Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Daisy Update


Life has been coming up Daisy lately. On the whole, our miracle puppy has worked magic in the family. George laughs more now, the boys have actually picked up poop in the yard twice now, and I have a furry friend whose favorite place is at my feet when I'm on the computer. That is, when she's not killing her squeaky gingerbread man. Oh how she loves to kill the squeaky gingerbread man.

I'm going to take my bookbinding awl and kill the squeaky gingerbread man myself soon.

Daisy still isn't sure what sort of animal she is. We've not heard the hyena/wolf/chicken sounds in a while, but there must also be a bit of reptile in her to explain the behavior we've labelled the Snake Strike. Wow, she's fast. When she's worked up playing or even just sitting peacefully in a lap, she will strike her companion in the nose with her nose in a lightning-fast attack that leaves the victim saying, "What the...?!?!"

Then there's the Daisy Cow. She eats grass. Turns out lots of pups eat grass and a quick Google search turned up the helpful fact that no one knows why they do this. Well, one hypothesis (the grossest and therefore most likely to be true where dogs are concerned) is that it's an enacting of the instinct to eat the stomach of herbivore prey first. The expensive food we're feeding her should meet all her dietary needs, but she likes eating grass. Thankfully, she's not thrown any up, but give her time and a lapse in our vigilance to keep her from swallowing her cud, and it will happen.

On the carpet.

She is also Stealth Puppy, a canine version of the B-2 bomber. This is new to me and George because neither of our other pups was stealthy. Both flopped around quite noisily (especially the Hoove, who did nothing quietly his entire life). This meant we always knew where Shemya and Hoover were and what they were doing. Daisy, on the other hand, is delicate, careful, Ninja-like. She moves from point A to point B soundlessly and quickly. You'll see her one second, look away, quickly glance back...and she's gone. As in SHE'S GONE AND OH MY GOSH WHAT IS SHE DOING!?!?!?! Panic grips us because, when she gets to point B, she does one of three things: she either poops, pees, or chews carpet.

Actually, the housebreaking is progressing normally. Stealth Puppy generally goes to the back door and sits when she needs to go out. But she's very quiet and doesn't wait long. If we miss our chance BECAUSE WE DIDN'T HEAR HER, she loses patience and heads for carpet. Needless to say, she keeps us on our toes and is training us quite well to make her the center of our universe.

I mentioned in a previous post that Daisy's breeder said she "wouldn't be unsensible" like our Hoover. Nevertheless, we've seen signs of unsensible behavior, which is sort of a relief because I don't particularly want a personality-less Stepford puppy. She is completely enamoured of the chew toy attached to her butt--how convenient! I love the look of surprise when she sees her tail move. "Oh! What is this? I must kill it! Arrrrggghhhh! [shake, shake, shake] Oww. Why does that hurt?"

She also does the Wild Thing, running madly around the yard or house until her back end gets going faster than her front end and she flips. The expression on her face when this happens is priceless. "How in the heck did THAT happen?" she seems to wonder. Then she takes off again.

She also eats rocks. You know, I just can't do anything with that little nugget of information. It's out there all by itself as an unsensible thing to do without any hyperbole from me.

On the up side, she actually does one thing all good dogs should do: the Happy Dance. This is the whole-body-wagging wriggle performed upon seeing her people after even a brief absence. Dave Barry described it as "unadulterated dog joy upon sighting the master."

We call it love.

13 comments:

  1. I just received an e-mail from a close friend who sent me your link. I love your Daisy as I sit here crying over your lovely words (of Hoover)! I have an 11 year-old golden. I rescued her when she was two, she's well but I know we have fewer years than we've had. TFS, Sarah

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  2. Thanks, Sarah. Dogs don't live long enough, do they? we just have to enjoy them while we can.

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  3. Love reading about Daisy. It was just a few months ago when Annie was that little and getting into all sort of things. Well she still does get into things and now has the body weight to back it up. :) Annie has a doggie football that squeaks and she likes to throw on my lap when I'm working.

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  4. I love reading about your Daisy.. brings back lots of memories of our golden Molly.. sigh.. still miss that dog.. anyway, later on we rescued a lab mix we named Lucy. She would like to be a lap dog, but thats another story. Lucy learned rather quickly to head to back door to go outside but was puzzled as to how to alert us of her need.. we hung a jingle bell from a ribbon attached to the door handle. She hits it with her nose when she wants to go out.. problem solved! Our newest addition, Annie ( a stubborn Westie) learned the trick in about 20 minutes.. give a try!

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  5. Your puppy posts make my day! :) We also hung a bell from the back door for our dog, a little cowbell from PetSmart..works great!

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  6. and why am I crying .. ;-)
    Love the update Susan.
    maureen

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  7. A wonderful puppy fix! Your delightful prose has us tittering over poop and carpet chewing while you're doing all the cleanup! It's not fair ... but thanks!
    Betsy

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  8. Holy smokes, she is too adorable for words. I think I need another picture of a chewed-up table leg or something to bring me back to my senses.

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  9. I want quite desperately to reach into your posted picture and turn Daisy's ear right-side-out, while feeling how silky soft it is!
    I could read your Daisy Chronicles all day, especially since I need to be packing-moving in four days! They'd be wonderful any day, but procrastination-of-packing makes the most wonderful spice added to reading your beloved blog . . . !

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  10. Ahh, love to read about Daisy's puppy antics. Such precious moments to write about and remember forever.

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  11. Maybe you could attach a bell at nose level for Daisy to ring when she wants out. Sorta like a reverse Pavlov thing...

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  12. Wonderful! I'm so happy you have a new furry addition. We lost our 22 year old cat last month, and my children's moment was on the wonderful way that losing a pet prepares us for losing each other and knowing that we will be together again. Daisy is indeed epically cute! :

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  13. Daisy is just so gosh darn cute! Her fur looks like velvet...I would love to pet it. Love your Daisy chronicles. About the grass thing...my 9-1/2 year old golden puppy still eats it every day. Stands at the back door to go out...not to do 'her businesss', but to go out and eat grass! She never vomits, we feed her high quality food, I've talked with the vet about missing something in her diet...the bottom line is, she just likes grass! Can't explain it any other way.

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Thanks so much for taking time to comment!