Movin' on up!

This blog has moved to the far superior blogging site, Wordpress. Keep following at:

http://lunathegrey.wordpress.com

Hope to hear from you at Wordpress!

(This blog will still let you know when the new blog has been updated until everyone has gotten the memo)

Well played, dog.

Working in a psychiatric ward, we see plenty of anxiety and neurosis, but rarely did it manifest itself in our home. And then we got a greyhound.

Luna can be the most charming, sensitive, sweetheart of a dog, inviting you to pet her with playful nibbles and nose nudges and pulling out all the toys from her kennel to the living room just to show them to you one by one. She is patient as can be and rarely complains when she needs a bath, her teeth brushed or her nails trimmed. She can be social and outgoing, leading other dogs in playful games and leaning her cheek up to a familiar human for some ear scratches. But despite all the times when Chris and I gaze into each others eyes and say with a rose-colored sigh "We have the greatest dog in the whole world", or "How did we get so lucky to have such a perfect dog?" (this usually happens when she is soundly asleep, much in the same way children are best appreciated) - despite all of that, her temperament has proven itself to be quite fickle. We keep trying to interpret her quirky moods and decipher just what it is that we're doing right or doing wrong, but I fear our attempts at understanding this one are futile at best.

I wanted to sit down and write about some of the amusing things that have happened to us recently. For example, Lu got "lost" at the dog park yesterday after running into the wooded area with Annie on her tail (like they do). Out popped Annie from the thicket at a gallop to catch up to us, and as we waited for the other trouble-maker to pop out, no Luna. Chris, Seth, Jessica and I all searched for Lu in the 25 acre fenced-in dog park, calling her name, making kissy sounds and clapping our hands like idiots who lost their dog. I even ventured into the woods along the tiny little trails broken in by thousands of curious paws trampling the brush over many years, and I even stayed very calm as that little voice in my mind tried to convince me of the catastrophes that could have possibly occurred - the longer I searched, the more creative the catastrophes became. But all I had to show for it was a small, unidentified rashy patch of skin on my arm that still itches. To make a long story short, Lu wasn't lost at all. She had just found a new family to trot alongside, walking in the opposite direction - a discovery she no doubt made immediately upon bursting out of the small thicket behind Annie: "I'm chasing Annie through the woods! Yay! I'm chasing -- Ooo! Look at that dog! I will walk alongside that dog!"

I have been collecting stories in my sketchpad that I carry with me, jotting down tidbits to remember for the blog when I think of them: funny little idiosyncrasies that we've discovered or new words or commands she's picked up on. Humorous little events like when she was sound asleep last night and fell off her dog bed with a loud, clumsy thud and then gave me the most stunned, confused and innocent look that melted my heart. Then 10 minutes later the event repeated itself. But it has been a difficult week with her - her anxious days outweighing her happy, carefree days - so many of my notes were about trials rather than tribulations.

Therefore, I had decided to sit down and share some of these tribulations with my loyal readers, hoping to somehow extract a lesson or two to harmoniously complete the entry. I wanted to share how she reacted to us getting ready to leave for the Twins game (pacing, whining, and staring at me with eyes full of anxious desperation as she experimentally clamped her jaw right onto the wood arm of our futon frame, just to see if that was an acceptable way of expressing her anxiety. It was not). I wanted to share what a complete transformation we witness of her every time she gets a good walk - like night and day. I wanted to express my concern that she had not been left alone for a full 9 hours (for work) in 7 days until today and, even though I came home on my break to take her out, we discovered upon returning home that she had been too anxious to even touch the pig ear she was given when we left.

So I set out tonight to string together all the tidbits I'd been saving, getting my chance to complain and express concern and frustration. But as I was writing the first paragraph of this entry, preparing the reader for a journey through the trials of the week and the tiny pieces of surprising, yet informative, nonsense I've learned, I suddenly skipped ahead and started writing my "end paragraph" which was just then coming to me, and my last paragraph (which you will presumably read last) suddenly shaped the body of my entry. What had started out as an expedition to scatter my witty anecdotes and whiny frustrations into, what would have been, a sufficient outlet for such things, became an answer to my own overly rhetorical questions before I had even metaphorically posed them. It's as if building up the first paragraph, preparing my audience for the crescendo of "Just when you thought you had the worst dog..." was enough to sweeten my bitter words and ease me back into a more compassionate perspective. My heart began to sing her praises once again, thinking of her little origami ears and the cute little sprinkles of individual white hairs that are starting to sprout up on her face and body. How could anyone not love this dog?

Luna is still magic to me. She projects a sort of charming demureness with undertones of both great intelligence and naive innocence. She can be too smart for her own good and dopey enough to warrant all kinds of laughter and eye rolling from her doting humans. When I think of her potential for greatness, I simultaneously understand the great role of responsibility I play in the equation. But I realize that she, too, makes me greater than I ever could have been without her. Despite the frustrations and anxiety (on both my part and the dog's), I always come back to remember that she and I are in this together; I am trying to figure her out just as hard as she is trying to figure me out. I am trying to figure out what in the world she needs as she is trying to figure out what in the world I want from her. I am trying to communicate with her while she is trying to figure out how to communicate with me. I see how far we have come in this journey as a family, and I know that, in the end, we will all three of us be better beings for having helped each other learn about life - together.

So I leave you with this:

World's Greatest Dog (in Training)

My little shadow around the house and the world's best snuggle bug

My dear blog followers, I have failed you; I have left you stranded in suspense through the entire month of June. I do apologize, but life with little Lu is very fast paced, leaving me with an overabundance of potential content for the blog and very little free time and motivation for actually blogging. However, I have been taking lots of pictures and short videos to share with you all and I will try to hit the high points while giving you a general picture of what Luna is like these days. I have more pictures and videos to share so I will continue to post more often in order to share everything I have, including lots of cute stories.

Sleepy girl, but always ready to pose for the camera.

These pictures make her look deceivingly calm and quiet... She is calm and quiet about half of the time.

"Please pet me?"

"Okay, I will wait patiently right here..."

Lu is only a year and 4 months and you can definitely tell. She has such a carefree attitude and can be extremely outgoing and energetic. She loves to play and loves to do tricks. She loves clicker training and treats of any kind. She'll do anything for some snuggles or petting and thrives on attention and physical contact with her humans. She learns very fast and catches on to new words faster than you can imagine. She knows what so many different words mean and she is happiest when she pleases her humans by performing the behavior that is asked. She is extremely obedient and is even pretty responsive when she's off-leash at the dog park.

(Left to right) Annie, Chris, Jessica, Maya, Seth, & Luna at the Bloomington dog park. What a blast!!!

Lu loves other dogs and is interested in meeting and playing with any dog. When other dogs chase tennis balls that their owners throw, she speeds after them and returns back along side them, just to run alongside another dog - that's all she wants. Luna's best friends are Maya and Annie, owned by Seth and Jessica. Annie and Luna are partners in crime. Today Lu got Annie into mischief at the dog park, inviting Annie to run off exploring in the woods (in the fenced in dog park) and pop out the other side while the humans (and Maya) continued walking along the path!

Lu's favorite part of the dog park: the pond! While other dogs explore and drink the mucky water, Luna jumps in and belly flops down into the water to cool off.

Here's Luna and Annie in action

Here's Luna and "the girls", Maya and Annie.

This is also typical behavior for Luna when she's with other dogs: very happy, gentle with others and always leading others in play time and activities

We live next to protected wetlands so there are lots of frogs hopping around in the lawn and parking lot where she potties. It's delightful to see her childlike wonder when a still frog suddenly starts hopping, startling her into a fantastic state of wonderment. She follows them with tiny little hops of her own, like a frolicking fawn, ears perked high and eyes locked on these unpredictable little play things. Soon the frogs figure out that the only way of survival is to hold still, hoping their predator won't see them anymore. But this is the perfect opportunity for Luna to smoosh her wet snuffling nose right up to their bodies and check it out. When she finally gets bored and walks away there is a slick coat of moisture on the frogs' backs from her curious nose.

Tonight she followed a frog excitedly until it stopped hopping, then she stared at it intently, waiting for it to move so she can play again, but it wouldn't move. The solution? After a loooong pause staring at it, she let out a playful "WOOF!" with her mouth only a few inches from the frog. The vibrations (or sound?) of the bark startled the frog into hopping again, which reignited the playful game that she so dearly wanted to continue.

Such a pretty girrrrl. I think she poses.

Lu still LOVES water. She goes out of her way to walk through puddles (and pee in them) and her very favorite part of the weekly Gassy walks at Lake Harriet is the part where we wade into the water. She trots right in and flops down, though sometimes she slowly lowers herself down and her hindquarters quiver as she sinks into the chilly water, depending how chilly it is, but she'll lie in it anyway. Last week there were waves, which made her stop and step back for a second, but I walked right in so she saw it was no big deal. She followed me in and laid right down on my feet with a happy, dopey open-mouth grin, complete with tongue hanging out the side of her mouth (very typical expression to see on her face). She is such a happy dog.

Tonight Luna got a bath. We give her a bath every other week and it has done WONDERS for her skin and coat, which both look extremely healthy now! No more flakes! She has become so soft and the shedding has gone down significantly. Tonight was her third bath and while I was setting the tub up, she knew exactly what was going on. She walked right up to the tub and quietly, gently stepped into the tub all by herself, one paw at a time and then looked at me like "Okay, I'm ready". My heart soared when my little girl did this! All by herself! We have taught her well (and she's very smart).

Lovin' the spa treatment!

What a good bath time!

After her baths she must feel GREAT, because once she is excused from being dried off in the bathroom, she trots out to the living room, does lots of shakes, and then runs around happily, grabbing toys and doing more shakes. The best is her tail shake, seen below:

I love her little cowlick

Another thing I love are her long, thick whiskers that sprout out of her chin and cheeks, like a menacing catfish. And who can resist those floppy, expressive ears? When I stick my finger in her ear to itch the inside (wiggle my finger a little) she will tilt her head to the side the ear is on, then I switch ears and she tilts her head way to the side on that side. Must feel gooooood.

Car rides are the greatest! She'll often try to lead me to where the car is parked, near her potty spot, then look up at me like "Can we go?"

SQUIRREL!

Lu had a blast at Greyfest. She ran and ran and ran, and when no one wanted to run with her anymore, she ran by herself in big circles. Then she'd speed over to the pool and jump right in, flop right down. Often there would be 5 or 6 other dogs trying to use the pool too, standing room only, until Lu came barreling in and splashed right down on her tummy, pushing some of the standing hounds out of the pool. She seemed oblivious of her intrusion.

Back and forth: run run run, pool...run run run, pool.

Pool all to herself! You can see that other pups have already cleaned off in the water.

She is the greatest dog in the world (to us). She is so full of life and energy and personality. She is gentle and sweet, curious and playful, smart and enthusiastic about learning to communicate. We have worked so hard with her to help her settle in to human life and she can still be a little jumpy at times, but we try to be very persistent and consistent, never giving up just because something makes her uncomfortable. For example, a toddler pushing a toy baby stroller for her doll was making lots of noise while walking in the same parking lot as us while on our walk, startling Luna into frantic jumps and yanking on the leash with her gentle leader on. So instead of feel frustrated and embarrassed, I followed through with the opportunity at hand and I took Luna up to a brisk jog as we passed the stroller-toting toddler and her mom. I then kept jogging with her and correcting her every time her attention was pulled to the toddler with a leash tug and a sharp kissy sound, and we proceeded to basically jog in big circles around the toddler and mom until she ignored them on her own. I told the mom "We're practicing," and the mom laughed and said she completely understood. When we're out of the house it can be a constant effort to praise and soothe and correct and it has taken a LOT of practice to be in tune to her, in order to respond appropriately to her and know what she needs in order to keep her moving forward psychologically. But it seems to be paying off.

Here are two of her tricks. She has perfected the "shake", and last night during a clicker training session with her I taught her "high five", or "five". It took about 5 minutes to teach her with the clicker.

Currently our biggest challenge is still just the shyness with strangers. She will now sniff people when they put their hands out to her and she will let about half of the strangers she meets to pet her right away, but if we give her a little time (maybe 3-5 minutes) she warms up to the people we're with and will let them pet her (especially if we give them treats to share with her) and eventually she'll be nudging peoples' hands for some ear scratches. Children are still very peculiar and unpredictable to her. She is more tolerable of them now from a distance, and is letting them get closer in proximity, but still keeps them at a distance. She does not like the high pitched noises they make. But we'll get there someday, I hope.

Pig ears are Daddy's special treat to give to Lu, and there is nothing more sacred in the dog world than a pig ear. She is in the zone when she's got a pig ear in her mouth. But she does like her privacy while enjoying this delectable treat.

We have worked SO hard with Luna. I can't believe it's only been 7 weeks! There have been so many payoffs, though. It makes the hard work worth every challenging moment.

Stay tuned for more from Luna the grey! Comments and suggestions are welcome!