I fought with my twin, that enemy within, 'til both of us fell by the way

[lizblackdog]

Step one of Sorting Out The Evil Bugger: more exercise.

Comments

[cottonmanifesto]

i'm glad that worked out for you, i think it's an entirely reasonable solution until you get something else worked out.

i totally feel your pain. i need somewhere to work on training with maggie that's not quite the house, yet not quite the big world - a yard would be perfect but ....

we need to get apartment_dogs organized - as soon as i'm done with this stupid pizza project, i'll be able to work on fun stuff again.

[lizblackdog]

yeah. I remember people in pet_debate being dogmatic about "secure fenced areas", but there literally AREN'T ANY round here that dogs are allowed into, except my mother's yard. And that's like 10'x15' and she's just had her gardener come and tidy it up and she doesn't want me churning it up with the dogs.

And I really don't think it's fair on Squish to never let him offleash at all. I just have to be very careful. The park I let him off in is as safe as I can find. The park I was in this morning is fine for Spike, because in Spikeworld I'm more fun than anything else - but I let Squish offleash there once, very stupidly, and he wouldn't let me catch him until he cut himself on the barbed wire. NEVER AGAIN. Too many hedges.

I coudln't look at the pizza pics last night, I was already too hungry. I'll have to go have a look now :-D

[cottonmanifesto]

i think part of the debate was confusing due to the international nature of the community - things are different in the UK and the US - even in different parts of the US. i'm sure there are rural areas (like where my sister lives) where it's entirely reasonable to let your dogs wander.

the pizza demo site is up here: http://www.alexbermudez.com/bravo/index.html

[lizblackdog]

that's true. And I knew that really, but it makes me very uneasy to see people I respect disagreeing with me in dog communities. It makes me wonder if I'm being an SPO. Of course, that's the value of those comms but sometimes it can go too far. there's always going to be some sort of gap between the ideal and the do-able.

OMG HUNGRY NOW!!

[wirenth]

i don't think you should feel bad about squish being on-leash while spike is off. if he can't handle it right now, he can't handle it. you'll work on it and maybe things will change. i think your solution was definitely a good one!

[lizblackdog]

thank you :)

I think you're right. I let myself get too caught up in the "must treat them both equally" thing and wound up being unfair to Spike. They both need exercise, but Squish doesn't go bugfuck if he doesn't get half an hour's good hard running and bouncing every single day. Spike does and I shouldn't have let my Squish issues stop me giving him what he needs.

[bloolark]

Also remember how far Squish has come -- I remember not long ago that he couldn't go off leash at ALL without a giant affair of running away and not being catched. It's exctremely cool that he's a lot better now.

It's really easy to fall into the mindset of being fair to both of them, but really, it's better to give them what they need, rather than be fair. If Spike needs more off leash running, give it to him. Squish will be happy if you let him smell interesting things.

And yay for Gus cats found in the wild! I bet that cat didn't have weird multiple length fur though. :)

[lizblackdog]

Squish is a Good Dog *loves teh Squisheroonie*

I didn't get close enough to see whether he had Gus fur or extra toes, sadly. He was twenty feet up a holly tree with a lot of prickly leafage round the base by the time I even knew he was in the park. But he had that distinctive Maine Coon-type facial bone structure, he was very big, and he was the same sort of cloudy blue-grey-and-white as Gus. Very pretty cat. Spike thought so too...

[bloolark]

Spike would love Gus and Gypsy. Both of them are completely unfazed by dogs, and both will play with them as well. Gus frequently has dog drool giving him cow licks. Our friends came to visit and brought their dog and he was thrilled to have cats to play with.

Charlotte, on the other hand, would probably not be so happy about having a manly man dog like Spike about. She likes to be the Queen Bitch of the Universe. Race poodle just wants to play with everyone. :)

[lizblackdog]

while I was reading your comment I was watching Spike playing kitten poker with Naamah (Shona) kitten... that's the game where the kitten lies on her back, the collie nosepokes her belly and the kitten tries to grab his nose with her paws before he can pull it back. Elda Kitten plays tag with him and she always wins.

I wanna play with the racepoodle, dammit!