Thursday, April 2, 2009
Some mornings, after I have gotten out of bed to get my shower, Benny slinks part of the way out from under the covers and makes himself comfortable on my pillow. To see him snoring away in my spot always makes me laugh.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Cupid the cat has the honor of eating on the counter of the little bar section of the kitchen. She gets this distinction because she is the only four legged creature in the house that does not devour her meal in less than 5 minutes. Instead, she likes to savor her meal and come back and nibble on it throughout the day. I think her main reason for doing this is that it drives Benjamin crazy! Benny will be walking by the bar stools and he will suddenly catch a whiff of the tasty cat morsels and he immediately does an about face. He will stand there gazing upward and whine at the cat’s food all the while trying to will it to come to him.
Sometimes, I will catch the cat sitting off in the distance watching and listening to Benny throw his tantrum. I think it is a highlight of her day. She wakes up early, prowls around the pool deck in the screen enclosure, toys with some geckos, eats a little bit of her breakfast and then waits for the pug with the red harness to throw a tantrum over her food. I think it is a bit of kitty prank. It’s sorta like every day is April Fools day for her.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Today, Baby Benny turns 7 years old! I can hardly believe it. It seems like only yesterday I was bringing that little guy home. Technically, Benjamin is my first pug. We picked him up on a Friday afternoon and he was the only pug in the house until Saturday afternoon when we brought home Henry. The 24 hours that Benny was the sole pug of the house gave him the distinction of being the first pug to steal my heart.
Before we took Benny home, we made a stop at Aunt Laurie’s office so the two could meet. Benjamin was charming as always, but he also had a potty accident while he was there. And that little incident was foreshadowing for what was to come with Benjamin. I don’t think I will ever meet a dog that will ever have as many potty accidents as Benny had in the first year of his life. He was forever going to the bathroom in the house and there was a point, about 6 months after Henry was potty trained, that I thought he would just never learn. We had ruled everything out. There were no medical reasons hindering him or any other special circumstances. It was just him. Around the time I was contemplating pitching a tent in front of the house because one of us was always taking Benny out to go potty, the stars aligned and something clicked with Benny and he was suddenly potty trained. He went from having accidents every day to having no accidents ever. There was no occasional slip up, he just got it and he became a pro at going potty outside. It has been years since he has had an accident in the house.
Benjamin’s learning style is similar to flipping a switch from off to on. Benny can be completely inept at doing something one day and the next day he will have confidently mastered that very same skill. When the boys were about 6 months old, we enrolled them in a basic obedience class. They were known by the instructor as the wiggle butts and we had the honor of sitting next to two lab puppies who were the smartest and quickest learners in the class. I would always sit with Benny closest to the labs hoping that Benjamin would pickup some of their savvy via osmosis because in the early weeks of the class Benjamin was in danger of flunking.
One of our first assignments was the “sit” command. We learned the techniques on how to teach the command in class and then we were told to practice, practice, practice at home. Henry had the sit command mastered a day or two after class and that was good because that gave us plenty of time to focus on Benny because it took him at least a few more weeks before he knew how to sit on command. We would do about 4, 5 minute training sessions a day and each time no progress was made.
I will never forget the day we were visiting G-Ma & G-Pa and we were all sitting around outside. I had a bag full of liver treats that had been broken into tiny pieces and I was going to show G-Ma how well Henry knew the sit command and how Benny just wasn’t getting it. The pugs didn’t disappoint at first. Henry sat on command each and every time he was asked and Benny, well, he just stood there wiggling his butt. G-Ma & G-Pa thought that was just the funniest thing. Then, I told Benny another time to sit and to everyone’s surprise he did! I pretty much gave him all the treats that were left and everyone was giving him “good boys” and lots of love. From that point forward, he never missed a sit. It was like a switch went off in his head. And for Benny it has been like that with everything.
Reflecting back over the last 7 years I can’t help but smile as all of the Baby Benny memories fill my head. He may have caused us a lot of grief with all the potty accidents as a puppy, but he has more than made up for it over the years will all the times he has brought a smile to our face or turned around a crappy day by doing something silly.
Happy Birthday, Baby Benny!
A few of my favorite Baby Benny moments shared on the blog:
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Look at Benny’s dirty face! When Benny chews, he has marathon chewing sessions. I don’t know exactly what he does during that time, but his face gets absolutely filthy!
The worst part is that as soon as he catches a whiff of the smelly malacetic wipes that we use to clean his face his belly hits the floor and he hides his face. Too bad Benny doesn’t understand cause and effect. If you chew your bone for 3 hours straight, then your face will get dirty. When your face is dirty I will need to use a smelly wipe to clean it. Makes perfect sense!
Although, chewing isn’t the only culprit in Benny’s dirty wrinkles. Out of the four pugs, his wrinkles get the dirtiest and they get dirty very quickly. I think it is because he is so driven by his nose and he always has his face stuck in the grass or in the sofa cushions or wherever he might be smelling. Plus, his wrinkles are deep. We could easily clean his wrinkles everyday, but since he isn’t really fond of the cleaning and I’m not really too keen on it either, I clean them every couple of days or when his face starts to look like it does in the picture.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Benjamin is by far the quirkiest of the four pugs. He likes what he likes and whenever he wants something he wants it right then. To him all gratification should be instant. So it is amusing to watch how he acts when he wants something and can’t have it. A good example is when one of the other pugs is in one of his favorite sleeping spots (it is usually Henry and the spot in question is almost always the dog bed on the ottoman in my office). Benny will pace back and forth. You can see the wheels turning in that little head of his trying to reconcile that what he wants isn’t available. And then, after a few minutes of turmoil, he will claim whatever spot he wanted like there is nothing there. He will just simply lay right on top of whoever is occupying what he wants. You can look at him and tell that he is not comfortable. He would be much better off if he picked a different spot to rest, but instead, he just lays on top of whoever is where he wants to be knowing that they will eventually get tired of him smothering them and they will move.
Yesterday, Benjamin executed his little devious plan on Henry who beat Benny to the coveted dog bed in my office. However, it took Henry over a half an hour to get tired of Benjamin laying on him. Henry was taking so long to move that I thought Benjamin was going to be the one to give in first. But, Benny toughed it out and Henry finally moved up a level to the bin and Benny eventually got the spot he wanted all to himself.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Ben got a little rowdy watching the Puppy Bowl.
Benny Watching Puppy Bowl V from obp on Vimeo.
Friday, January 30, 2009
In the evenings, Benjamin & Henry like to bask in the sun on the sofa and keep watch out the front door. Benny is almost always perched on the back of the sofa and Henry makes himself comfortable on the arm rest. Luna gets in on the action too, but she actually sits in front of the door, like you would expect a guard dog to do. No extra comfort for her when she is on duty.
The evenings are usually pretty busy in the neighborhood. A lot of people walking dogs, jogging or riding bikes. There is most definitely a lot more foot traffic and interesting things for the pugs to bark at. I think a huge draw for the pugs though is that they can find the rays from the setting sun in the front of the house. In the mornings they spend their time out back and in the evenings they shift to the front of the house. They are like sunflowers, they always point towards the sun.
While I was snapping pictures the other day, I got a short video of the guard pugs in action. I just love how big Henry’s eyes are in the clip.
Guard Pugs from obp on Vimeo.
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