Snug as a bug(16)

It has been raining on and off today, rainy and dreary and its a good day to stay inside, in what I call command central or "the bed". Its a great place to read, watch TV or work on the computer writing my blog. I have quick access to the kitchen and even Chez likes the company. Sometimes its good to just hang with the ones you love. I had to go into town today and since the Post Office is right next to the library, I decided that I should stop and pick up some movies to watch. Because Brad is out of town it will be a good weekend to watch movies, read magazines and books. As always Beeks went with me and he understood that he couldn't go with me in to the library. No, I don't discuss this with him but I do tell him to "stay there", when I get out of the car. When we returned home I let Beeks out to run around the yard like I always do(see 3/09/10). Well, I learned the lesson this time. When Beeks didn't return when I called him, I made a sweep around the yard and there he was, about 20 yards out in the back woods, smelling every tree and leaf on the ground. When I called him again, whistling and clapping to get his attention (thinking that If I could get his eye contact I could get his attention)he just looked up at me and then went back to sniffing the ground. What I know is that the deer that pass by our house sometimes bed down right in that area. I was not going to get Beeks to respond to me because I am just not that exciting! In fact, I told him to "STAND, STAY" and I went to him. He just stood there. When I got to him, I could see that there was a deer trail in the dirt leading right up to the area. I have mentioned that Beeks has a great beak, and so he was in rapture, I'm sure. I've learned my lesson. He will not be able to be let off lead for a long time until I am able to reteach him the "come" command. Always something to learn...for him and for me. This reminds me that I read in Temple Grandin's book that dogs need to go through a second round of training again when they are 18 to 36 months because they don't mature socially until then, although they mature sexually from 6 to 9 months. Since Beeker just turned two years old it might be time to get another round of training in dog obedience. It would be good for me to get retrained in being a good owner/leader as well. Beeker's disobedience got me to think again about the power of his nose. I mentioned in the last blog about his incredibly intense ability to smell. I know that dogs are being trained to sniff out diseases and as service dogs for individuals with some social diseases (Aspergers) as well. I read that some dogs are taught to identify when people with epilepsy are about to have seizures. There are even dogs that have been taught to detect cancers. My dad told me about a New York Times article about the use of dogs in bed bug detection. The idea is that its quicker using a dog to detect the bed bugs than other ways. Isn't that amazing. So this got me wondering, which is more acute? A dog's sense of smell or his sense of hearing? I'll need to read up on that one. Any ideas? I know a dog doesn't use his eyes when he is first born as much as he smells his mother, but where does hearing some into the spectrum? Max and Beeker both have a great sense of hearing, they can hear Brad's truck come home before he gets into the cul-de-sac. Now that's good hearing. Often they hear deer in the yard as they are laying in the bedroom at dusk. I don't think they can smell them from inside. Interesting.

Because it was wet and rainy out today the dogs are fairly stinky too. That wonderful 'dog de odor' is like wet socks and worms. When we bring them inside after they've gotten wet we either keep them in the laundry/mud room or if they have been out on the deck, we put a large towel down and dry them off there. Since Beeks was first with us, I trained him to stay on the towel or a small rug. We also have worked with the dogs to let us lift each of their paws and touch them (like shoeing a horse). Now it's easy to clean them off when they are wet. But they still smell like worms and wet socks. Come on guys, up on the bed for movie night! Febrese is my new best friend.