We love to make new fur-pals - a schnauzer snuggle to everyone who signs up to follow us!

Please sign our guest book - (insert your blog address in your message so that we can contact you!)

Sunday 18 April 2010

Sunday catch-up - the attack, an award and tag!

JD - Hello everyone! FH wants to witter on for a bit again, so before we hand over to her we just want to show you a photo of us that was taken on this morning's walk.

Max - We thought it would help you make it through FH warbling on and on and on.....

JD - We rather like this photo! Look at the blue sky - this was taken at 6.00 am so we had the whole nature reserve to ourselves which meant there were loads of bunnies to chase, it was ACE!


Max - We rather like this photo as it shows how compact and sporty I am.....


JD - ....and how tall and leggy I am!!

"Can we go chase the bunnies now please?"

FH - Hi everyone, I just wanted to say thanks for your comments on my last post about JD and the pitbull, they were so helpful.

My boys have had a few disagreements with other dogs in the past but it's always been a lot of noise about nothing! Once, Max needed to be taught some manners by a Mastiff when Max wouldn't take 'no' for an answer when he wanted to play chase - he was pushed to the ground and was pinned by the Mastiff's jaws. It lasted about two seconds and certainly taught Max not to push his luck! Twice JD has had to be reminded by
Neo the pitbull that he doesn't like to be rushed at when he's greeted - both times he knocked JD over and gave him a loud warning growl, JD now understands! JD has also had to teach a Jack Russell not to boss him around - again, lots of loud posturing and flinging to the ground before the Jack Russell submitted. The Jack Russell's owner was perfectly fine with it - he said he realised his dog had a tendancy to bully if he wasn't put in his place early on.

In all these previous situations if I didn't know a bit about dog
phycology I might have thought it was an attack and got a bit freaked out. Thankfully, having two dogs has taught me a lot about canine body language and how dogs interact and I know it's very important for the dogs to sort situations out themselves wherever possible - usually problems only occur when humans get involved! As the Poupounette's wisely stated, it's all about a proportionate response.

In fact, I have had one owner shrieking at me in the past when JD and Max approached her pug from the side (as dogs do), screaming that they were ganging up on her dog. She scooped her dog up, shouted some more (which obviously made my boys bark at her) and then she ran away, still carrying the pug - now, don't try telling me that that poor pug isn't going to end up with emotional problems!
Can you imagine her reaction if one of my boys had needed to correct the pugs behaviour for something - I'd have probably been arrested!!

I've come a long way since we first got the boys and I learn more about dogs every day. I remember when we first got JD and Max, ringing the breeders in a sheer panic on day 2 saying "they keep on fighting - and they're making the most horrendous noises!" The breeder calmly explained to me, a complete novice, that they were in fact playing and that I'd better get used to some of the noises they made! Even then I wasn't convinced but I look back now and realise I was a complete twerp!

I really did think that the only reason that JD didn't get hurt the other day was because the owners of the pitbull got her off him in time, so I'm really grateful for Hsin-Yi's comments. JD's collar got a bit ripped in the fracas but that's all - if she'd wanted to do some damage I realise now that she could have done, even in just a few seconds. I also realise that what I was probably reacting to was the owners panic more than anything. (By the way, I also meant to say in my previous post about giving a dog a daily stimulant as opposed to specifying a daily walk. JD and Max get their daily stimulant as a walk, but a training session or agility session has the same effect. The pitbull in question hadn't had anything for a week - as Mango said no wonder the poor thing went 'cracker dog insane'!)

Now, before I hand over to the boys I'd like to show you a couple of photos from yesterday's walk. If you're anything like me you'll look at these two (not particularly good quality - sorry about that!) photos and possibly get a little teary eyed at just WHAT we can learn from our dogs about living in the moment (as Khyra wisely stated) and not hanging onto the past. Please take a look at JD and Max - playing with Tasha, the very same pitbull that attacked JD the day before!

Tasha - "Hey, Max! Wanna play chase with my stick?"
Max - "Why, I don't mind if I do Miss Tasha!"



Tasha - "Tag! You're 'it' JD!"
JD - "Aw, no fair! Abbey has me by the back paw, you girls are ganging up on me!"
Abbey - "He he he - well, us girls have to stick together, eh Tasha?!"

FH - I met up with Tasha's owners on yesterday's walk and we discussed Hsin-Yi's comments - they were very interested (and relieved) and are going to find out some more about Ian Dunbar. As the dogs were very relaxed with each other when we all met up we spent about 10 minutes together - and Abbey the gorgeous Goldie joined us too! I applaud Tasha's owners, caring for a rescue dog with known issues is a wonderful thing to do and they're doing an amazing job!

JD - Right, back to US now I think!


Max - Quite right! Now, before we go any further we want to boast about an award we got!


JD - It's the 'happy 101' award from The Booker Man! Thanks Booker!



Max - With this award we have to tell you 10 things that make us happy. So here goes:-

1 - Cuddling with the humans! It's our most favourite thing in the whole wide World!
2 - Eating - oh gosh, we so LOVE to eat! We love cheese, chicken kibble, real chicken, biscuits, horse poop, discarded chips,
doggie choc drops, chews, bread...well, you probably get the idea!
3 - Going on walks. We get so grumpy when it rains as it means our walks are cut short, or even (sob!) cancelled - we say 'phooey' to the rain!
4 - Sleeping - especially in a patch of sunlight!
5 - Playing
zoomies!
6 - Meeting up with and playing with our friends. It makes our walks like a million times more fun!

7 - Having toys! JD likes rope toys and Max's favourite is squeaky chicken - he's had squeaky since the first day he got here and (amazingly!) squeaky is still in one piece, despite being played with every day!
8 - Cushions - need we say more?!
9 - Paddling in the sea - wonderfully refreshing!
10 - Visiting our friends blogs - it makes
FH happy which means that it makes us happy!

JD - Thank you SO much for this award Booker! We think all our pals already have this award, but if you haven't please feel free to take it as we'd love to know what makes you happy too!


Max - We've also been tagged by
Santa, Minnie and Honey to play a game!

JD -
Oooh, we LOVE games! The rules of the game are the Photo Tag Game are:

1. Open your first photo folder
2. Scroll down to the tenth photo
3. Post the photo and tell the story behind it

Max - Here's our photo - we'd only lived with our humans for about 2 weeks at this point!

JD - Actually, it's a rather happy coincidence as this photo nicely fits in with FH's comments earlier about not understanding us at ALL when we first arrived! You can see our puppy play pen in the background, the new rugs that FH had bought for us, the fact that everything is piled up on the table because we chewed everything that wasn't nailed down when we first arrived - and if you look rather closely several damp patches on the ground where FH had mopped up after us as we were still being house trained! (These rather stinky carpets are now long-gone, he he he!)

Max - In this photo we're having a marvellous game of bitey face - we were really hyper and were 'grrrrll-ing' at the top of our voices! A few seconds before we had been sitting nicely and then we suddenly launched at each other! At the time this photo was taken FH and MH were wondering what on earth they had taken on - and they were actually wondering if they were going to be able to cope with it all! Thankfully, they stuck with us and - in FH's words - came through the other side!

JD - Thanks for tagging us Honey, Santa and Minnie - if any of our pals would also like to play this game please do - it's a fun way to look back and remember!

Max - Before we sign-off we'd just like to thank Miss Twix for hosting such a pawesome date night. Whew - we had SO much fun!

JD - We sure did! Thanks Miss
Twix - our paws are still sore from all that dancing!

18 comments:

Diana Chiew said...

What a long wonderful post! Aunty Diana said she has learned so much from these two posts that your FH has written. As you know, Aunty Diana has always been terrified of dogs before and we are her first pets. So she is still learning about dogs.

We like that picture of you when you were puppies. We played bitey face too just like you, and we are still playing that now.

Oh yeah, we had a great time at Date Night too. So glad that Calvert finally showed up. We were a bit worried about him and Nellie when we didn't hear from them.

Unknown said...

Wow.. I just read this and the previous post. First glad JD is fine. I think Miss Khyra is right.. a lesson to learn from our dogs... move on and live in the moment. I agree sometimes the recipe of factors contributes to the situation not the innate demeanor of the dog. Me mr. norwood makes alot of noise grrs and all when playing. I'm a bit of a ruff house player and to some dogs it means challenging them. Boys will be boys so mom has to watch how i greet other dogs. I'm like Mango.. don't go to off leash dog parks b/c most dog there are not exercised and come super excicted to the park. I'm like you guys.. hit the trails 2x day and meet up with neighborhood dogs. Thanks for sharing your story. We all can learn from each other.
norwood

the booker man said...

it's amazing how resilient dogs are. i'm so happy to see JD and max and tasha back to their normal, playful selves. :)
i love the puppy picture!! i can't tell who's who, but it looks like one of the boys is going after the other one's ear. haha.

the booker man's mama

Tama-Chan, Benny, Vidock, Violette, Ollie, Heloise, Momo, Ryu said...

Brilliant post!

Dexter said...

That was a great post full of many good informations about how us doggies interact with each other and how our humans sometimes can make things worse (like crazy pug lady in your case).

Glad you are pals again. Yuh, I had to pin my dumb nephew and he went SQUEEEE like a drama queen but he was totally annoying me and needed to learn respect.

Its all in the force of the response. Right?

Slobbers,
Mango

Unknown said...

God, I hate people like that crazy pug lady...if you think it's bad meeting them with your 2 "little" boys, imagine what it's like when I have Honey in tow! People regard us like giant lepers sometimes and scream if she so much as looks in their dog's direction...they usually have neurotic dogs (made that way!) who start whimpering when they see Honey and then they snatch it up and snap at me, "What did she do to him?" - er...nothing! She's standing 5 feet away from your dog, you stupid cow!

Whew! Sorry - as you can see, owners like that really get my hackles up and the worst thing is they make their perfectly normal, stable dogs into neurotic, aggressive, sad little things that have no life.

Anyway, really happy to read the "happy ending" to your story. I think the best thing in this whole incident has been the way YOU and the other owners handled yourselves - both being sensible and reasonable people. We haven't been so lucky and it's horrible when you meet people intend on just pushing all the blame on the other dog and making excuses for theirs and turning the whole thing into some kind of gangland battle!

And yes, isn't it great how dogs live in the moment? Our wonderful trainer back in Auckland used to say that all the problems in relationships between dogs usually came from humans trying to give dogs "human emotions" - ie, they insist that their dog "wants revenge" or "is jealous" or "doesn't like X breed or colour" - all total rubbish. Dogs are very simple: they react to the situation, learn from it, adjust their behaviour for the future and then move on. To the boys & the pit bull, it was just an unfortunate moment but nobody got hurt - and putting that aside, they do actually like each other. Maybe they all know their places better now in their own "pack hierarchy" Fine. Sorted. No need to analyse reasons and stuff - let's just get on with enjoying the day, eh? Whereas us humans will try to ascribe feelings and intent and counter-feelings...all human emotions - to the dogs. When they have long forgotten about it and moved on! :-) Thank goodness you & the other owners are so sensible and let the dogs get on and "make up" (again, a human emotion! Dogs don't make up! They just "are" fine with each other or not) - a lot of other owners I know in similar situations would start to anthropomorphise the whole 2nd meeting and try to interfere, either to make the pit bull "show she's sorry" or overly reassure JD that he is safe now, blah-blah-blah...when the dogs don't need any of that. IT's really more for the benefit of the humans, I think! :-)

Hsin-Yi

Unknown said...

Oh! I forgot to add that if the pitbull owners are interested in Ian Dunbar, he has released 2 DVD's dealing with these topics which they may find very useful & interesting (and you too)

You can get them from his website: www.dogstardaily.com - and you can actually download the DVD's straight from the site for free (Ian is very generous like that) although it might be simpler just to buy them if you don't have a high speed connection and a lot of time! I have both DVD's. Also, his site has TONS of great info on dog behaviour and how/why they behave the way they do and how to manage it. Really educational & helpful - I highly recommend it.
Here are the links to those DVD's:

Dog Aggresion: Fighting (http://www.dogstardaily.com/storefront/dog-aggression-fighting-video)

Dog Aggression: Biting
(http://www.dogstardaily.com/storefront/dog-aggression-biting-video)

Hsin-Yi

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

This post is the perfekht pairing of hooman wittering and khanine sharing!

PAWESOME!!!

Khongrats on the award and tag!

It was furry nice pawtying with woo at Twix's!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: Bitey face rokhks!

The Oceanside Animals said...

Congratulations on your awards -- we're happy you and Tasha are buddies again!

Sketching with Dogs said...

Congrats on your awards. That is some good playing, Mum says it is making her snoozy just looking at those pics.
Dip Bridge and Elliot xx

Sasha said...

Ooh, boys, there's a Strange Blanket Lady in our park.

She has a little doggie, which might be a Chihuahua, but I'm not sure, because whenever another doggie gets close to it, she throws a blanket over it and picks it up!

One of the humans in the park said the Blanket Doggie is vicious - it's not surprising, given every time another doggie comes near it, it gets a blanket thrown over it, and then picked up!

The Strange Blanket Lady had a conversation with my human once, but my human's not sure what it was about.

We're lucky our humans are not a Strange Blanket People!

Puppy kisses
Sasha

parlance said...

I'm glad to hear you're all safe and sound and the human part of the team is settling down, lol.

We love Luna said...

wow perfect Sunday, wonderful news and such a cool award!Congratulations for so deserved award!
a nice week for you
purrs
Luna - We love LUna

Clive said...

Hi JD and Max

We've just caught up on all the news - having read this post and your previous post! We're so pleased that you are okay and that the pitbull didn't harm you.

We had a guide dog owner who had to return their guide dog only last month because of repeated attacks on the dog while his owner and himself were out working. I don't know if I would fully agree about dogs just living in the moment - because this dog got so stressed trying to work and being attacked by stray dogs that there was no option but to retire him (to the huge upset of the Guide Dog owner). This is not the first time either that a Guide Dog has had to be retired - it is a huge problem for us in Guide Dogs particularly in built up areas where there are stray dogs. But I guess this is because of repeated attacks by stray dogs.

Anyway, we are just so relieved that everything worked out for you and that the pitbull owners are responsible dog owners.

take care
Clive and the NSLM

Anya said...

Wonderful post (as always..;)
The first photo must you frame in
its so lovely and cute :))))))
Congratulations on your well deserved award :-)

((hugs )) to all
Kareltje =^.^=

Oskar said...

You guys are so cool! I'm glad your atill friends with Tasha!

Scottie the 'Cutie' said...

Great post by you and your FH! Mom and I learnt quite a bit on this too...I think we need to go socialize more so I can become as behaved as you both are...*grins* Congrats on your award!

Scottie

HOPE said...

I really liked ready your favorites..I need to do a post on that too..of course YOU TWO are in the TEN..like close to the tippy top!

Thanks FH for all the information..very helpful...

Paws UP!
(yep that was my puppy pic..my mom/person was remembering how CUTE I was and still am!) we do hold our own..don't we!
GUS