Dogisms

I love my dogs I think they are wonderful and they fit so well with Brad and I. Are they a bit neurotic? Yes. Are they a bit hyper? Yes. Are they best dogs I've ever had? Yes! I would not trade them in for anything. One thing I love best about these dogs are their personalities that are quite evident in the first 5 seconds you encounter them. So, yes I going to take this opportunity to blog about these 2 fabulous bitches (and I'm politically correct in that term; they are in fact female dogs).

Sydney Jackson Mesmuggles Wigglesworth

Sydney is smart, too smart. I know the wheels in her head are constantly turning. In fact, that is what made me fall in love with her. I'll admit when I first met Brad and he said he had a puppy, I did the polite smile and generic comment, "Oh, that's nice". You know whenever you hear the word"nice", it's just a phony term to say, "Actually I'm not a big fan" or "I really don't like or like yet." But anyway, I'll move on. The moment I saw her, I loved her. I loved that as a puppy she already new her name, I actually thought dogs had no clue what their names were, it was just a thing we humans did to them. So here are the idiosyncrasies of Sydney:

1. Sydney likes to see what she can make you do i.e. in the middle of the night she would wake me up and lead me to her water bowl, which would be empty. I would fill it up, she would take one look at the bowl then go right back to bed.

2. We make Sydney sit in the back of the car. One day she had been wanting to be up in the front on my lap but we kept pushing towards the back. Then she yelps, so of course we had to let her come up front. About a week later we were in the car, she again wanted to sit in the front but we insisted she stayed in the back. We hear a yelp and before we even have a chance turn around Syd was already on my lap! She loves that manipulative little trick.

3. As I was in the basement with the dogs they were running upstairs, Syd was in the lead when they got to the stairs, then she stopped and let Dixie go first. I thought, "Oh, how sweet to let Dixie go first," but then I soon realized that was not Syd's motivation, as Dixie was in the lead Syd took Dixie's hind legs out from under her and caused her to trip, thus Sydney regaining the lead and winning the battle of wits. Sydney does this quite often.

4. Sydney is like clockwork. She has a little bed on the floor at the foot of the bed. Sydney right around 10 pm will always go to the room and go to bed, when we come in she will jump on the bed and sleep at foot of the bed. She will stay up for about 30 minutes and then go back to her bed on the floor. Then at 5 am she will hop back up and sleep again at the foot of the bed. She will only get up at 6:30 am not sooner. If the alarm goes off she stays asleep until 6:30.

5. Sydney loves obstacle courses. I first noticed this in the first place Brad and I lived. When I would mop the kitchen floor I would put the kitchen chairs in the small living room. I finally noticed one day that out of Syd's free will she started making her way around the chairs. Going around, under, on top of until she got through them. She was going through them over and over again, and she was loving it! Every time I would mop the floors it just got her giddy she loved the chairs, now I build her obstacle courses she just thrives off trying to figure it out. She loves to go through the tunnel created by the back of our futon against the wall.

Dixie Pixie Ala mode

(It kind of sounds like a spell huh?)

Dixie, what to say about Dixie. We adopted Dixie last April, and I remember our first night with her I kept thinking, "Oh my gosh what did we get ourselves into?" But she is quite the sweetheart. She was spastic when we got her, and she has made loads of progress but I think she will always remain a bit spastic, but to be honest I kind of like that about her.

1. Dixie gets scared at night. As soon as the sun goes down she becomes skittish and scared of everything. I'd imagine night time was the time she was probably abused, seeing how she changes.

2. She hates ceiling fans. If there is one in a room, and it has been on at any point in history, she will NEVER forget it. Every time she enters she will look right at it to make sure it is off. And she will verify that it has continued to remain out of operation every 3 seconds or so.

3. Dixie gets sad if Sydney leaves. A couple of times Sydney has been away and Dixie just becomes depressed. She will mope around the house with no desire to play no matter how hard we try. Many times she will wait in the kitchen staring at the door.

4. Dixie loves the sun. It could be 100 degrees outside and she will lay in the sun.

5. She loves, and I mean loves car rides. She gets so excited for a ride that she can make it from the door to inside the car with touching the ground only 2 times. The picture below she over estimated her jump and landed in the back seat.