Haha, our household is possibly strange in that we enjoy narrating our pets' thoughts, so that is were all the observations spring from; I'm glad I can amuse.
And, man. German shepherd, lab, and border collie? No wonder that dog is smart! Three super smart dog breeds there, haha. Ziva takes advantage of Remy too--a couple weeks during the winter, Remy kept getting out of the fence. We couldn't figure out how; we'd even bungied the gate to keep it closed. Now, it wasn't like Remy went anywhere; he mostly just stood around outside the fence all, "Whee! I'm out! ...what do I do? Can I come back now?" But Ziva takes off, so we wanted to figure it out and do something to stop it just in case she managed it too.
So one day we're digging Sylvia's car out of the snow, the dogs are outside, watching this, very interested. Cue Ziva jumping purposely on the gate handle, opening the gate, and Remy squeezing his body through the hole. Gate snaps back into place once he's out, leaving behind no evidence. I posited that she was trying to encourage him to run away. =P
She takes his toys and chews away from him too, and she's amazingly strong for being compact (I mean, Husky) so she can still knock him over despite the fact that he has at least thirty pounds on her by now. (He's got to be at least 90 right now, and he's not even a YEAR. Wouldn't be surprised if he were edging closer to 100.) It's actually kind of hilarious--he doesn't always know he's bigger than she is, because he used to be able to walk under her. So every now and then he'll rediscover this fact and it just seems to delight him. Like, "Hey, I'm bigger! Sweet!" Of course, he inevitably forgets it, then rediscovers it again, ad infinitum. He's so adorable.
We did purposefully look for a male dog, yeah, when we got Remy. She already really got along with Sylvia's dad's dog, Bart (Springer Spaniel; they're bffs, no lie) so we knew she could be friends with male dogs beforehand and figured it was a safe bet to go that route.
It's so handy! Carries the water and bug spray and whatnot. She loves it, too. Like, "Yay, I have a job!"
My family TOTALLY does that too; it's a favorite pastime. Now that I live "alone" with Hayley, I just have conversations with her a lot. :)
(She is quite smart, but not always in a constructive way. She can be very creative about ways to misbehave. Also, like a lot of the important humans in her life, she can use her intelligence to think up new and unique neuroses for herself. :D)
That is hilarious about the gate. Like she was trying to evict him.
Our dogs were sort of the reverse: Casey was the older dog, and had grown up and lived in the house for, oh, at least six years before six-month-old Hayley came. So the joke with them was that Casey was constantly trying to find ways to get rid of Hayley so she could enjoy her senior years in peace and quiet. Pooooor mistreated Casey.
Golden retrievers are so awesome. Like, I've literally never met a mean one. I've met a surprising number of mean labs. But never a golden. Also, my favorite are the huuuge ones, aww.
(Lest my whole "so many dumb labs! not-mythical mean labs! so many morbidly obese labs!" thing mislead you: I grew up with labs and love them to death. But they're not quite as invariably The Perfect American Family Dog! as a lot of people seem to think.)
Like, "Yay, I have a job!"
Yep! That was essentially why we got Hayley's, too. When there's nothing substantial that needs to be carried, I'll often put the backpack on her anyway and load it with cans of soup, just so she feels like she's got a job.
Oh yeah, Ziva is not always smart in a constructive way either. I'm pretty sure it's just...they get bored, so they find a way to entertain themselves--a way that usually involves figuring out how to, you know, get to things they shouldn't. It's like a gifted kid acting out in a class waaaay beneath them.
I've never really met a lot of dogs, so I didn't know much about Goldens, but Remy has totally sold me. Just a big pile of love, that dog. :D
And, man. German shepherd, lab, and border collie? No wonder that dog is smart! Three super smart dog breeds there, haha. Ziva takes advantage of Remy too--a couple weeks during the winter, Remy kept getting out of the fence. We couldn't figure out how; we'd even bungied the gate to keep it closed. Now, it wasn't like Remy went anywhere; he mostly just stood around outside the fence all, "Whee! I'm out! ...what do I do? Can I come back now?" But Ziva takes off, so we wanted to figure it out and do something to stop it just in case she managed it too.
So one day we're digging Sylvia's car out of the snow, the dogs are outside, watching this, very interested. Cue Ziva jumping purposely on the gate handle, opening the gate, and Remy squeezing his body through the hole. Gate snaps back into place once he's out, leaving behind no evidence. I posited that she was trying to encourage him to run away. =P
She takes his toys and chews away from him too, and she's amazingly strong for being compact (I mean, Husky) so she can still knock him over despite the fact that he has at least thirty pounds on her by now. (He's got to be at least 90 right now, and he's not even a YEAR. Wouldn't be surprised if he were edging closer to 100.) It's actually kind of hilarious--he doesn't always know he's bigger than she is, because he used to be able to walk under her. So every now and then he'll rediscover this fact and it just seems to delight him. Like, "Hey, I'm bigger! Sweet!" Of course, he inevitably forgets it, then rediscovers it again, ad infinitum. He's so adorable.
We did purposefully look for a male dog, yeah, when we got Remy. She already really got along with Sylvia's dad's dog, Bart (Springer Spaniel; they're bffs, no lie) so we knew she could be friends with male dogs beforehand and figured it was a safe bet to go that route.
It's so handy! Carries the water and bug spray and whatnot. She loves it, too. Like, "Yay, I have a job!"
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(She is quite smart, but not always in a constructive way. She can be very creative about ways to misbehave. Also, like a lot of the important humans in her life, she can use her intelligence to think up new and unique neuroses for herself. :D)
That is hilarious about the gate. Like she was trying to evict him.
Our dogs were sort of the reverse: Casey was the older dog, and had grown up and lived in the house for, oh, at least six years before six-month-old Hayley came. So the joke with them was that Casey was constantly trying to find ways to get rid of Hayley so she could enjoy her senior years in peace and quiet. Pooooor mistreated Casey.
Golden retrievers are so awesome. Like, I've literally never met a mean one. I've met a surprising number of mean labs. But never a golden. Also, my favorite are the huuuge ones, aww.
(Lest my whole "so many dumb labs! not-mythical mean labs! so many morbidly obese labs!" thing mislead you: I grew up with labs and love them to death. But they're not quite as invariably The Perfect American Family Dog! as a lot of people seem to think.)
Like, "Yay, I have a job!"
Yep! That was essentially why we got Hayley's, too. When there's nothing substantial that needs to be carried, I'll often put the backpack on her anyway and load it with cans of soup, just so she feels like she's got a job.
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I've never really met a lot of dogs, so I didn't know much about Goldens, but Remy has totally sold me. Just a big pile of love, that dog. :D
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