Among other things, I've been working on a video about all the human words I understand. I'm my human's first dog and she didn't know much about dogs before I came into her life. She'd read books and articles but I guess nothing really prepares you for the real thing. Especially when the real thing is as cute as me! I guess it's like reading those books humans read before they have human pups. Apparently they tell you all about the best ways to turn human pups into supermodels and prodigies because no one wants a mediocre human pup. My human found the same thing with books about doggies. The problem was that once I came along my human found it much harder to be something called "The Disciplinarian". So my training wasn't always consistent.
Still angry?
You see, I love training and showing my human how smart I am but a lot of the time there are just so many more fun things to do! Plus, my human sometimes LIKES me to do slightly naughty things like licking her and jumping up on the bed. So instead of having very rigid rules my human and I worked on building a really close relationship and good communication. That way I trust my human and I look to her to know what kind of behaviour is appropriate in any given situation. On walks, for example, I know I can pretty much roam free unless my human tells me I have to "wait", or "stop" or go "this way" instead of that. At home I know that my human will generally let me curl up on her lap but I have to be given the ok first. I guess my human is pretty lenient compared to other doggies' humans. Just the way I like it!
Oh come on...how can you resist these eyes?
Another thing my human is not strict about is my diet. I don't follow any specific diet but rather a variety of different foods in appropriate proportions. My human read about Malteses being particularly fussy in relation to food and didn't want to encourage me to be picky. So I usually get a combination of dry food (sometimes premium, sometimes not), wet food, raw food, cooked food, bones and treats. Any given week I might eat raw chicken drumsticks, kibble, liver, schmackos, carrots and tuna loaf from a can. I haven't developed any intolerances because I don't always eat salty, processed foods with tonnes of additives.
Your offering pleases me, human.
By far my favourite thing to eat is my human's special recipe of mince, rice and vege pilaf. Every couple of weeks she buys good quality mince (about a kilo), fries it in a bit of olive oil, adds about a cup of frozen veges (carrot, corn, brocolli, peas and cauliflower) and about a cup of cooked rice. She adds a pinch of salt or some grated cheese for extra yumminess. Once it's cooled down she gives Iris and I a serving, puts another serving in the fridge and freezes the rest. This lasts Iris and I a few days. My human says I never devour any food quite as quickly or lustily as this one. And the best thing is that I know that along with protein, fat and vitamins this food contains a bucketful of LOVE. My favourite!
Omnomnom!
Love, Oscar
The "back to Uni thing" sure does get in the way of life, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the video of words Oscar knows. I was thinking, a fun way to do it would be to make it into a little play, with a story line. Someone did one of those a few months ago and it was great! (I just had a look back through my old posts, and found I posted about this at http://mydog-parlance.blogspot.com/2010/05/exciting-new-way-to-have-fun-with-your.html
Your home-made dog food looked yummy.
Oscar you are very handsome, I bet you have tons of girl dogs falling for you!
ReplyDeleteHi Oscar - sorry I haven't been visiting in ages! I've been having computer problems and blog problems - and just got so behind in visiting blog friends!
ReplyDeleteI think you and your human have the right attitude about trainng and everyday life manners. Hsin-Yi thinks that often people get into rigid routines without really understanding the principles behind it - like people who think they must always eat something in front of their dog before putting the food bowl down...pah! It doesn't matter if the human eats before or after the dog - you don't have to make a show about it - the point is that the dog is waiting for permission from the human before eating. The human is showing that she controls the important resources and the dog must always get permission first - the rest doesn't matter! But it sounds like your human understands this perfectly like the lap rule you have - that is a good one.
Again, lots of people worry about dogs on the furniture - they think it will make the dog dominant - Hsin-Yi says what they don't understand is that it's not being on the furniture that's the problem - it's the dog learning to only do it with permission. Dogs who don't end up growling and biting their humans when they try to move them - THAT becomes a problem but that was because the humans had poor leadership, not because being on the furniture is a problem in itself. It's a personal choice about furniture - I don't go on the sofa coz I'm so big I'd take up all the room and I'd slobber all over it - but I've got my own huge bed which is even bigger than the sofa, which my humans sit on with me anyway -and since I've never been up on the sofa or their laps, I never even think about it.
I'm like you when I go out walking too - everything is casual and Hsin-Yi pretty much lets me relax and do what I want, except when she gives me specific commands. This is much better than people who expect their dogs to walk next to them the whole time - for the whole walk! It's so unrealistic and they end up with a frustrated dog that keeps trying to pull ahead to sniff things and they have to keep yanking it back and they are not teaching the dog to "Heel" at all. It's much better to just have casual walking most of the time and then when I really need to, I can walk by Hsin-Yi's side for short distances to pass distractions and I can do it very well because the rest of the time, I can relax.
Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane