She likes my bed more than I do!
Life can be seen as a series of challenges, or a series of successes. It seems to me that successes tend to come after challenges, so to be challenged is to have many opportunities to succeed. This month I took on three major obstacles at once. I started my first semester of college, I moved into my first apartment (Military barracks don’t count), and I adopted a dog. I was worried I might have chosen the wrong place to live, paid too much or ran into pay problems. I was concerned that my GI bill might not come through, or that college might be far to difficult for me, and oddly, above all else, I was concerned that I might have taken on too much by adopting a wolf-dog with more energy than 4 normal dogs. None of these concerns will be laid to rest any time soon, but I can say for sure that things are looking up so far.
I’ve been to all of my classes and got a feel for what is required of me. English is shockingly easy, covering run on sentences and comma usage. I mix up my ‘than’ and ‘then’s quite a bit but I feel like I have a reasonable grasp on the basics of English. Art 101 is ambiguous nonsense that is chocked up to memorizing the names of artists and pretending to agree with the ‘established’ view of art. History might be a little harder though because I’ve never done well with raw memorization. Finally there is Intro to Film; A class on Fridays where we watch a movie and talk about it… Yes I do get credit for that. No I don’t know why.
The apartment seems to be working out just fine. Both of my parents were an enormous help getting me moved in/out. I’ve got all my crap moved in, and space to keep it somewhat organized. My daily challenge is dealing with the dogs, not life on my own. Zac and I had introduced Athena and Kiya early on to help smooth this transition but there are oddities of dog behavior that couldn’t have been accounted for. It turns out Kiya is a saint! It was clear from the start she was a very accommodating dog, but every day I find another reason why she is wonderful. She has never had an ‘accident’ in the house. She tells me when she needs out, and doesn’t have to go every 20 minutes. She doesn’t chew on wires or expensive items. She doesn’t shed much as long as I keep her brushed. I couldn’t have asked for more, but her behavior is only so shining when she is the only dog around.
The Xbox and projector take up a lot of our time
Athena is great in her own right. She is super playful, easy to handle outside and quick to learn. The problem is, she is extraordinarily territorial and possessive. Zac’s room is her biggest hot button. If Kiya walks in, she attacks ferociously. This wouldn’t be a big deal, but Kiya happens to be a bit of an instigator. If we let them do their own thing, often times they will do the exact same thing over and over for hours. Kiya will sneak, crawl, or walk int Zac’s room. Athena will grown and make unearthly sounds before lunging and viciously attacking, running Kiya out of the room. Then Kiya will turn around and start back in again. Over and over. If we close off Zac’s room, the dogs play together nicely… at first. Eventually someone’s feelings get hurt and it turns into a brawl. Most of the combat gets broken up as soon as we can manage, but the dogs seem to love it. Just like with Zac’s room, they will repeat this process over and over for hours without stopping. To make things even more confusing, we’ve found that putting the dogs out on the patio stops the fighting. They sit outside and interact like sisters.
I don’t think this behavior is standard ‘pecking order’ business. To me it seems to be poor social habits and misunderstanding. Kiya seems to think that biting another dog’s neck is the only way to play. When Athena gets serious, Kiya still thinks they are playing. Eventually she gets beat up too much, or Athena gets a good bight in, and she’ll come ruining to me, but before you know it they’re back at it again. Athena is deathly afraid that another dog will take her food (because her siblings stole from her when she was younger) so she defends her room like it is life or death. She also will eat any dog food left out if she is hungry or not. If its out, she must have it.
The behavior problems seem to be improving rapidly though. We break up the playfights when they’ve been at it for too long, or when it gets too rough. I’m teaching Kiya to stay out of Zac’s room to avoid the problem all together, and the use of ‘soft’ punishments like the deck or carrying the dogs to different rooms seems to be working. Its just going to take some time.
Athena in her 'territory.'
On the bright side of all this, both dogs get a lot of exercise without even being outside. I was worried that Kiya would have way too much energy and that she would need a long run and a walk each day to keep her happy. So far she’s doing fine with walks and bathroom breaks outside. I’ve tried running with her, but she still doesn’t understand walking on a leash very well. If I keep her on a shorter leash, she does much better at staying on track, but while running she will often veer in-front of me to go after a scent and nearly kill us both. Other than the occasional relapse, every walk is better than the last. The apartment doesn’t seem too small for the two dogs, and having three people around to play with them helps too.
Kiya likes having access to the whole place (save for Zac’s room). I ended up not kennel training her because she seems to be deathly afraid of kennels, but she sleeps all night in my room with no problems. She’ll get up several times a night for water, and to come make sure I’m still there, but otherwise she is fine until morning. Today she figured out how to open the trash can, how to open unlatched doors, how to move the curtains so she can see outside, and that toilets never run out of water.
Speaking of being impressed by Kiya, last weekend I went to the Old Threshers Reunion in Mt. Pleasant Iowa and brought her along. She handled the crowds of people and loud machines wonderfully. Sadly I don’t have any pictures of us there because I didn’t carry my camera in the first time. The second time when I did bring my camera, I left her at my grandparents house where she broke her leash chasing a rabbit. It was a good thing she decided to come back a moment later and someone caught her.
Old Threshers Reunion
Here is the best picture of her so far. She fell asleep upside down the other night.
Kiya passed out on her back
