Mike’s Doghouse

Mike and Joella went to the groomer today. It had been a while since Jo had had a bath and we don’t think Mike had one since he was first rescued at 2-3 weeks old. On the phone, the woman had no problem grooming a Rottweiler so off we went. DeDe of Pampered Pets in Weaverville is a cool woman. She has a lot of dogs of her own and also does boarding/sitting. She fell in love with Mike (as does everyone that meets him) and thought Joella was beautiful. After giving her details of them both and their grooming history, I left them in her capable hands.

I went to the pet food store (Asheville Pet Supply) and got a bag of dog food and some chews. With four adult dogs and one growing pup, we go through a lot of dog food! After that, I went to Waffle House in Weaverville to eat and wait for the dogs to get done. I tried calling at one point but didn’t get an answer. I knew she had a busy day so I wasn’t bothered by that. I’d dropped them off at about 11:30 and she said to give them a few hours. I went to pick them up at about 1:30 or 2.

Mike did fairly well with his grooming. She said he wandered around the tub a lot and finally sat in a far corner, his back to the wall. But he wasn’t overly upset about it. Joella did her usual thing of slowly sticking her head over the edge until she is all but stepping out. She brought them from the drying area to the main room and Mike was this huge ball of fluff! He hadn’t been brushed yet and it was funny to see him all fluffed out like that. He wouldn’t stay still for a decent brushing but she got him fairly well. Joella was next to come out and she was also all fluffy. She loves to be brushed though, so was easier to do. DeDe had managed to talk Jo into letting her do a few nails and while I was there, talked her into a few more.

Including tip, it cost $60 to get both done. Not bad! We will definitely be taking them back. Lorna wants me to take Sam by next week. The back seat of my truck looks like I sheered a sheep in there from Sam riding to class and back Tuesday!

Yesterday, Mike went with me to Waffle House again. He didn’t go in, but stayed out in the truck. The objective was to get him out of the house and to show off his ears to the folks there. He chewed the two cell phone chargers in the truck, though. My fault. When I came out and showed him off to everyone, we then went over to the grass where he peed and peed and peed! Outside! Away from home!

Today he went with Lorna and me as we ran errands. The first thing he did was pull the stuffed Rottweiler out from the pocket in the back of the driver’s seat. I put all his toys there whenever we get back home. He stayed in the truck while we went in and spent major bucks on shoes (that God I only need them once every two years or so!). He didn’t pee both times we took him out but he also didn’t destroy anything in the truck. We gave him a chewy so perhaps that helped.

We stopped at a convenient store and got him some water. He drank a LOT (it was a pleasant, spring-like day). From there, we went to Tolliver’s Crossing, an Irish pub in Asheville. We sat outside with Mike. He did relatively well. He settled down eventually, watching everything and everyone. The hardest part was picking up all the cigarette butts before he found them (and dumpster diving for them when he did). We took his new travel bowl with us and put scraps in it for later. He wasn’t wearing his cape, which was good. Mike likes to get up on his back legs and wrap his front legs around the arm of the person petting him. He does jump up too much, something we are working on. Mike is much more interested in people than Jo ever was. He will go to them, not wait for them to come to him.

When we left, Lorna took him for a short walk to a bit of grass under a pitiful tree. Mike watered it well! Back at the truck, Mike got his scraps and some more water. Next up was Earth Fare where Lorna went in and Mike and I rested in the truck. He went nuts when a woman approached her car parked next to us. No barking, but he managed to his upper body and one leg out the window. The woman had a dog in her car. It never barked at Mike and he never barked at the it. When that car left, another pulled up, this time with TWO dogs. Mike never barked. Stuck his head out the window and sniffed, but no barking.

Joella is not dog aggressive. I’d never ever call her that. However, she is dog excited. Rotties are talkers and when she sees another dog when we are out, she talks about it. This talking sounds an awful lot like she wants to eat the other dog, but she doesn’t. It’s just her talking. She’s never shown aggression when the two dogs meet. She’s never met a dog she wouldn’t play with.

Mike won’t be that dog excited. He knows they are there but isn’t interested. He wants people. All of them he sees. He wants to touch them, by touched by them in return, and hear how cute he is.

All in all, it was a good day out. We all came home exhausted (and Lorna and little buzzed from the two Twisted Thistle beers she had at Tolliver’s). Mike’s not done much but play a little then go into the big crate to crash for a while. Then come out and repeat. Mike’s gotten better at walking on the leash and we were impressed with him calming down relatively quickly. He rarely laid down, but he did sit or stand in one place. It was good for him to experience another place.

In an earlier post, I said I was working on setting up the photo gallery in another location. That is (was) going smoothly. Until today when I found I could no longer sign into the admin section. Sigh.

Anyway, I have some new pics of Mike. Click the images for a larger version.

That ear stands up when he is paying attention or very intent on something. I was eating a banana, one of his fave snacks. Yeah, he’s weird.

Mike almost fills the recliner now!

We call this his “suicide pose”.

We got Mike a new crate the other day and today, while he was at the vet’s office keeping them entertained, we moved stuff around and decided where to put the monstrosity. It is the same width and depth as Sparky’s old crate but is about three inches taller. It is also one of those “folding” crates while Sparky’s crate is put together with large pins/poles. It has two doors so we can be more flexible about where to put it. It also has a divider to make the crate smaller as the pup grows. Mike’s current crate is not tall enough for him and he has to lay at an angle if he wants to fully stretch out. It is just like the bigger crate except it has only the one door and is made by a “generic” company. The larger one is by Midwest (Life Stages-Double Door 42″), a huge dog supply company and the smaller one is by Bargain Hound (the 30″ one).

Here’s Mike in his current, smaller crate:
12/24/08

2/6/09

The larger crate with the divider in place will be in the living room. This is where he will stay during the day when I am too distracted to watch him close enough. It will also be where he will stay whenever we are gone. The smaller one is still in the bedroom and will be for sleeping. At least for a while. We’ll eventually move the larger crate into the bedroom and store the smaller one.

Yesterday, Lorna, Mike, and myself went to visit friends. We’ve known Lori and Gary for many years but had yet to meet their pup, Jack (an Aussie Blue Heeler mix). After meeting for dinner in Black Mountain, we headed to their house. Gary brought Jack out so the two could play outside for a while. We were afraid it wasn’t going to work out but they eventually decided playing was more fun than growling.

It was good to see Mike playing with someone new. He is a great runner and can jump fairly high and long. He also got to meet 3 new cats. What was good, too, was to see him interact with Gary. Being a lesbian couple in a rural area, we don’t have many men friends. It’s good for dogs to meet people of different genders, skin color, and vocal tone than their owners. Gary is a gentle man and Mike fell in love. Better still, both Gary and Lori fell in love with Mike.

The only bad thing about the trip was Mike peed in the car again on the way there. Peed when he got out of the car (we thought at first it was submissive pee in response to Jack but it wasn’t). He peed and pooped while out running. Inside, he promptly peed three more times. I took him out, he peed again. Inside, he peed yet again! Lori is a veterinarian and was concerned with his obvious incontinence. So, yeah, back to the vet’s office we go!

We need to work more on RECALL. He did do a SIT for me, though.

Our holiday this year was rather subdued. We’ve spent so much money on sick critters and sick vehicles, that Santa thought it best to skip our house for now. But we were promised a new refrigerator soon so perhaps all is not lost. At least it wasn’t coal!

The dogs got gifts from Mary at Asheville Pet Supply. A stuffed gorilla with a Santa hat, a tough stuffed tree, a loooong stuffed dog, and some treats. Sam, our Catahoula, thinks all toys exist to be destroyed. That’s how he believes they were meant to be played with. We keep all stuffed toys up and give them out whenever he has something else to do. He even will destroy Kongs! Anyway, we’d gotten him and Mike some Nylabones to gnaw on and he’d chewed off about half while Mike’s doesn’t even have dents. So while the others played with the stuffed toys, we gave Sam his bone.

Casey just wanted to investigate everything, she didn’t want to play. PopCorn is pouting (see pic below) because we had to put the helmet on her. Joella played with the gorilla for a while until she discovered Mike’s Nylabone. Mike traded with her and all was happy.

I watched Mike for a while to make sure he didn’t start pulling anything off (it’s a small toy) and saw that Sam had a lot more off his bone. Later, I saw no pieces around and figured he’d eaten them. We took the stub away, shook out the blanket, and found no pieces. Sam usually doesn’t eat the pieces but there’s a first time for everything.

Then yesterday, I found them. In two piles of vomit from Mike. Yep, the little snot ate them. I checked him over and we fed him a light dinner to keep his tummy happy. We are fairly certain there’s not more pieces inside him. They were all huge and I don’t think they would have made it out the other end without doing some damage. We went through the other toys and wound up throwing away the fleece tug. Sam had decided, after several weeks of actually playing vs destroying, that it was time to kill it. Now knowing that Mike just might eat the pieces, we had to toss that. The stuffed toys are out of anyone’s reach. After all the wollering Mike did to the gorilla, it wasn’t missing a single bit of fuzz! (Jo still has a stuffed toy I got her nearly 8 yrs ago so maybe it’s a Rottie thing?)

Mike is eating fine today, no more hurling.