May 11, 2013

• Magic

  The magic continues.

  Riley, who is lounging in a dog-sized hole in the back yard, began barking angrily at something.

  Annie roused up off the couch, releasing a low growl, and slunk into the living room to boof at the front window. She seemed to be picking up steam, egged on by her brother barking in the back yard, and she barked

  boofed

  thought  about it

  growled , deep in her throat

  BARKED

  and a few minutes later trotted silently into the Conservatory where we are and curled up again on the couch.

  I am sure there is some reason why we shouldn't be using this machine. It's probably cruel and unusual or will eventually make her go deaf or there is some reason I can't even think of that makes it bad...but what it appears to do is break that cycle of escalating excitement that she gets into until she's running around the house like a dervish, barking at everything in sight and flinging herself hysterically against the dining room window.

  Annie is calm.

  Annie is relaxed.

  We are watching in utter amazement.

  We discussed getting the outdoor model and putting it by the fence where they most often gather to bark at sidewalk walkers, interlopers and The Thing That Attacks All Life as We Know It, but the outdoor machines have a much larger range (50 feet vs 25 feet.) Neither of us are sure just how long 50 feet is (Nancy might have a clue--I really don't.) And there are the two chows on the right of us, Jetta and her co-dog on the left of us, Chocolate and the new dog behind us, the bulldog across the street and the dog I haven't seen yet directly across the street... The chows never bark, so subjecting them to punishing blasts of noise for my dogs barking seemed unkind. I would need to talk to their owner and to Jetta's mom and dad before we installed the machine.

  Nancy said she took Annie to have her nails trimmed Friday morning and Annie's groomer said she uses a similar devise. (She also shakes cans of pennies. Cans of pennies only work for me as long as I am willing to sit outside behind the dogs with a can of pennies at the ready.)

  She also said Annie needs more socialization.

  Well, yes she does.

  At this exact point in time Annie has no scratches, cuts slices or open wounds from any back yard altercations that these are all from Riley, the dog she lives with. This is a first in all of the time she's lived with us. She has apparently learned enough social skills to play with her situational brother without bloodshed. Yeah, Annie!

  Riley is hard to rile. Well. He'll growl. He gets testy. Given a change, he then goes off on a scent hunt and ignores his adversary. It takes concentrated in-your-face antagonism to get Riley made enough to fight. She can do it.

  Anyway. At this exact point in time Riley is in his hole in the back yard and Annie is here with us on the couch. Riley barks from time to time, but without Annie to get him hyped, he calms down and quits. Annie rarely barks in the house and almost never more than twice (which is apparently what it takes to set off the machine.)

  At this exact point in time I could kiss that little gray machine full on it's little gray lips. 

  • 11:07 am
  • 2 Comments