I fought with my twin, that enemy within, 'til both of us fell by the way

[lizblackdog]

Step one of Sorting Out The Evil Bugger: more exercise.

For various reasons, partly Squish-related, partly unavoidable and partly because I'm a lazy arse and I suck, Spike's been chronically underexercised more or less since we moved here. I've been cunning. I've managed to keep him just this side of turning completely neurotic and dangerous but his behaviour's taken a drastic downturn from the sparky but basically well-behaved dog I used to have when we lived at my mother's.

I've been gnawing my own metaphorical tail off about this for a very long time now. It felt like trying to keep plates spinning, trying to balance one set of incompatible needs with another and ending up not satisfying anyone. It made me so ashamed of myself I never really sat down and wrote it all out before now. I did last night talking to cottonmanifesto in the comments to last night's entry. It goes something like this.

Spike and Squish can't be let off-leash together. Squish is scared to pick up a ball when Spike the ball-obsessed sharkdog is loose, and if I can't interest Squish in the ball then all the meatball in the world won't keep him from fucking off over the horizon.

I can't take either one of them out without the other. Spike gets very angry if Squish is out having fun and he's not, and Squish is scared of being alone. It was all right at my mother's house because there was always someone else at home to distract the other dog, but it doesn't work here. I tried taking them out separately when I first moved here, and whoever got left behind made so much noise that I got an official warning from the council. I cannot risk another complaint. If I am evicted from here I have two choices - moving back in with my mother or being homeless.

I have always felt bad about letting Spike off-leash while keeping Squish leashed. It seemed so unfair. But it's the only sensible solution. Squish's recall is improving, but still too iffy to risk letting him off for more than a few careful minutes at a time in one or two carefully-chosen places.

I have been searching for somewhere that's securely fenced but parks and such over here just aren't made that way. There are lots of green spaces where dogs are permitted off leash but none of them are escape proof. There's even a basketball court up the road I looked at, but the chain-link surrounding that has been pulled up and there's a two-foot gap round the bottom. So I'm stuck with Squish having very limited offleash time for now.

Anyway, that's what I did this morning. I took them across the road to the big park, put Squish on Spike's longer leash and jogged around the park perimeter with him while I threw Spike's knotted rope for him. Squish didn't get to run properly but he did get to thrust his head into a lot of unfamilar hedges and he was grinning when he came home, so I don't think he feels too hard done by. I need some running-type shoes, that'll work a lot better than my sandals.

Spike started off by treeing a coon... by which I mean a Maine Coon. As far as I could tell from the bottom of the tree, it was the spitting image of bloolark's Gus. I am philosophical about dog/cat park incidents - I know Spike won't hurt a cat and if people let their cats out they're going to have to cope with being chased up trees occasionally. I don't let Spike offleash if the cat is visible but they often aren't - and he can be called off cats, at least once they've stopped running.

after that we all had fun until Spike chomped my hand. Accidental, but the rules say chompage stops funtime. Perhaps one day he'll learn to aim a bit better. My hand is a bit purple but functional. We all feel a bit better than we did yesterday.

many thanks to cottonmanifesto. love you, lady.

Comments

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

i'm glad that worked out for you, i think it's an entirely reasonable solution until you get something else worked out.

i totally feel your pain. i need somewhere to work on training with maggie that's not quite the house, yet not quite the big world - a yard would be perfect but ....

we need to get apartment_dogs organized - as soon as i'm done with this stupid pizza project, i'll be able to work on fun stuff again.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

yeah. I remember people in pet_debate being dogmatic about "secure fenced areas", but there literally AREN'T ANY round here that dogs are allowed into, except my mother's yard. And that's like 10'x15' and she's just had her gardener come and tidy it up and she doesn't want me churning it up with the dogs.

And I really don't think it's fair on Squish to never let him offleash at all. I just have to be very careful. The park I let him off in is as safe as I can find. The park I was in this morning is fine for Spike, because in Spikeworld I'm more fun than anything else - but I let Squish offleash there once, very stupidly, and he wouldn't let me catch him until he cut himself on the barbed wire. NEVER AGAIN. Too many hedges.

I coudln't look at the pizza pics last night, I was already too hungry. I'll have to go have a look now :-D

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

i think part of the debate was confusing due to the international nature of the community - things are different in the UK and the US - even in different parts of the US. i'm sure there are rural areas (like where my sister lives) where it's entirely reasonable to let your dogs wander.

the pizza demo site is up here: http://www.alexbermudez.com/bravo/index.html

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

that's true. And I knew that really, but it makes me very uneasy to see people I respect disagreeing with me in dog communities. It makes me wonder if I'm being an SPO. Of course, that's the value of those comms but sometimes it can go too far. there's always going to be some sort of gap between the ideal and the do-able.

OMG HUNGRY NOW!!

[wirenth.livejournal.com]

i don't think you should feel bad about squish being on-leash while spike is off. if he can't handle it right now, he can't handle it. you'll work on it and maybe things will change. i think your solution was definitely a good one!

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

thank you :)

I think you're right. I let myself get too caught up in the "must treat them both equally" thing and wound up being unfair to Spike. They both need exercise, but Squish doesn't go bugfuck if he doesn't get half an hour's good hard running and bouncing every single day. Spike does and I shouldn't have let my Squish issues stop me giving him what he needs.

[bloolark.livejournal.com]

Also remember how far Squish has come -- I remember not long ago that he couldn't go off leash at ALL without a giant affair of running away and not being catched. It's exctremely cool that he's a lot better now.

It's really easy to fall into the mindset of being fair to both of them, but really, it's better to give them what they need, rather than be fair. If Spike needs more off leash running, give it to him. Squish will be happy if you let him smell interesting things.

And yay for Gus cats found in the wild! I bet that cat didn't have weird multiple length fur though. :)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Squish is a Good Dog *loves teh Squisheroonie*

I didn't get close enough to see whether he had Gus fur or extra toes, sadly. He was twenty feet up a holly tree with a lot of prickly leafage round the base by the time I even knew he was in the park. But he had that distinctive Maine Coon-type facial bone structure, he was very big, and he was the same sort of cloudy blue-grey-and-white as Gus. Very pretty cat. Spike thought so too...

[bloolark.livejournal.com]

Spike would love Gus and Gypsy. Both of them are completely unfazed by dogs, and both will play with them as well. Gus frequently has dog drool giving him cow licks. Our friends came to visit and brought their dog and he was thrilled to have cats to play with.

Charlotte, on the other hand, would probably not be so happy about having a manly man dog like Spike about. She likes to be the Queen Bitch of the Universe. Race poodle just wants to play with everyone. :)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

while I was reading your comment I was watching Spike playing kitten poker with Naamah (Shona) kitten... that's the game where the kitten lies on her back, the collie nosepokes her belly and the kitten tries to grab his nose with her paws before he can pull it back. Elda Kitten plays tag with him and she always wins.

I wanna play with the racepoodle, dammit!