Things that go on in my dog's head

Once upon a time, I taught Tinky-Winky to roll over. It took two years and a good 70 lbs of cheese, but we did it. Or... more or less. She knows what I mean by "roll over". That was the easy part. She got it the first day. The part about motivating her to do it took two years, and she still always tries to get out of it by doing some other trick instead, or she'll go on her side and then get back up and pretend she did it. So, I don't really ask her anymore. Obviously she doesn't like it, and there is no purpose in making her do it.

The funny thing is, when we're playing on the floor together in the evenings, sometimes she rolls over of her own free will. I don't even have cheese handy or anything, and we're just playing, and she rolls over and doesn't ask for anything in return.

Now why would somebody do something they don't like to do but they know matters to someone in their life?

Hmmmmmmm...

I think that's her way of saying "you know what, human, you're alright."

The ten-dog race

Before anyone starts thinking I'm posting these because I care about LUSH wanting to ban dog racing: I don't give a tupenny Ford about what LUSH wants to ban. I only even know about it because someone else blogged about how they are boycotting LUSH because of the dogsled issue, and I made time to read the blog, and I was disappointed by the lack of anything worth discussing. I wouldn't want anyone to think I am gonna blog something boring about LUSH and the sled dogs.

I shot these photos on Sunday for the simple reason that we have dog races the first weekend in March and the ten-dog race goes right past my house, and the weather was beautiful, and therefore I went down to take some photos. It has nothing to do with advocacy of any kind.

However if you want to know what I think of LUSH, I think it's bizarre to boycott them because they want to shut down dog sledding, but not because they want to shut down the oilsands. Seriously: we need the money from the oilsands, and if you ever ride around in a vehicle with an internal combustion engine, or you own anything that was ever carried in a truck, train, ship, or airplane, or you live in any kind of man-made dwelling, then your lifestyle depends on oil, just like everybody else's; while on the other hand, nobody's lifestyle or livelihood is seriously dependent on sled dogs. So it strikes me as rather hypocritical to get huffy about the dogs and not about the oil. Also, LUSH is not an effective advocacy group, nor do they care. They do this because it's their corporate image, that's all. And again, it's hypocritical to boycott LUSH because of their corporate philosophy, but keep buying petroleum products. Or coffee. Or any foods not grown locally. Or anything made in China. Or Microsoft.

Then again, it takes zero effort to live without LUSH, and considerable effort to live without petroleum products, coffee, food, Microsoft, and things made in China, so I see your point.

Personally, I buy from LUSH, and I don't care what they advocate against, or whether they even advocate against anything. I also like dog sled races, not because I have any opinion on the ethics of the people involved, but because if I had enough money to keep ten dogs, I'd totally be racing myself. Because it would be awesome fun.

And now I totally conned you into reading a boring, pointless blog post about LUSH v. sled dogs. Bahaha!

Things you don't see often

A shiba with muddy paws. So rare, I only have one photo, after five years together. (Another time, she fell into a swamp full of H2S in Yellowknife, but I didn't take a picture of that. She was miserable.)

Is there such a thing as being too attached to your dog?

I have a lifelong dream of going to the south pole. That's not very realistic. Getting a job in Antarctica is realistic, but where you work in Antarctica depends on your profession and citizenship, which means I wouldn't be at Amundsen-Scott regardless.

You'd think that would be really disappointing, but really, not really. Because when I look at photos of Amundsen-Scott, the interesting thing, to me, is the ceremonial pole marker. And every time I look at it I think "wow, Tinky-Winki would LOVE to piss on that." (If you've been reading this blog a while, you know that Tinky-Winky likes to piss on man-made markers.) However, you can't bring your dog to Antarctica, and what's more, the contracts are six months to two years, so I won't even be applying until after she's dead. And when I visualize being at the south pole without her, it doesn't seem worth going anymore.

Hmmmm...

Maybe, when your main motivation for going to the south pole is "so the dog can piss on it", it's time to deprioritize the dog a little.

(All the same, when I go to Antarctica, I'll bring her ashes with me, in case I get a chance to go to Amundsen-Scott after all and scatter some there.)

The bed that survived

Tinky-Winky is a great shredder of blankets. She went through five in our first four years together, and I mean "through". And through and through and through. Plus some really good quality towels that I was using as a draft stopper and she mistook for a dog bed.

Being the perfect dog she is, though, she never goes through my blankets. Occasionally she'll inadvertently tear my comforter a bit, but she never goes to town on my stuff like she does on her own.

Anyway, about a year and a half ago, I took her last un-shredded blanket, folded it in four, stuffed it with all the stuffing from two comforters (one queens, one double) that I had given her and she had destroyed, and sewed the sides shut.

Miraculously, she still has that bed. No holes or tears in it. And she sleeps on it all the time. She actually stopped sleeping on the couch ever since she's had that bed. She rarely even sleeps on my bed anymore. She does still have some shredded remains of her own blankets that she likes to shred even more when the mood strikes her, but she doesn't shred her bed.

I guess she must really like it.

She's that cute

On our regular walk at home, Tinky-Winky and I walk through the secondary school grounds. This evening, as we crossed the street to the school, there was a woman on the grounds talking to a man with a young-looking German-shepherd-like dog. Then the woman walked away and I thought the guy was a cop, because he was dressed too neatly and stood assertively instead of loitering. But then as we approached him, his dog jumped toward Tinky-Winky, wagging his tail and excited. And a police dog wouldn't do that.

So the guy says to his dog "heel" and the dog ignores him. The guy had to tell him four times, and on the fourth time he yanked hard on the leash, and finally the dog paid attention to him, heeled, and assumed a submissive attitude. Then I noticed the guy had a gun strapped to his leg and a toque that said "police" on it. (Hey. It was dark.)

Me: So it's a police dog, eh?
Guy: Yes he is.
Me: I thought police dogs heeled on the first try.
Guy: Usually he does.
Me: Is he on duty?
Guy: Yes he is.
Me: Oh. I better get out of here then.

Yep. My dog: distracts an on-duty police dog so he won't respond in four tries. She's actually that cute. Good to know in case I ever need to sneak past a police dog.

(Ok, in reality, the dog was already distracted before we got there, otherwise maybe he would have stayed focused. But it's still rather disturbing that it would take four tries to control a police dog who's on duty and on leash. What happens when it's off leash, then?)

"If only you could talk"

Of course not. If my dog would talk she'd be like everyone else who can talk: bloody annoying.

But sometimes I do wonder, when she looks at me with her big brown eyes, whether she's happy enough. Not that there is anything more I can think of to do for her, but does she wish she had more dogs in her life? She's never really tried to make friends with other dogs, even when we take friends' dogs on walks. She wants to be with me and she wants the other dogs away from me. But if we spent enough time around the same dog, would she become more interested in interacting with the other dog and less in guarding me?

It doesn't matter very much in that I'm not getting a second dog. One dog is completely portable. I can go to hotels, to friends' houses, I can rent a room or an apartment, I can take her in the car. Two dogs: not even. Two dogs would be a huge pain in the arse. Nonetheless, if I had a boyfriend, and he had a dog, then his dog would be his dog and my dog would be my dog, and so, theoretically, it might be possible for the two dogs to become friendly without having to give up their one-man-one-dog privileges.

Again this is purely speculative since I'm not getting a boyfriend. But I do wonder if the dog wishes I would get a boyfriend who had a dog.