Little Dog in a Big World

Misha is such a character! You never know what she’s going to do next. She is a quick learner and picks up tricks easily. This trick was something Misha already did. Whenever you get her food, she springs in the air 3 to 4 feet off the ground–jumping in place.

I have her doing it on command. We call this trick Jump For Joy…

Misha Jumps For Joy

Misha turned two years old on the 20th!  Woo hoo!  She even sang “Happy Birthday” to herself.

She turned out to have a very busy weekend.  My niece and her puppy stayed the night.  Misha had an unplanned birthday sleepover.

It was funny to see how mature Misha was compared to the 6 month old puppy.  She wasn’t really crazy about being chased around in circles and the constant sneak attacks.  She hasn’t had much experience with puppies, so she really wasn’t sure what to do.  The puppy was quite bratty and Misha lost her temper once.  Luckily, it was more posturing than anything.

Other than that the two dogs got along pretty well.  After they left, Misha collapsed into an exhausted heap.

So…Happy Birthday Misha!

As time goes on, I’m much more happy about how Misha is maturing.  Yesterday, we had a big family get together for Easter.  Four of the people Misha does not know very well.  They bring their dogs and one of them has gotten in a tussle with Misha in the passed.

At first I had her on leash.  Then when things settled down a bit I let her loose.

She was reluctant around the people she wasn’t familiar with, but she wasn’t barking or growling.  She went up suspiciously sniffing shoes.  Eventually she relaxed.

I was a little more worried about the situation with the dogs.  I didn’t need to.  The one dog has a habit of getting right up in other dog’s faces.  She Misha cornered under a chair when she did them.  And, Misha let her know with her fiercest growl and snarl that she did not like it.  From that point on the other dog backed off.

She’s still not great with other dogs.  She doesn’t get down and play like she should.  She is intimidated.  But, at least, she didn’t get in a fight with anyone.  She wasn’t avoiding them though.  Maybe soon she’ll be more participatory.

Another day and another move towards adulthood for my little dog.

This is going to be a bit of a rant.  I apologize in advance.

I want to start off by saying that I realize there are many appropriate places to allow your dog to run off leash.  Your backyard is a good place, dog parks are another.  Those are great places for a dog to experience some freedom in a controlled environment.

Your front yard is not a good place to let your dog roam freely off leash especially if you life in the city or suburbs.  You might say “But, my dog is well behaved!  She answers all my commands!”  But she do so when another dog is walking down the street?  Can you trust your dog implicitly when something might distract them so much they might wander off?

I walk Misha every day.  She is a small dog–8 pounds.  Far too many times, I have had to pick her up and scare off dogs that have been allowed to run off leash in the owner’s yard.  In most cases, these are small dogs and the people are on their porches or in their garages.  Sometimes they think it’s “cute” that “Buddy” has run up to “make friends” with the cute little Jack Russell.  Other times, they don’t care at all.  What harm can a little dog do, right?

I assure you that it is neither cute nor harmless.  Because of dog owners who think that it’s no big deal, my dog has become afraid of strange dogs because of the numerous times an unknown dog has run out of nowhere and approached her.  When she is sprung on like this, she attacks.  I certainly don’t want to see my dog get attacked or see her harm another dog.  Those teeth are just as vicious in an 8 pound dog when that dog is threatened.  And, what if one of those dogs bites someone?  Do they really want their dog to be taken and put into quarantine?

It’s very frustrating for me.  Almost every Saturday, I have to walk on guard because people are out in their garages working. Their dogs are part way down the street and they don’t even know about it!  Most of the time I end up chasing the dog back home carrying Misha in my arms.  When I find the owners, I don’t even get an apology that their dog was following me home!  They seem incredibly clueless to the fact that our dogs might have gotten in a fight or as their dog crossed streets with me it could have been hit by a car.

I don’t think it’s fair that every Saturday I have to change my route because there are loose dogs in front of houses.  We have leash laws in my city.  By rights, none of these dogs should be roaming freely with the owners present or not.

I wish more people would be concerned about the welfare of their pets and be considerate for the other dog owner’s trying to take a walk.  I don’t think it’s right that I should keep my dog indoors just because someone else thinks it’s okay for their dog to roam everywhere.  We should all be able to enjoy the neighborhood.  My dog on leash at my side obeying me.  Your dog on leash at your side sitting on your porch or in your garage.  Is that too much to ask?

A few months ago, I joined Squidoo.  It’s a writing community that creates web content.  I wasn’t sure what to write about at first, so I created a page in honor of my three legged dog.

I hope you enjoy her adventure…Three Legged Dogs Can Be Happy

This month we’ve been besieged with one rain storm after another.  A few days it poured so much I couldn’t take Misha out for one walk let alone the two that we normally do.  What do you do with a dog (especially a young dog) on a stormy day so they don’t drive you nuts?  You can only play fetch or fill the treat all so many times!

One of Misha’s favorite games is hide and seek.  I hide treats throughout the house and then she searches for them.  We did this on the worst days to keep her busy.

A couple of days when it was impossible to walk her outdoors I walked her indoors.  We practiced her heal-sits.  She’s not really good at them, so this gave me an opportunity to work with her in a less distracting environment.  It only took a couple of minutes before she was sitting everytime I stopped walking.  Now if she would do that outside I’d be happy!

Every day I worked with her on her commands.  She still has a long way to go in improving her manners.  I’m trying to figure out some new tricks to teach her as she love to do them.  She learns quickly too.

What games to you play with your dog to keep them occupied on bad weather days?

Although I don’t live in snow country, our weather gets pretty chilly in the Winter.  When you have a dog who burrows under a heat reflecting blanket when it’s 80 degrees, you have to take certain precautions.  Early mornings, Misha shivers when she goes for her first potty break.  So, I figured it was time to get her a jacket.

I had no idea how traumatic this would be for both of us.  Misha is terrified of her dog jackets.  She doesn’t like to wear them at all.  I tried a pull over type but I couldn’t even get it close to her head.  The best bet was one that had velcro enclosures.  This worked okay except for the fact that she’s terrified of the sound the velcro makes.

She looked really cute in her first jacket, but it was too big for her (even though it was a hand-me-down from a Mini Pischer!)

The next jacket was smaller and had less velcro to deal with.  However, it became clear that Misha was not going to wear it.  The back end stuck up a bit and she ran around the house looking back in fear.  She though the jacket was following her!

Finally, my Mom found this little brown number at Ross.  It was small enough that Misha didn’t think it was following her and it was easy to put on.

We’ve been working on getting her to accept wearing a jacket for 4 months now.  While she is more tolerant, she still hates it.  I no longer have to feed her treats to get her to allow me to put it on.  But, the minute I put her down she runs around the house rubbing the walls trying to take it off.  She has only been successful once!

Once we’re out walking, she doesn’t notice the jacket at all.  Maybe by next Winter she will have decided that it’s not such a bad thing.

Misha is a funny dog.  I read somewhere that Jack Russell’s hate to be held.  They aren’t lap dogs and don’t want to be treated as such.

Well, Misha must be the fluke because she loves being held.  In fact, when she is wild, holding her is her “settle”.  She instantly settles down once she is in your arms.  She’ll even fall asleep if you wait long enough.

The problem is getting her there!  When she went through her trauma last Summer, picking her up became dangerous.  She would attack anyone who approached her.

I’ve been working with her…alot.  She’s gotten better.  She will tolerate being picked up most of the time.  Sometimes there is this look of panic in her eyes though and then she overreacts.  Or, sometimes she plays the clown and no matter how you try to lift her up, she rolls over on her back to make it more difficult.

She is now to the point where others can hold her.   She loves when people hold her.   She has even relented to being held upside down like a baby a few times recently.

There’s definitely more work to be done.  I’ll keep at it.  Eventually, I would like her to be a willing participant rather than a reluctant one.

If you experienced any difficulties accessing this blog over the last 24 hours, my apologies.  I was attempting to upgrade the WordPress software and things didn’t go well.

After reinstalling everything this afternoon, the blog is back online.

Thanks for your patience!

I joined an online writing community that creates web content.  One of my first projects was to create a dog lens (a lens is the same as a web page).

Here is my lens on Misha.  I hope you enjoy it!

My Dog Misha