April 6, 2008
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A Boring Day at the Farm
Woke up to drizzle and overcast. Not a great way to start the day. Plus Baron was in bed with me and licking my neck. I was not anxious to get up at 7am but, since I had fallen asleep at around 8:30 the night before, I thought I might have slept long enough.
So I dragged my butt out of bed, dragged Baron OFF my bed and headed to the kitchen for my morning coffee. I don’t know how long the Beast had been up but….let me say this….the carafe of coffee was easily swallowed, if that give you a clue. I figured at least an hour and a half, if not longer. But I am guessing because he never did tell me.
Baron was beside himself with energy but he is a wimp about any kind of weather except WARM. I can’t really blame him. He has short fur, no undercoat and definitely does NOT have a good layer of fat on his bones. You can still see his lower rib cage. He’s just starting to fill out and show signs of bulking up. But he’s only 9 months old….soon to be 10 months….but who’s counting? I just wish that male dobermans matured before they were 3 years old. Yeah…no kidding!
He ran off some energy when the Beast went out to check on his trees and discovered baby fruits on them. Yes, we WILL have fruit this year. But it wasn’t enough so it was throw some balls to him in the house to try to drain a little more (we throw them up in the air so he can jump up and catch them). He’s gotten pretty darn good at it with practice. I do it with his milk bone biscuits and his doggy cookies, too. He’s learning and it all helps.
However, even HE grew tired of that so the Beast went out front again and Baron did his drag the broken sapling around thing but the Beast got chilled and came inside. He watched Baron running around until he (Baron) realized that the Beast wasn’t coming back out. He ran up on the first two stairs of our porch and just stared inside and barked a time or two……like *hey….are you coming out or not?* When the Beast opened the front door, Baron took off without waiting to see that the Beast was only going to try to get him to come into the house. He is getting smarter as he gets older.
I do mean Baron when I say that. The Beast will get no smarter I’m afraid.The rest of the day was pure hell when it came to Baron. Twice the Beast ran out of patience with him and threw him out into the back yard. Baron would bark, bark and then hit the front door with his paw (a no-no here). When the Beast ignored that, he would go to the back door and bark LOUD….that got an IMMEDIATE response from the Beast who would rise to his feet with a rolled up newspaper in his hand and Baron would run under the kitchen table. When the Beast strolled to the back door to open it and let Baron out (since that is what he seemed to be wanting), Baron would back up because it was NOT what he wanted. He was looking for attention and a play friend. Does that remind you of your kids at all????
Well, that game grew old and the Beast started ignoring him entirely. It started annoying me because I knew that those kinds of behavior have to be addressed and the Beast seems to forget that part when it becomes an effort for him. Kind of like he did as a father but I will not go into that…..
So I started coming out of my room to address the behavior. I told Baron…*NO!* on his barking….and when he hit the door like he wanted to go out, well, I dragged him out when necessary to let him know that I would NOT put up with that. He got the idea very quickly. He actually started running close to the Beast thinking the Beast would protect him. When I told him *IN*…which he knows mean *IN* the kennel, he tried that and then ran into the kitchen but I stood my ground and just calmly said *IN* once more and he lowered his head and trotted right into the cage. He KNEW his behavior was not acceptable. He WILL learn….I just hope he lives long enough. I get really, really tired of being the one meting out discipline when it NEEDS to be meted out. *sigh*
The Beast and I disagree often on this. He thinks he has established himself as *pack leader* and I keep telling him the behaviors that tell me that Baron has NOT actually surrendered to that yet. But you can’t tell a man. They know everything. I REFUSE to let a dog dominate me or try to make me do what HE wants when HE want. I will if he needs to go outside to pee or whatever and I pay attention to when he’s hungry but other than that, I’m sorry. I am the OWNER/PACKLEADERESS and HE is the DORG!!!
The Beast went to bed a little after 10pm and he didn’t put the dorg into the kennel. He lets him lay on the bed with him. I wouldn’t object to this except for the fact that Baron has this thing for chewing cloth. I have an expensive new bedspread on our bed. Baron has decimated two different sets of sheets (top sheets and pillow cases alike) and one bedspread. I do not and will not trust him for some time to come. I immediately wake up (even if I do not know that Baron is in bed with me initially) if he starts *licking* because that is a prelude to his chewing most of the time. Of course, he also licks himself but when you are asleep, you can’t tell the difference.
Baron apparantly heard something and started barking so I knew from the sound (I can tell if he’s in his kennel or up on our bed just by where the sound originates) he was not in his kennel. So, I got up from playing bingo online to stop his barking AND put him in his kennel. He didn’t even fight me but went right into it as soon as I said *IN*. So, I did go get him a dog biscuit to reward him afterwards. He needs to be rewarded for good behavior because he IS a puppy still.
So, here I am, half asleep but watching an episode of Murder By The Book that I want to see the end of before I head off to bed. But, I can do that even after writing this update. I hope I’m not spoiling anyone
. I AM going to try to make entries more often. So, here I will end today’s entry. We will be having mid-70 degree weather tomorrow and sunshine so I am eager to have tomorrow be here. I have things I need to do that include getting into the car and driving. After this program is over, I am off to bed.
Love you all and have a wonderful weekend (and I hope a wonderful week of weather!). Tell those you love that you love them often.
