Something Wicked This Way Comes

Sorry for the Ray Bradbury reference but I couldn't help myself given the wild and wicked weather we have had in the North East the last two days.

Well, as you may or may not know from scrolling down and reading my first post, my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Dave recently got a Yorkie pup named Charlie. Charlie is 4 months old and super cute in the pics (I should be meeting him at some point this weekend). Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Dave have one 22 year old daughter home finishing her last year of college, two sons just starting college in Pennsylvania, one female Jack Russel mix named Jackie and three cats Penny, Tony and Sammy (aka White Strips, for her super white teeth). Uncle Dave has a knack for finding perfect dogs in perfect needs and this was the case with Charlie. Aunt Marilyn was a bit uncertain about this new addition but I assured her that two dogs are certainly better than one as they benefit from canine companionship and tend to occupy each other when you are unable to pay undivided attention to your pet.

Day 2 Aunt Marilyn said Charlie was a bit frantic when she brought him out to go potty. Now, anyone who has ever raised a puppy knows they have to go out about 8,000 times a day until about 6-7 months old, longer if you have a large or giant breed as they pretty much poop all day long! He would go on a paper station she set up for him but it was indoors and she didn't want to set up a paper habit that would be hard to break (Side note: if you do choose to paper train a pup and you have and adult dog in the house, buckle up! The adult dog is GOING to start house soiling too.).

So far this sounds like a housetraining problem, right? Well, it's not. This is actually a sensory problem. For those of you that don't live at the Jersey Shore (Sho-Wa if you're from North Jersey!) our weather has been quite a spectacle the last few days. We had a low pressure system meet a high pressure system and BLAM we had lovely stormy weather with nearly 50 mph gusts of wind.

Dogs react very strongly to weather and the reason is hardly supernatural. Snow and rain will intensify old and new scents. However, dogs can discriminate between old and new scents. They will sniff the spot and go, Oh, a large male peed here some time ago but he's long gone now so I may as well mark it with a P myself! The world is a carcophany (if you will) of scents and dogs tend to negotiate it gracefully and thoughtfully, but certainly not dramatically.

Enter 50 mph wind into the equation. What happens now is all sorts fresh, NEW scents are kicked up toward your dog. Your dog has already taken inventory of the local dogstock: a mini-poodle lives three blocks away, a bulldog lives across the river, a minipin is a few houses away. When the wind kicks up now your dog is recognizing the scent of a huge Italian Mastiff that magically was transported to your back yard! He can't see it, but it's there! It's there! It's there! For humans, it would be akin to hearing voices in the next room but instead of barking and going in circles we would either call the cops, the Vatican or the liquor store!

My advice to Aunt Marilyn was to cut the little guy a bit of slack during wild weather. Charlie has a bit working against him at the moment. Firstly, he's 4 months old and completely clueless how to behave with humans in a human household. Secondly, he JUST moved in with them and has a whole bunch of animal roommates to get to know. The wind storm was probably ill-timed for his induction in to my Aunt and Uncle's family but there is no perfect time to get a dog. Life will alway interfere and create variables that make it impossible to create the perfect puppy-rearing environment. So far they are doing just great, but we'll keep an eye (or a nose, if you will) on them!

More to come...