Max stands over me and panting loudly. He has always been a loud panter. When he first came to live with us we thought he was a loud panter because he was anxious confused. I have mentioned before that Max was a rescued Newfoundland and at his previous home had been kept outside on a chain or in a fenced in area. He was so wild that at a year(the age we took him home) he did not know how to be on a leash. He has calmed down such an amazing amount that it is hard to know he is the same dog. He even looks different. The excessively loud panting has not gone away however. I read somewhere that dogs can get damage to their vocal cords by pulling so hard on their collar or chain. I believe this is what happened to Max. He sounds like he has a difficult time getting air into his lungs. He snores so loud when he is asleep you can hear him upstairs. The reason Max is standing over me and panting is to tell me that he wants to get fed. Usually when he does this it is exactly 5:00 and his internal clock tells him that he gets fed at 5:00. What Max doesn't know is that sometimes it is not 5:00 when we feed him. Sometimes it is far later and sometimes I need to feed him earlier. But to Max, 5:00 is dinner. Tonight I will wait until it is later than 5:00 because I am waiting for a neighbor girl to come over to let them out and feed them. Now you are asking,"What? That doesn't make sense."You are right, except that we are practicing for having he be a dog sitter for us. See, next week, Brad will be out of town and I have to work some long long days when I won't be able to let the dogs out. Now they are able to "hold it" for a long time but this is one of those times when it is a long, long time. Brad assures me that they really could wait until I get home, but the thought of them sitting for 13 hours with their legs crossed just seems like unnecessary torture. So, I contacted the teenager across the street to ask her if she would be willing to come and let the dogs out! The great thing about this teen is that she is unfazed by Max. She loves him and she has that mix of love and confidence that makes a great dog sitter. I talked to her mom and then asked her if she wanted to help out Max and Beeker. When she came to practice the first time she came over to the house in crutches. My heart sank. Yes, I felt sorry that she was on crutches and had one leg wrapped up, how ever my heart sank because I thought that she would not want to or be able to do the job. Silly me! She had hurt her knee from playing soccer but has had knee problems for a while. She's really good on her crutches. Sometimes she forgets how to use them and sort of hops and skips at the same time. We made a plan as to how she could even use the crutches to get the dogs to move back if she needed to get into the house and the dogs are too excited to let her in the door. This sometimes happens when they are anxious to go outside to do their business. So the first practice I walked her through the process and she watched how they went right outside and then into the garage to eat, then back outside. The next time Amy came I had her do the routine and I watched, close at hand. She did great except (we both laughed at this)when she let them outside to do their business, she went out with them and tried to talk them into going, well both dogs just stood and looked at her thinking she was out there to play or talk to them. They wouldn't do anything. We figured out that she needed to just let them out and stay inside. Today she will do the whole routine by herself. I know she will do great. The dogs will be excited to finally get fed too.
Max is up again now standing by my side letting me know I haven't fed him yet and it is past 5:00. How do I tell him that he will get fed as soon as Amy is finished with soccer and gets here to feed him? It's just so tough to wait. Max finds this is a good time to mix it up with Beeker and then they wear them selves out and with a huge exhale they lay down to rest for a while. Maybe this is dog fustration displacement. They know how to use up the energy they were putting into getting my attention and used wrestling to use that energy and calm themselves down. What brilliant dogs!
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