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Digby learns the art of Skateboarding

Digby has a fear of skateboards. The sound sets him off and he doesn’t quite know what to do about it – so we thought we’d put into practise the old “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”. Digby has become one of them.

It was a bit of a rocky start because Digby didn’t know what we wanted and this weird thing moved a lot, so we tied it to a piece of string and pulled it along. Then it became a chasing game. Eventually though he got the idea and put his front paws on the skateboard and pushed it with his back legs. Finally he jumped on – twice! This didn’t last long though because he was off as quick as he got on. We seem to be onto something here, though because he seemed to enjoy himself and picked it all up pretty quick. He did allow us to pull him a few feet while he sat on it and it didn’t seem to phase him at all.

Here he is enjoying his new sport:

The many sounds of Digby

There are a lot of noises that come out of Digby’s mouth – like the one he was making when I took this picture – a snuffled snort of “Please don’t stop!”.

There are a number of other noises he makes, aside from the joyous snort of absolute bliss so I’m just going to jump right into it.

First, there’s the “A leaf has dared to enter the house, I must address this situation immediately!” bark. Relatively loud and not a small dog’s bark at all (although somewhat high in pitch) it’s a warning bark. It’s a “You’d better leave or feel my wrath” kind of bark. Cute, yet annoying at the end of a long day. Thankfully the leaves have never decided to take Digby on because I fear that he’d come out second best.

Then there’s the “I’m about to eat/play with/steal something I know I’m not allowed” snort. Almost like a laugh, it reminds me of a kid who knows that mummy’s make up is off limits but they are just so tempted by rebellion that they want it even more. Case in point: mum’s vintage nightgown, a family heirloom passed down through the generations. Digby is obsessed with it.

One of the most hilarious of barks is the “Hairdryer! play with me!” plea. Digby was scared of the hairdryer at first and with good reason. It’s loud and it blows hot air in your face. Absolutely terrifying. In an effort to desensitise him we started having training sessions near it and gradually worked up to actually turning it on. Now when he wants treats he sits nicely by the dressing table and accasionally lets out a bark, as if to ask it if it wants to play. When the hairdryer is on it’s open season and Digby barks an excited high pitched squeal of excitement as he leaps at it and tries to bite the nozzle.

Another vocalisaion of note is the “You’ve been gone all day, why don’t you love me?” yodel. A mixture of a bark, a cry and a howl, this is one funny sound to hear at the end of a long day. They say you should ignore your dog when you get home and only greet them when they’re absolutely calm but Digby has other ideas. He lies down where he knows you’ll see him (on the bed, the couch or at your feet) and looks up before he lets rip. It’s hard not to reward him for it because when you laugh he knows he’s got what he wants and that is undivided attention.

The sigh of frustration, though only sort of a sound is another of his quirks. To get this one all you need to do is get out a treat and hold it without saying a word. He’ll go through his tricks and then when he’s exhausted everything (including headbutting you with no response) he’ll sigh and drop his head to his paws. Super cute and excellent for training him to settle down.

Although it’s even less of a sound that the previous sigh of frustrations, one of the the last is what we like to call “sleepy mouth”. Much like a human he’ll sometimes wake up form a nap and spend a few moments opening and closing his mouth. The sound, although very faint, is a little slapping noise usually followed by a yawn. If you want a cuddle this is the best time to get one – he’s still waking up so he can’t fight it.

There are a whole series more that are probably worth writing about too, like the posessed demon who usually comes out when he’s around other rambunctious little dogs. Like something out of a horror movie it’s actually a little frightening when you aren’t expecting it. Maybe he is part gremlin after all. He’s often mistaken for one at least.

For a whole series of pictures visit Digby on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/digbyvanwinkle.

First post – an introduction.

We’d been thinking about getting a dog for years and could never really decide on the “right” one. In hindsight though I’ve come to realise that the right dog is only right because he is yours. Once you have a pet you adjust to having them as much as they adjust to you. In my mind the right dog was a happy, confident, toilet trained and calm little ball of sleeping fur. The right dog was always well behaved and didn’t chew anything he wasn’t supposed to (because we bought all the kongs and chew toys and read all the books, why would he ever want to chew?).The right dog was actually more like the impossible dog.

When we brought Digby home everything was great. He was inquisitive and had the sweetest little eyes, loved to cuddle and wanted to be near his new humans constantly. All was going well – until we got to know this new addition to the house and suddenly he was racing around, always on the move, and making a mess with his toys (the chewing was to come later). Still, although he wasn’t exactly fitting the vision of the perfect puppy our expectations changed in such a way that he was the perfect puppy in ways we hadn’t actually considered.

I feel like I’m going way off track from what I actually intended to say with this first post because it’s what everyone wants to know about him. When Digby was just coming up on 5 months old we thought it would be nice for him to get out into the world and gain some independance. He’s a very devoted dog, wanting nothing more than to be around us all the time. We decided to try to curb that by giving him some extra socialisation at daycare, something all of the books recommended. Unfortunately for Digby though, not even 3 hours in he made a very big mistake – one that any puppy could make. Being the very social dog that he is he tried to involve himself in a private game and tried to take a toy from another (larger) dog. He suffered a nasty bite which very badly damaged his right eye. Against the odds he did make an almost full recovery. Although his eye doesn’t function as any good eye should (he has no vision in that side and his eye is constantly looking to the side) it’s healthy and gets to stay. We were very relieved once the treatment was all over and the stitches were out, as Digby spent 4 weeks in a cone and under what could only be described as house arrest. We were excited about getting him back out into all of his favourite places because we finally had our dog back! Things were different though. We noticed that he was scared of a lot of the things that he could handle quite well before. Motorbikes were suddenly sending him into a panicked frenzy. Buses were terrifying him when they didn’t before his accident and people were now public enemy number one. He was constantly barking at people and panicking when out on walks, not being able to calm himself down. Surprisingly though he still loved to say hello to other dogs and it seemed to be the only thing that would help him relax. It was almost as if he thought his own kind would never hurt him. Digby would refuse to settle down when in a situation with many people around, refusing to eat and visually terrified. Exposure did little and even seemed to take him backwards as reinforcement was not possible. Digby refused to take treats and never calmed down enough to even notice when he was being showered with praise.

Not knowing what else to do we’ve been trying to take the edge off with a daily dose of the Pet Calm vitamin supplements. At first we noticed no change but he’s been on the supplements for two weeks now and we’re starting to see a different dog. The house is no longer a mess when we return home (although if you leave newspaper out anywhere that’s not his normal toiletting area he will shred it) and he’s started making a point of greeting most people we see at the dog beach. He’s starting to focus more on us and less on what’s going on around him. Although it’s helping nothing can replace consistent training and he still has a long way to come. He’s getting there though, and he’s growing up to be a pretty amazing and easy to train dog (if you get out the bacon treats)…