Black Doggerel

Gnarr. Bloody Spike broke his harness again, or rather, the previous repair finally gave up the ghost. And that's when I was really, really glad I'd bought Squish the same harness, because Spike really can't go any distance on a flat collar without hurting himself; and being Spike, he doesn't give a flying fuck about hurting himself.

Thank heavens for good little spotted dogs that don't pull on the leash. I love both my dogs.

Also? TOO HOT TO LIVE. I was a lot happier when it wouldn't stop raining. *grumble*

Park, today. We're doing our thing, Squish wandering round on his long line and Spike playing ball, when a guy turns up with a pretty black Lab mix and her ball.

Spike is offleash, so he's completely indifferent - "Oh, look, a dog. NOW THROW MY BALL, LADY!"

Squish, though - my special little spotted snowflake. He's hugely excited by other dogs, he's frightened of everything, he really loves to bark and he has the social skills of an infant Cluster Lizard raised by a dead guy. He raced up to the Lab mix, hackles up, tail wagging, play-bowing and barking his fool head off all at once. I braced for impact and he still pulled me flat on my face (thankfully, I failed to land in any turds, which in that particular park is a bit like winning the lottery). The poor Lab mix looked like you'd look if someone grabbed you by the collar while you were shopping and started ranting happily about our Reptile Overlords. She was too startled and confused to attack him at once, but she looked like she might any second. And Spike didn't care and doesn't like to hit girls, but Squish is on his crew - he was standing by in case things turned nasty, ready to dive in and make it ten times worse.

So I stood up, at the other end of Squish's long line, all ready to reel him in, and I sang out - "Squishy come!"

And he did. Instantly! And again and again despite the Lab mix's continued presence! Let everyone do the Dance Of Sausage Joy!

*dances*

Squish is scared of the long line/harness combo. He did all right the first day or so, but he becomes visibly deflated when I strap the harness on him, he freezes if the long line touches his legs and he refuses to run after a ball on the long line - even if it's only a few feet.

*sigh*

what I'm doing for now is just putting him on the line, making sure it's not wound round any legs, walking away from him and calling him for sausage (which he's doing remarkably well still). I'm hoping once he gets a good physical sense of exactly what his limits on the long line are he'll start to use them instead of gluing himself into the heel position as soon as I clip it on.

any suggestions or insights would be MOST gratefully received.

Tested Squishy's new long line in the park. It is TEH AWESOME. It's not terribly long but it's long enough for short ball throws, and he was SO happy to finally be allowed a turn.

We also wandered around a bit with me holding the end. And I tested his recall while doing that, and instant response. I am so pleased with my Squisher!

Woke up this morning and my teeth were broken. Evidently today I am living an obscure old blues song. They'd come undone at the spot where I'd glued them before, so I've glued them again. Clearly I'm going to need a dentist sooner rather than later. Argh.

The next thing was Spike's harness snapping at the old repair on the chest-strap, as he was pulling like a nuclear-powered bullet train on the way to the woodland walk for his afternoon ball game. Luckily, the woodland walk is only a few hundred yards away from my front door and doesn't need walking along any roads. I only leash him at all in case someone's cat is lolling in the open. He won't hurt cats but it strikes me as bad manners to let the sharkmonster scare the crap out of my neighbours' pets any more than I can help. So that was all right, and I spent the afternoon putting a new stronger patch on the webbing with a piece of spare webbing off an old rucksack. I hate sewing but it should hold until I can afford another one.

Now I'm considering breaking something else on purpose, because these things go in threes and I don't need the third thing to be the camera or the computer or Squish's collar. I wonder if an empty coffee jar counts?

Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.

First thing to break was my teeth. The great thing about artificial teeth is it only takes a careful wash and dry and a bit of Superglue - but this is the second time. A call to the dentist may be in order before they break beyond my powers of fixing.

The second thing was my own stupid lazy fault. I remember saying in one of the comments on Spike's harness that I wasn't going to leave it on him all day this time round. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - well, colour me insane. Or, more likely, just an idiot.

Luckily he bit through the new one at a point on the webbing where I've been able to fix it. I cut a piece from the old webbing, sealed all the frayed edges with fire and sewed it as firmly as I can over the broken place.

Putting the harness on him and taking it off again six or seven times a day is going to be a pain, because he always wants to play tug with the damn thing, but less of a pain than this. Slap me with a wet fish if you catch me doing that again.

The third thing - don't these things always come in threes? - well, I'm going to do an orac_zen and say nothing. But it doesn't look mendable.

OH YAY NEW HARNESS JOY!

You wouldn't believe what a difference it makes to Spike. It's like driving a car with manky old brakes for years and then getting new brakes. But it's not so much about the physical stopping power - although that is noticeably better - as about the change in his behaviour. Harley the Corgi cross came out of her front door and barked at us and all Spike did was glance at her and smile!

The blurb that comes with the harness tells me that "Research at our Animal behaviour Centre shows that the Halti Harness calms a frightened or over stimulated dog by the "body wrap" principle first described by Linda Tellington Jones. A snug fit promotes a sense of body security, making a worried dog a happy dog."

Whether it's that, or whether it's Spike picking up on my relief and positivity (my guess is a bit of both), walking my dogs suddenly got fun again. Happy happy joy joy!

in other dog news, wirenth posted this extremely interesting dog behaviour survey last night.

( Spike and Squish's results under the cut. )

WHEEEE!!!! Got a parcel in the post this morning from the ever-marvellous, utterly starfishlicious huntingdon. Technically, I should have left it until Christmas Day, but since I knew what was in it I decided to spare Spike and myself another month of muscle strain and opened it today.


( Here's Spike modelling our shiny happy Christmas present )

We've been on one walk wearing it and it's brilliant. Not only is he already not lunging as much, but when he does pull the harness/leash arrangement just soaks up and spreads out the force instead of jarring hell out of his neck and my arm. We even saw a squirrel with no strain and no pain. And the red and black looks especially snazzy with his black and white fur. We love you huntingdon!