“Quirks”
Have you ever been on a walk and get the weird feeling that someone is following you? Well every walk with Reina made me feel like I had a tail. Not a cute doggy tail, a tail as in someone—perhaps an oblivious random stranger, or violent murderer—following you. About every thirty seconds Reina would suddenly and briefly stop and look behind her shoulder. Which, when I wasn’t expecting it, was highly annoying. At one point I tripped about two feet forward on her heel. Her constant checking, as far as I could tell, was not based on any sort of reality. However, if there happened to be a person minding their own business behind her—despite Reina’s belief they were an evil dog killing ninja assassin—she would pull as hard as she could. So long story short, Reina does not like strangers: one of her fun neuroses that I assume comes from her troubled background.
Despite Reina’s paranoia, I found one neighbor during my stay that did not provoke the fear reaction in Reina. Both dogs actually pulled me toward him. While I made small talk with said man, Reina started chewing on Chips collar. I can only assume that she, as the alpha of the pack, was helping her subordinate escape, so he could then help her. Then they could stay with this nice man who was their truly desired temporary owner. However, this occurred early in my stay. By the end, the dogs loved me—no really. They couldn’t get enough of my lethargic self.
The dogs do not like construction workers. At all. Which caused super-fun time when they were working on the commercial building located immediately adjacent to the house.
Speaking of barking. Both beasts tend to bark at invisible enemies indoors and outdoors. Yeah dogs have better hearing than humans and everything, but there are not enough enemies in the world to justify the frequency of their barking. In the first week, they would start these barking fits around 11pm or 12 am at night while I was going to sleep in the complete dark. That was not comforting. Sometimes Reina and Chip get into barking matches with each other. For example, sometimes Reina will stare at Chip and start barking very loudly, Chip decides to respond. Then they keep barking until one of them leaves the vicinity.
In the cute column, Reina is afraid of thunder. Whenever a storm rolled in, Reina would go wherever I was at the moment and hide under the nearest usable surface. While it sometimes seemed like the dogs were controlling my life, there were times where I truly felt like I was the master. The true alpha. Then, the dogs would put me back in my place…
Sara had instructed me that the dogs should be walked no later than 8:30 or 9:00am. Well within the first week I learned the true routine. Promptly at 5:00 am, one or both of the dogs would come to my bedside and start whining. I would then make the fatal mistake of looking at them, or moving ever so slightly, so that I betrayed to my captors that I was indeed awake, and ready for torture. As my stay went on, the way I dealt with this unwelcomed intrusion every morning changed, and became more sneaky. For the first week I would go downstairs with the dogs and let them outside (even though they have a doggie door that they could easily use by themselves if they were reasonable creatures). I would stand outside with them, which signaled to Chip that it was play with the ball time. If I dared not pick up the ball he would bark loudly, putting the fear of God in me that he would wake all the neighbors and make me a very hated person. Eventually, I learned just to walk downstairs with them, trick them into going outside and then staggering up to bed to sleep a few more hours, which seemed to appease them. But eventually even this was too much, so I then learned that playing dead was the best option (aren’t the dogs supposed to do that, not the owner?). When they came in to whine I would not open my eyes, I would not move a muscle, and if I was lucky they would fall for it and leave me alone. To their credit, they did progressively let me sleep in later and later, which was much appreciated when I started feeling tired all of the time, with the then unnamed illness, mono.
Both have absolutely no interest in small animals. I’ve seen a chipmunk and bunny 3 ft from their faces. No reaction. I guess Spanish Water Dogs aren’t a hunting breed.
At some point, a game that I did not want to play started to occur every time it was time for a walk. Both dogs use “gentle lead” leashes, which requires a small loop to be placed around the dog’s snout (not a muzzle, they could still open their mouths). Let’s just say, Chip and Reina do not appreciate the gentle nature of the leashes. From what I could tell the leashes were unbearably itchy. When I picked up the leashes to put them on, Reina would drop her nose to the floor and start rubbing it on the carpet. Chip would walk around the perimeter of the first floor refusing to listen to my initially firm and increasingly pleading commands, “sit” “stay” “please?”. Reina would usually submit once I told her to “sit”, though a couple times she walked upstairs and I had to drag her out. By the end I got so frustrated with Chip’s evasions that I “gently” grabbed his head in my hands and “tenderly” forced his nose into the leash. The sicker I got, the less fun the game became.
As I mentioned in my other post, Chip loves playing with tennis balls. He went crazy when I gave him some new, used tennis balls from my mom’s collection. The primary game is placing the ball in front of his human plaything, running away and then having the ball kicked to him. And then repeat until human plaything runs away, or pretends to be asleep. Well two weeks in, Chip provided further proof that he could amuse himself endlessly with a tennis ball, by showing me a new game. I must admit, this one was quite adorable. While I watched tv, Chip would place a ball on a blanket on the floor. He would then cover the ball with the blanket, effectively hiding the ball from himself. Finally he would jump around with the blanket, and pick at it with his teeth, until the ball rolled out. I really hope he was allowed to play with that particular blanket. He seemed to think he could. Hey I washed the blanket before I left.
And, finally, to finish the post, I leave you with my most memorable moment…
First, a more detailed account of Chip’s tennis ball game: He likes to give you the ball, then hide behind some table or corner, and wait for you to kick/throw the ball his way. Well, one night as I was watching a DVD downstairs, Chip initiated a round of this game. So I kicked the ball…behind the television. Oops. The TV is in a corner of the basement, placed diagonally, so there is one opening to the left and right of the television. Chip did not feel discouraged by this turn of events. He marched right behind that TV and picked up his ball. He then tried to exit the other side…unsuccessfully. Poor Chip, the way out was a much tighter fit than the way in. He kept trying to squeeze out to no avail. I could not control my laughter. You kind of had to be there, but it was funny. I’m not soulless though, I eventually helped him back up and go out the way he came in. Alls well that ends well I guess.
