Little Miss Alpha Beta

Well, we wanted a submissive beta dog so that our cats could cope. Birdy is certainly submissive to the cats. But is she truly a beta? This week she had a playdate with her obedience school buddy, Daisy. We met with Daisy and Linda, her owner, at the dog park.

Daisy and Birdy like each other and hit it off but Birdy, my goodness, kept topping Daisy, stepping over her back, pushing her back. She's such a wild puppy. She loved being in the dirty, dusty, enclosed Old Mill dogpark. She can run so fast. A black woodle (wheaton terrier-poodle mix) came over to play but he was too rough for her. She tried battling with him but he was able to roll her. She yipped. He growled. Was a bit too rough. What she needs is a buddy that is between these two. Someone really active and ready for rough and tumble but someone who doesn't play too hard.

But maybe I was just too protective. Hard to know what kind of playing is right if the dogs haven't been through a class together.

Speaking of school buddies, when she went for her first professional haircut last week she ran into her friend Hudson.

First Two Puppy Months

A little MacMovie about Birdy

Statistics

Bigger she is: as of yesterday, 18.5 lbs and 18 inches at the shoulder.

In the photo you see her looking at us eating dinner after she's finished her own bowl. She's been barking during our human dinner so I've started putting her into "timeout" in her crate if she does crazy "look at me" barking. Either that or I bring her into the living room to watch us as we eat.

Best In Show Dog Walk

Birdy and I went to watch the Best in Show Dog Walk downtown this morning. I wanted to give her the opportunity to be in an exciting atmosphere and practice some of her skills. She was very good at sitting down. She even did two good "lie down"s in spite of the noise around her.

She also met with one of her friends from Meredith's class, Daisy. They batted each other with front paws for a minute or so. I found out from Jennifer at Dancin Woofs Thursday night that this boxing activity is typical of poodles.

There were many handsome dogs at the event. I was a bit nervous for Birdy because she's been doing some nervous peeing. So each time we met someone new, I made her sit down and when kids approached I held on to her. She was VERY well behaved! She also got plenty of praise and treats for her excellent behavior.

Meredith sent us our final email and I'm going to use it to spam to other class members a request for play dates. No one in the Dancin' Woof's puppy class wanted to play with Birdy...largely, I think, because she was the biggest, oldest puppy in the class.

I liked learning in both classes, though prefered the Pawsitive Experience. I appreciate Meredith's intelligent use of the web and her clear directions for teaching the skills. I'm planning for us to go on to intermediate training in October.

Poop

(A picture of Rupert, a Westie mentioned later in this entry.)

"Deer poop is delicious," Birdy told us. She spoke through action, bringing a mouthful of the little round turds into the house a few nights ago without my husband noticing. I wasn't aware of her subterfuge until I put her into her crate and noticed her mouthing something. Ick. I cleaned them up from her bedding while sighing, "Oh, Birdy!" The next morning I found a couple of the hard brown marbles dropped downstairs on her way through the house.

Fortunately, Birdy has no interest in eating the poop of other dogs. Nor is she interested in our cats' poop, even though one of the felines, the house princess, Miss June Jumpha, has a tendency to leave hers unburied. But deer poop is delcious.

Fortunately, one of the lessons we learned in Meredith Gage's Pawsitive Experience dog training class, fourth week, was "leave it." I say, "leave it" while giving a little tug on the leash. When my pup looks up at me I reward her with a treat. This is a tough one to have carry over from one day to the next. (She has also developed a taste for those little winged pinenuts that are now all over the ground in our yard and many of our neighborhood streets in this land of the tall pine.)

One of the big changes in my life now is the attention I must pay to the poop of another being. Has she pooped yet today? How many times? What did it look like? Will she be asking to go out suddently later? And, very importantly, is there a plastic bag in my pocket when we go opn walks?

I learned the lesson of the plastic bag long before we got the Bird dog. Many years ago I went to visit my friends Lee and Jay in Provinctown shorty after they'd bought their first West Highland Terrier. One night I volunteered to take him for a walk, perhaps because both men were out. I'm not sure why. Well, even though Rupert had already had a poop on a previous walk, he decided to have another. A woman walking nearby with her husband scolded me, telling me it was a $200 fine if I didn't pick up the poop. I had no plastic bag. So she handed me a Kleenex from her pocket. I picked up the poop in the kleenex and carried it to the nearest (not all that near) garbage can. Since that day of a handful of poop, I have a plastic bag in my pocket any time I walk a dog.