More adventures of living with 3 dogs

Hello Everyone,

I originally sent this email out on November 9, 2012. It was the second in a series detailing the adventures of looking after Jane, Sophie's sister.

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When you live with multiple dogs, especially if one of them is a puppy and another one is new to your house, you never quite know what you will find when you get home. Almost every day, there is a surprise waiting for you. Sometimes it's bad, like "Surprise, I had to pee so I did it on the floor", other times it's curious, but not all that bad, as in "Surprise, I got into the recycling and now I really like tearing up empty egg cartons", and other times it's good, as in "Surprise, we slept all morning and didn't get into anything bad." With 3 dogs and a cat, doing nothing counts as a surprise. The other day, I came home to a surprise that made me realize that if you have a strong dog, make sure it's dumb, and if you have a smart dog, make sure it's small, because the worst combination is a dog that is both strong and smart. They can get into all kinds of shenanigans. On this day, the surprise waiting for me when I got home was empty, chewed-up bags of dog treats all over the hall, kitchen, and back room. There were also a few other things, normally kept in the bottom drawer in the kitchen, strewn about. How curious, I thought to myself. I fairly quickly surmised what had happened. The dogs had broken into the treat drawer. Now, just being able to figure out how a drawer works is one thing, but this is where my observation above comes into play. This is a fairly stiff drawer that is sometimes hard to open. However, between the 3 of them, they are smart enough to solve this mechanical puzzle, and strong enough to open it. It must have been a festival when that light dawned on them. They ate about $20 worth of dog treats in an afternoon. There were also dog brushes and combs strewn about as well as various other junk. I think they were just going wild at that point. In another example, Jane has started to try to get into the Rubbermaid container of Sophie's food. In a pretty classic turn for siblings, this is something Sophie would never do. We have to bribe her to ate at all, while her sister is dragging a full Rubbermaid across the room and trying to work the lid. She's been partially successful once already. Life is otherwise good. Arthur is a star at puppy class, then comes home and barks your ear off. He's getting better, though he is still bad for mouthing, you just have to give him something to chew on when he gets excited. Jane is both bossy, refusing to get off my own bed at night so that I can get in, and easily frightened. At night, she's by far the most shy of the 3. Arthur is a nut and will run up to anyone or anything; Sophie is cautious, but curious and will investigate; Jane sticks by your side and barks at things in the dark, whether it's another dog walker or a tree she's seen a dozen times. Lastly, you wouldn't think a couple of poodles could be intimidating, given their prancing gait and reputation for ridiculous haircuts, but don't be fooled. With Arthur adding some muscle to their formidable sense of superiority, they are a force at the dog park. wes

#Dogs #Sophie #Arthur