[OT] Photo Album Added: Peanut's May Days

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Just added a bunch of pictures from two walks Peanut and I had the

past two days. Yes, you are seeing right on some, she is wearing her

pink silk Harley son jacket... Yeah, yeah, I know... I am

nuts... She loves it though!!!

As you can see, I took some pictures where she stopped and wanted to

go. Just so that is said, I have no say in where we are going at all,

she's the boss there. You see, it easily gets boring, so we have to

go explore, that means no same places twice in a row!!! And as you

see, sometimes I do have a challenge or two, as she wants to go up

steep hills which are sure not w/c accessible, or she wants to go

into people's yards. But she knows what " somebody lives there " means,

so when she hears that, she goes on without trying to go into the

yards. She is a really funny little one, that is for sure...

One thing she also does often, is to drag me to the supermarket which

is next door. Even if it is a Sunday or late in the evening when they

are closed. She seems to think that Anette who works there, lives

there, so she wants to go visit. She is the only dog who is allowed

into the store... No, I am lying, there's one more, Bixie, a

papillon. He sits in Mom's basket when they go in there, or on Dad's

lap in his wheelchair. Bixie is Peanut's best friend. He is an old

chap, and nearly blind. The best time ever for Peanut, is when she

can go visit them. If I am going out in the evening, she often goes

visit there, because they love having her. She has also spent a few

weekends there when I have been away. She might spend some time there

when I am in the US this summer too. Bixie is very patient with her,

even lets her steal Mom's lap all the time, he seems to see her as a

little baby who needs to be treated special. He is not that happy

about other dogs in general, but the two of them are the best of

friends. If I am good at taking my camera out the this spring/summer,

maybe you can get to say hi to other friends of Peanut, who she

loves? I guess I will have to delete some now and then though, so I

don't take up too much space...

BTW, the picture of Foffo and Peanut is a bit fun. For those of you

who are interested in dogs... First you see them greeting and

sniffing, and then you see her walking away from him a bit where she

turns her side to him and starts to sniff the ground. Foffo stands

there quietly and just watches her. That is a classic " calming

signals " situation which most dog owners do not recognize. What she

does, is that she starts sniffing that way and turning the side to

him, is a signal to him that she had enough of his a bit too excited

greeting. The Norwegian dog specialist Turid Rugaas was the first to

describe these signals, there's lots of them. They are very useful to

use for humans too, if you want to calm your dog if they are

aggressive, scared or won't calm down e.g. to sleep. I often use one

or two in the evening when Peanut is romping around in the bed

instead of settling, I smack my lips (is that the word? You know, the

sound that is very unpolite to make when you eat) and yawn. Yawning

is the most obvious that they use a lot. How often haven't you seen

your dog yawn when you are stressing and getting ready to go

somewhere? It is most likely not because the dog is tired, but he/she

is just telling you to take it down a notch and not stress that much

(take it easy, there's no hurry Mom). Peanut does this a lot,

especially when she used to come with me to work in the mornings and

we were late...

Enough for now... This is totally off topic, but I hope some of you

will enjoy it anyway. How fun it is with this camera... I got it

last summer, but only now have been able to try it out properly since

I couldn't download from it...

PS! Can you tell I am totally crazy about this little one?

Aase Marit