The Case of the Black Box

I've always wondered how dogs interpret television.  I know they perceive the flickering of lights and they hear the sounds.  I've had cats who would chase images they saw within the black box; however, it never appeared like they were actually viewing a show.

I've asked friends and it seems a bit mixed.  Some people know for sure their dog watches, while others have indicated their dog doesn't even notice the black box.

Marley has usually responded to sounds of barking or knocking, otherwise she ignored the black box.

Until recently, it was a cold night and we were having quiet time.  I glanced at Marley and noticed she was relaxed in her bed and it appeared like she was watching the show.  I totally dismissed it as a figment of my imagination.

After the show was over she came got up and started barking at me (not typical behavior), I offered to let her out and I offered cuddles.  She continued until I started another episode of Dr Who.  As soon as she noticed it was starting she jumped into her bed and started watching. Who knew she was such a big fan?

I'm totally curious as to what about this show caused her to react in that manner.  Was she really watching?  Did she get the concept?  Oh no, is she on her way to becoming a couch potato?

Just when I'm totally proud of Marley

I know I'm really lucky to have such a great dog and there are times when my heart overflows with love for my dog.

Marley's recall stopped traffic. Not many of our neighbors are up and about when we take our morning walk and it is quiet and peaceful. Marley was walking ahead of me on the stretchy leash and I noticed a car driving in our direction. I call Marley and we wait for the car to turn and drive away before proceeding on our walk. My neighbor pulls her car over, gets out and said, "you called your dog and she came back." I'm a bit startled. My neighbor continues, "Was that hard to teach?" Now, I'm a bit perplexed and I tell her it was relatively easy to teach and Marley will recall to both sides.

When I'm fully awake a couple of hours later and thinking about this event, my heart just fills with pride in Marley. I'm so very happy she is my dog. Just when I think my heart can't contain this much love for my dog...

Marley behaves like a total bitch. Yep, I said it! I took her to a nice dog park and she proceeded to claim a section of the park as "hers" and she barked at everybody who entered her space; people, dogs, birds and kites. Ugh!

Agility Update - Marley's New Thing

At the last trial I attended I noticed all the border collies barked during their run. I'm not sure if this is typical border collie behavior or if it was just a big coincidence that all the border collies I saw barked. I remember so clearly thinking how lucky I am to have found Marley. While she gets excited she doesn't bark unless she wants to scare somebody.

This week at agility class Marley showed her true colors...she barked at me whenever she thought I was slow. Yep my little dog barked when I didn't run fast enough or when I wasn't clear about what I wanted from her or when the treat wasn't delivered in a timely manner. I was a bit disturbed and I figured it was just the excitement of class.

Nope, she did it again when we were practicing jumps at home. I'm glad she is excited and I'm very happy she enjoys agility. I'm not very happy about her new demanding behavior.

Dog Jobs

While I was researching dog breeds all the books said there were dogs breeds that needed to have a purpose or a job. I decided to be smart and avoid all the herding breeds and terriers. I thought I hit the jackpot with Marley, who I think is part Papillon. A dog breed for companionship wouldn't require a job, right?

WRONG

It seems Marley has given herself a few jobs, such as

• Couch protector - Whenever Bob forgets the couch is not a scratching choice Marley will chase Bob away. Unfortunately, Marley has included the scratching posts under her protection.
• Cat herder - Every time I turn on the printer, Marley thinks she is doing a fabulous job by herding Bob towards the printer. Unfortunately, I do not want Bob stalking the printer cartridges.
• Plant inspector - I was not aware plants needed to be protected from bees. Marley started snapping at bees. My lack of gratitude or maybe she got stung, but now she barks at bees.
• Diet enforcer - It seems all cookies are her domain. She totally gets bent out of shape if I have a cookie and she doesn't.

I am currently looking for jobs to assign my dog. If anybody has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.

Self Handicapping

According to Patricia McConnell self handicapping is when a faster, stronger individual chooses to hold back and allow the play to continue instead of just going for the win. A good example is any parent who chooses to play an endless game of Monopoly with a child instead of winning quickly.

Marley loves to wrestle and she usually finds playmates who are about her size and strength. Every once in a while a feisty puppy will decide she wants to wrestle with Marley. I always supervise her closely and I was so pleased when I noticed her self handicapping when playing with smaller, younger dogs.

Precious is a yorkie about 9 months old. She is supper feisty and very demanding.

"Play with me! NOW!!!" Precious

Laying on her side while Precious jumps all over her.

Playing dead.

After all that wrestling they took off running in circles until somebody squeaked a ball and Precious was distracted.

naughty or nice?

Marley made out this Christmas. She received a Nina Ottosson dog puzzle, duck stuffy and a bully stick. Santa brought her weave poles.

Marley indulged me with a game of fetch.

She also gave me a heart wrenching panic attack.




There is nothing Marley loves as much as food. On Christmas morning she refused breakfast.

We went to the park to meet some friends and Marley refused to leave my side. I pointed out some squirrels and she curled up in my lap. She refused to participate in a game of chase. She looked so sad and depressed. I started to mentally review everything Marley had eaten during the week. OMG did she have the flu, heartworm, what if her vaccines were not effective and she picked up something like distemper. I started to have visions of having to spend Christmas at the emergency vets. Finally a friend said, "Why don't you take off her sweater, she may be warm."




Once her sweater was off Marley jumped off my lap, shook and took off running around the park. Turns out she does not approve of lavender sweaters. She spent the entire day sulking and scared me to death in the process.

New play behavior

I'm always watching Marley when she plays with other dogs. She likes to wrestle and I'm always concerned about it getting out of hand and developing into a fight. I look for "balanced play" where both dogs take turns being on the bottom. This is especially important because her favorite playmates are part Chihuahua, which means they are usually smaller than her and she can easily dominate the play.

Marley is very good about holding back her strength (or self handicaping) in order to play with her little friends, however sometimes she needs a quick reminder that she needs to hold back. One of the commands we have worked on is "lettem up" (why are all my commands all one quick slurry word?). When ever I notice Marley is keeping a dog down longer than I or the other dog owner feels comfortable I say the command and Marley jumps off and waits for her playmate to get up and they then continue playing. This didn't take very long to teach because she quickly realized if she didn't respond to the command play would stop immediately.

Marley has recently started exhibiting new odd behavior that I'm not sure how to interpret. About two months ago we met Cleo, who is about 19lbs. They ignored each other, except for dominant marking in the park.

Cleo

Last week Marley finally noticed Cleo and she went up to her and exhibited puppy-like behavior, such as lip licking, nipping around the lips, lots of play bows and little sharp excited yips. If Cleo reacted, Marley would swing around slightly and body slam Cleo. This continued until Cleo started to chase Marley.

Cleo playing with her favorite toy.

When done playing chase and drank water together. Then they started wrestling, which was interesting because while they look similar in size Cleo outweighs Marley by 10 lbs.

Marley wrestling with her new BFF, Cleo.

I found this interesting because I have not encountered that type of play solicitation that merges puppy like behavior with body slams. At this time while I closely supervise and I will step in if the play vibe changes, I'm interested in finding out if I should be more concerned about this behavior.