This week's Ask question comes from Christie. She shared that her Olive will kick up the dirt/grass after she has done her business. Her boys Vito and Luigi do not do this. She wondered if our pugs do/did the same. Yes, Christie, Benny and Luna both did this and not only after going potty but also just on occasion after a specific smell that they wanted to top. We had pretty much seen it as a dominance type of behavior. There are a couple of theories why dogs do this, though.
The first theory is that they are "covering" their mess. Like they are cleaning up after themselves. I am not sure if I buy into that but it sounds nice, doesn't it? Here is a little article to support theory.
The other theory is that they are marking their territory even more. They did their business, and now they are leaving more of their scent behind. (Dogs have scent glands in their paws.) This is more to what Benny and Luna would do. They would poop or pee and just kick up a dirt and be so proud of themselves like they showed that last dog who was boss! Here is more on this theory.
I think we've asked this before, Christie but I am going to ask again. Is Olive a dominant doggy? I feel like I keep hearing stuff that indicates that she is but I think you have said that she is not. From an outside perspective, you may want to consider that she is. And there is nothing wrong with her being a dominant little diva! Luna was the best at the role! She was a hotsie totsie and did it well! Benny had only a few dominant traits but marking stuff was sure a big one! If he was a human man or boy, he'd be one of those guys who would just pee in the middle of Mardi Gras and think it was a hoot! Whoosh! Thank goodness he was dog! LOL!
Due to the upcoming holidays we will be reverting back to Caption This on Tuesdays. But we will go back to Ask OBP early in 2016. We want to be able to give our full attention to our responses and with a busy holiday season that may not be possible. So, be sure to be jotting down some questions over the next few weeks! We'd love to have some good ones to start the year with!
We finally bit the bullet and bought a GO PRO camera! We had been waiting so long to see what Henry looks like to passersby as he rides with his head out the window. While this was our first try at mounting the camera on the car, it is not the ideal view. We realize that we get a lot of side mirror in the scene. We will continue to fiddle with it to find the best mounting location for ultimate Henry viewing. For now, enjoy our first effort. #HenryIsOneHappyPug #PugOutTheWindow #HighFlyingPug #FeelTheBreeze #WindInHenry'sFace #ThisIsTheLife
The only thing that Henry might like more than walking in the rain, is being towel dried after a rainy walk. In his younger years, toweling Henry off would always spark a play session. After we dried him off, he would get fired up and run circles around the house and try to run off with the towel. Now, getting dried off is sorta like a mini massage for him. He groans and grunts and loves every minute of it.
The other day, it rained during our morning walk and we both got wet. When we got back to the car, I attempted to partially get Henry dry before we went home. Henry was sitting on my lap and as I started to dry him off, he flipped onto his back and just melted. He was like a wet noodle. Try as I might, he was not sitting back up, he was quite content to be toweled off while he relaxed.
Every once in a while, we will take Henry to the pet store instead of a park for his nightly walk. Usually we will do this when the weather is bad or if we need to pick something up at the pet store. With Henry's active nose, we find that he gets in about the same amount of steps, if not more, just wandering the aisles of the store as he would in the park.
Henry's routine is to zig zag down the aisles smelling everything on the bottom shelf. Some aisles get more attention than others, but he pretty much hits every aisle. As he is "shopping" he sometimes knocks things off the shelf, so whoever is holding the leash is also his personal cleanup crew.
And while Henry was busy sniffing away on his most recent outing, he caught the eye of a kitten that was available for adoption. This kitten intently followed Henry and wanted to get and play with him so badly! Since the kitten was in one of the upper cages, Henry, of course, did not even notice the kitten.
It was a rare event, which was not even supposed to happen according to the clause in the lease that reads "no dogs allowed in the building" but Henry, the rule breaker said, "hey, you only live once" and away he went into Peep #2's workplace! Peep #2 actually got permission from the BIG boss to allow Henry into the building after hours when Peep #2 had to work on a special project. So, Henry was permitted a quick jaunt into the building. He grabbed some water and air conditioning. He scoped out some of the building and of course gave a lot of the space the sniff test. Fortunately, he played it cool and didn't have any accidents (or any "on purposes" marking something he found fishy). There was not a lot to do or see, but he did well marching the hall ways. And now Peep #2 gets to have a good memory of the boy a work! #WorkingDog #HenryWorksHardForTheMoney
Welcome back to Ask OBP. I needed to revisit the ask from last week. I realized after the fact that the part about peep #1 also having pets as children somehow got edited out. Peep #1 had pets growing up. A cat who lived 25 years and was the show & tell subject of peep #1's kindergarten class and a Yorkie came to the family during the 4th grade year. The cat, of course was the boss and the dog was a diva. Again, sorry, that somehow got missed in last week's blog.
Jude, presented another question. It is a real brain teaser! Which pug has a personality most like the OBP peeps. Since the boys were given family names, our quick answer would be that Benjamin would most be like peep #1 and Henry would be most like peep #2. And while it may be true that the boys were named appropriately in the fact that they hold family traits, on an individual level, there are traits that could be shown to be opposite of that. For example, Henry is more of thinker and subdued. While that is not really a trait of either family tree, per se, this trait is more a trait of Peep #1. Benjamin was a quick acting, get it done now kind of guy and that is more like peep #2. But Benny was also a super lover and that romantic mindset belongs more to Peep #1. Henry, the logic minded guy is like peep #2. Neither OBPer is like either of the girls. Neither peep is a diva or so extra demanding so that would rule out either both Sol or Luna being like a specific peep. BUT both peeps can have bursts of impatience which is very like Luna!
So, I think the real answer, Jude, is that each of the pugs and their peeps share some common traits. And just like with children who are a blend of both their parents, the pugs have taken characteristics of each of their peeps (and some familial traits that their peeps may not even realize they, too, possess). We cannot say Benny is like 1 or Henry is just like 2. But what we can say is that when we are altogether that it is clear that we are family and cut from the same cloth. When we add extended family to that, it becomes more clear that they pugs could not be more our children had we bore them ourselves. LOL!!!
While there is no real story behind this photo, I just thought it was a nice one. On his nightly rides, Henry obviously likes to keep his head out the car window. With the time change, the sun sets earlier. This means he goes into sundowning a little earlier, too. But now that we keep a lot of lights on he is doing better with that. Maybe sometime soon on one of our rides, Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" will play for him in the background. Henry's always loved the sun and even with no vision he still knows if it sunny are dark out.
And there is nothing wrong with her being a dominant little diva! Luna was the best at the role! She was a hotsie totsie and did it well! Benny had only a few dominant traits but marking stuff was sure a big one! If he was a human man or boy, he'd be one of those guys who would just pee in the middle of Mardi Gras and think it was a hoot! Whoosh! Thank goodness he was dog! LOL!
