The dogs had their first dogsitter last night. We were meeting friends for dinner and so since we were staying with Juli we left Max and Beeker with her and Jesse. We often leave the dogs alone when we are gone to work or out for the evening. I was surprised to hear of their adventures without us and even more intrigued by Maxie’s transition from a Brad attachment to Juli’s.
When we left to go out to dinner, all of the dogs were laying low after a run in yet another new dog park. This new park is one that was developed and donated by a dog lover in Davenport who got the financial support from Purina Food Corporation who is located in Davenport. This park not only has a large area of grass and trees with berms for exploring, it has a number of agility stations for dogs and handlers to work on. This gave us an opportunity to explore with Beeks and Max for a good long time. JesseJames is a veteran of this park so Beeker took a lesson from him in how to utilize this park. Juli and Jess showed us how to work the agility apparatuses and then Max and Brad took a turn. Max caught on right away and went up and down without batting an eye. When it was Beeker’s turn it didn’t go so well. Beeker, aka Sneeker Beeker followed directions up until the point that he was suppose to run up the ramp where he quickly ran to the right and dodged the whole kit and caboodle. I was not persuaded and made Beeks follow thru the routine two or three more times. He eventually got the hang of it and I praised him after each successful completion.
So the dogs were sufficiently exhausted by the time we left and we thought it would be a quiet time for the dogsitter and the dogs. When we returned three hours later we got the dog report as follows:
Immediately following our departure, Max proceeded to look longingly out each of the first floor windows. He was looking for Brad. After about 20 minutes he stopped looking out the windows when Juli started passing out dog treats. Is she a good sitter or what? She knows the way to a dogs’ heart. From that moment on, Max settled down on the front entry rug so that he had an advantage point for any action inside or out. This is routinely Max’s position at home. The other dogs, JesseJames and Beeker were happily playing tug a war and running up and down the stairs so Max wanted to be in the position to monitor their behavior. When Juli went down stairs Max followed her. When she went upstairs, Max followed. He decided that he needed to follow the new pack leader, especially the one with the food.
Meanwhile, Beeker tried his hardest to get Jess and Max to play, he worked to entice each of them with any toy he picked up out of the toy basket. He bowed; he dragged toys over their heads, much to their dismay. Soon he gave up and created his own game. Beeks started playing “Flycatcher”. This game consisted of locating any possible flying bug (usually a fly) and waiting patiently for it to land or fly by in close proximity. At the precise moment when the fly came within inches of his head, Beeks would snap at it in hopes of catching it. Turns out it doesn’t matter if it’s caught or not. As with most things, it’s the chase that matters. When we returned home we were able to observe Beeker in this new game and it was a riot to see him snapping at the wind. Sometimes he would venture to the window to look for something moving, hopeful it was a fly. His nose could get through the window blinds but he was unable to reach any flies. This was not as disappointing to him as I thought it would be. Back he went to the middle of the room to again wait patiently for the next fly by.
By the time we arrived home, Max was busy chewing a squeaky monkey whose tongue would protrude each time he clamped down on it. Out from the side of his mouth we would see the little monkey tongue flapping out and back in again. Again, this got us all laughing. I would say the whole sitter experience was great and I know the “kids” had a great time, didn’t even miss us. Easy come, Easy go.
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