I'm a little behind catching you up with our resident terrierist Marley. I don't know for sure that Marley has some terrier in him, but he certainly has the energy and determination of one.
Two Sundays ago, I returned from town as usual. I eased T-Hoe into the garage. It takes me a minute to gather up my stuff. Jack runs in to wait by the people-door for me, where I pet him and open the door to let him through. Marley has not quite gotten the hang of it.
Marley camps out under my driver's door. I have to be careful not to step on him as I slide out over the running board. Ever since I stepped on the boys' daycare lady's Boston Terrier, Bostie, who screamed like a woman...I'm leery of treading on a paw. Bostie was fine. Perhaps a bit overdramatic. Didn't even limp.
Anyhoo...Marley pounces on me before I even have both feet on the concrete. He jumps up like a Superball defying the laws of elasticity. Each bounce or jump should be lower than the one preceding it. Energy is used up with each bounce. But not from Marley's sinewy legs!
When I command "NO! Marley! NO! Down!" he will crouch down, all wiggly, and lean on his haunch, halfway exposing his belly to me. I reward him with petting. Which makes him think everything is fine again, so he resumes the leaping.
On this particular Sunday, Marley faked me out. I chastised him. He crouched down. And as I bent to pat him,
MARLEY LEAPT AT MY FACE, AND PUT HIS NOSE IN MY MOUTH!
Oh, yuck! A butt-sniffing tool jammed between my lips! It's not like I am a stranger to such intimate interactions. There WAS that time Juno poked her nose in my mouth while I was sweet-talking her.
Let's not tell Juno about this, okay?
Too late, I am sure Marley already bragged about it. One of my seasonal campers got a puppy and had been in Florida for a month. Her puppy jumped out to greet me and lay on the ground, belly exposed. I leaned down to give that tummy a scratch and he PEED. Straight up, missed my eye by a mere hair!
ReplyDeleteYour mistake is to reward Marley with petting. You should command "No!" with a hand as a stop sign before you set foot on the ground or as soon as, this should halt his leap and when it does you say "good boy" with NO petting, just walk away. After you've been inside putting away all your things is the time to reward him for good behaviour. This is basic puppy obedience training which Marley never got.
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteNow that I know Marley better, I am SURE he bragged about it. Heh, heh. I've inadvertently eaten two dog noses, but no dog has ever peed on me.
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River,
I have done that since jotting down the notes for this post a couple weeks ago. The hand and the NO before stepping down. It works about 70 percent of the time. The petting, though, I do at the people-door, since that's where I pet Jack. Of course Marley launches himself at me during the walk around T-Hoe. We're working on it.
Once I have my stuff in the house, it's TREAT TIME. Which opens a whole 'nother can of worms. Story of that upcoming.
Hee hee. We all love our furbabies.
ReplyDeleteAuntie Em,
ReplyDeleteI love them, but not so much that I want to taste their noses!