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The Education of Greyhound Phoebe, Chapter the First

in which Phoebe meets her teacher and learns to take food from people.

Phoebe started school today. She is the biggest dog in a class of very small dogs so if she sees farther than the other dogs, it is because she is surrounded by dwarfs. The other dogs are cute, nonagressive, and mostly well-behaved so it seems like a group that a shy dog like Phoebe will be able to handle.

The teacher spent most of the class just talking about her own dogs and her background as a trainer while the students got to know one another. Phoebe was a bit standoffish at first, but she warmed up to a toy poodle and the teacher’s pet – I mean that literally – a boxer. As the teacher spoke, she walked around the circle of dogs, handing treats to them until, by the time she was finished, she had their undivided attention.

In that time, she got a yipping dog to stop yipping, and a bouncy dog to sit. She also managed to get Phoebe to take the treats from her hand. I’ve been working on that since October and only last week did she do it and then only once. I had been concerned about this, but by the time we left, she was more than willing to take treats from my hand.

The first lesson was ‘watch-me.’ The object is to get the dog to look into your eyes without looking away for a minute and a half. I could get Phoebe to give me this undivided attention for about twenty seconds. She did it twice and then lost interest, but by then class was over. So that’s our homework: watch me.

Overall a good class. I got to preach the gospel of greyhounds to a group of curious people who’d never seen one before, and who were all quite taken with Phoebe’s appearance and calm, but friendly demeanor. Most importantly, we made a breakthrough in that she’ll take food from my hand now. Hopefully she’ll continue to shine.

<< Prologue | Next Chapter >>

[saveagrey]

Weekend Hound Blogging: Education vs. Job-Retraining

Phoebe

Do we look a bit worried here?

It’s only natural to feel apprehensive when one opens a new chapter in life, and that’s where Phoebe is. On Monday, Phoebe is going to school. She’s going to learn to sit and stay, advanced leash walking, and perhaps a bit of English.

When filling out the paperwork, I was asked for placement purposes if she’d ever had any training or if this will be her first class. I didn’t know how to respond to this. Someone had once taught her to run around a track, though they didn’t do too good a job of it. Either way, I wasn’t sure if this was a matter of job-retraining or if we could call this postgraduate work. Education or training? It didn’t matter, the registrar told me, it would still be the same price, and it was only a certificate course.

So she enrolled in Advanced Beginner, which is the first course for adult dogs. I don’t really care what they teach her. She’s a smart dog and I’m told the smart ones get bored without mental stimulation which leads to furniture chewing and other fun things. Hopefully this will keep her mind occupied.

Pass the beer-bong, Phoebe, vacation’s almost over!

The Education of Greyhound Phoebe >>

[saveagrey]

Weekend Hound & Cat Blogging: Animals

Since nobody did anything of note this week and after reading about the IM Needle Nose Crew, I felt that reintroductions might be in order. And as Morrison has pointed out, this blog can get a bit dog-o-centric and needs an occasional feline presence to be more politically correct.

Morrison, of course, is the king of the Brush beasts. Why an eighteen pound cat can lord it over 120 pounds of dog, I’ll never quite know, although a friend of my wife’s suggests that dogs will defer to any animal who can “shit in the house without getting in trouble.” Perhaps it’s that simple.

Morrison asleep

In many ways, the big guy is more dog than cat: outgoing, friendly, and very sociable. He’s often the first to greet visitors. He snores when he sleeps upside down and offers a squeeky meow when we wake him up so we can sleep.

Likes:

  • Lounging on shoes and purses (especially when they belong to visitors)
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Green beans
  • Newpapers, paper bags and boxes

Dislikes:

  • Cars
  • Chicken

The adventures of the hounds are better documented elsewhere in this blog, but they wanted to share their likes and dislikes.

Phoebe and Daphne

Daphne is the blue-fawn brindle beauty on the right. She is a very small greyhound (53 pounds) with yellow wolfy eyes who has just discovered the art of begging. She’s probably five (no tattoos) and was found running through the woods of Lockhart by animal control. We met her three years ago at a GPA meet and greet where she was curled into a tight little ball, shivering, and hoping not to be noticed. We fell in love immediately. A person needs to visit our house several time before they see the ‘real’ Daphne, a very affectionate, playful, and goofy dog. There is very little brain in that pointy little head of hers, making her untrainable, but her heart is enormous.

Daphne likes:

  • Peanut butter Kongs
  • The word ‘greyhound’ (one of only a few that she knows)
  • New clothes to sniff
  • Nesting in the pillows on the bed

Daphne does not like:

  • Car rides
  • Walks
  • Anything new and different
  • Anyone new and different
  • Anywhere new and different

Phoebe came to us in October and was thought to be a spook, but is far more outgoing than Daphne. She weighs around 65 pounds and is still getting used to living amongst the humans. Everything is new, exciting and fun. She adheres to Emerson’s advice to do something everyday that scares you, and is quickly overcoming her fears.

Phoebe likes:

  • Squeeky toys
  • Walks
  • Car rides
  • Soft couches
  • People she’s never met
  • Being outside

Phoebe does not like:

  • Fireworks
  • Being told ‘No.’

So there’s the pack. Or is it pride? I suppose that would be Morrison’s call.

[saveagrey]

Weekend Hound Blogging: Greyhound Daylight Time

Initially, I didn’t have much to say and was just going to post a picture, but that didn’t feel like a Weekend Hound Report, so instead of sitting at the computer wishing for something to blog about, which seems to be very dangerous, I decided to just change the name from ‘Report’ to ‘Blogging,’ thus freeing myself from the tryranny of the word ‘report’ and opening the way to just put up a cute picture. Then I thought of something to write, but I went ahead and left ‘Blogging’ up to keep the pressure down and thus it is that we now have Weekend Hound (or Cat) Blogging:

I’ve heard that greyhounds have very accurate internal clocks due to the regimented life they live in the concentration camps… er… kennels at the tracks. You know, early to bed, early to rise makes a hound faster and smarter and postpones his demise. Well, since Phoebe is a retired fired racer, I’ve been watching since she came to us for evidence of this internal clock. Well, it started going off this week. 4:30 am. Usually, I get up at 5:30 and Phoebe follows me out of the bedroom and joins me for breakfast and a trip to the backyard (for her, not me).

This week, however, every morning at 4:30am we hear the squeek-squeek-squeek of a squeeky chew toy growing louder and louder as it begs for mercy. After that comes the beating of her weedwhacker tail against the wall until finally she starts running laps around the room. The room is small – at least for a speeding greyhound – so bouncing off the walls is more like it.

Every morning this week.

4:30am.

It’s apparent that Phoebe’s internal clock ticks just fine, but somewhere in that pointy little canine head it seems that a switch has been made in which the internal clock has skipped ahead an hour. A friend suggested that she has perhaps switched to greyhound daylight time.

Or perhaps it’s just youth. She turned two in November, which is pretty much adult for most dogs, but according to my copy of Retired Racing Greyhounds for Dummies, (She came with the book, can you believe it? Adopt a dog and get a book. What’s not to love?) greys mature more slowly:

Because greyhounds don’t mature until they are about three years of age, a two-year-old retired racer may still be very much a puppy and quite full of himself. He may need more exercise and supervision than a dog who is just a few months or a year older.

I wondered if perhaps she needs a bit more exercise. So I took her for an especially long walk on Saturday night, but it only helped a little bit. She started working over the squeeky toy at 4:37. Better, but we still need to adjust that clock.

[saveagrey]

Weekend Hound Report: Football and Other Adventuresmorr

Readers of my previous post will be aware that though the week may begin on a Sunday or a Monday depending on one’s language and location, Monday is never part of the weekend, and yet, a Weekend Hound Report. Just a little temporal paradox to enrich your experience.

The hounds had an interesting week. Some friends came over for the UT game, and as Vince Young charged into the end zone to seal the game, much celebration ensued. Quite terrifying.

The hounds leapt from the sofa and ran into the cave in the back of the house study to hide from the crazed apes who were beating their hands together, screaming and generally whooping it up. Morrison sauntered off into another room with his tail fluffed out like a bottle brush. When the humans settled down, he walked in to check on the dogs. He found Phoebe (the sixty-five pound greyhound) huddled in a corner so he naturally hissed at her, which caused her to tremble and cry in terror until my wife rescued her. Morrison (the seventeen-pound cat) was sent to time out. He must have been pulling for USC.

On Saturday, we went to visit some friends who just bought a house on the north shore of Lake Travis. They invited the hounds so we all cruised out through the hills to Lago Vista. This time it was Daphne’s turn to be afraid. She loves our friends when they come to our house. The drive was too much, though, and she spent the evening sleeping and recovering in a corner of the bathroom.

Phoebe loved the whole adventure. This was the first time she’d met these friends and she was very into them. It seems like each day, Phoebe comes out more and more, becoming more adventurous, more of a dog. Daphne is also coming out, but her progress is measured in years.

[saveagrey]

Weekend Hound Report: Phriendly Phoebe

The unexpected seems to have occurred. Phoebe, it turns out, is not afraid of people. As mentioned in last week’s Very Special Weekend Hound & Cat Report, Phoebe was a mass of tail-wagging excitement for the road trip, and she seemed to really enjoy the company of all the new bipedal apes she met. By my estimate, she was introduced to fifteen new people over the weekend and wasn’t afraid of any of them. In fact whenever someone would leave and then return a few hours later, she was thrilled to see them again. When we got her, we were told she was a spook, but she seems to have gotten over that and is now a definite fan of the humans.

On Monday, my mother-in-law followed us back to Austin to hang out with my wife and have her own little vacation for a few days. Phoebe was naturally happy to see her, and greeted her with much tail-wagging and barking each morning. Now, whenever someone comes over, if Phoebe has previously met that person, they get the whole canine welcome routine.

Who’d have thought.

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Want to save a greyhound in Central Texas? Check these pups out. Or go here to find a greyhound near you.

One Day till Christmas: A Very Special Weekend Hound & Cat Report: Taking the Show on the Road

I’m not sure it’s that special, but I always wanted to do a Very Special something along the lines of all the Very Special episodes that certain TV shows run this time of year. I also like the fact that the title of this post double categorizes itself. Is this a Days till Christmas post? Is it a Weekend Hound & Cat Report? Is it just a post with an overlong title involving too many colons? Am I rambling too much on this? Probably, so here it is with, oh what the hell, a colon:

Because there was no room at the inn kennel and not a single shepard watching his flock by night person we know who felt comfortable giving Morrison his insulin injections, he accompanied us on our journey to visit my wife’s family in east Texas. He travels pretty well in the car, and considering there were two large greyhounds and one cat, the trip went uneventfully.

Daphne hid under a pile of blankets. Morrison slept mostly in his cat carrier. Phoebe seemed to have had a good time on the road. This was the first time she’d gone farther than the vet, and she was excited about this opportunity to slay the dragon, destroy the One Ring, learn the ways of The Force, and sit in a car for six hours. The excitement lasted about half-way to Houston and then she just curled up and slept through the rest of the drive.

As we progressed down I-10 and into the Golden Triangle, it was nice to see Christmas lights and other decorations on so many buildings and homes despite the FEMA tarps that still cover most of the roofs. East Texas still looks “all tore up” but not as bad as the last time we were here, though, I couldn’t believe some of the damage in Port Arthur that we hadn’t seen last month since we didn’t go that way. Port Arthur was the town where Morrison decided the trip was over and began meowing and singing his Blues of the Lonesome Road. Fortunately, by that point we were almost there.

When we arrived, Phoebe was introduced to this side of the family and they all seem to like her, and more importantly she isn’t afraid of them. She’s exploring, Daphne is hiding, and Morrison is following my father-in-law around. Hopefully they’ll all enjoy tolerate the drive home as well as they did the drive here.

Tomorrow…the tree.

Until then, stop off at Ironicus Maximus to find out if greyhounds really are dogs.

[saveagrey]

Weekend Hound Report: Staying Warm

Sweaters arrived just a day late for The Blizzard of 2005… er… The Ice Storm of 05…no wait…The Day It Got Below 20 and Some Bridges and Overpasses Froze of 2005:

Hounds in Sweaters

For you non-greyhound people out there, we’re not trying to humiliate our pups by dressing them up. They have no body fat to insulate themselves and so really do need sweaters when it gets cold, but even without sweaters, nobody froze. Phoebe (in red) revealed herself to be something of a scientist, carefully scratching, licking, sniffing and nosing every patch of ice on the back porch in an effort to determine the meaning of it all.

Daphne (in blue), who is a little less intellectual, displayed her alter-ego “dangerous greyhound” and kept trying to run full-speed across the icy patio and up the frozen stairs to the glass backdoor. Happily no bones were broken, and some cat litter on the steps helped her keep traction.

When the sweaters arrived, they tried them on and even though the weather had warmed considerably, the dogs seemed to enjoy wearing them. I suppose they know when they look good.

By the way, the sweaters came from Classy Canine, and they’re great.

[saveagrey]

Weekend Hound Report: Strategies for Walking

With a large tip of the cyber hat to Ironicus Maximus whose Friday Hound Blogging is one of my favorite traditions, and in the interests of being organized, I now commence with a regular feature: The Weekend Hound (or Cat or Hounds and Cat) Report, wherein the adventures of my furry friends will be related. If it seems odd to start a weekend feature on a Monday, then you’re probably more organized than me.

Phoebe and Daphne took their first walk together yesterday. Phoebe loves the idea of walks, but when the paw hits the pavement it really freaks her out (as described here). Daphne, on the other hand, is terrified and runs away when anything even resembling a leash begins to jingle. Sometimes, however, she is tricked by the large bipedal apes with whom she lives and as happened yesterday found herself out in public. My wife took Phoebe, I took Daphne, and we strolled down the street with each hound demonstrating her own approach to facing a dangerous world:

Daphne, who walks quickly knowing that it will be over soon, bases her strategy on the fact that if she walks fast They will not be able to get her.

Phoebe believes They can only see movement and so walks painfully slowly in the hopes that she will be mistaken for a large black and white rock.

When together, Phoebe likes to stay close to Daphne and so will actually pick up the pace. Last night’s walk, took only half the time that a normal walk with Phoebe alone takes, though we covered the same distance. I have resigned myself to the fact that Daphne will never like walks, but I think Phoebe will really enjoy them as she comes out of her shell as evidenced by the fact that she always wants to go.

[saveagrey]