The El Rudayday Summer Camp for Wayward Canines, of course!
We are babysitting sis' dog Taylor, and of course, Boomie is in fine summer feather, but the real story is the addition of Chik-Chikka to the brood. We have been hitting some of the local doggie hot spots.
She has been coming to work too.
The weather has alternated between miserable June-gloom-style cold and near perfection around the Bay. This has meant keeping things either at local dog parks, or on those magic warm days around the Bay, up into the East Bay hills and off-leash trails like Tilden and Redwood. She seems very much to dig it.
I am trying to be realistic about the bonding between Boom-Boom and Chik-Chikka - it may take time, and so far, it has mostly just been overwhelming indifference. It could be worse. For the most part, the kid just kinda has her own agenda, and sticks to it. She may not be getting a good look at everything (with her sight poor as it is), but she leaving no twig, plant, or stone un-sniffed and marked. She really has it down to high art, and it seems to bring her much pleasure.
The Dog Whisperer I am not. I have no idea what is possible or probable. My initial fear was that there would be actual nastiness on Boom's part towards the new kid, but I tend to exaggerate his naughtiness. He hasn't been too bad - just a little territorial about lap space and prime flop-on-bed space; but even then, it has been uncommon.
Until my sis gets settled and can take her dog, I have decided not to do training with a trainer. I feel like the house is too unsettled with my nephews being in, and with their doggie in the mix. Until we are in a pattern reflective of how things are "normally", I am not going to press to hard setting up firm guidelines. This is easy because they all get along in their own way.
Our hikes at Oyster Bay, near Oakland Airport, are a good case study. All 3 doggies are basically under voice command - at least none of them run away - and each of them seems to have a good time with the trails and such. We all have a good time hoofin' our way through, but each of them goes about their visit in their own way, and in fact, tend not really to have much to do with what the others are up to.
In the case of Taylor, it would be impossible to share much in the way of activities since her preference is to immerse herself into every thicket, bramble, and tangle she can in pursuit of rodent tracking (it literally took 30 minutes and quite a few chunks of fur being cut in order to get all the burrs and ticks out of her coat after just this one visit.) Too dirty for Booms, and too cramped to leg-lift and pee for the Girly-Girl.
At first, I was a little worried that Chik would be tough to have on hikes because she didn't seem to care to keep up with us, or to really pay any of us much mind at all. But with time, she is now pretty much entirely with the program. She is still off on her own quite a bit, but she always is looking and listening to make sure she knows where we are, and 9 times out of 10, she can be summoned to catch up, or at least wait for me to retrieve her.
I try not to focus on her doing her own thing because all three of them do it! Maybe when we are down to a duo, and when she is more accustomed to our routine on hike days, it will be easier for her to keep it tight.
Either way, she has taken to the wild life as quickly as Mister Boom Boom did once we started hitting the trails as a matter of course. For all this little girl has been through, she really has not resigned herself or given up. She takes infinite pleasure from simple things. She asks for nothing other than to just be included and to be given some space to take in the world her own way. Pretty universal stuff. So far, our trips have been within 90 minutes of the city, and we are yet to put in any big-time road weekend. It may be fall before we pull that off. It will be a test, and may take some prep. So far, I am pretty sure she will groove on it like she does when we hit nature in the evening or on weekends now.
All in all - so far, so good. I would love it if they were an instant pack of buddies for life, but things don't work that way very often. It is a bit over-the-top for me to dwell on how much seeing happy dogs makes me happy, but I must say, there is something very life-affirming in seeing how much each of these doggies love their lives and find so much pleasure in simple things. If I could swing the same, I would be walking in the world almost wholly unvexed - except for the canine wind, naturally. Comes with the territory I guess; at least it always seems to with me.
Posted by rudayday at July 22, 2010 02:13 PM