Need A Better View? April 4, 2008

  Need a better view?

Kenai and I  escorted little bro, BB, to the smaller of the two puppy stores for a new chew. Kenai can go through a bone twice the size of BB’s in half the time. Sometimes I wonder how long it would take him to gnaw through a fencepost! And being so adventurous, he’s already scouted out where all the best “boy stuff” is. Once permission to go off leash was granted, BB followed the leader right to the beef chip and retriever roll bins, watching as big brother helped himself.

It is fascinating to me how 2 puppies from the same litter, with the same genes, the same everything can be so completely different. BB is sensitive and cuddly, while Kenai is a bull elephant. BB has a more tender tummy, and Kenai could eat that aforementioned fencepost without a problem. BB ooches on the sly to sneak up on brother, while Kenai does the “run and smush” with no stealth at all.

Yet behavior you would expect from them because of their personalities isn’t always what you get: hesitant little BB will snarf down a bowl of food like he hasn’t eaten since birth, while iron willed Kenai waits until I say he can come over. And BB pulls incessantly on a leash, yet Kenai will reduce his pace when I say “slow”.

Since raising these littermates have proved to be a major challenge so far, I’ve decided to finally do what I should have done before–GET A BOOK, or two. I’ve ordered a book about puppy development, and also a book called “Calming Signals”. Since training calmness when the Brothers Grin are together is currently an exercise in frustration, I paid extra for 2 day shipping on that one. We’ll see what works with the laddies.

Perhaps I just need a better view of what’s really going on with these two pups ‘o mine. After near 37 years of raising puppies under my belt, I still am at a loss with how to corral the mustangs before they get to chewing each other. Tried everything I know and have been told, to no avail.

Call it perspective shift, learning experience, or need-a-brain awakening, the Brothers have enough “moments” to be a temptation to drink profusely. Good thing I abhor headaches. I have enough migraines to waive me off the self-inflicted kind!

I have met a friend online whose beautiful blue Dane pup was born only 1 day after mine, and he’s just as willful. This is good for me. It proves that I don’t have the most difficult pup that ever was born. I’m sure our two lugs will swap the first place golden bone back and forth as they grow. We’re getting them together this month and lettin’ the rhinos run. There’ll be pics from that event for sure.

For all my growling about Kenai, he isn’t a knuckle head all the time. He is good about a lot of things, and buckets of fun. Watching him play ring around the goodie bins with BB at the pet store is really funny. And he waits for gimpy legged brother to catch up, since it’s more fun to tease and chase than just chase.

Now that Kenai is passed the prissy idea that getting damp is awful, he runs and romps in wet grass and light mists. The real test of how far he’s come is next week, with four solid days of rain in a row now forecast. 19 inches of rain in one month is enough, I think, but I wasn’t elected to the weather committee. Darn it. 

I swear, I’m gonna tie sandwich baggies over Kenai’s taped ears everytime we go out in the rain! I’m tired of changing the tape, and so is he. But they still need to be up, with the tips drooping the next day and having full flop around mode when running. Poor sweetie, he’s very patient with his stumble fingered Mom to get faster and better at it.

To end on a high note, though me and he have been slacking on the “formal” practice sessions and socialization, Kenai not only picks up twigs and bark, he carries them around a while. So he’s got a new word he’s getting to know: “good carry”. And last but not least, he’s getting the sit/stays!

 

“if dogs don’t trust you, neither will I…”  –unknown but wise