Friday, May 16, 2008

Raw Food Diet, Day 109- How I Tricked My Humans

Last night my mom gave me a bully stick.  I love to chew on these things for a while but then I get this weird, almost primal urge to bury them.  The problem is I can't dig through a hardwood floor.  So I was walking around my apartment, whining and looking for a good place to bury my treat.  A few minutes later I heard my mom say, "Where's Stanley?"  My humans began searching the apartment for me.  They searched in the rooms, in my crate, in the closets, under the bed - I was no where to be found.  We don't have a balcony and the front door wasn't open, so I must be in the apartment somewhere.


Then I heard my dad come into the bathroom and open the closed shower curtain.  There I was, in the bathtub, licking on a bar of soap!  My humans had found me, although I had completely bamboozled them for 15 minutes!  I am one smart boy.  As for my bully stick... I can't really remember where I buried it.
Mommy wasn't thrilled that I left dog-park dirty paw prints all over her clean tub.

***
Big Pupi totally digs bully sticks:
Yesterday was a super fun day.  My female human works from home and her boss is on vacation Thursday and Friday of this week, so she has had a lot of free time to entertain Stanislaw and me.  We went for an early morning trip to the dog park where we got to run about like crazies for over an hour!  We had the entire park to ourselves and it was great -- I didn't have to share any of the tennis balls and Stanislaw could mark his trees and not worry about them being marked over 30 seconds later.  After a good romp we took a walk to the feasting, treat and toy store and picked up 4 bully sticks.  Mom got the 6-inch ones but I kept trying to tell her that the 12-inchers looked tastier and tried to emphasize that by continually pulled those out of the display case.  She said too much of a good thing makes our tummies sad but I don't believe a word of that.  The grooming lady came out of the back and rubbed our bellies while we thrashed in excitement all over her.  She knew we were there because Stanislaw did his phsycho-boy screaming all around the store.  You can't miss him that way.

We need a bit of advice...
Stanislaw's screaming embarrasses mom but she isn't quite sure how to stop it.  Stanislaw screams when the wind blows and screams when we're walking and have to stop at a red light.  He screams inside stores and screams when it's time to do our "weebles" outside.  He screams when the train passes by (the above-ground El) and he screams while racing along the perimeter of the dog park.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to curb Stanislaw's screaming my humans and I would like to know!  We've even been stopped on the street by policemen, so that they can question our humans and check Stanley for injuries.  He doesn't do it for attention and it seems to be more of a compulsion - it's almost like a tick.  Stan is also very obsessive and will stare at water reflections and blades of grass moving in the breeze so intensely that he will forget that he has a potty emergency and won't remember again until we are back inside the apartment building.  These behaviors have improved slightly since he's been living with us, but no amount of exercise, exposure or distraction & treats seems to work.  Any ideas?

6 comments:

Mack said...

Oh Stani!
You're so clever tricking mommi & daddi like that! Just be careful you don't wind up getting BATHED!!

And I think your screaming everywhere is super manly. Did you know I grunt about 50% of the time?

Lovies!!!
Paris

Fenway said...

I think Stan is a prime candidate for the Dog Whisperer. Personally, I am getting tired of watching all those misbehaving & biting dogs. Stan would present a MOST INTERESTING case for Cesar to solve.

Ooooh. Bully sticks. My humans buy those yard long ones for me and I work them over day by day. Inexplicably, they snatch them away during FULL ENJOYMENT. They think you CAN HAVE TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING!!!!!

Spoil sports,

Charlie Blockhead said...

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Hero said...

Tricksy, Stan. I've never tried a bar of soap before, but I'm glad I have you to taste it first! I hope you find your bully stick soon.

I don't have any suggestions to give you about your screaming, but my mom and I will be on the lookout for anything that might help.

your pal,
Hero

P.S. Congrats on being a best of blogs finalist!! you have my vote!!!

Niamh said...

Why would you hide in the bath tub Stanislaw?? What if your people decided that since you were already in the tub that they would give you a bath!!

About the screaming, have you ever tried targeting?? It is where you touch your nose to your person's hand when they say "touch". Then you get a treat. I like to do this behavior a lot. If you get really good at it than your people can do it with you in situations where you usually do your screaming. This way you will have something else to do and think about. The other thing that really relaxes me is Tellington Touch. TTouch feels so good and it helps me de-stress. Maybe it would work for you.

Your friend,
Niamh

Your friend,
Niamh

Anonymous said...

Stanley,

We voted for you on the best of blogs! Congrats!

I don't know about your screaming. My big bro Louis used to scream at everything and mom and dad took him to something called 'bedience' classes and trained him to do something called 'heeling' when we go out. He stopped the screaming after that. Now he only does it when other dogs bark at us or when he wants to play.

Hope that helps!

Kisses,
Ella Bean
www.cupofdog.com