Go to your ROOOOOOOMS

We had the canine equivalent of this last night. Auggie would NOT stop terrorizing Pepper... chasing her all around the house, cornering her if he could, and then humping her.
Well, this all came to an end when he was humping her, and she finally completely freaked out...
and peed on the rug in my room.

I crated them both. Auggie found this immensely unfair. It's not like HE peed on the carpet. Why does HE have to go in the crate. Normally we get one-on-one time at night after I crate her because he's SPECIAL. Now he had to sit in his crate and pout next to that crazy girl because SHE peed on the floor and we didn't GET our special time.

They were right back at it again this morning with the pouncing back and forth and play-bows until I ended the game by putting Auggie on my bed, because he kept turning around and diving into my legs, and he HURTS. Probably why she still can't decide if she really wants to commit to playing with him. He's kind of like a miniature cannon ball.



Pepper has been living in the smaller crate that I use for agility trials. I am going to one this weekend and am actually leaving right after work, and I like to load up whatever I can in the car the night before... so I got out the HUGE crate I bought for Happy when they were living here and was going to switch Pepper into that and fold up the agility crate. So I had my mom holding Pepper while I tore down the agility crate before I could set up the giant crate, took the agility crate and set it by the door (where it always sits when I am getting stuff ready to load into the car) and looked over at Auggie in his crate and said "There. Do you know what that means?"
Mom: "He's smiling."
Me: "He knows that means he's going with me."
Mom: "I think he thinks it means Pepper's going away."



Little sisters are soooooo annoying.

Crazy Banzai Twins, Part 2

I want to teach Auggie to jump over Pepper. She doesn't find this highly amusing, but AUGGIE AND I SURE DO!! Actually he did it by accident but it cracked me up so I asked if he'd do it again, and he did, and ohhhh it's so funny, and Auggie looks so proud of himself after jumping over her back too! Now I want it to be a trick.
And all it requires of Pepper is teaching her to stand still, which might be easier said than done.


I talked to Auggie's breeder and she thinks Pepper might be coming into season. This would explain why she suddenly and randomly loses interest in food, some of her bizarre behaviour (like suddenly becoming terrified of a photo of Auggie I have sitting down near the floor that has been there ever since she arrived...) and Auggie's determination to hump her. So we will have to just keep an eye on her and see if things start to change.


Also, she is ASLEEP under my desk. Head down on the floor and everything, not sitting or laying there with her head up like a tightly wound rubber band, but actually zzzzz-ing away. FINALLY!

The Crazy Banzai Twins

We are continuing to ruin Pepper's life. (I like to imagine her as Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday. "You're ruining my liiiiiife-uh!")

First of all, she is finally starting to seriously think about playing and has even grabbed toys a few times... but the games never last very long and she doesn't seem to want to actually grab a toy while Auggie has ahold of it (and definitely no tug games.) Auggie thinks the answer to this is to run after her and throw toys at her, and when she still won't bite, bark in her face and pounce at her and sometimes hump her.
This does not amuse the Pepper.
In fact she seems distressed at the thought that she may want to play with Auggie, LOL. Like she play bows at him and then looks confused. She grabs at a toy he has, then drops it immediately and looks confused. It's not really funny but at the same time it is also hilarious. INCREASING DESIRES TO PLAY WITH THE CRAZY AUGGIE IS CAUSE FOR ALARM.

Second, I STILL can't get it through my thick skull that she is not Auggie and I can't play with her the way I play with Auggie... She was getting a drink in the other room but I got up to make sure that was all she was doing, and when I walked behind her she startled. My response to this was to make it into a game, so I started jumping at her, all "IIIIII'M gonna getcha!!!!" She was game to hop around and let me chase her, but the game took a terrible turn when our chase led into my bedroom, she realized she was cornered at a dead end, and she then flattened herself to the floor like I was going to murder her. *beats head against wall* So... no chasing games, unless we're outside most likely where she isn't likely to end up cornered. (Auggie's response when cornered, just for comparison, is to turn into wiggly giggly puppy and do his best to squirm past me so we can resume the chase.) Derp derp.



I said I'd give her two weeks to learn to play with Auggie, and this Saturday will have been two weeks. Mom is voting one more week, or at least that's what she said yesterday. I haven't asked for Dad's vote yet. Next Thursday night Auggie and I are packing up to go to an agility trial for the weekend and I'm worried about what to do with her while I'm gone if she's still here. I don't know if I want to take her. For one thing I'm looking forward to one-on-one time, just Auggie and me. For another I don't know if she would do okay being at an agility trial all day, and we're inside so it will be LOUD... and of course Sunday we are supposed to go do herding so... what to do with her? I don't know if I want to leave her here or take her to her breeder's for the weekend or what.


I don't know what to do about her. She drives me batty by not letting me out of her sight. I've stepped on her and tripped over her probably fifty or sixty times just this week because she is always glued so tightly to me (if I step on her enough times she'll eventually figure out to not stick to me so closely, right? Right..?) She is in so many ways the exact opposite of Auggie and the opposite of the kind of dog I want.
But I love her.

She finally found something to play with!

I was sitting on my bedroom floor cuddling Auggie, and Pepper picked it up and brought it to me. I threw it across the room and she ran over, picked it up, and brought it back. I threw it again, she retrieved it again. I took it in the living room to show my mom, threw it, and she retrieved it again!



Unfortunately "it" is one of my running socks. That's not going to work. It's a dirty running sock, too. Yuck.
I'm wondering if I should put a dog toy in my bed and sleep with it there a few nights and if she will want to play with it then!

If you didn't know better, it might look like they're playing

Hurray!







She's too slow - and if you only knew the struggles Auggie & I have been having you would think it very funny that Pepper is too slow for Auggie...


PEPPER DERPFACE


What you don't see is that Auggie actually turned around and ran the other direction around the jump chute to me after this because he finally realized tearing after her at top speed wasn't actually going to influence her to play with him.


She did actually grab the tennis ball in her mouth ONCE and took a few steps towards me with it in her mouth. Unfortunately as a result of seeing her actually grab the tennis ball in her mouth I started throwing a "OH GOOD GIRL PEPPER!!" party and I think that terrified her, LOL. *facepalm*

Between Auggie, who apparently thinks the best way to initiate play is to divebomb her at top speed from across the yard, and me, who hasn't yet learned that when she does something slightly brave that loud and exciting is probably NOT the best way to encourage her, I'm pretty sure she's right - she IS living in a horror movie, and the Crazy Banzai Twins are ruining her life...

Pepper licked my foot

and it was the lightest licking in the world. At first I wasn't even positive she was actually licking until I looked down at my foot and saw her licking about as close to NOT licking as possible. I asked her what she was doing and she started wagging her tail and clacking at me.


I should also mention she did NOT try to EAT my foot afterwards. Not that I'm naming any names of bratty little dogs who tried to be all sweet and give my foot a little lick and then nibble my toes or anything.

Auggie.

Somebody's in the wrong bed, and More Pepper

The bed with peppers on it and the pink toys would suggest this is not the correct bed for my bad monster. Auggie disagrees and submits the argument that technically EVERYTHING in this house is his therefore this is also his bed.
Somehow I can't quite dismiss his argument.


Photographic evidence that she HAS slept in this house... this was taken her first night here when she finally settled in her crate and fell asleep.


This is typically the shot I get of her, LOL. I can't get much further back.


So then I took the same shot of Auggie, LOL.


Monster man <3


She walked away from me for a second. Whoo! Standing by the jump chute (she won't actually take any of the jumps even though they're only 4".)


Comin' back to me.


Ahhh! They're standing next to each other!!




Standing next to each other again!!


This got out of order I think, this looks like it was right before she came back to me from the above photos.


I tried to get a nice one of her and Auggie together but she doesn't really listen to sit and she DEFINITELY doesn't listen to stay so it wasn't happening. Auggie sat there patiently and waited and finally I just told him he was a good boy, forget it, and he could go play now. Sometimes I think he must be sitting there next to me and Pepper, watching her, and thinking "Gosh, it's just SIT. It's not like it's hard. Just SIT!"

She is settling down faster when I sit down somewhere instead of pacing around like something terrible is about to happen... the first couple of days, if I sat down at the computer or sat down to flip through channels on the TV, I ended up stuck there for a while because I wanted to wait for her to settle down before I got back up. Now she seems to have learned that, okay, if somebody has sat down, we're going to be here for a bit so lay down and take a break! But she still won't settle enough to take any naps outside of her crate (and even inside her crate, if people are around, she's awake and alert)... and she still won't play with anybody, including Auggie. Sigh.

Two Dogs, One Walk

(two walks, actually - I took one, then the other, but it was the same route.)

Put Pepper on leash and head out for a quiet, relaxing walk.
Boys playing basketball = OMG. What is that. OMG. That is terrifying. OMG. That is the most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my life. OMG. IT KEEPS MAKING NOISE. WTF.
Dog barks from inside house = IT'S GOING TO GET ME.
Man using power saw in his garage = HE IS GOING TO SLICE US UP WITH THAT THING.
Car parked on street = OMG WHAT IS THAT. THIS IS THE MOST HORRIFYING THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE.
Black man wearing white hoodie = HE IS GOING TO END US BOTH.
Cars on street a quarter of a mile away = THOSE ARE CLEARLY GOING TO COME KILL US.

Back home, get Auggie. Take Auggie out for a walk.
Boys playing basketball = BASKETBALL YAY!!
Man getting bags out of back of car = WHAT'D YOU BUY IS THAT FOR ME?
Dobermans in house barking = HI FRIENDS LET'S PLAY!!
Man using power saw in his garage = WHAT ARE YOU MAKING IS THAT FOR ME?
Car parked on street = I'M GONNA GO THIS WAY AROUND IT, YOU GO THAT WAY, IT'LL BE FUN!!
Asian woman power-walking = YOU HAVE FABULOUS SHOES!!
Cars on street a quarter of a mile away = CAN WE GET ONE OF THOSE I LIKE THE RED ONE!!
Dad vacuuming out truck when we get home = HURRAY LET'S GO FOR A RIDE!!


Choose your moral:
To Pepper, everything is TERRIBLE. To Auggie, everything is AWESOME.
or
Pepper lives in a horror movie. Auggie lives in Teletubby Land.

Needs More Pepper

I purchased... some things.

Pink things.

In preparation for this:

Pepper has returned for Attempt #2.




She is pretty much stuck like glue to me so I couldn't get far enough away to take many photos of her. I took a few that would have been great if they weren't overexposed, because like a moron I started shooting based off my settings from a previous overcast day, so I lost about 15 photos before I realized I was off. And yeah, I realize even some of these are overexposed too.


My dog is incredibly undignified.


These were after I took some shots and told Pepper "You're so pretty!" I guess he wanted to prove how un-pretty he is.
And seriously. Can you blame her for not wanting to play with this thing? I mean really.


Attempt at a pretty Auggie...


Auggie and I have decided we are going to basically carry on our lives as though she is no big deal, and she's just going to have to deal with it. If she won't play with him, too bad... we are going to play and she can just sit and watch!


BALL


Ball is smelly (and also it needs some more air put in it.)


Auggie is perhaps a little unimpressed with all this, but he's being a good sport.
Kinda.


Awkward expressions brought to you by... Pepper!


Another attempt at pretty Auggie.


MOAR BALL


Pepper thought she MIGHT want to play... then changed her mind.


Auggie: YAAAAAAAAAAAAY
Pepper: God you are so weird.






I love that she has white whiskers.
This is just how it is, LOL.