Young dog had us up much earlier than anticipated. He may have been hungry. I'm not sure.
At 7:30, we had him into the groomer's. G3 had called the day before, asking when we could get an appointment. Groomer thought G3 sounded desperate. Only partly true.
Truth is that YD is about 10 months old, but has never had a clip. His hair was matted in a number of places. He was almost as fluffy as one of Crystal Jigsaw's sheep. And just as cute, but in a different way.
We got him back at noon. By then he looked more nude than Lucky (of LIFE IS GOOD fame). And by that time, we are all off schedule. We slept a bit in the afternoon, which proved to be really fortunate. Then he decided his bed was a new toy and dragged it all over the basement. Eating and walking were all out of sync. He woke me up about every three quarters of an hour in the night. So in desperation, we gave him something to eat, and a big cuddle. That seemed to be enough.
Today, things went better.
We all woke up rather sleepless. (Well. at least the people did.) But overall, the day went well. Eating, resting, and walking in a normal schedule. To entertain YD, I did some tree pruning in the back yard, which he explored, played with the cut branches, and kept me company. We also played some puppy games on the floor, as I have done with our other dogs. Only instead of just getting growls and licks, I almost lost an eye, half of an ear, and parts of two fingers. (OK -- that's a bit of an exaggeration.) But, fancy this -- male dogs play rougher than females. Duh?! I should have expected that. But since we've only had females in the past, and because YD is a stronger animal than I anticipated, I didn't fare as well as usual. (Note to the Bear: don't try that again!)
Aside: Portuguese Water Dogs (PWDs) are working dogs -- historically, with Portuguese fishers. They are strong dogs, helping retrieve tackle, herd fish into nets, and carry messages from boat to boat. They need a lot of activity, and while they can be good family pets (as President Obama has apparently decided), they do tend to be closely attached to one member of the family, as their ancestors would have bonded closely to the person with whom they were working.
There was one major downside. Bear decided to get some rawhide chew bones from local pet store for YD. Dog sat with G3 while Bear was gone -- barking, howling and crying until Bear returned. The experience did not endear said dog to G3.
With any luck, we'll all get a good night's sleep tonight, and tomorrow will be a grand day. (I've got some night-time snacks ready for the dog, just in case.)
Oh, by the way, while I've been typing this, YD has been busy amusing himself. I offered him a rawhide bone -- he wasn't interested. But I left it in a place he could find it easily. After a while, he decided he was interested, and had a chewing good time. Then he started flinging the bone around, finding it, and racing around the furniture. Last step -- bring it to the Bear and have Bear toss it, for retriever dog to fetch and return. After all that, YD was totally tuckered out, and is lying at Bear's feet. Probably time for both of us to call it a night.
See you anon.
2 comments:
He,he,he. Poor People!
My baby does that to me too! I am first to be dishing out the empathy to you guys. At least you can send him back soon. :D
P.s Wishing you all a good night sleep.x
YD sounds like a perfect dog for you. Bron's white cockapoo Maddy used to entertain herself dropping the ball down stairs and retreiving it. Davy Dog when he was young loved when I'd put on leather gloves or mitts. He would attack ferociously. YD might bite through them; you'll need welders gloves. How often/much do you feed him? I leave my mutts on self feed until they are about two as they are still growing and exercising lots. After that I see if they are getting fat and cut them back to what the box says. Maybe different for indoor dogs vs outdoor dogs too.
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