Skippy's Play Day

I've mentioned on several previous posts that Skippy has a difficult time playing or understanding the general play concept. She also hasn't had frequent opportunities to socialize with other dogs in a healthy environment, owing to her early years at the puppy mill and the reality that we know very few people with dogs. Just this past weekend we introduced Skippy to what we thought would be a new friend but it became very apparent that her inability to understand play was not limited to missing the finer points of fetch. Sydney is a black lab and something else I can't remember, but that isn't important. What is important, is that at about 6 months old, this dog towers over Skippy.

What Sydney wants most in life is to play. She tried to chase Skippy; Skippy thought she was being mean. She tried to pet Skippy; Skippy thought she was picking a fight. She tried to nose Skippy to coax her into playing; Skippy thought she was invading her personal space. Its ironic that my socially inept Jack Russell, who daily violates our cat's personal space, had no patience for this overgrown child sticking its nose in her face, trying to get her to play.

I kind of felt bad for this dog, so eager to do anything fun. Unfortunately, all Skippy wanted to do was Throughout the afternoon, she lied on the floor beside my wife and growled every time Sydney came with a foot of her. Meanwhile, Sydney just whined and threw her toys one by one in front of our boring dog, trying to entice her into behaving like anything other than an old woman.

(no offense to old women out there; you just don't play a lot, that's all)

Smelly Dog

My wonderful Jack Russell, Skippy, has typically been very gaseous. Now, I'm not sure if this is a result of her being elderly or simply a matter of her uncouth social graces. But, for whatever reason, my dog smells. At first we thought it was the food, and this certainly was a factor. We switched to a prescription high-fibre diet and things improved, but instead of needing to go out every five to six hours she needs to go out every three.

She has had her glands cleaned out, which is an incredibly disgusting process, for those of you fortunate enough never to have witnessed this procedure. This has also been a contributing factor in the reduction of smell.

Although these changes have lessened the frequency of bad smells, they haven't gotten rid of her pungent odour completely; I guess that would be too much to expect. For now we'll simply have to put up with a Jack Russell who causes us to ask, "Did the dog just crap in our bed?"

Building a New Door...In My Mind!

I've alluded in several previous posts to the possibility of dog-dementia or senility as possible explanations for some Skippy's more bizarre behaviours. She's approaching 12 years very soon, though we don't actually know her day of birth-we'll say it's in April, maybe March. But this so-called senility has been around for a few years.

Just recently, however, it's taken a new turn; not anything dangerous or concerning to her health, but just unexpectedly odd. As you may know, whenever we let Skippy inside she barrels down the length of the living room (see Tag, You're It!). Just last week she stopped just before our bookshelf, turned and stared at the blank wall beside it.

She waited for a moment, as if assessing the quality of some piece of invisible art that hung there, two feet from the floor, before turning her head to face me. I was confused as she returned her gaze to the blank wall in front of her, then back to me for a moment, as if she was expecting me to do something.

Then it occurred to me that this dog must be waiting for me to open the door to the bedroom, which was already open but on the other side of the bookshelf. Skippy had constructed, in her mind, a new bedroom door which only she could see and now wanted to go through.

I wish this were a singular occurrence, but there have been other mornings since then where she has stopped in the same place and waited for me to open the door that she sees on the blank wall before her. Even with Skippy's coloured past of ridiculous eccentricities, this one seemed to come from another planet.

What's up with my Jack Russell? This is what I figure has to be going on: she has super-cool dog powers that allow her to see secret passages that can only be revealed by special dog magic. She just hasn't figured out the right spell to open them yet.

My crude rendition of the moment.

Tunnel-Vision Takes Its Toll

In one of my September, 2010 posts, "Duped Again", I mention how the cat is easily able to predict and, in turn, exploit Skippy's habits for her own pleasure (see "Tag, You're It!" in the YouTube link section for a visual example). One of Kitty's strategies is to stalk Skippy from atop the furniture as she runs by unaware. Kitty, then waits for the most opportune time to descend on the unsuspecting Jack Russell, causing all kinds of commotion.

Sometimes I think it's only a matter of time before we come home to find that Skippy has had enough and killed the cat. But until then things will carry on as they have. Skippy seems to either forget that there is a world above her 10-inch frame, or she is completely unaware. I vote for option two.

Case in point: two days ago, Skippy wandered too close to Kitty's blue footstool, which Kitty happened to be sleeping on at the time. The approaching clickity-clack, clickity-clack of the dog on the laminate floor woke the cat, and never being one to pass up an opportunity, she hissed then swatted the dog. Skippy got so flustered as she tried to make a quick getaway.

Picture a tiny Jack Russell attempting to immediately achieve maximum speed from a still position, while standing on ice; her legs were moving but they were taking her nowhere. Realizing her efforts were futile, Skippy knew she had to find safety and it needed to be now. The safest spot she could conjure at such short notice flashed though her mind: Kitty's blue footstool had never let her down. And fortunately, it just happened to be right there beside her. So up she jumped.

You can't make this stuff up. What is up with my Jack Russell, indeed.

Dressing for the Winter

As the harsh Canadian winter nears its peak, temperatures that drop into the negatives on the Farenheit scale are all too common. Now perhaps St. Bernards or those Old English Sheepdogs, with their long, thick coats, can handle a certain degree of chill, but what about our tiny, low bodyheat-generating, short-haired Jack Russells? At what temperature do we dress them up to go outside?

For our little Skippy we have a few sweaters (jumpers) that she wears when the temperature gets anywhere approaching -10C (14F) mark. We put her sweater on and she prances around the house eagerly anticipating her walk. This works only down to about the -15C mark and then it doesn't matter how pretty the sweater is; she eagerly runs down the stairs, waits, then tries to run back up the stairs.

Obviously, little dogs like this need some extra protection when the temperatures drop. But I'm wondering if the cold just an excuse for us to dress up our dogs?

We get a lot of snow here, too, between January and March, which raises another issue with the tiny stature of the Jack Russell. This morning we easily got 8" of fresh snow. Skippy is about 12" tall, just enough for her head to crest the top of the sea of white. But as funny as it is to watch her bound through the snow, it's very difficult for her relieve herself when it's that high. Yes, I had to shovel out a poo-path this morning.

I also dub this the Yellow Brick Road; I don't recommen following it, though.

Is the cold just an excuse for us to dress up our dogs?

Skippy's Puzzle

We finally found a toy that Skippy will actually play with. In my November 4th post, "No Cue How to Play," I lamented over having a dog that didn't understand the concept of "play". Well, nothing has changed, although now she sort of plays with new puzzle we got her called "Linkables".

It's quite simple; a treat goes in this rubber tube-thing and she has to try to get it out. So we are bribing her to play and tricking her into playing by disguising it as work. It's strange, but Jack Russells like to work and this seems to really utilize her severely lacking problem solving skills (remember how easy she gets stuck outside).

I love this video, because you can really see her determination to figure it out. I've shortened it to lapse some of the time it took her, which was about two minutes. Since then (about two weeks ago), she can get the treat in about 30-45 seconds, depending on how well gravity is cooperating that day. The neat thing about the puzzle is that you can get extensions for it to keep the challenge new. I think I'll hold off on the extras for now. This one sort gives me the feeling that my dog is really smart and since this feeling is new for me, I'm going to hold on to it for just a little longer.