I have brought chaos into my family in the guise of a hyperactive puppy named Skipper. My family kind of resents this. However, my family is gone much of the time: my husband to work or if he is home, he's often watching football or sleeping or reading, etc. My teens are in their rooms or out. My 23 year old works and is in his room, mostly. Not that we don't socialize and hang out together. We all like each other! But there are long swathes of time when I am by myself. I'm by myself but I am chained to duties, etc that don't really let me be free to do what I want. Every time I want to do something there is some kind of pay off. And that's part of being a mom and living in a family. I don't really resent it or anything, but those are the realities of my present day living.
I don't knit or do any kind of crafty thing. I want to be a gardener but seem to be only good at killing plants. I want to be a bird watcher and hiker but can only do that sort of thing intermittently. I do like to read. I like to be involved with parish stuff. I occasionally like to do civic minded things, but the truth is I've always wanted to have a great dog.
When I was about 11 or so I convinced my tired and busy parents to get me a Labrador Retriever. We only had him a few months. He was too much for us to handle as he kept running away. I'll never forget how my dad labored to build a dog run in our backyard to contain the dog. The very first time we put him in it, he cleared the six foot gate, no problem. He kept running after cars and kids on bikes. This was back in the 70s when people still let their dogs roam around, though leash laws were starting to go into effect. The big worry was he'd get hit by a car. So he went to live on a farm somewhere. And my family went back to being cat people.
That was my first dog failure.
Fast forward. At age 28 I got married and started having children at age 30. At some point after having bought our own house with a conveniently fenced in backyard, I started longing for a dog again. Now I'm an adult, I said to myself, I can get a dog! So we rescued this wonderful mutt, named Scout. He was part Golden Retriever and part some sort of Spitz dog. He was so smart and friendly. Apparently he'd just been chained in someone's backyard so he had separation anxiety and the minute you left him alone outside he'd start barking and then frantically jump the fence. I actually slowly trained him not to do that. He was highly trainable. Feeling successful and also feeling that I went out too much or needed too much time off from the dog to take care of my young children, I went out and rescued another dog named Maisie. She was part some kind of hound and part German Shepherd. She was very timid which proved to be a problem because she was a fear biter.
I had baby number 3 and Scout got incredibly jealous. He took to jumping the fence again after three years of not do that. I literally had to choose between staying with my baby or running after the dog. One day a neighbor down the street got really angry at me for letting me let my dog run loose and threatened to call the authorities. So we gave Scout away to a crazy dog lady who sent a photo of her with Scout sitting at her table eating dinner together. She was an old spinster type and apparently Scout and she dined together in the evenings.
We kept Maisie, but as Maisie aged she got worse and worse about fear biting. I always had to sequester her off in her crate or behind a baby gate whenever kids came over to play, and this happened frequently. Then I had baby number 4 and Maisie got incredibly jealous. One day she was begging for my attention and I literally said to her, wait Maisie I have to finish here with the baby and she turned and just as an older kid was walking out the front door, she bolted out! She did it deliberately so that we'd pay attention to her and run after her, which the kids did. And then right in front of their eyes, she ran into the street and was hit by a car and died. In the wink of an eye.
So dog failures 2 and 3.
Just before we decided to move to our present house, we got a Golden Retriever puppy. We named him Ranger. He was the stupidest dog I've ever known. And he had no personality. And I was pregnant with number 5. See, I've never been rational about dogs! So we gave him away to a Golden Retriever rescue group. I remember the person came to take him away and she said, this dog is a pain! That was from someone who loves Golden Retrievers and rescues them as a hobby!!! He was like the 'Marley' of Golden Retrievers.
Failure 4.
So finally about 10 years ago we got a Sheltie, and named her Tillie. Tillie was a sweet dog. She was an easy dog too. She was quite trainable and she didn't run away. She liked guarding her territory of our yard. I wanted a Sheltie because I heard they were good for agility and I had this idea that we'd get into that with her. However, she was so timid around other dogs, she'd freak out at the 4H training sessions. She also early on developed a weird limp. We went to a couple different vets who all tested her for Lyme and heartworm, etc. No one could figure out the problem. She didn't like going for walks. She was content to dig a little hollow in the backyard and stay there most of the time. She had various weird ailments all her life and this past summer she suddenly went into kidney failure and died at age 10.
Failure 5
So now I own Skipper. I am 58. This is probably the last dog I'm going to get in my life. If he lives 15 years, I'll be 73 about then! The dog is my hobby. He's a pain now, but if I train him right, I think he'll be an awesome dog. He is so smart. But the truth is puppies are pains. They take a while to housebreak, they need tons of attention, they chew on things, they develop bad habits like jumping on you, grabbing stuff off the table and counters, barking when you don't want them too, etc. You kind of have to take a long term approach and work on one thing at a time, training-wise. He'll be an adult at age 2, he's only 4 months now. It's like with kids. You have to be prepared for the long haul, except with kids it take 18-20 some years.
UPDATE from when I first wrote this.
Well, Skipper is now almost 7 months. I see hope but I also see problems. For instance right now he's chewing on a chair cushion. Skipper, no! Aw, but now he's curled up in a ball and looks sweet! Good, Skipper!
There's been progress. I moved his crate from the family room to the mudroom, which means that I can stick him back there and his incessant barking doesn't interrupt football watching like it did when he was right in the room.
He's also gotten quieter during the day, so I don't have to put him in the crate every time I need to go upstairs or even out to run errands for a short while. That's really good.
He's completely housebroken. That's good! He's been housebroken for a while now.
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| This is a terrible picture, but Skipper and Dylan are a volatile combination! |
Things I love:
I don't exactly love this, but it is a very good thing. I used to stay in my robe unless I had something I had to run to. I just never bothered getting dressed until later in the a.m. I did this for years raising small children and then I was in the habit. But with this dog, I get up and get dressed in the dark and make my way downstairs because one of the very first things I have to do is take the dog out. I know it is crazy but for some reason I love being outside early in the morning. I'm too lazy to actually do it without a reason and I hated having to do it say when I had to drive someone somewhere early. That's stressful! But just getting outside for a few minutes while Skipper does his thing is a pleasant wake up for me. Even if it is raining or cold, there's something refreshing about getting outside for a few minutes. Weird, I know.
I love taking Skipper on a mid-morning walk. He's kind of hard to walk still. He's part hound so he wants to sniff everything. I let him do some sniffing but then after a few minutes, we walk. I feel like I am getting good exercise. I love seeing the sky, the trees, the birds and any other possible wildlife I might notice, and all the people coming and going. Walking your dog is very neighborly! People recognize you and wave! You get to know other dog walkers. Skipper is stubborn though and sometimes he balks because something has spooked him. He's easily spooked. Some lawn guy starts up a leaf blower? He freaks. A sudden gust gets some wind chimes playing loudly? He freaks. Some guy jogging? He freaks. He also sometimes catches a scent and absolutely wants to follow it and tries to drag me after it suddenly. I remind myself I weigh more than him and then use my weight to hold him back.
I love when he sits quietly on the couch with me. He likes to snuggle.
He does however do many annoying things:
He constantly counter surfs
He jumps on people
He barks a lot
He chews things up
Slowly but surely, he'll get better. I am remiss in not training him more though. I'd better get my act together and do that. He still only comes when he wants to. However, he's accidentally gotten off leash a few times and he never ran away.
Anyway, enough going on about my dog!
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