The Hooligan

While Mommy was cleaning up the side yard today, Guinness found another way to escape from the yard. Once Guinness started trying to venture from the yard when a puppy, I set up the plastic chickenwire fence at the front to keep him from running away. But there was a gap where he could escape under the bushes and jump off the wall. I filled the gap with a window screen wedged in the branches of the bushes. This past spring, when the leaves grew on the current bushes, I thought that Guinness had grown too big to fit through that opening, and, besides, the leaves hid the fact that there was an escape route there. We were fine all summer. Now that the leaves are gone, Guinness has been investigating this weak spot. I knew that he could push his body through there if he tried hard enough. Well, today while I was pooper scooping, he did it! I didn’t see it happen, but he was in front of the wall, looking rather dazed. His leash was caught on a corner of the concrete wall, keeping him from running away. When I called him to “come,” he jumped back up the wall and I guided him back through the branches. Then I promptly pulled a screen out of the garage and wedged it into the bushes again. Not very pretty in our front yard, but quite utilitarian.


After our walk and before jumping in the shower, I wrapped a gift for Christine and hot glued a stem of holly on the gift ("Dogs Never Lie About Love" by Masson). I placed it in the center of the dining room table so that Guinness would leave it alone. I also placed a bag of treats for Sasha beside the gift. Then I foolishly told Guinness that Sasha and Christine were coming. He went beserk!!! He ran to the window looking for them at the front door, barked at me, ran to the deck door, then back to the kitchen window. He was ecstatic and could not understand that “wait” meant two more hours.

While showering, Guinness did not lie at my shower door, so I wondered what he was up to. You probably think that he reached the bag of treats and ate them. Nope! He left the treats untouched on the table. Guess again! He ate most of the holly stem, leaving the gift otherwise unscathed. It might not have been "cute" if he had left teeth marks in the book! ha!


That placed him in timeout.



The appointed time finally arrived with a canine and a human guest at the door. Talk about excited! Guinness’s spirit and body were unrestrained! Once I was able to pull him away from the doorway so that they could enter, he jumped and jumped (Christine came prepared wearing “dog clothes.”). Then, unbridled, he raced in a circle through the hallway, living room, dining room, and kitchen a couple of times. Sasha tried to tell him off, but it didn’t faze Guinness. By the time Guinness finally calmed down a bit, Christine and I were both out of breath! We were able to sit sedately sipping our eggnog lattes and munching on Christmas treats while keeping Guinness pacified with carrots. Unfortunately, we have caved in to feeding Guinness occasional goodies to keep him well behaved while we eat. Of course, Sasha, with perfect manners, rested politely on his mother’s lap the whole time.





After moving to the living room, we heard Sasha making ferocious sounds. Then we saw Sasha attacking Guinness. Hurray! Sasha is learning that he can tell this boisterous creature to back off. After Sasha had nestled on Christine’s lap on the sofa for a while, he slid off, leaving Guinness the opportunity of climbing up on her lap. It was more important to get him off her than to capture that scene with my camera.

Disappointment

All summer, while neighbors might be in the backyards, we had to hold Guinness on a leash or he would run down the stairs to the driveway to greet someone exuberantly (and unwantedly). Now that winter is approaching, no one is outside. And he has been good about staying in our yard even if he sees a squirrel. For the past month, we take him outside with no leash. What a relief that is! However, four times now in the past few days, he has escaped the yard when I am not watching. The first time he did it, I could not find him anywhere! He was no where in sight in the back or in the front, and, he did not respond to, “Come,” “Treats!” his name, or his song. That first time, I was beginning to panic as several minutes went by before I saw movement on a neighbor’s deck. Ugh! We are back to attaching a leash, but, after three more escapes, we (oops! That should be “I” as Grant has not had this problem.) cannot let our eyes stray from him.

This morning, he was begging for a walk. In spite of the drizzle, I was willing to take him around the neighborhood streets where he would have no freedom and not get muddy. We got ourselves ready in the garage, then I suggested that he go potty in our yard first. Well, he went #1 and #2, so I had to clean it up. Yep! When I turned around, he was gone and on a deck that has a Christmas tree two doors down. He absolutely made no response to my calls to him. When I marched up on the deck, he hid under the tree, then tried to run past me. He got a BIG scolding and was sent to his crate for a long timeout. Mommy was mad!

The Beach

Today was in the upper 40’s with bright sunshine. It was a day to walk the beach! About a week ago, when the sand was frozen and ice was building at the edge of the lake, I took Guinny for his third foray on the beach. That was the first time we had walked the length of the beach. I kept him on a long lead (a better quality one than the one from the dollar store that broke as soon as his paws hit the sand), and he did great. Today, after a couple of minutes on the beach, Guinness came racing back to me and jumped on me to say, “Thank you, thank you, Mommy for bringing me here again!” It was so sweet! The ice and snow had melted at the edge of the lake, so I let him get his feet wet. He was ecstatic, leaping through the water. Since he was on a lead, he could not go out deep enough to swim. When on the sand, he pranced and bounced or strutted with the gait of a Tennessee Walker. He was definitely a happy boy! Canada Geese, Mallard Ducks, some seagulls, and a few Trumpeter Swans which winter in this area, were all along the edge of the lake and scurried away as we approached. Since it was a nice day, there was a smattering of people roaming the beach as well as a few dogs. We walked all the way to the pier lining the channel into the bay. As is usual in winter, that narrow stretch of deep water was full of Oldsquaw Scoters. Since they were disturbed by Guinness’s presence, I turned around half way down the pier. Guinness pled, “Do we have to go home?” He wanted to keep going. But back we went. On the return down the beach, two dogs the size of Guinness were off leash with their master, so, when Guinny pulled to meet them, I allowed the loop to slip off my wrist. They had a couple minutes of playful frenzy. The other master picked up Guinness’s leash and was shocked at how strong he is. He said, “You have your hands full! This is one powerful dog!” Yep. I’m well aware of that. Actually, if I had not released the leash, he easily could drag me face down through the sand.

I must say that there was a smile pasted on my face for the entire walk. I love it as much as Guinness does, plus I was amused to watch how fascinated he is with the beach. The regret crossed my mind again that I wish Hershey had been well enough long enough to have taught Guinness how to behave on the beach without a leash.

Still loves Santa!

Santa has lasted for a full week! Guinness has been so cute with him that I have taken several photos.

Santa

This afternoon, we went to PetsMart to have Guinness’s picture taken with Santa. He LOVES everyone and everything! The only times he has exhibited fear are when he sees inanimate objects such as my large Halloween scrarecrow in the front yard. Well, he did NOT like Santa! He would not go near him, though he did accept treats with trepidation from him. We could not get him to sit close enough to Santa for a photo, though, I must say, Santa himself was not very cooperative. He may as well have been an inanimate object! So I had to get in on the act in order to have the pre-paid picture taken.

















Guinness spent Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning at his pet hotel. As usual, they gave us a stuffed toy for him as we left. We usually hide their presents to give to a friend’s dog, as he is an aggressive chewer and they are destroyed within 10 minutes. Grant must have set this one down within Guinness’s reach because I found him prancing around with the cellophane wrapped package. I decided to let him have his fun. To my surprise, once he had it open, he was gentle with the stuffed toy! It has now lasted for 5 hours and promises to last even longer!

Oh, my...

I did not sleep well last night and stayed up reading quite a while, thus I slept in late this morning. Grant was up early and gone, as usual. At 9:30, Guinness woke me up. Then he ran off to the lower level. I went down to see what was so exciting down there. While I was away this past week, Grant indulged in a gift to himself – a black suede, wide-brimmed Tilley hat which was still in its large box on the sofa downstairs. The box was tipped over and empty. From near the laundry room, Guinness dashed past me, hat in mouth, and whizzed upstairs. At first, even with a treat in my hand, he would not let me catch him. When I finally had the hat, I told him, “Go get in your crate.” He raced around the main level a couple of times, then ran to his crate. The hat is destroyed, of course. He had had at least an hour or two to work on it. I went downstairs to assess any other damage. Grant had purchased a hefty suede brush to care for his hat. Guinness had enjoyed the wooden handle tremendously. Wood chips, bristles, and pieces of black suede were all over the floor. I pondered how to break the news to Grant. I waited until he called me. After I finished the story, Grant jovially said, “No problem! It’s insured.”

“What?!”

“They told me that the hat is fully insured for one year whether is it stolen, run over by a car, or falls apart. After the first year, it is insured for 50% of its value.”

So I cleaned up the mess downstairs, ran the vacuum, and let Guinness out of his crate. As I donned clothing to take him outside on this cold, rainy day, Guinness attempted to steal my shoe. Upon returning inside, I heard him prancing around the dining room. He had grabbed a plastic container out of the kitchen sink.