New dog

Oscar. I adopted him Monday, March 1st from the Montgomery County Animal Shelter in Conroe, TX.

He's about 20lbs, and needs about 2-3 more to be at a solid, healthy weight. He's probably about a year to two years, and is definitely a terrier. His face is very JRT like, and as he fills out, we will see if his body gets that look. But right now he's pretty narrow, with a deep chest and lanky, whereas most JRT tend to be rounder and more muscular.

Some thoughts on his confirmation:

His head is flat and the back of his head is kind of pointy, his back is slightly longer than he is tall, and his wire haired coat gets curly and stands straight up when wet (hilarious). His tail is long and muscular and when he walks he hold it straight with a slight curl upward. He has a strange gait, where his hips seem fairly wide-set and has a good wiggle when he trots.

Personality:

He gets along really well with other dogs, and LOVES to play chase. He growls a LOT in play and loves to play-bite. When he's just with me he loves to roll over on his back and wiggle around and play bite. Still learning about toys.

So far he's figuring out "sit" and "down." He definitely gets "no" and seems to fairly well understand "come." Generally if I can get his attention he will come running. This worked exceptionally well when he got loose the other night, as soon as he saw me get out of my car he stopped and looked at me. I bent down and called him and he came bounding over. He also did it several times at the dog park, where I called, knelt down and he came running.

I'm planning on crate training him, but as of yet he hasn't needed it. I still want it to be available for when maintenance comes, or other scenarios but as of yet he's been a model apartment dog. Minus the chewing up my camera cord and ironing cord, both of which happened while I was home.

I'm adjusting to having a dog again, and I feel it has been 100 times easier as a sole resident in the household. I get to be the leader, trainer, and there isn't anyone else trying to work with him. I got a head collar for him and I'll be working on walking better on the leash as soon as he gets better with wearing it. I'm just having him wear it for about 5 minutes every now and then, will probably start using it to walk him as soon as the weather gets a tiny bit better.

Thoughts on dogs, toys, and terriers

Sometimes I wonder if dog toy designers think about the mess their toys make. I have a Jack Russell terrier, who is a really big fan of stuffed animals. Especially stuffed animals with squeakers inside; the more stuffing the better, from her point of view, at least. Sometimes stuffed animals will be shredded within 5 minutes. I wish I could tell you the ridiculous amounts of money I have spent on stuffed toys over the last few years.

You think I would have learned after the first few, right? Well, I have. Let's be honest, the last stuffed toy I bought my roommates and I made bets to see how long it would last. I said an optimistic week and a half, their bets were 2 days, and 5 days. We were all wrong, and although she is currently shredding every last bit of stuffing left, it outlasted all of our predictions. It made it about 2 months, the first month I left it out for her to chew on whenever she pleased, but the last month was supervised, due to the slightly tattered outer core.

That toy was rated on a scale of 1-10 at 8. It is shown with a doberman. The toy itself was approximately the same length as mae. The other one of the Tuffys brand I have tried was a 7 and barely hit the half hour mark, I believe. Maybe it lasted an hour? Not completely sure on that one. Mae managed to destroy the toy rated at a strength of 8 within about a month. Clearly this has turned into a challenge of wasted money and failure (on my part, clearly) of attempting to find a chew toy for mae NOT made out of hard plastic that will last more than a day.

It might have a little to do with guilt as well. When I first got mae, before the leg amputation, before the hundreds of dollars of clothing, toys, and whatnot she has massacred, there was Bunny. Bunny came with mae, along with her crate, food, a kong, and a few other toys. Bunny was a disgusting, slobbery, yellow, stuffed toy that mae carried with her everywhere. It was a pathetically cute thing to see this tiny puppy carrying around and snuggling a bunny as big as she. Mae also loved to suck and lick on Bunny, and one of Bunny's legs was barely hanging by a thread. And as you can probably imagine, Bunny was disgusting. Bunny was dragged all over the ground, through the dirt, probably though some feces and urine; wet. With puppy slobber. Which Mae then tried to snuggle with in places such as my bed, the couch, my clean clothes basket, and other places you would not as a general rule, want Bunny to be in such conditions.

I considered washing Bunny, but due to the precarious condition of Bunny's leg, I was terribly concerned for her internal organs and a total loss of limb. Also, the thought of cleaning out our washer (it was made in the early 1970's and was consistently on the brink of spontaneous combustion) was too much and probably more than Betsy (the washer, the dryer was named Walter. He died in a tragic moving accident where he nearly fell down an entire flight of stairs.) could handle.

So I threw Bunny away. It was time. Convincing mae that it was time, however, was not so easy. She sat by the trash can howling (literally. HOWLING and crying in a pitiful 6 month old Jack russell terrier fashion) for a good half hour. I am pretty sure she pouted for a week. Since Bunny, she has viciously ripped apart any stuffed animal she can get her teeth on, and tries extra hard if it has a squeaker (Bunny sang).Maybe it's the competitive nature in me to try and find a dog toy to outdo mae's strong desire to chew (and destroy anything that I try to buy in replace of Bunny. NOTHING WILL LIVE UP TO THE LEGACY OF BUNNY!!). Maybe I have psychologically scarred mae and therefore she attempts to destroy any and all forms of squeaky and/or stuffed toys.

Either way, I fear there is no hope for the future cohabitation of Mae and Squeaky/Stuffed toys.