Mercy Christmas: Dog-Sitting Report 4
December 24-27, 2006
We've had a decent few days here. Bear and Simon went home for Christmas, so Mercy had to spend two days without her canine pack. She was pretty bored, despite a few games of tug-of-fetch.
Mercy relaxes on the futon.
I've been letting Mercy sit on the bed next to me. She seems to think my room is some sort of sanctum sanctorum... She's always begging to be let in. Dogs are such very social, demanding animals; you can't just coexist with them the way you can with a cat, because they're always asking you to confirm the relationship between you. They want to know you're still in command, still taking care of them, not going to abandon them, still going to feed them and play with them... It's so very like a human relationship, especially a romantic one, in which the participants are always reinforcing the self-evident fact of their relationship by talking about it. Dogs don't use language, but they do the same thing. No wonder I'm more of a cat person. Still, Mercy is nice, for a dog. And, anyway, I like dogs--I just like cats a little more.
A sleeping dog can be used as a table for one's afghan pieces, as well as a yarn-holder.
We didn't do much for Christmas. She got a rawhide chew and some treats, and a cheap hot dog, which she gulped down. It rained on Christmas, and Mercy had an accident on the rug next to the door. I think she might have been waiting there to be let out and just got tired of waiting; it didn't help that the mud and rain outside wasn't very inviting. Still, it's encouraging that she was evidently waiting there.
The day after Christmas, she was very bored, and a little depressed maybe, since she didn't eat all day. (Or maybe it was the treats. She hasn't had indigestion or anything, though.) In the end of the day I finally scrambled an egg and mixed it with her food. The food was gone within ten minutes!
During the last few days I've been letting Mercy out for fifteen minutes every two hours. That's as often as you let a puppy out when it's being housetrained; Mercy might be four years old, but she still hasn't got the point that one ought to use the outdoors, not the carpet, for one's toilet. I don't think she likes holding it; and in the past, being neglected and left in her crate or a shelter pen for long periods of time, she has learned that soiling her "den" is unavoidable and necessary. She doesn't realize that now that she lives with a loving owner (and three loving "aunts"), she will almost always be let out before she really has to go. Because of her history, I bet she doesn't realize it's even worthwhile to hold it; so she just tries to hide when she goes, and takes the "unavoidable" punishment. Giving her such frequent outings might help her get the idea, just like it does for a puppy; and anyway, even if it doesn't, it helps her not to have so many accidents indoors while I'm watching her--always good for both the rental deposit and the happiness of her returning owner.
Because of my cold (of which now only traces remain), I usually hook the tie-out cable to her harness while she was out there. In the beginning, she barked and whined to be let in; I pretty much ignored that and waited the full 15 minutes. She's doing better now--she seems to have gotten the point that we don't abandon her. The past couple of times, she was lying down next to the window when I came for her. She did Houdini out of the harness a couple of times, but both times it was because of someone or something she was interested in--dog, cat, human, etc.--near our property. She didn't leave the yard either time, though, so I didn't worry about it.
Mercy's still sniffing out that possum. Apparently he's a regular visitor to the dog food bowl.
Our housemate's boyfriend came over today. He didn't directly approach Mercy, and she managed to get through an evening without any submissive urination. Hopefully she'll get used to him, and men in general, eventually.
Mercy tries out her new crate pillow. Purple is definitely her color!
The day after Christmas, I went shopping. I'd gotten a Wal-Mart gift card for Christmas, and part of it was spent on a yard of purple fabric and a zipper. I also bought some upholstery thread, which is about the strongest stuff I've ever seen for its thickness, barring high-test fishing line (and spider webs, but they don't sell those at Wal-Mart).
I made the cloth and zipper into a simple pillowcase, 34"x22"; and then I took the old dog blanket which has been crumpled in the back of the crate for ages, folded it , and used upholstery thread to sew it shut on all four sides, into a "pillow" that fit into the case. To keep the middle from shifting, I sewed pairs of buttons through the thickness of the folded blanket. (The buttons were salvaged from old clothes I took apart when I made my scrap quilt a couple of years ago, and cost nothing.)
The result was a pillow and pillow cover, exactly the size of Mercy's crate, and about three inches thick--thinner than her usual dog bed, but still quite soft. Being a typical beagle-girl, Mercy loves comfort--the pillow can go into the crate when Mercy's bed is once again moved upstairs; when Mercy spends time in the crate while her owner is away, she'll have something softer than a bunched-up blanket or an old towel to lie on.
The pillow shouldn't be used without the cover--the buttons could be chewed off and swallowed--but other than that, it is just about the same thing as any $20 dog pillow you might buy from a pet store. If destroyed, the fabric of the cover can be replaced for about $1.50, providing the zipper is salvaged, or else it can be patched for next to nothing; and both parts of the pillow are machine washable.
My total cost, $3.50 and three hours of work.
We've had a decent few days here. Bear and Simon went home for Christmas, so Mercy had to spend two days without her canine pack. She was pretty bored, despite a few games of tug-of-fetch.
Mercy relaxes on the futon.
I've been letting Mercy sit on the bed next to me. She seems to think my room is some sort of sanctum sanctorum... She's always begging to be let in. Dogs are such very social, demanding animals; you can't just coexist with them the way you can with a cat, because they're always asking you to confirm the relationship between you. They want to know you're still in command, still taking care of them, not going to abandon them, still going to feed them and play with them... It's so very like a human relationship, especially a romantic one, in which the participants are always reinforcing the self-evident fact of their relationship by talking about it. Dogs don't use language, but they do the same thing. No wonder I'm more of a cat person. Still, Mercy is nice, for a dog. And, anyway, I like dogs--I just like cats a little more.
A sleeping dog can be used as a table for one's afghan pieces, as well as a yarn-holder.
We didn't do much for Christmas. She got a rawhide chew and some treats, and a cheap hot dog, which she gulped down. It rained on Christmas, and Mercy had an accident on the rug next to the door. I think she might have been waiting there to be let out and just got tired of waiting; it didn't help that the mud and rain outside wasn't very inviting. Still, it's encouraging that she was evidently waiting there.
The day after Christmas, she was very bored, and a little depressed maybe, since she didn't eat all day. (Or maybe it was the treats. She hasn't had indigestion or anything, though.) In the end of the day I finally scrambled an egg and mixed it with her food. The food was gone within ten minutes!
During the last few days I've been letting Mercy out for fifteen minutes every two hours. That's as often as you let a puppy out when it's being housetrained; Mercy might be four years old, but she still hasn't got the point that one ought to use the outdoors, not the carpet, for one's toilet. I don't think she likes holding it; and in the past, being neglected and left in her crate or a shelter pen for long periods of time, she has learned that soiling her "den" is unavoidable and necessary. She doesn't realize that now that she lives with a loving owner (and three loving "aunts"), she will almost always be let out before she really has to go. Because of her history, I bet she doesn't realize it's even worthwhile to hold it; so she just tries to hide when she goes, and takes the "unavoidable" punishment. Giving her such frequent outings might help her get the idea, just like it does for a puppy; and anyway, even if it doesn't, it helps her not to have so many accidents indoors while I'm watching her--always good for both the rental deposit and the happiness of her returning owner.
Because of my cold (of which now only traces remain), I usually hook the tie-out cable to her harness while she was out there. In the beginning, she barked and whined to be let in; I pretty much ignored that and waited the full 15 minutes. She's doing better now--she seems to have gotten the point that we don't abandon her. The past couple of times, she was lying down next to the window when I came for her. She did Houdini out of the harness a couple of times, but both times it was because of someone or something she was interested in--dog, cat, human, etc.--near our property. She didn't leave the yard either time, though, so I didn't worry about it.
Mercy's still sniffing out that possum. Apparently he's a regular visitor to the dog food bowl.
Our housemate's boyfriend came over today. He didn't directly approach Mercy, and she managed to get through an evening without any submissive urination. Hopefully she'll get used to him, and men in general, eventually.
Mercy tries out her new crate pillow. Purple is definitely her color!
The day after Christmas, I went shopping. I'd gotten a Wal-Mart gift card for Christmas, and part of it was spent on a yard of purple fabric and a zipper. I also bought some upholstery thread, which is about the strongest stuff I've ever seen for its thickness, barring high-test fishing line (and spider webs, but they don't sell those at Wal-Mart).
I made the cloth and zipper into a simple pillowcase, 34"x22"; and then I took the old dog blanket which has been crumpled in the back of the crate for ages, folded it , and used upholstery thread to sew it shut on all four sides, into a "pillow" that fit into the case. To keep the middle from shifting, I sewed pairs of buttons through the thickness of the folded blanket. (The buttons were salvaged from old clothes I took apart when I made my scrap quilt a couple of years ago, and cost nothing.)
The result was a pillow and pillow cover, exactly the size of Mercy's crate, and about three inches thick--thinner than her usual dog bed, but still quite soft. Being a typical beagle-girl, Mercy loves comfort--the pillow can go into the crate when Mercy's bed is once again moved upstairs; when Mercy spends time in the crate while her owner is away, she'll have something softer than a bunched-up blanket or an old towel to lie on.
The pillow shouldn't be used without the cover--the buttons could be chewed off and swallowed--but other than that, it is just about the same thing as any $20 dog pillow you might buy from a pet store. If destroyed, the fabric of the cover can be replaced for about $1.50, providing the zipper is salvaged, or else it can be patched for next to nothing; and both parts of the pillow are machine washable.
My total cost, $3.50 and three hours of work.