Celebrating Seniors

We are once again in the position of having multiple senior dogs. That's ok with me, seniors are easier in most every way. Our two Danes, Serena and Della, are the youngsters in our home, everyone else has achieved senior status. Here's our lineup of seniors. I've used pictures from the first blog posts I wrote about each dog.

Trooper is our oldest now. We got him in April, 2010 and guessed him to be about 18 months then. That makes him about 11.5 years old now. That's a pretty good age for a shepherd. He's hanging in there pretty well but stays downstairs most of the time because the stairs are hard for him. Some days he must feel pretty spry though because he'll come upstairs during the day and even again at night, but mostly he's a downstairs dog now. 

My little girl Maya is eight years old now, which is just hard for me to believe, but it was seven years ago in February, 2013, that we got her and assumed she was about a year old then. Her signs of aging are mostly improvements in her behavior, although she did pull something off the counter and chew it up when we went to town yesterday evening. She still likes to go on walks with me, but she doesn't insist on going on every walk, every day, like she did. That's good because I've got plenty of other dogs who need to walk as well.

We have a date of birth of April 5, 2012 for Theo, which means he recently celebrated his eighth birthday, making him about the same age as Maya. Theo is still ball crazy and we played fetch for a while late this afternoon. He's blowing his coat right now and I made him stand while I brushed him a bit in between throws. Theo's a great dog, everything you could ask for in a shepherd. He looks far more intimidating to strangers than he actually is. 

We brought Max home from the Fluvanna SPCA on August 31, 2013. He was at least a year old then, which means he'll be at least eight years old this August. I can't remember dates or ages on any of these dogs, but I've been writing this blog longer than we've had any of these dogs, so I can go back and refresh my memory with the help of the Google search.

And then there's Arby, who was said to be 11 years old. He's still technically a foster, but if Arby stays that's all right. He's fit in around here, his barking at every sound he hears has lessened, and he gets along with every one. It's sort of like having Vince back again and that's kind of nice.

Dogs and buttercups

When the buttercups first start to bloom we mow the grass in the yard and the upper pasture. It cuts off some of them, but then the flowers grow up taller than the grass and make a beautiful display of mottled yellow and green. They are a very simple flower, but bright yellow and they doing very well this year, probably because of the almost constant rain we've been having.

Here are a few pictures I took outside today, and few with Romeo meeting Clay's mother this evening.

Romeo and Serena in the front yard

Theo

I was working out in the flamingo garden and Romeo came over and laid down in the shade
just to be with me while I was planting.

Theo in the pasture

Serena

Serena and Trooper

Arby coming through the gate.

Trooper heading back in from the pasture.

Berta feeding treats to Romeo.

Clay has been home the last couple days and Romeo
is now comfortable with him.

She did not lose any fingers.

The Covid Quandary

How do you socialize a dog at a time of social distancing, quarantine, and isolationist behavior?

Romeo, a/k/a the Big Hairy Beast, needs to meet strangers and get over his "stranger danger" reaction. First off, let me say that his reaction to strangers is nowhere near as bad as say, Trooper's. He doesn't go after a stranger, he's all about avoidance behavior, but he is fearful and does a bit of growling when a new person tries to approach him and touch him.

We invited our friend Bob (a three time prior adopter), to come over for an afternoon visit. We supplied some freezer burned turkey that I didn't want to eat myself, and Bob fed it to Romeo to win his love and affection. Clay has been doing this too, because Romeo only loves me at this point. The Big Hairy Beast will take food from anyone, however, although he's not exactly careful with his teeth when he does so. I found that out today myself when I picked up a stick to throw for him and he jumped to grab it out of my hand, grabbing one of my fingers along with the stick.

Bob persevered with the turkey and won the right of close contact at least. Romeo isn't likely to bite the hand that feeds him, but it will take a while before he gives his trust. I'm hopeful that with more people working with him, it will get easier for him each time and he'll come to see strangers as generous purveyors of cold cuts and hotdogs rather than as something to be feared.

Romeo's first walk

This was the first day without rain in recent memory. The ground is completely saturated and water is standing unable to sink in or run off. (After more than one day of rain, I pretty much despair about ever seeing the sun again.) The wind was blowing and it was chilly, but the sun was shining and I needed to get out for a walk as much or maybe more than the dogs, so we went.

I took Della and Romeo first, for a bit more than three miles. It was Romeo's first walk. Maybe his first walk ever. I put a rope harness on him. He fought it a bit when I first put it on him at home and tried to walk him to the van, but once he got used to the feeling of it wrapped around his body, he was fine. I remembered the difficulty getting him into my van when we picked him up. Today wasn't so bad however. Della was inside already and I opened a side door to put him into a crate. He initially balked at the idea of getting in, but I gave him a lift with the harness and then he scrambled in more or less willingly, if not gracefully.

The real fun started when we got to Pleasant Grove and began the hike. He was happy to go, but "forward" was a new concept to him. He mostly went back and forth, from right to left, as far as the leash would allow, in front of me and behind me, often wrapping the leash around me in the process. Della wanted nothing to do with his nonsense and she walked straight out in front of me at a leash length to try to stay out of his way. He finally settled down, more or less, and walked a full leash length away on my right side, trying to pull me in that direction. I think I'll fit a Gentle Leader on him before our next walk, but I'm pretty sure he'll fight that for a while.

It was nice to be out walking anyway. We just walked the roadway and one section of trail that isn't muddy.

Buttercups in our front yard.

The big hairy beast about to drink from the bird bath.

I did the first walk around noon and then did some more work and other things before taking Maya and Serena out in the late afternoon. I'm loving the lengthening days, it gives me a chance to get a second walk in before dark.

Serena can be a handful on a hike, but I had her on both a leash attached to a harness and a short leash that I could quickly attach to her Gentle Leader. We saw other people, with and without dogs, a dog playing ball, a rabbit, and an off leash dog that ran right up to us until it's inattentive owner finally called it off. That last encounter was dicey, but I could put all my effort into controlling Serena because Maya minds her own business.

Iris bed at the Community Garden

The great oak is leafing out.