April 26, 2007
Oscar's Story: Part III
The conclusion of the story of Oscar's puppyhood...
Chapter VI: Approaching Adulthood
The last few months have been a breeze. Any of Oscar's early vices, like a propensity for chewing on my hands and the walls, have all pretty much disappeared. I would consider potty training a success, since it has been at least a month or two since the last accident. In fact, with the exception of a tendency to jump on people when he greets them, and a desire to chew towels in his crate when bored, I can say that he is practically the ideal dog.
I still haven't taught him how to Heel, which is simply due to my laziness. We've been working on Come off and on for awhile, and he picked up the basics quickly, but he still has a tendency to not listen when he's distracted, particularly while outside. We're working on it daily now until he gets it right, after which we'll move on to Heel.
We had a major milestone occur the other day, when he made his first frisbee catch. He loves chasing it, and for months he would run it down and bat it down out of the air. But suddenly one day he realized how to go up with his teeth and grab it down, and he's been trying ever since. He's probably only successful 1 out of every 10 or so, but it's only a matter of time.
The only real question left to answer is: at what point do I stop crating him while I'm gone during the day? The idea of crate training is to build them up to a point of trust, and he's been so good that I'm tempted to go ahead and let him out. However, it seems pretty standard to go at least one year before doing that, so I'm a bit hesitant. What I have started doing is leaving him out and unsupervised for small quantities of time as I leave to run errands and such. We do this pretty frequently nowadays, for up to an hour or so, and he's never caused any problems. I will probably just ramp this up slowly until I feel safe that he won't damage anything or use the bathroom. Here's hoping it's a smooth transition.
Chapter VII: Words of Wisdom
Based on my experiences over the last few months, here are the things I would tell to a new or potential dog owner:
- Do your homework when choosing a dog. If you're getting one from a Rescue group or the Pound, great. But if going through a Breeder, make sure to choose a responsible one. Google should reveal all kinds of helpful resources to aid you. And whatever you do, don't buy from a retail store. These kinds of places cannot discriminate against potential buyers and thus cannot ensure that the purchaser is a good choice. Any reputable place should check to make sure that you are ready to care for a dog.
- Crate train! All the evidence supports that it is the proper method of housebreaking. People who don't do it say it's cruel to the dog, which isn't true; the truth is that they don't have the heart to do it. If done properly, most dogs will take to the crate very quickly, but you have to be diligent and careful about how you acclimate the dog to the crate. Pick up a good book on puppy training and follow the instructions. If you're interested, here's the book that I used, and I can say that it was a very good all-around guide to puppy ownership: The Everything Puppy Book
- In Kong We Trust: Kong toys are the best value on the market. Dogs love them, they come in all shapes in sizes, they are affordable, and the tough rubber will NOT tear apart.
- Use flea control as soon as is safe for the dog. After brining him home, Oscar developed a bad case of fleas practically from day one. I held off on treatment for awhile, and they basically ate him alive. Since I started applying the treatment, I haven't seen a single flea. We use Advantage brand, and I've been completely satisfied with it.
- Get a bottle of Bitter Apple to knock out bad chewing habits before they get serious.
- Start training early and be consistent in your methods. Whatever book you picked up above should cover basic training as well.
And that brings us up to the present, and the end of our journey through the last 8 months. I'll continue to post updates as other significant things occur, as well as any other helpful tips that come to mind.
You can find all my pictures in the gallery link on my page; you can also find plenty of pictures Adam has taken at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aparkerw.
April 25, 2007
Oscar's Story: Part II
The continuing saga about the adventures and misadventures of dog ownership...
Chapter IV: The First Month (or, A Rude Awakening)
By the end of the first week we had settled into a regular schedule, but that doesn't mean it wasn't without stress. For me, the roughest period was after the first week (once the initial fun wore off) until the end of the first month or so, as I came to realize how much work it is to raise a puppy. I don't have children, but I can't imagine it's that much different; constant watch and supervision, cleaning up after their mistakes, teaching them right from wrong and how to behave, worrying that you're not doing something right, etc. All in all it was a pretty stressful month.
I've always had dogs in the home, but they've never been puppies; as such, I didn't quite understand the degree to which my schedule would change. No going straight from work over to hang out with friends. No more sleeping through the night (or sleeping in on the weekends, for that matter). No more random vacations or excursions. During this period I had real mixed feelings; I didn't regret getting a dog, but I did really feel cramped by the burden.
To his credit, though, Oscar did his part to ease the transition by being well-behaved and receptive to instruction. As I mentioned in Part I, he really took to crate/potty training; after soiling his crate the first night, he has yet to do it since. It also didn't take long for him to get comfortable going in the crate on his own. I think it helped that I worked at home half the day, so that I could keep him in the crate but still be at home - I feel this helped prevent him from associating the crate with being alone. The picture below represents a major milestone, as it was the first time he laid down in the crate voluntarily while the door was open. You can see from his size that he was still quite young:
We also started training after a week or two, and he really took to it. By the end of the first month he had pretty well mastered numerous commands, including: Sit, Stay, Shake, Speak, Down, Crawl, Roll Over, and High Five. The two hardest (Come and Heel) I saved for when he was a bit older.
Chapter V: Getting Into Rhythm
By the end of the first month Oscar was old enough to hold his eliminations for half a work day, so I stopped working from home and switched into a new schedule where I would come home every day at lunch (this lasted until he was old enough to go the entire work day). As we overcomed initial obstacles, new ones presented themselves. We started regular vet trips for vaccinations, which presented a problem for him because he didn't take to car rides very well. He threw up on each ride, which apparently is common with pups. I felt bad for him, because I'm sure the manual transmission and shift shock weren't helping, but there wasn't much to do except wait for him to outgrow it (which he eventually did).
Another big challenge was the college football season. I'm a passionate follower of GT football and, to me, Saturdays in Fall mean football and tailgating. However, a 3 month old puppy presents a problem when you're trying to spend 12 hours or so away from home. After much thought I decided to bring him along with me to the tailgates, and crate him in the fraternity house during the games; this would give him a valuable opportunity to socialize with all kinds of other people. I would say it was a positive (albeit frustrating) experience; most people seemed to enjoy interacting with him, but honestly it was a major burden on me; I couldn't enjoy the tailgates because I had to constantly supervise him. Also, I felt like I was putting a burden on other people because he was often "in the way" and I would occasionally need other people to take his leash whenever I wanted to eat, etc. It never seemed to bother anybody but I still felt he was a bit too high-maintenance for tailgating.
Training continued to go smoothly during this period; he picked up on extended Stay (over a minute in length, with me not even in the room) and learned to Stand as best he can. We began working on Come, but I wasn't diligent enough about teaching this one early.
After several months of absolutely no behavioral problems, I started giving him some freedoms. When I first brought him home he was confined to the kitchen and bedroom only, and this continued for most of the first month. I slowly exposed him to the rest of the house and he never did anything wrong so he quickly had access to the whole house. The major freedom which I granted him at about 5 months was leaving his crate door open at night.
For the most part he was very responsible with the newfound freedoms, but strangely enough, there was probably a two week span where he misbehaved in several ways. Maybe he didn't quite know better, or maybe he was testing his limits, but either way he really pissed me off. First, after a couple weeks of leaving his crate open at night, I awoke one Saturday morning to a strange noise. Peering over the side of the bed I caught Oscar chewing on the wall. That's right, chewing... on the wall. I don't know how you chew on a flat surface but he did it. He had managed to scrape his teeth into the drywall, leaving a big ugly mark. I disciplined him pretty harshly and figured he wouldn't do it again - only to catch him do the same thing a couple weeks later. At this point I stopped leaving the crate open at night.
In a related incident, I started leaving him out of his crate and free to roam in the mornings when I was in the shower. All was fine for several weeks, until one morning I stepped out of the bathroom to see him gnawing on the wooden railing at the bottom of the staircase. Another day, another punishment.
All three of those incidents occurred within weeks of each other; I haven't had any other problems before or since.
The other big event that occurred at about 4 months was the opening of an off-leash dog park near our house. Nothing special, basically just a fenced-in grassy area, but it provided us two valuable things: a place where he could run off leash, and an opportunity to interact with other dogs. Since it opened we've been going at least once a week on the weekends. It's a great help to me because it allows him to burn off some energy, and also helped him understand how to behave properly around other dogs, including ones of different size and temperament.
Like most dogs he loves being outside, so here are a few pictures of him in his element. The first one I love, because it was one of the first good ones I got soon after he really learned how to point properly (which, interestingly enough, is instinctual for his breed; he was trying to point from the very first day I brought him home). I think a pointing pose is one of the finest looks for a dog:
When in the yard, Oscar is all about chewing on sticks. You can just see the happiness all over his face once he got ahold of this one:
You can find all my pictures in the gallery link on my page; you can also find plenty of pictures Adam has taken at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aparkerw.
So, I'm almost done with this saga, but I think I have enough for a third part. No better way to boost ratings than to leave you with a cliffhanger! Tune in later this week for the riveting finale, including some words of wisdom for potential future first-time dog owners like myself...
April 24, 2007
Oscar's Story: Part I
For those who don't know, I got a dog about 8 months ago. So, this is way overdue, but I figured I would chronicle the events surrounding my first few months of dog ownership. It's been an interesting ride, stressful at times, but mostly fun and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I originally intended this as a single post, but anyone who is reading this likely is well aware of my ability to ramble at great lengths, so I'm splitting it into multiple blog entries for the sanity of all interested parties. Well, here goes...
Chapter I: The Preliminaries
The process of choosing a dog was at times frustrating, and took longer than I would have liked, but mostly it was painless. The last we checked in on the fearless dog hunter, I had tentatively "bought" an unborn Brittany from a breeder in Cumming, but was waiting to see if he would have a successful breeding. Well, the breeding did take, but unfortunately he only had a litter of 3: 2 females and 1 male. The male was claimed by the stud owner, and the other female by the breeder himself, leaving one female for me. I had a big problem with this: first off, I wanted a male; but perhaps more importantly, I didn't like the idea of not having a choice, not to mention getting the runt of the litter. I decided I was going to pursue other options, which basically meant forfeiting my deposit and starting over. Talk about frustrating...
Luckily, almost immediately I found another breeder, also in Cumming, who had a huge litter of 10, mostly male. When I contacted her I found out there were a couple people in front of me who would have first pick, but that if I wanted one there would be plenty to choose from, and they would be ready to come home in a matter of weeks. Talk about a bump in the schedule! I decided to go ahead and take the plunge; I visited her house, made sure that the litter looked well taken care of, and waited for her call to tell me to come pick one.
Chapter II: The Choice
In what will probably be one of the better birthday presents I'll get anytime soon, I received a call from the breeder on my birthday telling me that the lady in front of me won't be able to come pick, so I can go ahead and choose a pup. I was a little shocked but I wasn't going to waste anymore time. Me and my roommate headed up to Cumming and I began the difficult task of choosing a pup. I was not prepared for how difficult this would be - how do you choose? I mean, I had guidelines and all, but it's a lot different when they are staring at you. Not to mention the fact that I had so many to choose from.
I started by examining the litter together and just watching them interact. This proved difficult because when they saw me they all tried to rush the gate for attention, so it was hard to see them in their "natural habitat". But over time you could see which ones were aggressive, which ones were shy, etc. One would not leave the corner at all, so he was an easy elimination; a frightfully shy pup can often have issues. I also tried to avoid the two guys that were yelping at the top of their lungs and crawling all over their siblings to get some attention. They seemed too aggressive for my tastes.
There were two that seemed like a good fit, so I pulled each one out on their own and let them run around, tried to play with them, make sure they responded and seemed interested and curious, etc. This was the real hard part, because both seemed like real good pups. I probably spent a good half hour just watching these two, switching back and forth, and finally deciding on one. I already had his name picked out, so without further ado, Oscar and I headed home. While my roommate drove I held Oscar in the car, and he might as well have been a child from the way he clung to me.
Chapter III: The First Days
That first day was a very surreal experience. I brought Oscar into the kitchen, where his crate and toys were all ready and baby gates were in place to keep him confined. We just let him run loose and explore, and it's really amazing to watch something that small and young try to make sense of his surroundings. He slipped and slided around, and played all night, and we had a blast. It was a great first day.
The first night, however, was a nightmare. I was fully prepared for this, and warned my roommate as best I could, but even still it was just about unbearable. Despite being right next to my bed, he howled the entire night. I did my best to put up with it, understanding that he was naturally freaked out by not being with his family, but needless to say, I didn't sleep much at all that night. The good news is that by the second night he had gotten accustomed to his new home and hasn't made any noise at night since the first one.
Oscar's first day home was a Sunday, which was convenient because I was able to spend the whole day with him. Nevertheless, work beckoned the next morning; however, I am very fortunate to have a job which allows for a flexible work schedule that enabled me to accommodate puppy ownership. Basically, I was able to spend the first month or so at home every morning, coming in to the office after lunch. This allowed me to be present with Oscar for a good portion of the day, while gently breaking him into being alone.
I expected the first few days to be a nightmare with regard to crate/potty training, but really it's been a positive experience. With the proper training from my end, he really took to the crate and never exhibited any fear or dislike for it. And to my intense surprise, he seemed to catch on to the concept of going to the bathroom outside from the very beginning. This is not to say that there were not accidents in the house; but rather, any time I did take him outside, he would use the bathroom. The thing about puppies is that they go so frequently, often without any warning, that even when you do your best to handle the situation preventatively, there are going to be some times when they slip one by you. That being said though, whereas he had the occasional pee accident, I never had any problems with anything ... smellier, if you will.
All in all it was a great week; spending the mornings at home to build our bond, and then coming home from work in the afternoons to play and see him explore. It was a great start to the relationship.
You can find all my pictures in the gallery link on my page; you can also find plenty of pictures Adam has taken at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aparkerw.
That's enough for today... come back next time for Part 2.
April 2, 2007
Book Review: The Alchemist (1988)
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The shepherd boy Santiago has carved out a meager but pleasant living, traveling the world as he always had hoped to do, never realizing that his life had something more in store for him. But one day he had a dream about a treasure buried amongst the Egyptian Pyramids, and it altered the course of his life forever. In pursuit of the meaning of this dream, he seeks out a Gypsy woman who confirms the reality of the treasure and sends him on his way. In the course of his travels he meets a king, an alchemist, and his true love. But as you might expect, finding the treasure is not nearly as important as the journey itself, in which he discovers his true self and his destiny.
If it sounds clichéd, that's because it is. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily; it is just further proof of the book's simplicity. The Alchemist shares many things in common with C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, in that both are allegorical tales with spiritual undertones that are popular with kids and adults alike. The difference is that Lewis' tales are lush and evocative, with exceptional depth for their size. Coelho's tale, by comparison, is a thin shell around a motivational message. The characters are so one-dimensional and straightforward that they make sure to verbalize all of their thoughts into easily digestible nuggets of wisdom, just in case you missed the obvious point already made by their normal conversation. Each person that Santiago comes across is an archetype of someone you are likely to stumble across in real life, such as the person who is afraid of change, or the one that provides the initial spark to help you pursue a dream.
I've probably been a bit harsh on this book, and as such I should mention that there are some really cool parts to the story, not the least of which is the climax in which Santiago's life is put in jeopardy unless he is able to perform a task which seems out of his grasp. What follows is a fascinating metaphysical blend of discourse between man and nature, and is excellently written. Throughout the book Coelho refers to vague topics such as "Personal Legend", "The Soul of the World", "The Universal Language", and others. Obviously these are things left up to the interpretation of the reader, so everyone will get something different out of the book. For me, the most interesting thing was Coelho's stressing of the fact that there is a natural language that serves as the undercurrent between most things; over the course of the story Santiago masters this, learning things about men and nature simply by observing and listening to the ways of the world.
There are definitely some interesting things in The Alchemist, and considering it only took me 3 days to read it, I don't begrudge the effort. I would highly recommend this for a young person starting to think about things such as who they are and what they want to pursue; it is a very uplifting story which will likely help many folks find the strength to chase their dreams. But for those a little futher along in life, there's not enough substance here to expect anything more than a quaint little short story.
Book Review: Lord Jim (1900)
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Jim is an intriguing enough character; he is brash, fearless, and has an acute sense of romanticism. He is loyal to a fault and is exceptional at his trade. Of course, when the shipwreck occurs and he finds his trustworthiness questioned and his character vilified, he becomes a self-deprecating wretch looking for a corner in which to hide. Yet, the flame of his passion is never quite extinguished; it simply lays dormant until it is coaxed into the open by a simple, naive group of helpless natives who look to him for protection against powerful external forces. Again, as a character study it sounds interesting; the problem is in the presentation and execution.
Rather than retelling the story directly from Jim as narrator, instead it is told from the point of view of Marlow, a man present at Jim's trial who takes a liking to him and helps him find solace on the forgotten island. Practically the entire story is told as a recanting of a conversation; a vast majority of the story is quoted, and there are frequent nested quotes, making it extremely difficult to determine who is talking. And if that weren't bad enough, the dialogue is hopelessly dated; so much so that it is hard to navigate. It is not difficult in a Shakespearian way (which is mostly a matter of antiquated vocabulary), but rather it was the formally structured speech that is often tangential and cyclical in nature. Despite being over a hundred years old, I have a hard time believing that people ever spoke in the way that Conrad suggested they do; if they did, I scarcely believe they would ever successfully communicate anything at all.
In 300 tedious pages, Conrad brings Jim's character through the full cycle of pride to desperation to redemption, and by the time he's done you don't really care. I suffered through great lengths of the story just trying to keep pace with who is talking and what they're trying to say. It is almost as if Conrad gets in the way of his own telling of the story; maybe if he had been less focused on writing a great book, and instead allowed the story to emerge out of the great premise, he might have created something truly classic. I don't presume to suggest that anyone who considers this book to be a great read to be wrong; but for my part, I can't see anything worthwhile here, which is a shame considering what could have been.