Trevor went after him again. The picture above is pretty bad. The second time was much worse. The question, then, is "what do you do?"

Trevor had a history of mishandling before he came to us, and had possessiveness issues as a result. For a long time that was the extent of it, but over the last year he has become progressively more willing to issue warning growls, notably to my son. Taken in that context, his behavior toward Tater has to be viewed as multi-vector aggression.

After talking to a number of friends in rescue, all of whom said the same thing, we made the decision to put Trevor down in early October.

30 Days and 30 Nights

It's official: Tater has gone unclaimed for 30 days. So now we get to figure out whether to keep him or place him. He's finally showing signs of emerging from his shell, and I'd like to put in some training time with him to encourage that. Also, my son is with mom this week, so Tater certainly isn't going anywhere until he (that is: my son) returns.

Tater has come a ways in the 30 days he's been here. He wasn't exactly afraid of his shadow when he arrived, but he was certainly looking to be reassured that the most basic actions were OK. When he got here, he was pretty tense when I would approach, as if he were uncertain what that might portend. Four days ago he climbed up on my bed and snuggled up without asking, and the day after that he wiggled himself between myself and my son during a bedtime story to get some attention. He still lowers his head rather than looking at me, but he'll now tap me with a paw to get attention and gently (but clearly) advise me that he I'm not done petting him yet. On arrival, Tater proceeded to mark every single place that Faith had previously peed and a few more to be sure. Early on, I couldn't let him out of my site lest he pee in the house or poop on one of the rugs. He now seems content to wait to go outside on the schedule. When he got here he was afraid of the travel crate. He will now "mount up" without hesitation, and obeys "inside" from the back yard without any difficulty.

A few issues remain. If crated next to Faith (or Trevor, probably, though I haven't tested it) Tater does OK. If I put him in the travel crate, which is currently on the other side of the garage, he bites his tail bloody and proceeds to spin in circles in the crate, painting the inside with blood as he goes. Not clear if that's about distance, visibility or (probably) a combination. He's definitely got some degree of separation anxiety, and it clearly reassures him to know that some of the family is crated along with him.

Tater would make a great dog to take to work if the workplace allows it. My sense is that he won't do well if he is left at home on his own. He would certainly need to be crated or contained, but if left to himself he'll resume the tail-biting behavior. He does do well with other animals (both dogs and cats), so adding him to a family that already has pets might be an option.

Zoomies

Pin!

I've said many times over the years that you don't really see pack behavior with two dogs, but you start to see hints of it with three.

For the moment, Faith (on the right) is clearly in charge of our merry band of misfits whenever she wants to be. Tater has recently made tentative motions toward testing Trevor's position, but it's all very provisional.

When people talk about dog behavior, they talk a lot about "alpha" dogs and hierarchies. In reality, the hierarchies among dogs are situational and flexible. Dog packs in the wild will shift off leadership according to qualifications and skills for the problem at hand. It's much more fluid than talk of "alphas" might suggest. Have a closer look at the picture.

Here we have Tater grabbing Trevor by the neck, with Trevor about to roll onto his back in mock-submission. Faith really looks like she's the referee, about to call "pin" on the  wrestling match - though just a moment before she was right in the thick of a three dog monty. So Tater is dominating Trevor, right? Wrong.

I say mock submission because that is exactly what it is. Between the two of them, Trevor is far more established than Tater, and is completely confident in his leadership between the two. His willingness to mock-submit during play is actually a reflection of that confidence. I've seen him do shoulder rolls to let Tater grab him. It's part of the process of socializing Tater into the group. If only humans could do this as well as dogs do.

The fact that Tater is willing to explore the pack boundaries is something I find very encouraging. He arrived shook up and timid, and he is slowly beginning to adapt. Can't wait to see how the "real" Tater emerges.

I now think that Tater was hit by a previous owner. I started to try teaching him hand signals for "sit", and he immediately flinched away as if expecting that he would be hit. There have been a few other hints, but today was pretty clear-cut. I'll teach him otherwise, rest assured, and we got past his initial reaction quickly, but the more he starts to come out of his shell the more reactions I see that feel like he expects to be struck or punished. Nothing awful, and nothing he won't overcome with time and positive reinforcement, but damn. What kind of jerk would beat up a Border Collie? Especially one as calm and innocuously obsessive as this one?

In Rottie rescue this kind of thing was par for the course. For better or worse it goes with how the breed is perceived by the public at large. I find it disconcerting to find the same mis-handling problems among BCs. Which is bloody stupid of me, I know. I suppose I just hoped for better.

In any case, gotta run. Tater has challenged me to 400 laps around the dining room table, and he's been at it for 40 orbits already. Thank doG he can't count worth a damn.:-)

Various Visits

Well, yesterday was a slow day, and no progress finding Tater's owner, but we did get a chance to visit various places. Here, for example, is Tater lying down on the job at the local Petco, where I finally caved in and bought him a collar. In fact, he is wearing his new collar here. That blue floor is what they have in the fish department.

I've been trying to resist the temptation to re-home him into our house by small steps, but it's hard to avoid. Since we didn't have any records on him, for example, I went ahead and had the vet give him a full set of vaccines. No problem there, except now there's this rabies tag, and where does that hang? Yup, on the collar he didn't come with.

More and more Tater is following the lead of Trevor and Faith and following them around the house to stay with the group. He no longer seems interested in hanging out by himself downstairs. As he grows more confident, a few mildly obsessive behaviors are emerging: chasing his tail for ten minutes at a stretch or orbiting the dining room table.

After Petco, my son and I went out to dinner. This particular restaurant won't allow a dog in their outdoor section (some restaurants around here do), but we were able to get the table closest to a convenient nearby railing. Sorry for the (very) poor photo quality. The moral of this story is that the digital zoom on the LG G2X cell phone stinks.

We did learn in the course of this little experiment that Tater will obey commands from a fair distance away. People who "work" Border Collies presumably take that for granted as something you would teach a dog, but I don't have the sense that this guy has ever been worked, and it's unusual for other dogs to be trained that way. One or two of mine have been over the years, but it's a surprise in a rescue. He's clearly been taught "sit" (which he confuses for "down"), and "come", but not "paw" or "heel".

I'm also starting to get calls of the form "I don't know who he is, but if you don't find the owner and you don't keep him I would like to adopt him." I'm telling people that if we don't take him in he's going into Border Collie rescue (because they are equipped to evaluate and place him), but I'll be happy to pass along their contact info. Amazing how many people lose interest all of a sudden when they hear that.

I've also had to explain to a few people that BC and Aussie mixes usually don't have the same behavior patterns as the pure-breds. Trevor (BC/Spaniel), for example, has no herding drive, though he was prone to tear around our house in Maryland at top speed as a younger dog.

Speaking of herding drive, I can't remember whether I have passed along that we found Tater's herding focus: blueberry muffins. Given a look at a blueberry muffin, his strategy is to laser-stare it down and think herding thoughts at it until it holds still, and then pounce. So far he's managed to maintain focus for almost three whole seconds before the muffin disappeared on him. The nearest he wants to get to a sheep is to see one on television from the reassuring comfort and safety of his couch.

Walk of the Pure

Somebody seems to have a fondness for pure-breds with mismatched eye color. That's my son, doing his level best to worm his way into getting a third dog. I told him that we needed to do the right thing for Tater whatever that turns out to be, but we certainly weren't getting another dog when he doesn't even walk Faith. His response was to walk both dogs.

The light tonight was incredible, but the photos didn't work out. I had a choice of shadow on Faith's face or great light but one dog or the other looking the wrong way. Sigh. And it was such nice light!

In other news, Tater turns out not to have any visible bladder stone on the X-ray, and no infection or crystals, so now we look for other possibilities to explain the blood in his urine. The next step is a full abdominal ultrasound by a radiologist. His blood sugar levels are back up to normal, though, so that's looking good. The Blue Wilderness product seems to agree with him.

While we didn't find a bladder stone, we did fine a BB in one of his knees. This guy has sure been around the block.

I'm Comfy Right Here

The first signs of what I take to be stress appeared last night. Tater didn't want to come upstairs to bed with the rest of the crowd. I got him started a couple of times, but the minute he realized where we were going he went back to the couch in the living room. He came up eventually, but the sense of it was that he needed a quiet spot for a while.

What's in a Name?

So after a day of testing, I'm thinking maybe Tater rather than Tato. Same idea, but it seems to work better. And it's got more stories. Couch potater. Imitator. Commutator.

Maybe it's my secret redneck self looking for a means of expression.

If I move to Jamaica...

The Kingston Trio

... can I call them the Kingston Trio?

Yes, that's Tato on the left. As you can tell, the established dogs are totally up in arms about this furry interloper. Heck, they even let him eat in their kitchen this morning with no poaching. Actually, they mostly seem confused that he doesn't want to play yet.

Tato continues to settle in. This morning we had no problems in the house. I'm now inclined to think that the marking was a combination of bladder and new dog "testing" behavior, and that faith may have been the culprit on the other item I found. Unfortunately she does need work on her house training.

Puppy love?

As you can see, Trevor doesn't like Tato at all. Yes, he's leaning on him.

That's all for now. Gotta run and see what the crashing sound in the kitchen is all about.

We Paws Now for this Announcement

Tato. My people are lost, but at least the food's good!

Recognize this fellow? Me neither.

He was found near my home in Woodinville, and I seem to be fostering him temporarily. He has been wandering around for at least five days, so the chances of finding his owner are falling pretty fast. No tags, no ID, and no chip. Grrr! My best guess is that he slipped his collar on a trail walk somewhere, but that could have happened anywhere within a 10 mile radius of here. I can file reports with the appropriate shelters and place flyers with vets and pet food stores, but it's not clear where to put up flyers locally. Several people are helping; we'll do what we can.

Last night my son wanted to name him Stinky Chest, but this morning he relented. For the moment, I'm calling him Tato (as in "couch potato"). At 46 lbs, Tato is a bit on the chunky side (so he's probably American). He arrived hungry, in serious need of a bath to clean off his back end, and needed a major brushing out. Apparently not house trained, though that could be because he has a problem with his bladder at the moment. Clean gums and clipped toenails; he has clearly been cared for by someone. Some signs of old injuries; he may be a rescue, but if so it's surprising that he isn't chipped. I'll say more about the injuries in a month - we're currently withholding that information to help us confirm that any putative owner is authentic.

Tato is very calm and gentle. He exhibits no herding drive. He is terrific with kids - better than Faith. After a day here, he is starting to try to play with Trevor and Faith, though Faith's idea of play is decidedly odd and has him a bit puzzled. He is very easy to handle, and was perfectly calm about having his mouth and paws checked over. Tato is doing quite well with my two after some initial hesitation. For the moment, he's the calmest dog in the house. He seems to like riding in the car - even with the top down - and is quite calm about being left in the car while I go in and out of places. Oddly enough, he does not seem stressed about having misplaced his people.

Trevor. See the resemblance?

People can be remarkable. One of the people who brought Tato to me is extremely allergic to fur. She was driving around with the dog in her car, sucking on an inhaler so she could breathe. She apparently got directed to me because he looks a lot like Trevor (left - see what I mean?). Considering her allergies I volunteered to take him in and post flyers, and failing that, to get him into rescue. Or that was the plan until I saw blood in his urine. Rather a lot of it. Flyers promptly took a back seat in favor of a trip to the vet, which is where I'm writing this as I wait.

Hard to tell how old he is. Lots of wear on his teeth, but he could be anywhere from 5 to 9 years. No CHD, but some stiffness in his back hips. Vet just came back, and he may have a stone in his bladder, but we're running a panel to check for other issues at this point.

Aside from the fact that he's way too calm to be a Border Collie, he's a great little guy. Some uncertain hesitancy on various things, but then he's very compliant when verbally reassured.

Right now he's being quite the snuggler, but let's see what happens as he becomes more confident with the environment at my house. On second thought, let's hope we find his people before he gets a chance to settle in that far.

The Sleep of the Deaf

There is something fascinating about the way Faith sleeps. Like any dog, she'll pretty much plop down and fall asleep when there's nothing to do. Unlike most dogs, she can't "keep half an ear open" when she does. If something thumps the floor she'll look around, but otherwise her sleep isn't readily disturbed by things going on around her. If you'll pardon the expression in the current context, she's a sound sleeper.

If Faith wakes up alone in a room, she'll immediately search the house to see where everybody went. That seems to be disconcerting to her, so I try to make sure I touch her to wake her when I'm leaving the room for longer than a moment. Keep in mind that she's asleep, and she has no idea that someone is approaching. Getting touched unexpectedly - even gently - is pretty startling. And (very much as you might expect) there is a startle reflex in that first moment of wakefulness.

What I find amazing is how quickly she processes the fact that everything is okay. And the fact that there's no aggression or fear in her in that moment. By the time she's fully alert, which is very fast, she's already snuggling into the hand that's touching her.

Maybe I'm projecting, but there's a level of trust there that humbles me. No so much trust in me, as trust that the world is going to be okay. There are days when I really wish I could do that...

Trevor, of course, insists that he can sleep just as solidly as Faith can. At least when he's not stealing bath mats. But as you can see, the scamp is cheating. He's not looking at the camera. Oh, no.

Did I mention bath mats? He's taken to sneaking off with them when I'm taking a shower. And he knows perfectly well what he's about, too. Makes a point of ambling slowly and looking over his shoulder until he knows I've seen him with the damned bath mat in his mouth, then walks out with it. So far they've ended up in the kitchen, the family room, and my office. He's a mix, sure, but his sense of humor here is all border collie.

A Temporary Forever Home

Too tired to play

We're having a great time at our new house (as you can see)! We get a brand new place to run around in. It has lots of places we can go in circles around at high speed, and lots of reflecting windows for Faith. Oh. And new quilts to en-fur!

Our Person has finally separated from his wife, which seems to be good for them both. We get to see our Little Person four days a week. The rest of the week we help our two-legs work by sleeping on his feet under his desk and bringing him balls when he's really trying to concentrate. Best of all, nobody here things of us as "big stupids".

A week after we got here, we went on an unauthorized adventure. Our person left a sliding glass door slightly open, and Trevor managed to open it. So he goes dashing out, tosses his head cockily at our Person, and with a telepathically projected "phbbttt!" heads off to check on marks all around the neighborhood. Being the responsible Border Collie in the family, I of course follow him, nipping at his ears and neck, trying to herd him back inside. So the big dummy takes off. So I follow him, still trying to herd him back to the house.

The thing about Trevor is that it's the principle of the thing. Given 20 minutes to leave messages on suitably selected trees and bushes, he always comes home. Mainly because that's where the food is in his puppy pea brain. But also because dogs aren't equipped with a digitus impudicus, so trotting back home with a look of attitude is his way of flipping our two-legs the bird. Which, now that I think about it, is probably preferable to him actually bringing our two-legs a bird. And I generally follow him around, so our Person was pretty sure I'd be back too, bragging on how brilliantly I had herded my furry reprobate brother back to the house. Not this time.

But a nice stranger in a car intervened. Trevor, the goofy lummox, made a dash for home. I decided to get in the car where it was warm and dry and I could distract a new person while driving. He looked at my tag and delivered me to mom's house. Where the cat dissed me, so I peed on mom's floor. Then my Person came and got me, and we had another ride in the car. Did I mention I like riding in the car?

- Faith

New tags are on the way. Anybody got suggestions for how to get dog urine scent out of marble? Nature's miracle isn't cutting it, and I'm afraid that bleach might damage the marble.

My son seems to be taking the separation pretty well. Once he figured out that he was going to have time with both parents and all of the pets (dogs here, cat there), he gleefully and mischievously turned his attention to planning his room. I need to get his new bunk bed painted pronto, so that the dogs can en-fur his bed too!

Cuddle me!

Dang. It's amazing how time gets away when you are otherwise engaged.

I love my dog.

This post is prompted by two photos. The first (right) shows my son hugging Trevor. The affection is real, and I think he views Faith with the same degree of affection. At the moment, Trevor is a little easier for him. Trevor and Faith are about the same age, but Trevor seems to be settling into the "mature, calmer dog" pattern. I've seen Alex cuddle Faith in very much the same way, but for the moment it seems to be easier with Trevor.

From my son's perspective, the effect of Trevor "settling down" is that Trevor is more predictable. In practice, this means that when my son teases or stimulates Trevor, the outcomes are less likely to result in tears.

I love his iPad.

His relationship with Faith, on the other hand, is shown at left. Faith is obsessed with images and reflections, and will cheerfully spend hours putting her head between child and iPad and drooling on both. To Alex, it must seem as if Trevor is interested in him where Faith is interested in his device. It isn't true, though Faith's deafness does make her less likely to respond to "My little person is in the next room crying, I better go see what's wrong." As all parties mature, I'm fairly sure that any preference will evaporate. For the moment, Alex seems more comfortable with Trevor.

Quit Staring At Me!

Quit staring at me!

So I've been telling you about Faith and reflections. Well I finally caught her at it with a camera. Silly girl!

Our kitchen has a series of windows that look out on the back yard. Faith chases along them, barking at the other dog. Who, of course, barks back. Or so Faith believes. After all, it looks like the other dog is barking, and she can't hear to tell that it's not.

And you know, that dog looks amazingly like someone she knows. Cute. White face. Intent look. Why, this definitely seems like a "looking for a friend who looks like me" sort of situation.

Intruder Alert!

Of course, the photo at top right is a close up. Faith isn't just looking out the window. She's on alert, as you can see at left. I mean, you never know what a strange dog in the back yard might do. Like hover outside a second story window. Or fog up the class on the outside with her breath. Or, well, stare at her.

To make matters worse, our kitchen has a row of windows looking out on the back yard, and a sliding door onto a rear porch. Faith stares for a while, then she runs to the door. Strange dog follows her. She runs back to the window. Strange dog follows her. She stares intently. Strange dog doubles down and stares right back. I mean, really. The nerve of that dog to disturb Faith's harmony in the privacy of her own kitchen.

Trevor can't figure out what the excitement is about, because he's not confused about reflections. He sometimes thinks it's fun to follow Faith back and forth, though. It's a "support the team" sort of thing. Sometimes he bumps her and she gets annoyed. Kind of like "What? Can't you see that I'm defending our turf here? If you can't make yourself useful, at least get out of the way!" After a while Trevor decides that some kinds of silliness are too confusing, and he retires to the couch to watch the antics. She runs back and forth, his head follows like he was watching a tennis match. Eventually he seems to decide that she's crazy in the head, sighs, puts his head on his paws, and gives me a look as if to say "You're the person. You figure it out."

Anybody have any clues on how to socialize a dog with herself? :-)

Halloween 2011

Cuddle Bugs

Irrelevant photo, but better than nothing.

Faith went trick-or-treating with us this year. Trevor couldn't, because he's recovering from some truly awful digestive problem. That probably was for the best, because they don't always behave appropriately when they meet other dogs as a pair.

I've said previously that Faith is fascinated by reflections, displays, and blinking lights. My son was giggling hysterically at my narration of the Battle for the iPad. "Faith: Quit getting fingerprints on my drool spots, little two-legs. Child: Then quit drooling on my game, and, umm, move your head so I can see!" He wants to play a game, she wants to check up on Wootube. He pushes her head out of the way, she circles around and looks over his shoulder on the other side. By which I mean to say that the rests her head on his shoulder and plants her nose back in the display using him for a chin rest. And so forth. She's currently fascinated by Hungry Piggies. Whenever one of the little piggies goes flying off the iPad display she tracks the trajectory. She seems to be trying to work out where those piggies go when they disappear off the edge of the screen. I think she's worried that they may get loose or something.

Thinking back, I don't remember saying that she is extremely people friendly. Faith enjoys meeting strangers - including kids - and she is basically willing to exploit any opportunity for positive attention. She's a big hit at the local mall, but I wasn't sure how she would handle the costumes at Halloween. I figured she'd enjoy the walk, so off we all went.

Apparently blinking lights rank above people, because at several points there were three or four kids petting her and getting completely ignored in favor of one light display or another.

Also, her herding drive is not triggered by small children in sheep costumes.

And thankfully, she seems to have no interest in chocolate. Unfortunately, Trevor does, but that's a blog post for another time.

As dusk turned to night, she transitioned from watching the blinking lights to keeping a close eye on our son. She's a daddy's dog for sure, but she likes him quite a lot.

So no surprises, but she's doing fine.

Updates

It has been far too long since I have posted. Lots of things going on, and I'm afraid blogging got the short end for a while, but lots to tell you about the Demonic Duo^tm! At this point, the Wootwo could learn a lot of things from these two - mostly annoying things, but hey, you don't get to have your dog biscuit and eat it too.

Since I posted in June, we've seen emergence of a whole bunch of "confidence enabled" behaviors in Faith. It's her place now, she knows it's her place, and she's not worried about breaking some unknown rule anymore. For one thing, Faith and Trevor are now playing. Back in June, they would wander around together, but that was it. Today, matters are completely changed. Faith will decide she wants to play, wander over to Trevor, grab hold of an ear, give a solid tug, and the two of them are off and rough-housing. Faith gives as god as she gets, and Trevor generally comes out more thoroughly slimed than Faith does. More often than not he's belly-up in this exchange. When they really get going, my wife and son sometimes need to watch out to avoid being run down in the ensuing mêlée. The change in Faith's confidence, and the consequent change in dynamic, is dramatic and wonderful! I'll try to get a video.

Trevor, for his part, really seems to be enjoying having a partner in crime. He grabs Alexander's math homework and runs downstairs under the pool table for a satisfyingly delilberate chew, trusting Faith to stand watch and run interference for him. Which she doesn't really do, though she does follow him downstairs. If you had told me a year ago that I would write a note to a teacher saying that my dog really did eat my kid's homework, I'd have thought you were messing with me. Turns out the joke was on me.

Meanwhile, the two of them have sorted out who is the leader, and the results are in: it's Faith. Food Lady predicted that Border Collies tend to get their way, and she was right. Hazards to navigation aside, it's really pretty funny to see the little gal gang up on the big (okay, mid-sized) guy and win. Just goes to show that leadership is more about attitude than size. Funny how we all know that, but I still expected this one to turn out the other way.

Somewhere in the last few months, Trevor managed to teach Faith about toys! When she got here, Faith was entirely focused on people and approval, and couldn't give a flying damn about squeakies, bones, frisbees, or any such thing. Being deaf, the lack of interest in squeakies kind of made sense, but it turns out she was just busy finding a job that a deaf BC can do. Having done so, she will now play with squeaky toys.

"What job?" I hear you asking. Reflections! Faith is not merely a TV junkie. She is interested in absolutely anything that produces reflections. This includes:

• Television
• iPads - she will occasionally share the view with me.
• Laptops
• Mirrors
• Window panes

The learning isn't all one-sided. Trevor is slowly coming to respond to Faith's hand signals.

As Faith has grown confident, a quirky side has emerged. Lately, she has decided that it is really frustrating that the dog reflected in the glass door of Lauren's office doesn't want to play. Faith's answer is to do what any frustrated dog does: Bark! And bark. And bark. And.... It's like a metronome. Unfortunately, not everybody in the house knows how to correct this behavior, and we all know that inconsistent corrective feedback doesn't work. Sigh.

As I think I've said before, Faith has some moderately bad hip issues. At this stage she mostly works around them, but there are some challenges. She can't squat properly to pee, so if she's on a hill she tends to wet herself. The urine is just sticky enough to make her fur mat, after which she can't help but pee on it, cause it's kind of in the way. The smell can get pretty bad, and I periodically have to cut away the mats. No big deal, but it's a minor nuisance. Memo to self: get her hips X-rayed to see what we are in to here. On the bright side, Faith has absolutely no issues about being groomed this way. Quite a contrast to Trevor who needs to be sedated to get his nails clipped.


Anyway, wanted to let everyone know that Faith is settling in comfortably, showing wonderful confidence, and generally doing really well. Hopefully, I'll be able to update this more often now that some of the worst insanity has passed.

Who's In Charge?

When Faith joined the family, I figured that Trevor would remain the "alpha" dog. After all, he's been established with us for five years, and he's twice Faith's weight. In my past experience with Rotties, the usual outcome has been that the established dog tends to show the way. Food Lady merely laughed, and noted that Border Collies have a way of getting what they want...

And of course, they do. Trevor tried repeatedly to hump faith to establish dominance. Faith would simply sit, and look over her shoulder at the poor, mentally impaired Border-Spaniel, as if to say "OK, so now what, big boy?" In due course, Trevor gave up. He doesn't think Faith is "in charge", but he's given up any notion that he gets to tell her what to do. Faith, for her part, gives no evidence of wanting to be in charge, which seems to cause Trevor no end of confusion.

As is so often the case, a picture is worth 1,000 words. In the photo, note that Trevor is using Faith for a pillow, and that before she raised her head for the camera she was contentedly lying on the floor with Trevor resting his head on her chest.

While this isn't entirely a surprise (brains over brawn, after all), the dynamic is pretty interesting to watch. I've previously seen scenarios where the smaller dog with the brains ends up the leader. What I haven't seen before is this somewhat strange scenario in which neither dog is evidently the leader. Faith follows Trevor's lead sometimes, and Trevor follow's Faith's lead at other times. This is not directly correlated with Faith's deafness. If Trevor hears something, Faith follows, but if Trevor gets on the bed, Faith shows no hesitation in sticking herself in the middle and pushing him aside.

This is completely consistent with the richness and dynamics of documented dog behavior. There is quite a lot of evidence that the entire notion of "alpha" is faulty, and that dogs in the wild will communicate to pick the best leader according to the circumstances at hand. What is a bit unusual is to see this dynamic arise in a duo, which (in the dog view) is something short of a full pack dynamic. I was well aware from the Rotties that the behavior of two dogs was quite different from the behavior of three. At three, you start to see proto-pack behavior, and at four or five you see overt pack organization. And it's fairly well documented that packs make a clear distinction between "pack leader" and "operational leader". The former has something to do with what dog exhibits baseline leadership. The latter has a lot to do with what dog is best equipped to direct the task at hand. What's a bit unusual here is to see it in a pair.

Twenty years in, and I'm still learning things about my dogs. Which either means that I'm terribly slow on the up-take or I'm not entirely ossified. Thankfully, Faith is helping me figure it out.