Ruby just had her first bath

The whole thing was a great deal less stressful than I expected it to be. She rolled in something horrible on our walk a little while ago, and I tried just washing the affected areas but she still stank. Julie has warned me that I needed to put her into the bathtub and give her a real bath, just to get her used to it, while she was still young enough to think it was fun.

I was prepared to concede that she might be right. That it would be a bummer to find out she hates baths when she's filthy and I'm on my way out the door. But it's like me to put things off.

I needn't have worried; she liked it just fine! I brought her into the bathroom & closed the door, sudsed her all up briskly with a warm washcloth and then picked her up and put her into the tub. I had put an old towel on the bottom of the tub so she wouldn't slide around, and once I shut the tub enclosure door (and, well, I got in there with her -- no photos, it's Christmas), she was completely calm and happy about the whole thing.

Ruby: "Wow! I'm in the tub! This is fun! I love it in here! Mom, look: a washcloth! I'm taking it! It's mine!"

Me: "Awww, who's a good puppy? Give me your other foot. What a sugar bear." etc., ad naus.

And I sudsed her up a little more, turned the handheld shower thingy on and rinsed her off and we were good to go. No panic, no attempts to escape, and a whole lot of tail-wagging when I dried her off. I did underestimate the number of towels it would take to get us both dried off, but that was a small problem, easily remedied. Plus the bathroom floor is clean now, too. The whole event took about six minutes.

Number of seconds it took for her to leap into my bed once I opened the bathroom door? About 4, but I had put a clean sheet over it in anticipation of that very thing. At least she smells good.

She's sleeping all curled up on the sofa now.

Mandy did prevail, in case you were wondering

Daisy commented on yesterday's post that "I swear, it looks like they are talking! I WANT THE CHAIR! OH YEAH, WELL YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!" She was exactly right; Ruby eventually gave up, having very firmly established possession of the other two chairs, the sofa, her own bed, and my bed. It was an epic battle, but Mandy, as you can see, was pretty happy with the purple chair and her crate.

Merry Christmas, if you're into that kind of thing.

Mandy comes for another visit

She's being fairly assertive about the chair today, Mandy is, and they are both being very good dogs. I don't have the camera at home with me today, so we'll have to look at this photo from the last time Mandy was here. It's pretty much what they are doing right now.

We've got some dog biscuits in the oven and are having a pretty swell Saturday night. Maybe we'll watch a movie or something.

My dog is a good dog

This morning Ruby performed the elusive 'down-stay' maneuver, staying put for twenty seconds. Twenty entire seconds! She's pretty good at 'sit-stay' and will go directly to 'down' on command, but she usually pops back up as soon as her elbows hit the floor.

In other news, I have learned to say 'off the fence,' and 'come here,' and 'sit' pretty much every single time Ruby jumps on the fence. Followed on randomly selected occasions with a treat. She is a very good teacher.

Environmental enrichment for dogs*

When I leave the house, I always leave a bunch of toys in Ruby's little space. And the radio playing. She gets confined to the hallway and bathroom; there's a window, but it's up high so that she can't look out and bark at the neighbor dogs or the mailman. There are several doors that get locked with hooks: to the basement, the living room, my bedroom, a linen closet, the stairwell going upstairs, and my sewing room. The only furniture in there is a small desk in the hallway. She has never chewed on it, though she did peel some paint off of the closet door and the door going upstairs. I leave a broom leaning against each of those doors, and she hasn't bothered them since.

The brooms kind of scare her. She is very careful not to knock them over.

A couple of the toys are the kind that you can put treats inside, and it's kind of a challenge for dogs to get them out again. I always do put a couple of treats in those for her. When she sees me gather up the toys and put the treats in them, she gets very happy, and goes into her room, sits on her bed, and waits.

Separation anxiety? Not a problem at all. She loves it when I go away.

Today when I got home, however, she had found something else with which to entertain herself: aloe vera/Vitamin E foot creme, which she loves. I have to put my socks on very fast or she tries to lick it right off my feet. And of course I have to remember to put the jar somewhere she can't reach it. Well, either I forgot to do that or there is no longer any such place in the bathroom, alas.

Fortunately the stuff is really cheap, and I bought two jars of it last time I was in the drugstore.


*[2009 update: OK, perhaps this post should be more accurately titled "Environmental enrichment for dogs: here is what happens when there is not enough for your dog to do." I'd hoped that it would be obvious that it was not meant to be an example of proper enrichment activities for dogs; I regret that this was not clear enough to those who take the time (still!) to write to me about it, and I do apologize if I was rude in my response to you. I understand that you were trying to help. So if anyone is inclined to email me more dog-rearing advice based on this two-year-old post, please note that a) she was six months old and not crate trained (nor had she ever even been in a house!) when she came to live with me, so no, crate-training is not essential to her well-being; b) puppies and young energetic dogs need to be confined for their own safety, not for the integrity of the furniture, so yes, it is a good idea to put her in a small, relatively featureless and den-like room; it's stressful enough for dogs in a new environment without having to guard the whole house and keep it safe from potential intruders like the mailman and the neighbor kids and so forth; and c) the brooms were not intended to 'terrorize' her in any way, just to impede her ability to chew on the woodwork and ingest paint chips. In any case, she's all grown up now and no longer confined to a small room when I leave. She has no lingering fear of brooms. My leaving does not stress her out in the least, as she looks forward to the routine of the treat ball before I go out the door. But thanks for your advice all the same. Also: I do not adhere to any single method or theory or set of rules for dog training or rearing. Every dog is different.]

Who's training whom?

I think the homemade dog biscuits might have been a mistake. Oh, they turned out great, and there are a lot of them. Or, there were a lot of them. I've given away several dozens of them, but Ruby's certainly put a dent in the supply. She can tell when I have them in my pocket, on account of they are more deliciously fragrant than other dog biscuits. And there are still about 500 biscuits' worth of dough in the freezer, as I got tired of rolling it out and cutting them out. The recipe I used made a lot more biscuits than I expected, and in fact made a quantity too large for my new mixer to handle. I'll have to work on it a bit before I post it here.

On the up side, she has been very responsive to my training efforts lately. She will come when called most of the time, even when she is trying to track down a squirrel, or digging around near the potting shed where I'm pretty sure there are mice. She'll sit and stay for upwards of five seconds (which is a giant leap from previous attempts), and she'll even stay when I step away or turn my back briefly. And she's got the 'down' command pretty well, although 'down-stay' remains at around 50 percent.

But she's started to perform in hopes of a treat, without waiting for a command. She'll just show up at my side and sit. If I happen to walk near the fridge -- which is where the treats are, up on top where she can't reach them -- she trots over and sits. And when I don't respond in the way she'd like, she first wags her tail and looks adorable. When that fails, and I walk away, she tries to get my attention, first by getting in my way, then by barking. Or she'll go into the hallway where her bed is, and leap onto it and assume the 'down' position, which is what she has to do when I leave the house. 'On your bed,' is what I say to her, and I give her a treat. But I'm not gonna give her a damn treat every single time she gets into her bed.

She's also started stringing commands together in creative but plausible ways. 'Off the fence,' which has been pretty difficult but she's definitely improving, has come to mean, 'off the fence' + 'come over here' + 'sit' all at once. Her annoyance when I fail to reward her is kind of funny, but getting old fast.

And sometimes when I sit down at the computer in the morning, she comes right over and sticks her nose in my bathrobe pocket, just to make sure there are no treats. And if there are treats in there, she'll keep pestering me until I finally make her do a down-stay.

At which point, this morning, I gave her the treat already.

Yes, I'm responding very well to her training efforts.

Dreamy

I'm very tired and about to toddle off to bed. Ruby is in the kitchen barking to alert me to the presence on the counter of a freshly baked loaf of bread. I'm waiting for it to get cool enough to wrap up. I'm not sure why she doesn't just jump up and get it; it is within her reach.

She's a funny dog.

But as long as I'm sitting here, waiting around, I will tell you about another item I emailed to myself: this guy might be my dream date. He's done a bunch of high-quality modifications to standard car engines to increase gas mileage and decrease emissions, and to make them burn alternative fuels. The kind of stuff that Detroit says isn't possible. I've been hearing about him here and there for a while now, and was very happy when Fred Clark over at slacktivist (speaking of dream dates, I think Fred is pretty dreamy as well) linked to this story about Jonathan Goodwin.

I have mixed feelings about biofuels; whatever we choose as a source of fuel for transport, heat, or power generation, I think it's imperative that we learn to do with less of it. Whether it comes from a finite source with a pile of associated security and political issues, or from a food crop (or land which could otherwise grow one) at the expense of a hungry planet, burning stuff is an increasingly dumb idea.

And it's clear that a lot of folks here in the U. S. of A. are not willing to live in cold houses, in the dark, and not drive anywhere, so I think that gains in efficiency whereever possible are essential.

Plastic on the windows only goes so far in saving the world.

Technical difficulties, and a couple other things

If you're trying to email your request for the 2007 Christmas CD and I haven't already replied to you, please try again. A couple of folks apparently ran afoul of my SPAM filters somewhere along the line. You can email contact.alphagal -at- gmail -dot- com if the other address isn't working.

I really will get them out this week; it's been a bit busier than usual here at alphabitch HQ.

Also, Ruby's foot is healing nicely, finally. She's still on restrictions, but can go for walks and run around a little bit. Makes things much easier for me.

Ruby dismantles the sofa!

Ruby is used to at least two long walks a day, plus free run of the back yard whenever she wants. This "short leash walks only until laceration heals" thing is getting on her nerves. And mine. We go out in the back yard on the leash and she just stares at me. We go back in the house and she gets into something the minute I sit down.

If I'm doing laundry or chores that take me from one room to another, she follows me around happily. In the sewing room, she takes the fabric scraps out of the wastebasket. I put them back in, she takes them out again. Harmless enough. Nothing in there that will choke or injure her.

But last night I sat down at the computer and the next thing I knew, Ruby had a sofa cushion in her mouth, and she was shaking it. It's quite large. I was kind of torn: do I laugh? Do I yell at her? Neither. I got out the camera. But of course by the time I got the camera out, she had had enough fun and just stood there calmly, looking at her handiwork:


I sat back down, and she got the zooms again, but I couldn't get a good action shot of her picking up the sofa cushion. It wasn't the first time she's taken the cushions off the sofa, but it was the first time I'd seen her shake one of them like that. I left the flash effect in her eyes in this shot; she does look kind of possessed, no?


I know from previous experience with the sofa cushions that putting them back too soon is asking for trouble, so I left it there. She played with her toys quietly for half an hour or so. This particular sofa cushion is undamaged. The other one is scheduled for repairs. I'll use fabric from the matching pillows, which are, alas, damaged.

Everything's coming up roses

I have been looking all over my backyard, trying to find whatever it is that keeps cutting Ruby's foot. OK, it's cut her foot twice, but there's obviously something dangerous out there. I've been out there several times lately, getting rid of loose pieces of wire mesh, removing old nails sticking out of boards, and generally trying to tidy up back there, but I haven't found any obvious hazards since well before her last injury. Mostly because everything is still covered with ivy and leaves, and I can't see way down in there until the green dies back.

But this morning I found some old, overgrown bushes that I think might be rosebushes in several different parts of the yard. At least two of them had enormous and terrifying thorns, and the gnarled, twisted branches were growing low enough to get your foot caught in if you were a dog. I will try to get some pictures of them. The other ones had smaller thorns and all the branches were high enough off the ground. But all of them are located near excellent hiding spots for squirrels and chipmunks and mice.

Ruby does not like wasabi peas

I dropped a wasabi-coated roasted pea on the kitchen floor. Ruby chased it enthusiastically and got to it before I did. I tried to explain that dogs don't like wasabi very much at all. She ate it. And then she looked up at me with the most hilariously horrified look on her face. I took pity on her and gave her some supper a little early: some kibble and half of one of those awful Scotch Pies I made the other day.

She's had a rough coupla days.

Yesterday is over; tomorrow is another day

I'm planning to have a good day today, because yesterday was really really lousy. It started out fine. Ruby's friend Kalei had spent the night, and they were having a great time. Running around in the backyard, taking naps in the sun, sleeping on the couch. I was determined to change the furnace filter, because when I turned the heat on the other day I realized I couldn't remember when I'd last done it, so I turned it off again and of course it got cold. I tried to open the furnace and check for the size, and couldn't remember how to open the damn thing up. The one in my old house had a snap-off front and it was easy to open that, but the bracket was kind of tricky and you had to lie on the dirt floor in the crawl space to reach it. This house has a great basement anyway, with real floors. So I looked up the specs online and bought what I thought was the right size filter.

I went down the basement, with my toolbox, and found that you not only had to unscrew the panel, you also had to remove another panel to get the relevant one to move. It was fairly simple once I figured it out. The bolts were not on the spec sheet, but at least one of them was clearly added later. Maybe they all were. I got the old filter out, and it was one of the fancy high-end reusable ones, which was good because it was also four inches smaller than the one I'd bought.

So I brought it outside and started to clean it out. It was pretty seriously filthy. I decided I needed hot water, so I brought it inside and blasted it with the shower thingy. With which I immediately splashed and sprayed my fleece bathrobe and got soaking wet. Very soon it became clear that the tub drain was obstructed, so I turned the water off and let it drain a while, then decided I needed to add some drain cleaner to give it a hand. As I'm doing this, I hear wild barking and dogs running in a huge circle: hallway, kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway, kitchen, dining room, living room -- up on sofa, down, then run the other direction. There is a dog toy involved.

And then I notice that the floor is covered in blood. There is blood everywhere, and I have no idea which dog is bleeding; they've both got blood on their paws just from walking through it. And they won't stop running. Neither of them seemed upset or angry at the other, and neither of them was limping or seemed impaired in the slightest. I finally shut both of the hallway doors and cornered them in the bathroom.

It was Ruby's ankle. A fairly small cut, but maybe it needed stitches? I didn't see anything still in it, no broken glass, etc. Had Kalei bitten her during the scuffle? I got the bleeding to mostly stop, and the dogs to collectively calm down. I called a friend to come and get Kalei, because every time I turned my back and tried to wipe up some of the blood, they started running around in circles again.

The place looked like a crime scene. All I needed was some yellow tape.

After Kalei left, I got the wound cleaned up. I was still kind of on the fence about whether to take her in, but my friend seemed to think I was overreacting. Ruby was asleep on the sofa. Not fussing with the cut or anything, but the furnace was still not reassembled and it was getting colder fast.

I gave up trying to clean the filter without a pressure washer. I thought about it briefly and wondered how difficult it would be to cut a furnace filter. Not that difficult, it turns out, so I cut four inches off the edge, and went downstairs and popped it into the proper spot, facing the proper direction. Sort of. I couldn't quite get that one corner to pop in the holder. The old one had 16x25x1 inch stamped on the frame and it had fit perfectly. And I'd cut exactly four inches off the 20x25x1 inch filter I'd purchased. I couldn't quite see or reach that farthest-away corner, and kept thinking maybe it was just caught on the bracket or something. And part of the problem is that the furnace is perched on a weird little concrete platform-type part of the floor, which slopes away from it precipitously and in more than one direction, so I couldn't quite get down on my knees and still reach at the right angle.

I tried to reach with a screwdriver, a long piece of wood, a hammer. I was cursing loudly and banging around, and poor Ruby got a bit restless and came downstairs to see if she could help. And before I knew it was out the dog door and chasing something in the back yard.

I rounded her up and got her back into the house and of course her foot was bleeding all over again, and she was all excited and trying to outrun me. I caught her and soaked her foot and cleaned it up again. I also put a sock on it, which she didn't seem to mind too much.

By then I needed a time-out. I sat with her on the couch for a while and listened to the news. Then cleaned blood off the floors again, and I got the bright idea to measure the old filter with a tape measure. Because it had fit in that bracket pretty snugly, and I thought maybe I'd mis-read the dimensions printed on it.

It was 15-5/8 inches x 25-3/8 inches x 7/8 inches. I went downstairs, cut another 3/8 of an inch off the longer side of the filter, replaced the cardboard frame along that edge, popped it right into the bracket, reassembled the front panels, and came upstairs and cranked the thermostat all the way up to 62. And then later I went back and turned it up to 66 and made myself some cocoa.

Ruby is fine. The furnace sounds vastly happier. The bathtub drain is clear. And this morning? I scrubbed all the floors. Soon, I am going to go grocery shopping just so I can use my nifty new mixer (see yesterday's post).

Negotiations

Mandy and Ruby got along OK, all in all, but they did have to establish some boundaries. Here they are working out joint occupation of the sofa.

I hope Mandy comes again soon; they seemed to have a great time. Ruby didn't seem to mind sharing the furniture, the toys, and had fun trying to determine who was the boss of whom (I think it's still an open question), but she did not like it one bit when I spent any time at all petting Mandy. All three of us sitting down together quietly was not an option, unless I stayed across the room from the two of them. It was pretty funny, as Ruby has been fine with me petting other dogs before, even right in her very own house or yard. Of course, none of them has ever tried to spend the night before.

I was glad Mandy had a crate to sleep in.

I'd been thinking maybe Ruby needed a sibling, but last night probably cured me of that delusion for a while.

Dogs on furniture: the sofa edition

Here they are on the sofa; you can see their faces a little better in this one, as I used the flash. I love how similar their muzzle markings are, yet how completely different their faces are. Mandy's sandy blonde coat is velvety soft.

Ruby & Mandy

It was very difficult to photograph these two -- they squirm constantly, and it was just a little too light out to use the flash. Shoulda used it anyway, but there you are. You can't really see that Mandy is just about 75-80% as big as Ruby. Mandy's a little more delicate-featured and dainty, with a smaller head. Her ears are not as expressive as Ruby's, but she does have her charms, Miss Mandy does.

This morning

Here is Ruby with her new friend Mandy, out for their second wild run and rassling match of the morning. It was dark the first time we went out. It was a little bit foggy, and their hot doggy breath was visible in the early light.

More of Ruby's ears

Because I know you can't get enough of them either. Tonight she's having a sleepover party with her friend Mandy. I don't know if I'll have time to post anything or not. I hope so.

Ruby's encounter with the law

Sometimes the dog park is a bummer. We walked in yesterday and there was all kinds of mayhem. That dog whisperer dude on TV would have said there was a lot of "unstable energy." My pals Artie and Snuffy went off and played ball, oblivious to other goings-on. Ruby got in a couple of minor scuffles right off the bat (two of them with dogs she knew, none of them escalating into anything, but there was a weird lady who started kicking Ruby and trying to get her to leave Tigger alone, and telling me my dog was out of line. I tried to explain that she and Tigger knew each other well and played like that all the time.

She told me to control my dog, and kicked at her again. Then another dog charged Ruby, and that dog's owner was nowhere around so I pulled Ruby away and kept her and Tigger occupied a while until these three unruly, poorly controlled (but quite sweet) Dobermans left. Things calmed down a bit, pack behavior-wise, but then another lady, who (I think) had been talking to the weird lady who'd already kicked Ruby, appeared out of nowhere, about four feet away from me, holding a snarling, angry poodle aloft.

Ruby got very excited and tried to jump up (is it a squirrel? a treat? why is she waving it around like that??), scaring the poor woman (who was not exactly frail and elderly, but she wasn't young & spry either) and making the poodle angrier. Very bad case of fear aggression in the poodle. The lady kicked Ruby a couple of times in the few seconds it took me to grab her and put her on the leash. I apologized to her and left the park immediately.

I'm not one to argue with people about whose dog was at fault, or whether the owner's behavior was perhaps the problem, but I don't like it when people kick my dog. And yeah, she's boisterous. She was not going to give up on the squirrel poodle as long as it was being waved in her face.

On my way out, I ran into a friend (a dog rescue person, who is very experienced with dogs) in the parking lot. She hadn't seen what had happened, but had had words with the poodle lady already, apparently. My friend was leaving on account of the chaos, and we talked a little about how sometimes the vibe is just bad and it's better for the dogs if you just leave.

As we chatted, the poodle lady walked up and started screaming at me that my dog needed to be put down and how I should be arrested if I couldn't control my dog and how somebody coulda been hurt and her poor little precious poodle blah blah blah and how she was going to call the police as soon as she got home and I should get the hell out of the park if I knew what was good for me. They impound dogs like mine.

Or something. I couldn't follow her arguments, and I'm not sure she was making any sense.

I pointed out to her that there was a squad car at the other end of the park, and she could save time by just going over there and reporting me. I told her I wasn't leaving right away, as my friend was still in the park with his dogs, and that I'd be happy to talk with the police about my bad dog.

I just wanted her to go away, but of course she marched over to the cop car and reported me. So then the two cops came walking towards us, smiling. My friend stopped and talked to them briefly on her way out. Then Ruby and I walked over to meet them, and Ruby obligingly sat when told and was utterly charming.

We chatted for a bit, and they told me that a couple of people had complained to them about the lady and the poodle, but that there was only the one complaint about Ruby. And me. No charges were being filed, however. They patted Ruby on the head and went off to fight some crimes or something.

Neither of us was arrested or impounded.

I almost forgot

I was about to go to bed without posting anything. Now the stress is on; we're more than halfway through this NaBloPoMo thing, and I'd really hate to mess it up. So here's a picture of Ruby in the back yard, taken the other day.

Good night.

Just in case I forget

I'm going to post this just in case I don't get around to finishing that other post I started this morning. I know you come here for the Ruby pictures anyway, not my rambly posts.

Although you'll want the Scotch Pie recipe, I think. I just didn't get a chance last night to make the crust. And I might not feel like cooking anything tonight. The lamb and carrot and parsnip filling is yummy (I know it's not exactly traditional, but whaddya want? Scotch Pie is not exactly food of my people).

I'll tell you all about it later.