Smelly socks and ham

The air was crisp today - perfect for learning to find stuff.

Mom started the game. First she went out to the center of the lawn and stopped around in a circle. I stayed in the sit position but boy, was I curious. 

I whined. Softly, but she heard.

I could tell by the way she turned to look at me and raised her finger to her lips for no noise.

She kept stomping, turning in a circle. 

She'd never done that before, but I stayed sitting because I had gotten a whiff of the ham in her pocket.

Sure enough, she dropped something in the circle then walked back to where I sat.

I waited for her to let me out of the sit so I could go inspect the ground. The ham scent was so strong on her fingers I began to salivate. (Well, I hadn't had ham in a long time - at least a couple of days.)

Mom made me sit a while before she said, "Okay, Alma, go find."

I had no idea what "go find" meant but I ran over to the where Mom and dropped the ham. Four pieces. 

I ate them up and turned to see if she had more.

"Sit."

Oh, good. Now I'd get the ham.

First came pets. Nice, but I wanted the ham.

She made me go back and sit on the patio again.

Then she did the stopping thing in another part of the yard. She took a step and dropped the ham where she had stepped. As soon as she dropped the ham and started to walk toward me I stood up ready to go eat.

"Sit."

Busted. I had to wait for her to come back to me.

Again we made that eye contact thing she is so big into and then she said what I was waiting to hear, "Go find."

I went straight to the ham.

She came and made me sit again. Really, she could just give me all the ham. I already had this game figured out and it was a bit silly. I mean I could see her dropping the ham in the circle.

Then, she changed the game up. This time she went into the woods. When she came back she stuck a smelly sock into my face that smelled of her sweat and ham. 

"Go find."

Now this was a bit confusing. How could she lose what was in her hand? I ignored her silly command and ran towards the woods to look for the ham.

I stopped. I couldn't smell the ham. I could smell where Mom had walked so I put my nose to the ground and followed her scent down the path until I came to another dirty sock, strong with Mom's scent. I grabbed the sock and ran toward Mom who gave me lots of praise but made me walk back with that dirty sock in my mouth to where I'd found it.

"Sit." 

I dropped the sock and sat and that is when I got my ham.

Now I have no idea why I had to drop that sock but I soon learned that if I found the sock and sat beside it I got the ham faster. If I tried to bring the sock to Mom she made me carry the dirty sock back to where I found it, drop it on the ground and then bark. Then I got my ham.

Mom thought she'd get tricky with hiding the sock. She went into the side yard, deeper in the woods where I couldn't see, but she didn't know that this game was easy. 

All I had to do was follow Mom's scent to find the ham. 

It was almost like taking candy from a baby, although I tried that once and got no treats at all.

Tracking Mom around the woods is much more fun.

A Dobe in Massachusetts

I heard once that there are places where Dobermans can go outside and play whenever they want. There are places were the sun shines almost every day. There are places where there is no snow.

I don't live in one of those places. I doubt they exist.

We have snow in Massachusetts right now. We have lots of snow. We have snow piles that are taller than my owner and she is really tall.

The snow is so high my mom had to shovel a trail for me through the woods. The snow is so high that when I go through the trench she made you can only see my head bobbing up and down over the snow banks.

We go on walks but have to be careful because the trees are covered in snow wrapped in ice. When the sun does break through, the ice sparkles. At night when there are no clouds and the moon is shining the ice on the snow looks like it is sprinkled with diamonds.

It is cold when there is snow, but I found a warm spot in the woods. A half circle of small pines bend to the ground from snow in their branches. The ice encased the snow holding the branches and the wind blew snow in a big drift on top of the bent pines. The snow formed a half circle with an opening that faces south. In the middle of the day, the sun shines on the spot. When I hide there I'm protected from the cold wind.

The sun hits my dark reddish-brown fur. I close my eyes. I am warm.

For a few minutes I'm in that place where there is no snow and no cold.

Then Mom calls for me to come and I stand, stretch and run fast as I can because I know there is a treat waiting and a warm bed in front of a blazing fire in the hearth.

Clean socks

I think it was a sapling cut off an inch off the ground when Mom and Dad had the backyard landscaped that scraped the skin under my carpal paw. Don't get me wrong. I love the new back yard. The patio pavers soak in the sun's warmth and are fun to sleep on on a cool autumn day. The deck is off the ground high enough I can survey my entire territory, spotting bunnies  in the woods, turkeys daring to perch on the fence or those sneaky squirrels leaping from pine to pine.

My blood doesn't clot well so I tend to bleed and the smell made me want to lick. Mom says, "Don't lick." But I can't leave a wound alone.

I licked every time Mom wasn't looking.

Boy, that was a mistake. She knew I licked because the little scrape bled and the blood dropped on the floor, on the carpet and on my bed. Mom took a clean sock and wrapped it around my leg for a bandage, then wrapped the sock in duck tape. I knew I could get that sock off. All I had to do was wait until Mom was out of the room. 

Mom isn't the alpha for nothing. She had a second sock. She pulled a second sock over my foot and up my leg and wrapped another length of duck tape around my leg. She pulled the top of the sock down over top of the duck tape and put on a third round of duck tape. Even I couldn't chew through all that.

The bandage worked. My carpal paw healed. Of course, as soon as Mom decided I didn't need the bandage anymore and took off the socks I started licking and reopened the wound. That got me a new bandage.

Mom checked with the vet. If your alpha wants to protect a wound on your paw with socks the important thing is to make sure the wound doesn't get wet and the duck tape shouldn't be too tight. If your foot gets cool, then the duck tape is too tight. The duck tape doesn't have to be very tight though with three rounds of duck tape.

Socks can prevent licking for those times you just can't resist the urge.

Learning not to bark at dogs on a walk

I've been testing Mom just to see if she's a bit tired of being boss. So far, she doesn't seem ready to give up the role. I keep her on her toes though. For instance, when we go on a walk and I see another dog, I wait for her reaction. When she stands there watching the dog I know one of us has to act, so I step in and start barking.

Mom tells me, "Quiet."

But I keep barking because by the time she says anything I'm so focused on the other dog I think maybe the dog will come over to play. After all, I'm barking as loud as I can. I drop into my play stance. Mom took a Control Unleashed class. She will watch and say, "See that?"

Well, duh. Of course I see that, why else would I be barking like a mad dog? She tries to walk away, but I'm so sure I can get this other dog's attention if only I growl so I plant my paws on the sidewalk and put all my strength into holding my position in case the other dog comes over to play.

Okay, let me tell you, growling is not a good idea. People stare. The owner of the dog I'm barking at runs off and Mom takes me to the car and the walk is over.

Now that is not my idea of fun. Apparently Mom feels the same way. The last few weeks she takes me on walks, but as soon as I see something exciting she changes direction! She talks to me and has me start working. You know the routine. Sit. Stand. Down. Stay. Touch. That sort of thing.

All the time I just know the dog behind me is probably leaving the scene. I try to look back to make sure the other dog isn't coming my way for a friendly sniff, but Mom gives me something else to do and distracts me. It is getting to the point where I don't much see the point of barking at all. Mom is just not interested in these other dogs.

Mom seems happy that I'm more focused these days on her than the other dogs, but it doesn't take an Australian Sheepdog brain to realize not one dog has ever given me a treat for barking and Mom clicks and treats with CHEESE when I sit quietly and watch the other dogs go by.

Mom says I'm developing discipline, but I think I've found a new way to get cheese snacks.