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If dogs were doctors…

“How you doin’”?

“Who called for my assistance?”

This week I’ll be posting some pictures we’ve taken with our digital camera over the past couple of months. Today’s set requires no explanation. It’s just Ripley under a blanket. It seems that the majority of the pictures we take are of Ripley. We swear he actually poses for shots. Just look at him. He stares right at the camera and always give a tilt of the head or a raised eyebrow. Cali on the other hand doesn’t care all that much for the camera. We get the feeling she would rather not have her picture taken. So if you’re wondering why we seem to post more pictures of Ripley, that’s why. Remember you can click on any of the pictures for a larger version.

Last Saturday we (Emily, Brent and I) took the dogs to the San Leandro Marina for a walk and a swim. We didn’t swim; the dogs did. Both of them! Amazingly Ripley actually waded into the water of his own free will. Ripley does this hilarious things where he walks through the water with his mouth stretched wide open letting the water gush into his mouth. It has got to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen him do. If we ever a get a digital video camera we are definitely going to try to get some video of it.

As usual Cali played fetch in the water. We throw a little rubber ball out as far as we can and Cali swims out to get it. The ball we brought with us last Saturday didn’t float quite as well as we hoped. If Cali bumps it with her nose without actually gripping it in her teeth the ball takes a few seconds to float back to the surface. This caused Cali to dive underwater a couple of times which scared all of us just a little! Cali is actually a proficient diver and it can be cool to watch her dive in a pool if we’re right there to keep a close eye on her. However, when she’s twenty-five or more yards out and she dives underwater, we get a little worried.

The most amazing thing of all has to do with Rip though. After we brought Cali in we tried to see if we could get Rip to fetch the ball if we just tossed it a couple of feet out. Rip reluctantly waded out to the ball and plunged his head full into the water to scoop the ball out. It took him three or four tries but he eventually got it and brought it back. Brent threw the ball out a few more times; each time a little further out. Rip got the ball again and again and got better at gripping the ball in his teeth on the first try. The last attempt Brent threw the ball maybe ten yards out. Rip actually ran out toward it but got frightened when he got a little too far out.

This is amazing progress for Rip because traditionally he has been afraid of any kind of water at all. When we got home Brent gave both dogs a bath at the same time. The pictures say everything.

This is what happens when you let a jar of peanut button sit on a kitchen counter in our house. Last week I came home and found this laying in the middle of our family room. Emily accidently left a jar of peanut butter on the counter sometime in the afternoon. Yes, the lid was firmly screwed on at the time. Yet somehow the dogs knew it was full of deliciously good peanut butter. The jar was only half full but that’s still a lot of peanut butter for a couple of dogs to digest. We suspect “princess” Cali ate most of it since she had quite a bit of gas later that evening. Now there is no peanut butter left at all. The analysts from CSI could examine this chewed up plastic shell and not find a single trace of peanut butter! That’s just how thorough these dogs are. Even the label is gone!

We don’t call her our “little princess” for nothing.

Last Saturday we took our dog Cali to a class for dog-aggression. This is a free class given by an animal shelter in Berkeley where they help dogs to be less aggressive toward other dogs. Cali, has a serious problem with dog-aggression so we thought she might benefit from this class.

Naturally, we were worried about taking her to a class with other dogs around. I had my reservations right up until we arrived. I was sure as soon as we got Cali out of the car she would be snarling and pulling to get at any other dog she saw. However, much to our pleasant surprise, she was actually quite good. She stood by us and sat when we told her to sit and basically kept her mouth shut most of the time. Granted we were very cautious and kept about a six foot space between her and any other dog at all times but she was still amazingly well behaved considering there were twenty other pit bulls were roaming around.

The first thing the instructor did was tell us how to get our dogs to obey the “look” command. Basically, you hold a treat up beside your eye and say “look”. The dog looks at the treat — and coincidently your face — and then you give them the treat. Over time the dog learns to look at your face when you say “look”. This increases your chances of diverting your dog’s attention in a volatile situation. Of course, Emily and I were unprepared and didn’t have any treats for Cali so we just had her relax and do the “sit” and “lay down” commands. We’ll work on “look” at home during the week.

The next exercise involves dogs and owners forming a wide circle. One dog and its owner gets in the middle of the circle. Then four or five other dogs are walked around the center dog. The owner of the center dog does everything possible to keep their dog’s attention focused of themselves instead of the dogs walking around it. This teaches the center dog to ignore and be relaxed while other dogs are milling around close by. Cali got a chance to be the center dog and she performed really well for us.

The last exercise had us pair off with another dog. We were told to find a spot and get our dogs to relax while being in somewhat close proximity to the other dog. Again, Cali did really well in this exercise and only growled a little when the other dog came over to sniff me.

We’re going to try to take Cali to this class every week and see if we can get her to be a little more friendly to other dogs over time. Plus, it should be a great way to meet and talk with other responsible pit bull owners.

Last night as Emily and I were walking our dogs we came upon another dog wandering around the neighborhood without its owner. It was a small dog about the size of a Jack Russell terrier. Naturally, our two dogs wanted nothing more than to kill this little thing. When this happens we hold onto the leashes tightly, cross the street and keep walking. When the other dog is safely behind us we loosen up of the leashes and continue to walk normally. This strategy works well when the other dog stays put. Should the other dog decide to rush us then things break down really quick and we have to improvise. Which is exactly what happened last night.

For some reason neither one of us can fathom this little runt decided it was going to attack two full-grown pit bulls. Folks, you need to understand what an amazingly volatile situation this is. We have two dogs that are nothing but sixty pounds of muscle and teeth that have only one thing on their mind: kill the other dog. Anyway, the incident went something like this.

Emily alerts me to the presence of the other dog coming toward us. After a couple of seconds I notice it and immediately pick Cali up to hold her off of the ground. Emily lifts Ripley’s front legs off of the ground but he’s too heavy for her to pick up completely. The other dog stands there and barks for a little bit and then jumps up and nips at Ripley’s hind legs. This could get really bad. The runt just attacked our dog but if we let our dogs defend themselves the little thing will be ripped apart in two seconds. The runt has to go! I start yelling at it as loud and as mean sounding as I can but it just won’t go away. After a while, Cali’s weight and squirming become too much for me to handle so I had to put her down but I kept a tight grip on her collar.

I’m not sure exactly how long this went on but some neighbors did eventually come out to see what all the racket was about. Thankfully, someone chased the other dog away and gave us a ride back to our house in her Jeep.

After everything calmed down and we analyzed the situation we decided that if something like this happens again one us should handled both dogs while the other person takes control of the attacking dog. Let’s just hope that something like this doesn’t happen again.

About a week ago Emily and I ordered two Razor scooters online. Our plan was to ride them while we walk the dogs. The dogs love to run and the scooters would make it easy for us to go fast while minimizing the physical effort required from us. I believe in exercise and staying healthy but I’m not quite ready to sprint two miles every day. We figured the dogs would end up pulling us a little bit also. What we didn’t count on was just how fast they can pull us.

Saturday night we took them out for a test run. It was a fast and nervous affair since neither Emily nor I were all that comfortable on the scooters and the dogs were pulling us down the street as fast as they could. I took Ripley for this first run which was especially hard because he runs in real jerky fits and starts. Cali on the other hand maintains a fairly steady trot. Ripley also makes things more difficult by trying to attack the scooter ahead of him. Not a mean attack. Just his normal, “I have to put my mouth on this” kind of play attack.

On Sunday night we traded dogs and I took Cali. Everything was going great. We were flying down the street and a good clip. The wind was blowing through my hair. “This is a lot of fun”, I was thinking to myself. Then for no reason at all Cali decides to take a sharp left turn to sniff something on the curb. The next thing I know the scooter has fallen out from under me and I go heading for the pavement. I at least had the presence of mind to do a little roll when I hit the ground so my injuries amounted to nothing more than a scrapped elbow and a sore hip.

After that we just walked them for a little bit and when we did scoot we tried our best to keep them to a slower pace. We bought harnesses for them last night so at least now we can apply the brake without worrying about hurting the dogs.

On the one hand I think the Razor scooters are a great idea and a lot of fun. But at other times I think all we need to do is put ramps on the street and we have ourselves a Jackass segment.