Search Results for: blog the nose whistler

Moose is Full of Mischief!

I guess even dogs can get a wild hair now and then. My dog Moose (a German shepherd mix) has been full of mischief lately! It started a few nights ago. The dogs and I went to bed around ten (our usual bedtime, give or take an hour or so) after one last quick trip outside for piddles. Around 1:30 in the morning, something drags me out of slumber. Fwee! Fwee! This is the noise Moose makes when he wants attention; it’s a pathetic cross between a whine and a whistle. Moose only has the one “distress” noise, so I … Continue reading →

Dogs and Cats Living Together: Not What We Expected

Before my dogs met my roommates’ cats, we had lots of talks about how we thought it would go. We discussed the best ways to introduce them, what to do if things went wrong, and our dreams of animal harmony. I thought Lally, my boxer/shar-pei mix, would be the problem child. When we’re out walking, she can be quite a cat chaser. If she saw cats inside the apartment, I figured she’d be trying to run them down. (I’m not sure what she’d do with a cat if she ever caught one, but that doesn’t stop her from trying.) My … Continue reading →

Taking Compliments for Pets

Sometimes, I feel a little weird if someone tells me I have a beautiful dog. I usually say “thank you” but to be honest, I had nothing to do with it. Though I think of myself as a pet parent, I didn’t actually contribute anything to the creation of my handsome Moose man or my lovely Lally Bee. (People often stop me to ask what she is, because she is a unique looking little boxer/shar-pei cross.) Maybe part of the problem is that I’m not good at accepting compliments for myself. Someone tells me something nice, and I immediately try … Continue reading →

Bed Wars

I’ve written about dominance before — alpha dogs and omega dogs especially. And a few weeks ago, I mentioned how the balance of power in my four-legged family was shifting. For a long time now, we’ve had Bed Wars. Let me set the scene. (A black sky, white stars sparkling. Text scrolls upwards, a la Star Wars.) A long time ago, in a bedroom far, far away, two dogs were at war over a very important piece of territory: the bed. He (or she) who ruled the bed ruled the universe. The bed was a land of great prosperity and … Continue reading →

Nights of Thunder

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 o’clock in the morning, I was awakened by a big fat shepherd mix stepping on my head. Let me tell you — that gets me up rather quickly. Not necessarily alert, but at least I was awake. Moose was having a crisis, and I quickly figured out why — we were having a thunderstorm, complete with flashes of lightning and super loud kabooms overhead. My big fat shepherd, you see, is a big fat chicken. Normally, when he hears something that scares him, he goes to hide under the desk where I do my … Continue reading →

Translating Those Barks, Whines, and Yelps

When I first got my Lally, she tended to play a little rough. I talked to the shelter’s favorite trainer about it, and she suggested that whenever Lally played too rough, I yelp like a puppy: high pitched, short, and loud. I felt kind of silly, but I tried it… and it worked! Dogs may not understand “OUCH!” but they know that pain-filled yip and tend to back off when they hear it. Experts divide a dog’s sounds into five different types: the whimper or whine, the yelp, the growl, the bark, and the howl. The whimper is high pitched … Continue reading →