Toadys Sunding

For some reasin our neighbors love Monster! With Monster throwing himself at the fence, rigidly staring and growloing, genrally acting not so good toward the neighbords (he needs me to help him better, right now is not so good  - normally more relaxed aboiyut the neighbors) , the neighbors still just laugh and say "he's sp pretty! I love hime!". What's up with that?! I agree with them, he's very pretty. But doesn't it bother them at all days lie this when he's a bit out of control? They just tell me Corsi are "mafia dogs", ask me how much pups of his breed cost, and laugh and smile some mroe. You have a tiny Yorkie! How could Monster possibly be a dog you'd apreciate? Still, for whatever reason, I'm very greatful though! Day's like today are horrible, not scarung the neighbors make them a bit more acceptable. Thnak you so mych!

Sorry. Head huirts. Monstermom out.

Today's cloud

I'm two days in to a migraine We're talkng vision troubles, arms and legs numb beneath the el ows/knees, disrupted spech, and of course hellish pain. I try to keep my head above water and keep Monster as entertained as I possibly can (this is one of the few drawabcks woth being single - still worth it thougs!) , but I need ot to let up soone now...  I rarely have migraines last more than two-three days htogh, so we should be in the final strech . Poor Monster. Bored. Can't explain.

Today's Sunshine

Today on a walk, I had Monster off leash and was throwing a stick for him (I know high energy activities like that can be very stressful and have a bad effect on reactivity, but I make sure to demand focus and self control in between throws, he has to be able to perform without signs of stress, and I limit it to a minute or two before he has to hand over the stick and we walk on). I threw it off to the side of the path we were on, into some long grass. Monster raced off to find it, and unfortunately it turned out I must have nearly brained a hare with that throw, because as he was sniffing around to find the stick in the grass, a hare jumped up right next to him and zig-zagged away! And I'm not talking "it couldn't have been more than 15-20 meters" next to him, no, I'm talking "it bumped into his hip as it jumped up" next to him. Literally. Today, Monster was tackled by a hare... I thought disaster had struck - sure, Monster's not a crazed hunter, and I know I can recall him from a hot trail, but everyone has their limit you know. In my minds eye I saw him galloping off toward the horizon. Instead, reality showed me this:

Dude! Would you knock it off!? I'm busy here!

(Obviously it's an old photo, but you get the idea.)
Monster has a marvelous way of absolutely not multitasking when his nose is switched to "on"; he was looking for a stick with my smell on it, the hare was clearly not a stick and smelled all wrong, so there was no reason for him to pay it any attention. While I gaped after the hare Monster found the stick and came bouncing back to me (to whack me in the thigh with it until I agreed to play tug, as per our usual routine), still completely unconcerned with the fleeing hare. That. Was. Awesome!

I know! See, I found the stick!

In other news, reason #4018 for why this place just doesn't feel like home no matter how many years I live here: wild animals aren't wild. Plus, they're really stupid. We have hares. deer, etc back home, but you can go years between seeing one even if you go out in the forest every day. Here they're everywhere, and they don't bother running away until long after it'd really be too late - if they bother running away at all. Plus they often stop to pose - to make sure we've really seen them and prepared ourselves to hunt them - before they set off... What is wrong with them?! This is not normal prey behavior! And it's not like they're not hunted here, every moron with 15 minutes to spare one Sunday a month calls himself a hunter... It drives me nuts, and not even just because of the unnecessary temptations for Monster, but mainly because it's so wrong. It's like the animals around here are broken... Someone broke the wildlife!

Today's Cloud

A couple of incidents not going as well as expected today, like how he focused on a dog even though it was far away (that speed walking Golden Retriever) and how he was quite concerned about a woman following behind us in the dark on our evening walk (she eventually passed us - with us off to the side - without Monster losing his cool, but he wasn't relaxed about it), but let's focus on the real problem we came across today: the lovely dung heap a farmer has plonked down in the middle of our usual stretch of off leash walking path... Monster is absolutely great about not eating gross things - great about not eating anything, actually! He doesn't touch feces, dead animals, or even "real" food (he'll walk right past a dropped sausage) - I haven't had to deworm him since he was a puppy (naturally I test him for parasites, I'm not just guessing), plus it's just so nice that he doesn't go around chewing on something revolting. But... Instead he has a different, quite disgusting, weakness: if something is gross enough, he'll desperately want to roll in it! A dung heap? Yeah, that's on his top ten...

What? Are you saying there's something wrong with that?! Eau de Monster, people!

When he caught the scent on the wind, he set off like an arrow straight for the dung heap... I saw what was going on (I could smell it too) and could call him back before he reached it, but I had to leash him because he was practically bouncing from desperately wanting to run off and take a dip! So now we have that to contend with every day, presumably for quite a while (I expect it's meant to be used as fertilizer on some field or other, but the farmers round here are rarely in any rush so who knows when that'll happen), which feels quite depressing now that we've found this bit of freedom for Monster nearly every day...

Aw, come on! If you just let me go for a swim in it, there's no problem!

Today's Sunshine

Let me tell you something: I love being single. Love! It! And I know, a lot of people reading this are going to shake their heads and call me bitter, or maybe just in denial - because we're meant for that ideal fairytale pairing; it is the only way to truly find happiness! Yeah, right... Look, if you're in a relationship and you're happy, good for you. I'm happy for you! Still don't want it for myself though. And there are a lot of reasons why, but since this is a dog blog I have something specific in mind right now: because I live alone I don't have to explain and justify to anyone why there's a big inflatable double mattress taking up most of the floor space in the living room! (Yeah, one of those uncomfortable things you give to guests you don't want staying very long...) There's no argument over how sensible it is to have this big, ugly thing in the way for something as "silly" as dog exercise. Nope, all my decision. And it feels great!

[I meant to put a picture of Monster on the mattress here, but since the computer crash has led to me not having the software installed to process the photos right now an old, non-apropos photo will have to do.]

Just cause I'm pretty!

I bought one on sale, and I've inflated it just to the point where it keeps its shape but is still quite soft, and I have Monster move and perform on it. He is quite poorly muscled, especially in the rear, and that becomes a negative spiral where he puts more weight in the front because he's weak in the back, further underdeveloping his hind quarters. That's bad for him, and since we live where we live (no forests here, limited off leash opportunities, mostly roads to walk on, etc) I have to try to find an artificial way to force him to use his hind legs more and hopefully build some muscle. I can't tell you yet if it's working, but I can tell you that I truly appreciate the freedom to just do as I please and occupy a large part of the living room "just" to build a gym for my dog. Plus, when the exercise is over I can just plug it in and inflate it some more, ant it becomes a comfy (according to Monster) dog bed! Not sure how long it's going to put up with his claws, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it...

And not to send you to couples' therapy or anything, but... Think about it - don't you want a dog gym too?

If I run in the tall grass more, can we keep the mattress comfy all the time?!

Today's Cloud

Bit of a rough day today. It started off fine, except Monster seemed a bit unfocused and a little all over the place. As we went for a walk I noticed he wasn't winding down between stress exposures, and while he handled the first few things (like a bike passing, small things like that) fine he kept building from one to the next. I don't know why he couldn't relax between incidents today... I decided to be careful and avoid as much as we possibly could, but still continue on with our walk - I think it's important to avoid isolating him as much as possible, but I also know that bad experiences are far worse than no experiences. It's a tricky balance sometimes... 

Maybe I have a headache? I've got a big head, you know...

While we did manage to avoid most triggers and sources of stress along the way it's not possible to avoid everything, and today even the smallest thing became another straw on Monster's back. After about an hour and a half we were on our way home when we met two women out walking with baby carriages, and I knew I couldn't rely on Monster behaving himself around them so I got right off the path and gave them (I believed) plenty of distance. Unfortunately it wasn't enough, and as they drew level with us (only about five meters away, but with a two meter height difference I expected to make all the difference) Monster started lunging and barking toward them - fortunately they just smiled at bit at us and said hello, but I was still deeply ashamed. Threatening behavior around babies (although in Monster's head it's directed at the strange, bulky things people are pushing ahead of themselves like battering rams) is just a step too far, and since I knew Monster had been acting kind of weird all day I should have hared off far enough we could barely be seen... Live and learn I guess, but the question is: am I really learning? I seem to still be making a lot of mistakes.

Today's Sunshine

We've had an absolutely wonderful walk today, and in glorious weather! Not only was it a nice walk, but it provided us with some excellent training opportunities:

• We met a woman with a dog coming toward us on a path I meant to turn onto. Instead we walked a little ways away, and then I turned and led Monster back in a half circle around the meeting. This is a pair we see out and about fairly frequently, she's a power walker (good grief she moves fast) and has a large male Golden Retriever (I think) on a Flexi lead. He doesn't much like Monster (understandable) and they're a fairly difficult trigger for Monster. Today he had no problem turning away from them, engaging in other things as we circled around them (sniffing instead of staring), but was a bit interested in them (turned back to look several times) once we were back on the same path and moving away from each other. Not the smoothest passing in the history of dog walking, but with Monster's issues and his particular history with extreme reactions toward this particular dog it was downright marvelous. I'd estimate we were about... seven meters apart at the closest.
  
• We met a biker coming toward us on a narrow bike path (approximately 1.5 meters wide or so), Monster noticed it while it was still far away and became quite interested. When the bike was ~20-30 meters away I steered Monster to the side and stepped into the grass beside the path. Monster kept his attention on the bike, but kept moving forward. The bike passed without problems, I even looked up and said hi, and it was less than one meter away (with me in between Monster and the bike).
  
• As we turned a bend in the path we spotted a person walking toward his parked bike, who then led the bike around, got on, and started biking toward us. Since this was a bit more unusual (Monster likes things to be one thing or the other, not several things at once: a moving car is OK, a parked car is OK, a car that first moves and then stops is suspicious, for example) I not only stepped off the path, but also over the ditch to create more of a distance. It seems to me a lot - not all, but in at least some ways something like ~75% - of Monster's issues are linked not so much to distance as to borders. If he's on a road and you're on that same road, there's two of you but only one road: clearly you're going to kill him for stealing your road. Similarly, if both of you are in a fairly large field there's still just one field - conflict. But if we step off the road onto the shoulder: you have the road to yourself, and we have the shoulder. Fine, no conflict, and we can pass each other a lot closer than he'd be able to if we shared that large field. So in this case, with the "weird" biker (remember him?) we not only left the road, we stepped across a very clear separation (the ditch) between the road and the edge of a field. No conflict, the biker had the road to himself and therefore wasn't a threat... We passed each other calmly.
  
• As we got to the station some construction workers had blocked our usual path, and the only one open to us (other than turning back) led us quite close to a couple of guys working on a wall. I took Monster in a steady grip, kept my pace even, and led him straight past (Monster unfortunately on the side closest to the guys). One of the guys turned toward us, but I caught his eye and shook my head as I gently praised Monster - and we walked straight past!
  
• Final one: We walked through a neighboring village when a car came driving up behind us veeeeery slowly, with something-or-other screaming bloody murder inside the engine (or wherever: what I know about cars you could fit onto a stamp!). I thought there was no way Monster would be able to handle it, but he looked up at me with a slightly anxious look and I calmly (faked! so, so faked!) praised him and told him to keep walking. Which he did! Only the car just passed us and then it stopped... It turned out to be a service van for... err... one of the electricity-thing-boxes-whatever you see on some streets? And a couple of men got out and started to unload a bunch of tools. It was a very narrow street, and big men loudly handling strange tools are close to the worst thing Monster can think of (the two top things on the list are: 1) Anyone Mom's angry with; and 2) A man walking toward us with angry voice). I'd stopped as soon as the car stopped ahead of us, to evaluate the situation and decide how to handle it, but it was clear that they wouldn't be moving any time soon... So, for whatever reason I decided the situation was manageable and we set off walking forward again. As we drew level to the car Monster was less than half a meter away from the nearest man (with me in between) - who turned toward us and said "That's not a small dog!"... I mumbled something (I have no idea what I said) without taking my eyes off Monster, every hair on my body was literally on end - very weird feeling! - I was so tense, and just kept walking past. No problem! Super cool Monster! Well, maybe not cool exactly. But instead something far more important: concerned, but looking to me for guidance! Wow. What a feeling! I think I bounced on happy clouds all the way home...

(And to everyone claiming dogs can "psychically" feel how you feel, and if you have a reactive dog that's just because you are projecting nervousness and in order to have a calm dog you need to be calm: that's not true. Not only is it not how you feel but instead how you act, it's actually perfectly possible to have a reactive dog if you're half asleep and about as revved up as Eeyore. And you can totally fake calm. Don't tell people to relax, stop shortening the leash around triggers, stop scanning  for potential surprises, and so on. I hate that advise! It's dangerous to give a reactive dog a slack leash, it's dangerous to not pay attention and get a surprise. A dog's behavior is not in the head of the owner! A dog is its own living, thinking being, and while our behavior (note behavior; not beta waves) can certainly affect theirs, they're not an extension of our own consciousness. There is a lot of ridiculous advice out there (usually from people who once had a teenaged dog act up once or twice which they then "fixed" due to their exceptional dogsmanship... yeah, right, pull the other one...) and a lot of it is certainly quite harmful, but this type of advice is the most tiresome. Acting calm is important, but feeling calm isn't. If you have a dog like Monster you have good reason to not feel the least bit calm, and you don't need to work on meditation, calm breathing, or any of that - not unless you can't separate your feelings and you actions. On the contrary, not feeling calm keeps you alert. I say, fight the calm nazis!)

Dude. Chill! Want a taste of my stick?

 And really. What is it with people and the weird size comments!? I know I'm not alone (I found an old blog post from another CC-owner listing strange comments and questions he'd heard on walks), so apparently a lot of people feel the need to comment on a CC's size (and probably other large breeds too?). "That's not a small dog!", "What a big dog!", "That's just a puppy, right? hehehe", "Where's that dog going to walk you?", "What's that Great Dane mixed with - a horse?", "Are you sure you're feeding that thing enough?", "Couldn't you find one in a bigger size?", "Do you have an elephant farm?", "Look at the tiny puppy!", "Oh, aren't you just a precious little doll?", and so on, and so on... Why? Is it an expression of discomfort, they're afraid of him and try to find safety in humor? Because he's smaller than a Great Dane, for instance... I honestly find it a bit weird.

As long as they note my beauty, it's all good with me.