Darn That Kanye!

The NERVE of that man!

Thanks to TechCrunch for the link to the Kanyelicio.us site. 🙂

A Tale of Two Dachshunds

Hubby’s sister and brother-in-law stopped by for a visit yesterday afternoon on their way back home from their cabin in Maine.  They have two dogs–a Welsh Corgi, Cubby, and a miniature Dachshund, Josie.  Cubby stayed in the truck (in the shade with the windows down), while Josie came in to meet Jasmine.

Josie is a wiry little girl.  As a puppy, she was a ball of nervous energy.  At almost four years old, she’s mellowed a bit, but in new situations with new dogs, well, she’s not a picutre of calm.  She came in the house and strained at the leash to get to Jasmine.  I was sitting on the couch in the sun room, and Jasmine was sitting at my feet.  Josie came at us, whining all the time.  She strained to reach Jasmine, and when she did, they sniffed at each other.  Jasmine shrank back behind my legs and shut down.  She didn’t like the intrusion, but then again, she didn’t run away and hide.  When she’s stressed, Jasmine tends to just shut down.  If I’m holding her and someone she doesn’t know comes up, she doesn’t make eye contact, her body goes rigid and she just becomes robot dog.

Josie continued to whine and go nuts while Jasmine sat there in a calm but rigid state.  Josie was wriggling and whining, her tail flapping so hard that it was like a doggie whip.  My brother-in-law couldn’t calm her down, and she was getting hyper-excited so he took he outside.

Looking at the two dogs, I’m grateful for Jasmine.  No, she’s not very social.  No, she doesn’t play much.  But she’s sweet, gentle, quiet, funny and just a joy to have around.  She rarely barks, and her favorite thing to do is sleep on my lap.  I know she’s happy and content with life, and since she has been in this new house, she seems to have relaxed even more.  While I wish more for her, I’m glad that she’s with us and I’m grateful for her calm and quiet demeanor.  It’s very un-dachshund-like, but just perfect for us.

Change Is Bad

Jasmine is a creature of habit.  We have routines that we have established, and she is happy and comfortable with these routines.  When those routines change, Jasmine’s behavior changes–understandably so.

Hubby has been out of town for the last five days.  While you would think that this is a good thing since Jasmine is still afraid of him, it has actually caused her a bit of anxiety.  Jasmine seems to fear the unknown.  If she doesn’t know where Hubby is, she checks to see that he is situated someplace where he can’t get her.  When she eats, she runs back into the living room to check that he’s in his recliner before beginning her meal (and at certain points throughout her meal).  Now that he’s out of town, bed time has been somewhat challenging.  She usually runs to his side of the bed, checks to see that he’s safely tucked away, and THEN she settles into her own bed.

Since he’s been gone, she has been riddled with the “where is he” anxiety at bedtime.  She crawls under the bed and hides, then comes out, checks his side of the bed and pops back under.  She has also had some unusual energy spurts in the wee hours as well.  I know it’s due to Hubby’s absence, but it has been keeping me up late at night.

The other change in routine has been due to a back problem.  I’ve been flat on my back since Monday–working from bed.  Jasmine has been my constant companion on the bed, jealously trying to nudge the computer away and claiming my lap.  She usually doesn’t get this much snuggle or lap time.  Today has been the first day that I’ve been fully up and about, so we’re back to her usual spots–doggie beds in the living room and bedroom.  The result?  She peed on the carpet in front of her doggie bed while I was in the shower.  Hm.  She also pooped in the house last night during the 3 mintues that she wasn’t with me.  I thought she was in the living room retrieving her bone.  While I was right (she brought her bone into the bedroom right after), she left a little deposit as well.

Hubby returns tonight, and I’m hoping that the return to our normal routine will help her readjust.  However, Hubby will be home for 2 weeks over the holidays, so she’ll have to get used to him being around 24 x 7!  Oh the trauma!

My Separation Anxiety

We’re leaving on Wednesday to go finalize and close on the new house.  Unfortunately, that means that we’ll have to kennel Jasmine again for a week.  We’re putting her, once again, at the PetSmart PetsHotel.  They have taken good care of her in the past, and she seems to be okay when we return, although she’s always lost a little weight–it’s unavoidable since she tends not to eat when she’s anxious or in unfamiliar surroundings.

The cost is reasonable–$25/night for a small inside kennel complete with elevated cot bed that keeps her off the floor and twice-daily time outside of the kennel to relieve herself.  We also add a $3/day “Treat Time” daily treat–doggie ice cream and a cookie.  Ice cream is the one thing we can count on her eating when she won’t eat anything else.  We don’t buy the play times.  I have observed several group play times during my visits to pick Jasmine up or drop her off.  It’s just a room filled with dogs and one guy with a squirt gun.  If the dogs get too rambunctious, they squirt the dog.  That’s it.  Yes, it gets the dog out of the kennel, but there’s very little interaction with the single staff member (1 staff member to 10 to 20 dogs does not a play time make).  They also offer training and other items on an Ala Carte basis or I can sign her up for Doggie Day Camp.  If I was going to pay that kind of money for her care, I’d put her in a private pet sitter home situation.

I know she’s going to be fine, but every time we have to kennel her, I get anxious.  To them, she’s just an animal that they care for; it’s a job.  To me, well, that’s my Pup-Pup.  She means the world to me, and whether I put her at the PetsHotel or leave her with a friend, I’m pretty anxious about her being away from me and out of my care.  Of course, NO ONE could ever take care of her the way *I* do.  Nope.  So while we’ll be ultra busy closing on the house and getting it ready to rent out, I’ll be thinking a lot about coming back to that cute little face and wagging tail–and the enevitable pee on the carpet out of protest. 🙂  That’s my girl!

Bone!

Jasmine has been showing more interest in toys and chewing, so I thought I’d get ahead of the game and get her some things to keep her occupied.  She likes rope-toys and things she can shred 🙂 as well as things to chew.  I brought her to a business meeting one day (the person I was meeting with is a dog-lover) and she got her first taste of rawhide–love at first chew.  So, home came a bag of small rawhide chewies.

I gave her a chewie yesterday, and after a few minutes of destruction, she decided she was done.  However, instead of just leaving it on the floor, Jasmine decided that she had to hide her “bone.”  She was with me in the home office, so she looked for nooks and crannies to conceal the bone.  It was SO cute!  She’d hide the bone, then go and search for it.  She would then move it to a new location and search for it again.  She did this again this morning–such a fun and entertaining exercise!  I’m sure that if I allowed her to take the chewie outside, she’d bury it.

It’s so great to see her acting like a regular dog.  She runs and romps with me on walks, she wags her tail in anticipation of a training session (treats are mandatory, of course), and she refuses to go into the kitchen (her safe enclosure) when she knows I’m getting ready to go out.  Go Jasmine!

She has also learned “Sit,” “Stand” and “Down” thus far.  “Stay,” well that’s going to take a might bit longer.  She also comes (to me) when called.  Good doggie!