Wootube!

Dolittle's got nothin' on me

Who wouldn’t love this face??

By 22 Comments

What a face.  Who couldn’t love it?

ME!  That’s who!  This dog is driving me bananas!

Winterjerk has Separation Anxiety (capital S, capital A).  I can’t even step out of the room without coming back to a dog popping around like hot corn in oil, and biting my arms and lower back and HAIR (it *hurts* to have a 20 lb dog Tarzaning from your locks, lemme tell you).  If I ignore him, he gets more frantic.  If I get angry at him, he gives me Elvis Lip and tap dances nervously, and paws at any patch of bare skin with his impossibly sharp nails.

I have to let him out to pee as soon as I step in the door because the excitement of seeing me triggers a flood of urine.  And speaking of pee, his bellyband continues to be soaked when I get home from work.  He doesn’t leg lift in the house anymore – he is now housebroken – but everything anxiety translate into peeeeeeeeeeeeeee (and more Elvis Lip).

I am thinking of trying him on Zylkene – has anyone ever tried this?  Any feedback for The Food Lady?

Here’s a face I DO love :)

Miss Piper had her 6 week post-op check up and everything is looking good, says Doc.  Three more weeks of on leash stuff and catrophen injections, and she should slowly start to resume normal activity.  She will be so very happy.  Soon she will look like this instead:

I wish I had something interesting to tell you, but I don’t do anything interesting these days!  I work, I sleep and I let the terriers do this:

and this:

And this:

And this:

As much as Winter drives me crazy, it’s awfully fun to see him play with Spring more or less constantly.  I think she appreciates someone who speaks her terrier language.  Also, it’s two less dogs I have to exercise myself as they exhaust one another.

It’s hard to do anything fun with this many dogs – even for me, the Queen of Taking Multiple Dogs Places, eight is too many.  It’s too many for my truck, and it’s WAY too many for my sanity.  I have come to terms with the reality that I do not have time for Kieren, much as I may like him, and he would be better served in a home with someone who either has fewer dogs, or more free time.

The problem is, nobody seems to want him (except for people who aren’t suited to him, like newbie dog owners and the like) :(

Also, it will be sad to break up this duo:

Though Dexter will be happy to have the Flying Squirrel back to himself again.

On the other hand, taking a photo of all 8 dogs LOOKING AT THE CAMERA is my piece de resistance, no?

Shall I translate for you?

  • TWOOIE: disgruntled
  • WOOTIE: high
  • KIEREN: ball?  BALL?  BALLBALL?
  • DEXTER: <inappropriate attachment to Food Lady>
  • TWEED: Again?  Really?
  • PIPER: I will kill you in your sleep.
  • SPRING: I don’t wanna sit next to stinky little brother!
  • WINTER: OHMIGODICAN’TBEARTOBEAPARTFROMYOUFOREVENASECOND!!!

Sometimes I think TWooie is the canine version of Grumpy Cat.

But lest you think he is always dour (and because I realize I am blogging so rarely lately that I have lost most of my readership and photos won’t cut it, so I have to step up my game), may I present you a rare video of TWooie *PLAYING* with the terri-erri-erriers?

 

Will that bring you back to the fold? Also, if one of you (*coughJULIEcough*) would just adopt Kieren, I would have more time/space (continuum? no wait, tangent!) to go on adventures with the dogs and blog it!!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. You haven’t lost all your readers – those of us with your blog in our Blog Readers always know when you post – we just wait until your blog shows up again! :-) And your amazing picture of all 8 dogs together really emphasizes how much Spring & Winter look like twins!

  4. Hey there Food Lady,

    If you want people to find out more about Kieran, you should probably fix the TDBCR site — it links his star to Ryder. :)

  5. No it doesn’t, either from my home computer or my work computer. And I have had people inquire about him from the website, so they are seeing Kieren’s profile as well. I don’t know why you are seeing Ryder.

  6. Website links to my current foster. 8 month old mini-aussie, deaf, was a “car dog” for his previous owner because he couldn’t be crated, couldn’t be separated, couldn’t be left alone and had to go everywhere. Or would lose control of his bowls, bark his head off until anyone within a mile shrieked. She had no clue what to do and here he is in my home (see website link). It has taken hours and hours and hours of painstaking crate training with me literally moving out of sight for a second and back into sight and treating, out of sight for 2 seconds and back and treating, 3 seconds and back and treating, etc. After 8 weeks I can leave him in a crate with a filled kong for up to 3 hours before he loses it. In the car for up to 4 hours before he starts to shriek. It was literally 1 incremental second at a time. I cannot begin to tell you how much this dog has tested my patience and training skills. But how proud of him for how far he has come. I knew there was no way I would find him a furever home until he was manageable. And now he is ready. But I ended up pretty much taking the first two weeks off work just to get to the point where he could be crated in the car and ride with me, could be left in a crate downstairs while I showered. SA is not for the faint of heart and requires sheer tenacity. There are no shortcuts that I found – and I know alot of excellent trainers who advised and helped me. You need a plan and the time to execute it. This will not get better on its own. And it is an awful feeling. If you can help him get to the other side, you will probably have saved his life.

  7. Oh goodness. Winter is not THAT bad – he, like Spring, is just overly anxious. She got over it and in time he will too, I suspect. He’s just testing my patience as I am overly busy and have too many dogs ;-)

  8. I agree with Toni — only for the brave and persistent (blowing kisses to my Crazy S.A. Chance at the Bridge). Have you tried a Thundershirt? Or the D.A..P.. (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) diffusers? I’ve heard those work really well and only wish these things had been around when my dog was going nuts. Other things that helped us: a natural dog herbal supplement with valarian and kava kava; melatonin; tons of exercise before the lengthy departure (if you’re on a regular schedule they can anticipate, that helps); an Auntie Jeannie archeological stuffed Kong (you may already be familiar with that one) used as a long-leaving cue, only given at that time and eventually, when anxiety calms a little, anticipated with drool. If he’s going ape when you get back, break the pattern immediately, in any way you can, even if that just means going out a different door. Better yet, supervised by someone until you can figure it out. If you keep doing the same Thing, and he can’t handle that exact particular Thing, then Thing becomes bigger and badder every time you go. Dogs who suffer from this actually often lack confidence and any kind of frustration tolerance (forgive if you know all this already) so games of tug where they win and other confidence boosting exercises like clicker training will also help. So much more to share! but this ain’t a novella :)

  9. Oh: don’t mistake this for “just being overly anxious.” By the time it’s apparent it’s not, you’ll have a big problem on your hands. Signed, Been There.

  10. Great 8 dog pic, always impressive how you get them lined up although Winter does look like he’s about to bounce out of the frame. They all look great, Piper is so fluffy looking! She must be doing her hair to stay busy during recovery time :-)
    Sounds like you’re quite busy, so thanks for the post!

  11. Oh I am not sure I agree. I have dealt with many dogs with serious SA; Winter is very much like Spring was when she first arrived, but she has more whippety reserve than he does, so his terrier tenacity is showing. I can actually leave him alone for several hours without a problem, but a whole work day is hard for him. I do agree that confidence building is a must; it was easier to do with Spring as I like her more than I like Winter :)

  12. Zylkene is great fantastic I use it with Jazz and its made a big diff in her anxiety with fireworks, thunder etc. its not totally gone but much more manageable. Her stress level is noticeably better. Tanya Wyss is also using it for Codi, he has serious anxiety issues and it has made a huge huge difference. Talk to Tanya. They tried everything before this and they are thrilled.

  13. I grinned from ear-to-ear watching Twoo INSTIGATE play! What a goof! He sure has the playbowzoomfreezeplaybowzoomfreeze down to a science! And amazing job at capturing eight dogs in one photograph…Wow… :)

  14. So you’ve answered the question ‘how many is too many’, or, ‘where is critical mass’, huh? With 6 dogs myself, I wonder that, so thanks for doing the research.
    However, I am pushing for you to keep Kieren, so I offer up my own method for your considerations, which is: I never take the whole gang anywhere anymore.
    In my case, I can’t, as a couple of the very seniors (15 and 14) have mobility issues that make them waaaayyy slower than the others, and of course, 6 dogs will not fit comfortably into a Scion XB.
    But what I have found is that taking them out in platoons works very well, for me and for them! So maybe it would work for you? The dogs who stay behind get Kongs with peanut butter and now they all know what ‘old dogs first’ means, and that their turn will come. Old dogs walk over to the park on the next block; come home, drop off old dogs, get not-old dogs, who go in the car to the BIG park or for a much longer and briskly-paced walk.

  16. It’s WONDERFUL to see TWooie PLAYING! (I’m not yelling, I’m just WAY excited!) He’s come so far! The grumpy face is just to make you think he’s hasn’t and mess with your head…
    (Is Tarzaning a word?)

  17. You are so good with those dogs – I can’t imagine how you wrangle all eight! I would love Kieren if my 12-year old BC, Skye, wasn’t so nervous about other dogs coming within 6′, no matter how friendly their intentions. I would love to see Skye playing like TWooie is in your video. He used to play with his sister, Casey, and I’m sure he misses her as much as I do. The terriers are like a little 8-legged circus.

  18. You are a little busy!
    Drugs: If humans sometimes need drugs to manage life, it makes perfect sense that dogs might too. What do you have to lose? Go for it.

  19. I can’t get over Dexter looking so grown up! Plus he’s got that crimpy-coat thing going on with the damp air….reminds me of my b.c. :)

  20. I’m delighted with your photos and updates on life with eight whenever you have time. Loyal readers continue to look forward to your posts!

  21. Greta is right – not to nitpick but if you click on the star directly above Kieren’s name it does indeed link you to Ryder’s profile. When I clicked on Kieren’s name directly it worked just fine.

    Also, don’t bring Kieren this weekend to the LNB trial. I don’t need another dog. I really, REALLY don’t. Even if they are smooth and handsome.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *