Dog Walking Infidelity

Chuck and I were unfaithful to Boodles and Juniper today. And the horrible thing is, we will repeat that adultery tomorrow. Yes, it's true. Our shameful secret-We walked another couple's dogs.

Some friends of ours have a new baby, who had open heart surgery on Monday. The baby is doing well, came through surgery with flying colors, but there are still logistical matters to be worked out. Chuck and I volunteered to walk the dogs while the family was in the hospital, to take that concern off their minds. I remember when I was in the hospital having my first son, I worried about the dog I had taken to the vet that afternoon, just before going into labor- it is strange the things the mind seizes on to worry about.

We had met Chessi before, but had not met Ruf. I had seen pictures of him as a puppy, but nothing since. When we went over on Sunday to acquaint ourselves with the walking routine, we were amazed to see how much he looked like Boodles.

There are differences- Ruf is bigger, and much heavier- thicker bodied. His head and face are different- no pseudo-St. Bernard here. Rufus is redder. But the feet, the feathers, the tail with the black bar and the white tip, even the bad toupee appearance on his back looks a little like Boodles. He will be 3 in April, and we think Boodles is just over 2, so they aren't littermates. It is remotely possible that they are siblings, but very remote- Boodles was found in the next county over. Rufus came from the local shelter.

Chessi shares some similarities to Juniper, beyond her coloring. Notice she walks as far from Chuck as she can get!

Boodles and Juniper forgave us our transgressions. Perhaps tomorrow we will take Boodles along for the walk. I don't know about Juniper- our friend tells us that Chessi doesn't like other dogs. We'll see.

It seems like we do nothing but go to the dog park.

But it is so much fun. Right now temperatures are moderately comfortable, and the spring rainy have not started. We can take the dogs to the dog park without too much fear of mud. We will take advantage of it as long as we can!

There were old friends at the park- everyone was glad to see Gus-

And there were some new friends to meet as well- some were large, and slower-

Some were small and faster.
Personal information was shared.
As always, there was a lot of curiosity about who might be arriving

And everyone took turns watching the baby...
Actually, Gus and Bailey, the black and white puppy, had quite a long game of tug-of-war with the stick. There is a slide show of those pics at the end of this post.
Juniper always likes to play with the puppies.


These pictures were taken on Sunday 3/15. We took our dogs up Monday, 3/16, and there was no one else there. Both Juniper and Boodles were wondering around, sort of droopy, when a car pulled into the lot. As soon as Boodles heard the crunch of tires on gravel, she ran flat out up to the fence to see who was arriving. To her great disgust, the occupants of the car went on by and over to the Rails to Trails portion of the Township park. They parked the car about 100 yards away, and got out with a dog. Boodles sat and watched them with an air of disbelief. I could almost hear her thinking "Surely they are going to come over here now. Well, maybe now. No, no, NOW."

More tales from the dog park

The nice weather brought a lot of folks to the dog park yesterday. There were the obligatory "getting to know you" exercises.
Some secret planning went on.

Someone saw something interesting and had everyone ready to go look.

Boodle's good friend Gus was there;

Daisy and CJ had some fun,
Gus, CJ and a puppy named Zumba (?) did too.

Even Juniper deigned to play a little, with the pup.

Boodles and Luke had some one-on-one,





Daisy thought it was funny, apparently. Luke had to leave soon after this. He forgets his size sometimes. More likely, Boodles forgets how big he is!


No dogs were hurt in the filming of this.



I did notice an odd thing- A dog arrived who was too timid to come into the big dog area. This dog had cut his foot on some glass the day before, and had his foot bandaged. Since there were no dogs on the small dog side, his person took him in over there to give him some off-leash time. When he was near the fence, Juniper came over, and stuck her foot through the fence while whining. I have never seen her do anything like this before. She is often interested in the small dogs when they are on the other side of the fence, but I have never heard her whine over anything before.

Tales from the Dog Park

Lucky finds out Juniper is not that much fun.

Juniper is an odd dog. Around here she is also known as The Killer of Fun. It seems her highest purpose is to keep others from playing with a toy, or otherwise having a good time.

We took advantage of the good weather Saturday to go to the dog park. Juniper lurked at the edges of the fun, and then would run out when anyone looked like they were enjoying themselves. There was never any barking or biting, she's just a big old wet blanket.

She gives them the hairy eyeball, and everyone wonders off to some other side of the park. Probably to talk about her. Actually, I think she really wants to play, but since she was not well socialized as a pup, she just doesn't know how.
Actually, everyone did have a good time, despite Juniper's disapproval. Here's a meet&greet.

A quick game of tag,
Boodles protecting her virtue,

And Boodles resting up.

This guy wasn't nearly as worried as he looks.

Dog Walking Wednesday

The inner wolf comes out in shadow

The dog-eating hedge

Bad dogs are never cute. Neither are dogs who think they can walk the other dog better than Chuck.

Automatic Squirrel Dispenser

Aren't dog's memories interesting? Some things they can't remember from one minute to the next- like that they aren't supposed to find things in the trash can to eat. Other things get stuck in their brains and can't be removed.

One time, early in her life with us, Boodles went out into the backyard. She had her nose to the ground, as usual, and failed to look up. Had she done so, she would have seen a squirrel on the sunflower seed feeder. A squirrel on the feeder is not unusual, they suck down huge quantities of seeds. But usually they spring off and run across the yard as soon as the backdoor opens. This squirrel must have been either a little deafer, or a little braver than the other squirrels who hang out on the feeder. He cut his exit a little short, jumping down, and either landing on or just missing her head- it was too quick for us to see. She was totally surprised, the squirrel was fast, and lived to eat seeds another day.

She remembers this as if it happened yesterday. While in the house, she keeps a sharp eye on the feeder, positioning herself so she can see through the window over the sink. When she spies a squirrel on the feeder, a noise that would frighten a banshee rises from her- a high pitched scream that I could sell to horror movies for a tidy profit. She then runs to the back door where she stands up on her back legs to bark out the window, the banshee scream now a big dog bark. And when she goes into the yard now, the first thing she does is stand under the automatic squirrel dispenser and bark, hoping to trigger it to drop another one on her head.

The composite dog...

Some time ago, I was reading ohmidog, the blog of John Woestendiek. Woestendiek, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Baltimore Sun, did a 7 part series based on the question Hey mister, what kind of dog is that? The searh for the answer to that question was prompted by the unique appearance of Woestendiek's dog, Ace. During the series, Woestendiek and Ace visited the shelter from which Ace was adopted, the neighborhood where he was purportedly found straying, consulted an animal communicator, and had a DNA test run. It's a very interesting series- you should read it. There's video, too.

We know about Juniper's genetic heritage, at least we think we do- she was brought into the shelter with her litter mates. The person bringing them in said they were Akita, Lab and Rottweiler. She looks like a mix of those breeds, so we feel pretty comfortable saying that's what she is.

Boodles, on the other hand, was a stray. She could be any of a number of things, because her physical characteristics are all over the place. Here, let's take a look.

Her face is reminiscent of a St. Bernard, in fact, when we took her to the vet for the first time that's what they put down as her breed. However, her muzzle is far more pointy than a St. Bernard, and she doesn't have the droopy lips nor the body mass. Taller and longer in the body than Juniper, she weighs about 10 pounds less- around 60 pounds.



She has very large feet, with soft pads, and these nice feathers. Perhaps part Clydesdale? Actually, the chest, feathery legs and feet are very Collie-like. The ears, though- not collie.



While her coloring is harmonious, and could be that of either the St. Bernard or the Collie, her hair style is really odd. Her back looks like it belongs to two different dogs: She has a patch of hair on her shoulders that looks like someone tossed a bad toupee at her and it stuck.
However, the hair on her hips is oddly spiky- almost like some of the Australian Shepherds we have seen. And the dog in this picture has a lot of the same characteristics. Maybe there's no Collie, and instead Australian Shepherd genes floating around in there. The ears are sort of Australian Shepherd-like. However, the Rough Coated Collie in this picture has a little of the bad toupee look.

Her tail is another mystery- White tipped like the Collie, she carries it in a curve, something neither the St. Bernards nor the Collies or Australian Shepherds do. Chows, Huskies, Akitas, Basenjis and pugs all have curly tails.

Actually, she has many things in common with this dog, who lived with us from 1977 until 1990. We never knew what he was, either, but his mother looked like a short-haired hound. Not a feather on her.

Boodles behavior is somewhat that of a herding dog, although she has no interest in herding things together. She is very fast, though, and can turn on a dime. She is high energy, and mouthy.

So, does it matter what she is? Yes, and no. Purebred dogs have distinct physical and behavioral characteristics, and known health problems. When Ace's DNA results came back that he was 50% Rottweiler, 25% Akita and 25% Unknown, Woestendiek was told to watch for problems with hip displasia and cataracts. Good information to know.

For me, it's interesting to think about the genetics. Obviously, dogs didn't start out as purebreds and then fool around with each other to produce mixed breeds. Instead, people bred the archetypal dog for desired characteristics. There are dogs out there without a single purebred relative in the entire family tree. But does that mean that if a dog has St. Bernard coloring, there is a St. Bernard lurking in the bushes? I dunno- it could just mean that the gene mutation that produced the observed characteristic just showed up. Probably not, though.

This information from the Wisdom Panel MX Website tells what can be expected from dogs with a long mixed breed background:

"Identifying the heritage of a mixed breed dog in the absence of information about its parents or grandparents is difficult, even for knowledgeable dog observers such as veterinarians, because mixed breeds display much more genetic variation than purebreds.

Fading Hereditary Characteristics

With each generation of indiscriminate breeding, the offspring of mixed breed dogs lose the distinguishing traits that are observed in pedigree breeds, and will take on characteristics that are common to many breeds.

For example, wild dogs that have descended from many generations of mixed breed dogs often match the following profile:

• Light brown or black in color
• Weigh approximately 40 lbs
• Stand between 1 and 2 feet tall at the withers"

This would seem to indicate that dogs with observable breed characteristics are probably fairly close to a purebred relative. By the way- the Wisdom site is an interesting site to explore- give it a look.

Why do I want to know? Curiosity. I am fascinated by the story of Adrian Targett, whose DNA marks him as a direct descendant of a 9,000 year old skeleton found in a cave 43 miles from Targett's house. How cool is that? I would love to participate in the National Geographic Genographic Project.

Ultimately, though, Boodles is Boodles, whether she is a St Bercolaussie or a "composite" dog. I love her look- Every time I look at her, I think she looks like she was put together by a kid just sticking things together from a box of dog parts...

Read what Woestendiek has to say about Ace's family history here. I knew he was part Akita- there was something about him that reminded me of Juniper.