And here she is under our dining room table:
The problem with some visitors
Being social and having lots of visitors has been great for Loki. As I previously reported, he's now really wonderful and friendly with all our human guests. The dogs are great. They aren't the problem. Sometimes it's the visitors who are the problem.
This past weekend, we had a very upsetting incident, when one of our visitors left the front door open for too long and Jujube escaped. I was upstairs in the bedroom at the time. I looked out the window just to to see her bolt across the street and out of sight. We live in a townhouse community, so the street she crossed is residential and fairly safe. But there is only a short a brick wall that separates our townhouse community from a very busy street with a speed limit of 45 mph.
Jujube ran past the townhouse buildings across the street from us. To me, it felt like she was gone was forever. But I suppose in reality it must not have been that long, for by the time I got dressed and put my sneakers on, someone already had scooped her up and she was on her way back to us.
Needless to say, I was furious at this visitor's carelessness, and greatly upset by the whole incident. Dogs are simple. Humans on the other hand can be so difficult.
This past weekend, we had a very upsetting incident, when one of our visitors left the front door open for too long and Jujube escaped. I was upstairs in the bedroom at the time. I looked out the window just to to see her bolt across the street and out of sight. We live in a townhouse community, so the street she crossed is residential and fairly safe. But there is only a short a brick wall that separates our townhouse community from a very busy street with a speed limit of 45 mph.
Jujube ran past the townhouse buildings across the street from us. To me, it felt like she was gone was forever. But I suppose in reality it must not have been that long, for by the time I got dressed and put my sneakers on, someone already had scooped her up and she was on her way back to us.
Needless to say, I was furious at this visitor's carelessness, and greatly upset by the whole incident. Dogs are simple. Humans on the other hand can be so difficult.
Adventures in Uncrating
In the dead of the night during one of our early days with Jujube, sometime between last January and April, Loki and Jujube got into a fight. Both Yun and I were sound asleep when it happened. Since that incident, we kept both of them crated at night.
We put Loki in the wire crate and Jujube in the plastic one.
Now, because the two of them have been behaving pretty well (only one fight) since we hired our behaviorist in May, I figured that they have displayed sufficient good behavior to warrant trials in being uncrated at night.
Jujube always sleeps in our bed. Always. There's no keeping her off of the bed. She's very persistent. Even if you constantly tell her to get off, she'll sneak back on after you've gone to sleep. Loki, on the other hand, sleeps everywhere. Sometimes, he'll sleep in his crate:
Sometimes he'll sleep in Jujube's crate:
Sometimes he'll sleep on the bed:
Apparently he thinks all sleeping spots belong to him.
Most nights, Jujube sleeps in between Yun and me by our feet, and Loki picks one of the two crates to sleep in. Loki only sleeps in the bed if one of us humans isn't there to claim our spot. He doesn't join the crowd if there are two humans and a dog already on the bed.
In the past couple days, I have been sick, and spent most of my day in bed. Just me and two dogs: one on each side of me. This has given me greater insight into the world of my two dogs. If Jujube is on the bed first, then there are no issues with Loki getting in bed. However, if Loki is on the bed first, then he sometimes growls at her when she tries to jump on the bed. Ah, but like I said before, Juju is very persistent. She will not be deterred from getting in bed. What does our smart little lady do when Loki growls? She climbs into bed under the covers. Yes, she uses her muzzle and burrows her way onto the bed. Once she settles down, no one would ever know she was there. Amazingly, her technique works! Loki's not smart enough to figure out her sneaky antics.
Lastly, here's a picture of our peaceful pair:
We put Loki in the wire crate and Jujube in the plastic one.
Now, because the two of them have been behaving pretty well (only one fight) since we hired our behaviorist in May, I figured that they have displayed sufficient good behavior to warrant trials in being uncrated at night.
Jujube always sleeps in our bed. Always. There's no keeping her off of the bed. She's very persistent. Even if you constantly tell her to get off, she'll sneak back on after you've gone to sleep. Loki, on the other hand, sleeps everywhere. Sometimes, he'll sleep in his crate:
Sometimes he'll sleep in Jujube's crate:
Sometimes he'll sleep on the bed:
Apparently he thinks all sleeping spots belong to him.
Most nights, Jujube sleeps in between Yun and me by our feet, and Loki picks one of the two crates to sleep in. Loki only sleeps in the bed if one of us humans isn't there to claim our spot. He doesn't join the crowd if there are two humans and a dog already on the bed.
In the past couple days, I have been sick, and spent most of my day in bed. Just me and two dogs: one on each side of me. This has given me greater insight into the world of my two dogs. If Jujube is on the bed first, then there are no issues with Loki getting in bed. However, if Loki is on the bed first, then he sometimes growls at her when she tries to jump on the bed. Ah, but like I said before, Juju is very persistent. She will not be deterred from getting in bed. What does our smart little lady do when Loki growls? She climbs into bed under the covers. Yes, she uses her muzzle and burrows her way onto the bed. Once she settles down, no one would ever know she was there. Amazingly, her technique works! Loki's not smart enough to figure out her sneaky antics.
Lastly, here's a picture of our peaceful pair:
Impossible to find poop
Autumn + rain = many falling leaves
So it's really, really, really hard to find poop to pick up in our little backyard.
So it's really, really, really hard to find poop to pick up in our little backyard.
Thoughts on redirected aggression
One type of aggression in dogs that is often misunderstood and puzzling is redirected aggression. This occurs when a dog redirects his aggression from one source to another. We see this during our leashed walks when Loki barks and lunges at certain neighboring dogs. Because he is unable to reach that dog, he redirects his aggression to Jujube. Fortunately, he doesn’t bite her, but he does lunge and bark in her face. She puts up with it and doesn’t react.
I can’t say that I know much about how to deal with it other than managing each occurrence individually. Since the two of them are both on leash, it’s not terribly difficult to hold them back. Then, I just keep moving forward to try to get his attention on something else. I don’t linger around the source of his aggression. I hope this approach is good enough, because I’m not quite sure what to do if his behavior became more severe.
Although it seems like an odd sort of behavior, I can’t help but to relate it to humans. Humans display redirected aggression all the time. This is what happens when one person “takes it out” on another. After suffering from a bad day at work, some adults come home and take it out on their family members. It can range from just being snappier to being abusive. Interesting parallel, isn’t it?
I can’t say that I know much about how to deal with it other than managing each occurrence individually. Since the two of them are both on leash, it’s not terribly difficult to hold them back. Then, I just keep moving forward to try to get his attention on something else. I don’t linger around the source of his aggression. I hope this approach is good enough, because I’m not quite sure what to do if his behavior became more severe.
Although it seems like an odd sort of behavior, I can’t help but to relate it to humans. Humans display redirected aggression all the time. This is what happens when one person “takes it out” on another. After suffering from a bad day at work, some adults come home and take it out on their family members. It can range from just being snappier to being abusive. Interesting parallel, isn’t it?
Allergies
In the past couple of weeks, when we've pet Jujube, we've noticed some bumps. And when we try to dig through her incredibly thick coat, we come up with little tiny black bumps. They looked like dried blood, in other words, scabs.
At first we wondered if Loki and Juju have been getting into fights while we were away at work, and so she had scabs from that. But the bumps were all over her body in places that didn't make sense for any bite marks. Yun thought that maybe she'd been scratching herself so hard to break skin. But why would she do that?
To help solve the mystery, we took her to the vet this past weekend. It turns out that she has allergies, and she must have been scratching hard enough to break skin. The vet explained that when humans have allergies it often manifests as sneezing and watery eyes, but for dogs, it almost always manifests itself on the skin. We don't know what she has allergies from. The vet said it could be seasonal or it could be food. We don't know what it is, but we did have her on California Natural chicken. Prior to that we went through a bag of fish and a bag of lamb. Yun says this was the first time that she was on chicken with us. I frankly don't remember. So now we got a bag of fish just for her. Loki's fine on the chicken, so we're keeping him on that. The vet also gave us some medication for her. This is our first experience in dealing with dog allergies. I hope that it's the chicken and not something else. We'll see what happens in a few weeks. Hopefully, she'll get better.
Crate Marks
What is that? Do you see it? Loki has these four vertical marks on his side.
What is that?
They are crate marks! He slept in his crate and must have leaned up against the side of his crate. (We didn't even close the crate; he just voluntarily chooses to sleep in there.)
But why these marks?
Ah, because we gave him a bath last night and he must have slept against the side of the crate while still wet.
What is that?
They are crate marks! He slept in his crate and must have leaned up against the side of his crate. (We didn't even close the crate; he just voluntarily chooses to sleep in there.)
But why these marks?
Ah, because we gave him a bath last night and he must have slept against the side of the crate while still wet.
My poopy memory
I thought my memory was bad, but this takes the cake
6:30 pm Arrive home
6:35 pm Take dogs out for a walk so that they can do their business. Remembers that Loki didn’t poop this morning, so we stay out longer than usual so that he has ample opportunity to poop.
7:20 pm Return home
7:30 pm Feed dogs
7:40 pm On the phone with Yun. About to tell him about how I’m furious at Loki for not pooping, but I didn’t get the chance.
8:30 pm Dinner discussion with Yun about Loki not pooping. I know… it’s a wonderful topic of conversation for dinner.
8:33 pm Then I say to Yun, “Oh wait… Loki did poop. We went on a walk. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for him to poop. And finally he did poop! But then I forgot that he pooped and was mad at him all evening for not pooping.”
6:30 pm Arrive home
6:35 pm Take dogs out for a walk so that they can do their business. Remembers that Loki didn’t poop this morning, so we stay out longer than usual so that he has ample opportunity to poop.
7:20 pm Return home
7:30 pm Feed dogs
7:40 pm On the phone with Yun. About to tell him about how I’m furious at Loki for not pooping, but I didn’t get the chance.
8:30 pm Dinner discussion with Yun about Loki not pooping. I know… it’s a wonderful topic of conversation for dinner.
8:33 pm Then I say to Yun, “Oh wait… Loki did poop. We went on a walk. I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for him to poop. And finally he did poop! But then I forgot that he pooped and was mad at him all evening for not pooping.”
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