Airedales and Physics

I posted this on the Airedale list.

A few days of sunny, mild weather have made everyone lively and Alanis showed her stuff by doing playbows and tuckbuttruns at the same time as we chased around the yard this afternoon. I've read that people don't truly multi-task at work; they simply switch from one task to another very quickly so that they appear to have their attention on two things at once. I think you can DO more than one thing at the same time even if you don't think about what you're doing. Otherwise no one would be able to raise children.

But back to Alanis. I suspect she might have been switching from one move to another so quickly that she appeared to be doing both at once. She practiced this morning. Early in the day when it was just getting light, I watched her take a show stance at the edge of the patio, which looks down over the lower yard. One second she was facing east and the next second she was facing west, having whirled in an instant and stood again at attention. I'm naming that trick her Spy Move.

A person who knows more about this stuff suggested it's more of a Stealth Move. Others maintain that the laws of physics do not apply to Airedales and they can be in two places at once. Still another theory posits that Airedales are adept at magical illusions. I don't know which is correct.

Grooming

I put Alanis in the grooming table this afternoon for a bit of toenail trimming and coat stripping. The grooming table sits in the living room where there's so little light that I work more by feel than sight. (Chalk up another reason to hate winter.) I tried rigging up a desk lamp to see her feet in order to Dremel the toenails. Then I had to scootch the table closer to the outlet, with the poor dog clinging like someone on a tossing ship. That was only close enough to do the front feet. The back feet will have to wait, not that Alanis minds.

She has lots and lots and lots of fur, a coat much denser than my other Airedales had. I brushed and combed and stripped and voila! I had filled only a third of a bag with fur and she looked exactly the same as she had when we started.

She gave me The Horse Look: the turned head, the rolled eyes showing an edge of white, the ears down. "You're torturing me but I'll accept it patiently because I am a good and humble dog. By the way, it has been an entire two minutes since you last gave me a treat for my excellent behavior and I need another to give me the strength to keep standing here." Like I could refuse.

Darwin

If he had lived a couple more months, my best boy Darwin would have been thirteen this January. This photo was taken last June when he was 12 and a half. He still knew how to have a good time rolling on the grass.

Alanis overcomes her fear of the kitchen

Not sure if it's safe in there.


The smell entices.


Is that sardines in the water?


Oh, yes.


Yes, yes, yes!

News Flash

At 9:45 pm Alanis drank from her cream soup bowl water dish like a normal dog. That is, she drank more than just a few dainty laps and went glap glap glap glap and got her beard wet the way an Airedale should.

A little less stern

Chickens as scientists

Chickens are inquisitive, like scientists. Here's Muffin examining the camera with a steely gaze.


Unfortunately, they require a bit of clean-up after their studies.

Does dog pee ward off raccoons?

Alanis is picking up correct ADT habits. For her last outing each night, she makes a circuit of the chicken pen where I hope she pees all over the place. Somebody on my chicken list has a theory that dog pee helps keep raccoons away. Or maybe the pee is just good luck (it's got to be good for something).

Every night the neighborhood raccoon crosses my front yard to the back gate where she climbs my fence into the trees that border the yard. Instead of climbing down to the yard where the chickens sleep the sleep of the innocent in their coop, she walks along the wood fence or through the trees and goes down into a neighboring yard. Early in the fall, I even caught her and her two cubs on top of my house a couple of times.

Although Airedales are natural varmint hunters and raccoon scent is used in hunting trials, I'd never want one of my dogs anywhere near a raccoon. It's not fear of rabies; it's that a terrier will happily fight until it's in shreds and raccoons are vicious beasts. Sorry chickens, the dog comes first.

Alanis and the big rain

Alanis is settling in, though she still won't drink the water unless it's mixed with her food. This morning she spent some time sitting at the edge of the patio, looking out over the lower yard where the chickens live and where she goes to the fence to bark at the Great Dane next door. It was such a "guarding my yard" thing to do that I grabbed the camera to take a picture.

And as soon as I returned to the kitchen window, she had moved. Of course.

We were happy not to get any flooding here (though there are some suspicious damp spots in the garage) but on the night with the hardest rain, Alanis didn't want to go out in it to potty or anything else. I stepped outside and walked out a little ways with her following. Then she stopped, went, "This is yucky," and returned to the shelter near the back door with her tail firmly tucked under. It wasn't even that bad a downpour, just very constant. She's definitely not a water dog.

Airedale missing in Mexico

Erika Reyes lives with her family in Mexico City. When they were on vacation in the beach town of Guayabitos, her Airedale Schatzi ran off on January 1. Schatzi is microchipped and Erika is doing everything she can to find her dog, including offering a substantial reward.

I'm posting this because it's what I can do and maybe it'll help get the information where it needs to go. Erika takes excellent care of Schatzi. The dog's escape is one of those terrible things that can happen in a split second, one of those things we hope never happens to us.

If anyone has connections in Guayabitos or nearby towns (Puerto Vallarta), now's the time to contact them.