Soft puppy,
Warm puppy,
Little ball of fur.
Happy puppy,
Sleepy puppy,
Grrr, Grrr, Grrr.
terrier
Find the Biscuit
Coming up with activities to keep Geordie occupied during his first winter proved to be challenging. He never has been the type of pup to play by himself. He would much rather have someone else there with him. (This can be exhausting when your puppy is awake 20 hrs a day!) Our family dog loved to play “Find the Biscuit” and would search and search until he found every treat we had hidden. Hoping to buy myself a few minutes of peace and quiet, I introduced Geordie to the game.
Since Geordie wasn’t good at Sit/Stay yet, I had my Mom hold him in one room while I hid a biscuit in another. After we released him to search, we sat down where we could see him and had a chat.
Geordie searched for a few minutes, then came over to my Mom, made eye contact, and made a noise that had the cadence of “I dunno”. He clearly wanted her to tell him where his treat was. Without gesturing, she said, “It is over on the register, behind the end table”. Geordie paused for a moment to think, got an “Aha!” look on his face, then ran behind the end table to the register and grabbed the biscuit. The two of us were completely stunned. Until now, we had no idea that this little 8 month old puppy had the linguistic skills to understand that sentence. So surprised, we kept jumping around yelling, “He knew what we were saying! He understood!”
We didn’t realize it, but that was the first indication that we had a puppy Noam Chomsky on our hands.
The Real Reason I Brush Puppy’s Teeth
In the past week, the subject of brushing your dogs teeth has come up several times among friends. These days, I tell myself that the reason I do it is for my dog’s health. Thinking about it, however, started to bring up long-buried memories of why I really brush Bitey’s teeth…
Prior to Geordie, my family had a dog, and in all his years we never brushed his teeth. We never even thought about brushing a dog’s teeth. When I first heard about the practice, I thought people were going overboard with anthropomorphizing their pets. On the day Geordie showed up on my doorstep, my folks brought along a little puppy starter kit with a leash and bowls and toothbrush/toothpaste. I wasn’t sure how much I would use it, but it was a gift, so I wanted to at least try.
If you’ve ever brushed a puppy’s teeth, you know how awful this process can be. They are bitey creatures by nature, and putting your fingers in their mouths sets you up for a world of hurt. The reason I was so persistent about brushing Geordie’s teeth was that it was a war of wills. He was determined that he was going to be the boss of everything, and I was even more determined to prove him wrong. Wrestling the puppy each day and forcing him to be still while I cleaned his teeth turned out to be a good lesson on which of us was stronger willed.
Eventually, I found a brand of toothpaste that Geordie liked, and that helped the process a lot. Nowadays, he will actually remind me if I forget to brush his teeth. He still doesn’t like the brushing part, and for as long as he can, he stalls and hides his face against my shirt so that I can’t get to him. He thinks he is getting away with something, but to me it is a chance to get some snuggles from my non-snuggly guy.
Go ahead. Hide away, my little boy. I will take all the hugs I can get.
The Adventures of Bitey Dog 