A learning experience

We sent Boji home with his parents last night after three eye-opening days. Poor Boj was probably excited to leave behind the crazy puppy who followed him around all weekend, growled at him when he got too close to her owners, and barked more in one weekend than he probably has his entire two-plus years.

And Maddie was glad to get her people back to herself. When she and Rob returned from fetching us dinner — during which time Boji left — she trotted all over the house looking for him.

We definitely found behaviors we need to correct. While she has never exhibited possessive behavior toward us in any other setting, she is very protective at home. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise, though, considering her excessive barking at anything outside when she’s on her line. She needs to defend her turf.

Surprisingly, Maddie did not freak out when Boji jumped on the bed Saturday night. I’m sure if we would have allowed him to stay there it wouldn’t have been pretty, but we finally got him onto the dog bed and everything was fine.

Maddie and Boji had several good ‘fights,’ but only a couple of times did we have to tell them to stop when they started making squealing noises. And to their credit, they immediately stopped each time.

I hope to have more dogs over to visit so we can work on her possessiveness issues.

So far, so good

A quiet moment

I’m still sorting out the dominant dog here. At first, Maddie cowered and hid, not wanting to get too close to Boji (at one point, Maddie was sleeping behind the couch, I was on the couch, and Boji was sleeping in front of the couch. It was funny.). Then I started making dinner and Maddie changed. She had to get between me and Boji and wouldn’t let him near me. She did the same thing with Rob when he got home from work. Then again, when Boji has a toy, Boji is definitely the dominant dog.

They’ve had a couple of ‘fighting’ incidents, one in which the fur literally flew (Boji is blowing right now, so his fur is coming off in clumps). They ‘fight’ for a while, then just stop and trot over for a drink.

The feeding went better than I expected, no one tried to tear into the other’s food.

House guest

I think we are going to have an interesting weekend.

Rob, Maddie and I have Boji staying with us. It is the first time we’ve had a dog stay here, and only the second we’ve had another dog in the house. Boji came over a couple of weeks ago to see if he and Maddie got along and to see how Maddie would react to another dog in her house.

So far things have gone just fine. Maddie took up residence in Boji’s crate and decided it was hers to defend. Boji has just been wandering around the house, checking things out. Maddie comes out when Boji is playing with a toy, growls a little, then runs back to the crate. At one point, Boji was chewing on Maddie’s chew, and Maddie was chewing on Boji’s chew. That lasted until Boji went back to Maddie’s stuffed tiger. Then we had some growling and Maddie ran back to the crate.

Now they are both outside, Maddie in the side yard, Boji in the front. I know eventually they’ll have it out to settle the pecking order. Maybe they’ll do that tonight when I’m at work and Rob’s watching them!

A new project

The City of Burlington approved a dog park a while back on a piece of land at Dankwardt Park. When I found out about it, I was very excited. Maddie needs a place to be able to run free of her leash. Things have seemed to move slower than a crawl since then. The original group of people working on the park disbanded and the city said it would put up the fencing, but that has been slow in coming as well. The fence is now scheduled to go up sometime in the next month so the park will be open by June.

Right after finding out that news, I received an e-mail from a girl at the city. She is getting the dog park committee back together and asked if I would like to join. I had fought that urge for some time, not knowing if I wanted to get involved with another project (I am on a communications committee for the Flint River Trail). But when I saw how excited Amber was about the project, I thought I would give it a shot. I also want to make sure this park is done the right way for all the dogs in the community who need a place to play and socialize.

Our first meeting is next week. Right now, there are four of us on the committee and we all have great ideas for the park and how to raise money to get some fun, and necessary, amenities for the dogs and their owners.

I hope to use this blog to keep the community updated on the progress of the park, and to get feedback on what we are doing.

Maddie’s Cookbook — K-9 Meatballs

I recently inherited four copies of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazines. On the last page of each issue is a recipe for dog food. I decided to make Maddie homemade food once a month, just for a change in her normal routine of dry kibble and a treat for being a good girl. Part of me wants to make her food from scratch all the time, but it’s just not practical with my schedule. I can barely make food for Rob and me on a regular basis.

Maddie loved these meatballs, which I formed by putting in a greased muffin pan. I also used a combination of ground beef and ground lamb. Be careful of the tumeric if you are mixing the meat with your hands. It makes your hands yellow!

K-9 Ingredient Meatballs

Recipe courtesy of Every Day with Rachael Ray

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 c. cooked brown rice

1 carrot, shredded

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1/2 c. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

2 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 Tbsp. Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 large egg

2 tsp. ground tumeric (helps aid digestion)

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease a muffin pan or a baking sheet. In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mix well. Fill each muffin tin with about 1/4 c. of the mixture, or form into 10 balls and place on the baking sheet. Bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack.

Bearing gifts

One of my favorite things about Maddie is her need to bring us gifts when we come home.

When we had the gate up between the bedroom/back hallway area and the rest of the house, Maddie would always greet us at the gate with a toy. If she didn’t have one when we first walked in, she had to go get one and excitedly bring it to us, tail wagging a million miles per hour.

Then, for a while when Rob and Maddie were in bed when I got home from work, she would welcome me home with one of my slippers, the most heartwarming gesture in the world.

Now, she likes to grab whatever is closest when we come in. That usually ends up being my sweatpants or T-shirt that I wear to bed (my holey ‘Maddie’ pajamas). Last night when I walked in from work, she hopped on the bed, bypassed Rob’s shorts on the near side, and grabbed my PJs instead. I don’t know if it meant anything, or if it was just a coincidence, but to me it was really neat that she brought me my clothes and not Rob’s.

Does anyone else’s dog bring them presents when they return home, or is this a uniquely Maddie trait?

Maddie’s Photo Gallery — Easter Peep-ers

I love to look at pictures of other animals. Email your pictures to me at maddie@freeoftheleash.com, and Mommy will post them. — Maddie

Gracie and Doc are curious onlookers as their family hunts for Easter eggs. By Craig Neises

The Hidden Life of Dogs

All of a sudden, I have a new section in my home library — dog books. Some have been sitting on the shelf for months now as I have been neglecting reading books of any type. I have made an effort in recent weeks to read again, and after polishing off several other books I had already started, I read my first dog book. Hopefully I can continue reading — I forget how much I love sitting down with a book, and now I have a little black and white friend who sits with me most of the time — and share those books with you.

The Hidden Life of Dogs — Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

This was an interesting study in dog behaviors but left me feeling rather sad, not because of the death of the subjects, but because of the disconnect that ultimately occurred between the author and her dogs.

Marshall Thomas started studying her dogs when a husky she was watching leaped the fence every night and explored Cambridge, Mass., and the surrounding area. She wondered where he went and what he did, so she took to following him. His habits while out journeying — the way he would cross busy intersections, what and where he marked objects, how he acted when he met other dogs — were interesting. 

Marshall Thomas then began watching her own pack of dogs, which numbered about a dozen over her period of observation. She stopped training new puppies, leaving the task to the older dogs. She described in detail the pack mentality, the alpha dog and the hierarchy from there and how each dog knew its place. In fact, once when two females had litters at the same time, the higher-ranking female killed the other female’s litter. Only one female in a pack has a litter at one time and the female was doing what was natural to her.

(My experience in dog hierarchy: Maddie has always been the alpha when we have met other dogs. But Friday when we were out running, she submitted to a dog for the first time. A dog behind a fence began barking at us as we passed, and I thought that was that. But Maddie was acting odd. I turned around and the dog was following us, walking through its open gate. The medium-sized black lab came up to Maddie, who squatted and showed her butt to the dog. The dog sniffed her, and turned around and went home. Maddie usually faces the dog and they walk around each other to sniff. It was interesting to watch my dog not be the one in control.)

Eventually, Marshall Thomas moved to a place where the dogs lived in a large outdoor kennel. They evolved into a pack of dogs who had no need for their human owners. Where once these dogs were thrilled to see their owners after separations, now they barely acknowledged their existence whenever they would enter the kennel. The dogs even dug a den, furthering their similarities to a pack of wolves the author had once studied in the wild.

It broke my heart when the dogs no longer had any use for their humans, when their social circle was entirely other dogs. I cannot imagine having Maddie, feeding her, taking care of her, and having her ignore my existence in her life.

Second attempt

OK, I’m getting closer on the peanut butter molasses treats.

I tried again Saturday morning after buying organic oat flour and sunflower seeds. I’ve just never attempted to make cookies without knowing how much of each ingredient to use. I need to cut back on the canola oil, I know that for sure. Maybe to add moisture I can increase the molasses. I just don’t know for sure. 

No matter, Maddie has no problem inhaling them.

Scare tactics

E-mail is a great invention, until it is used for disseminating false, scary information blindly believed by some people. Others know to check things out before panicking.

My sister received one such message a couple months ago claiming Swiffer WetJet contains antifreeze and has been causing liver disease in cats and dogs, leading to their deaths. The e-mail said a warning on the packaging said the solution could be harmful to small children and animals. This e-mail was first circulated in 2004 and seems to reappear occasionally.

My dad researched the claim on Snopes.com — also known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, it is a web site that is the most widely-known resource for validating or debunking urban legends. Snopes.com found the claim to be false, even though the new version of the e-mail, the one my sister received, claimed Snopes.com found the claim to be true.

Here is what Snopes.com says: http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/swiffer.asp