(Here is Brandy shamelessly asking a family member for food, not that we encourage food giving from the table, but she's ever hopeful)I thought I would do a 'bad points/good points' post about Brandy. However, since there are so many bad points, I will have to leave the good points to another day *grin*. I also think that I will have to split the bad points into at least two posts (if not more). *Heh heh*
1. Barking - I think this will fall under both the bad points and good points lists. I've mentioned before about her barking madness. It's still bad altho' if I show her a rolled up newspaper, she does get quiet real fast. I don't have to smack her, just show it to her or get her attention by hitting the wall with the rolled up paper. At least something works. I'm sure Mr. Dog Trainer Guru (the one from Oprah whom I can never remember the name) will say that I'm failing terribly at being the pack leader in the house.
2. Fawning at visitors - Brandy is shameless. Once the visitor (repairman, friend, relative, complete stranger) has entered the house, the barking stops and the fawning begins. Everyone is her friend. She jumps to get attention and gets into everyone's way. If you, the visitor, ignore her, she will still stay around but sort of in the background, but if you pet her, she will stick to you like glue, begging for every ounce of attention you can spare her. A little more circumspect behaviour would be nice.
3. Dust licker - This is one of the strangest habits that Brandy has. I've kept dogs for many years and never had one that had this same habit. Put her in a room with a dusty floor and she will go round licking the floor. It's weird. She's definitely not hungry, dust can't possibly taste good, everyone in the house scolds her when she does that, but she continues licking dust every chance she gets.
4. Pedal bin 'nose-poking' - We've got a pedal bin for the kitchen that's just the right height for Brandy to go up on her hind legs and poke her nose into to smell what is in there. We used to throw kitchen scraps in there so that made it extremely enticing for her. Scoldings and smackings did not seem to deter her except that she would try and sneak a peek into the bin whenever no one was looking. We had to put the bin up on a small stool. The bin is back on the floor but we now use it mainly for dry stuff, so no more interesting smells. Once in a while, she does investigate the bin to check just in case someone's forgotten and thrown something interesting inside. You can then hear the cries of "Brandy is 'nose-poking' again".
5. Whining at the vets - It gets embarrassing for me, 'cos I'm always the one to bring her to the vet. We are sitting in a waiting room. There are bits of chatter from the owners and some barks from the dogs (cats are very quiet creatures) but on the whole its fairly quiet. Then there is this whiny sound coming from my vicinity. It goes "hnn, hnn, hnn" (I'm sure I've got the spelling wrong but I hope the sound of it comes across) and it's high pitched and it's loud. The humans in the room usually ignore me and the whiner but the pets will look my way. There are puppies and kittens in that waiting room that do not whine like that. The family says Brandy does that 'cos of bad connotations with the vet's office, you know, the injections.
And when the whiner and I get into the vet's office itself, forget about the shameless 'everybody-is-my-friend' behaviour. Brandy just refuses to look at the vet and doesn't want to be put on the examining table. She just wants to stay in my arms. Maybe my vet should get rid of the white coat and just wear everyday clothes and instead of my coming to his office, he should stop by my house (at no extra charge of course *big grin*). This might solve problem no. 2 in no time 'cos every visitor will be a potential vet then.
...to be cont'd
1. Barking - I think this will fall under both the bad points and good points lists. I've mentioned before about her barking madness. It's still bad altho' if I show her a rolled up newspaper, she does get quiet real fast. I don't have to smack her, just show it to her or get her attention by hitting the wall with the rolled up paper. At least something works. I'm sure Mr. Dog Trainer Guru (the one from Oprah whom I can never remember the name) will say that I'm failing terribly at being the pack leader in the house.
2. Fawning at visitors - Brandy is shameless. Once the visitor (repairman, friend, relative, complete stranger) has entered the house, the barking stops and the fawning begins. Everyone is her friend. She jumps to get attention and gets into everyone's way. If you, the visitor, ignore her, she will still stay around but sort of in the background, but if you pet her, she will stick to you like glue, begging for every ounce of attention you can spare her. A little more circumspect behaviour would be nice.
3. Dust licker - This is one of the strangest habits that Brandy has. I've kept dogs for many years and never had one that had this same habit. Put her in a room with a dusty floor and she will go round licking the floor. It's weird. She's definitely not hungry, dust can't possibly taste good, everyone in the house scolds her when she does that, but she continues licking dust every chance she gets.
4. Pedal bin 'nose-poking' - We've got a pedal bin for the kitchen that's just the right height for Brandy to go up on her hind legs and poke her nose into to smell what is in there. We used to throw kitchen scraps in there so that made it extremely enticing for her. Scoldings and smackings did not seem to deter her except that she would try and sneak a peek into the bin whenever no one was looking. We had to put the bin up on a small stool. The bin is back on the floor but we now use it mainly for dry stuff, so no more interesting smells. Once in a while, she does investigate the bin to check just in case someone's forgotten and thrown something interesting inside. You can then hear the cries of "Brandy is 'nose-poking' again".
5. Whining at the vets - It gets embarrassing for me, 'cos I'm always the one to bring her to the vet. We are sitting in a waiting room. There are bits of chatter from the owners and some barks from the dogs (cats are very quiet creatures) but on the whole its fairly quiet. Then there is this whiny sound coming from my vicinity. It goes "hnn, hnn, hnn" (I'm sure I've got the spelling wrong but I hope the sound of it comes across) and it's high pitched and it's loud. The humans in the room usually ignore me and the whiner but the pets will look my way. There are puppies and kittens in that waiting room that do not whine like that. The family says Brandy does that 'cos of bad connotations with the vet's office, you know, the injections.
And when the whiner and I get into the vet's office itself, forget about the shameless 'everybody-is-my-friend' behaviour. Brandy just refuses to look at the vet and doesn't want to be put on the examining table. She just wants to stay in my arms. Maybe my vet should get rid of the white coat and just wear everyday clothes and instead of my coming to his office, he should stop by my house (at no extra charge of course *big grin*). This might solve problem no. 2 in no time 'cos every visitor will be a potential vet then.
...to be cont'd
2 comments:
Lol, very funny, can't wait for the next instalment....;o)
Oh, and I could do with a dust licker, can you hire her out to do furniture too?
Glad you enjoyed it. The little dust licker is walking around somewhere in the flat, let me go check on her....oh, she's sleeping on her back, with all four legs in the air, outside my bedroom door.
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