Macho, Macho Man

Have you considered humping lately?  I thought not.  Now, if I were talking about our previous Southeastern Guide Dog puppy Jam, you would already be thinking of several stories, but Coach, not so much.  He's a laid back dude.  Nary a stray thought about the opposite sex passes through his brain.

He's much more concerned with where his blanket is and when dinner is.  Are we going for a walk?  Where is his nylabone? Can I take a nap over there?  Those are the thoughts of our Coach.  But not doing the wild thing.  On the couple of occasions when he has tried it with Willow she has rolled her eyes and sat down.  Coach just sort of stops and wanders off as if he intended to do something else the whole time.

"Uh, I meant to go find my nylabone.  I think it is over in the family room.  I'm going to go look for it now."

It is a requirement that all guide dog puppies have a puppy camp experience where they go to someone else's house and experience a completely new family and way of life for two weeks.  So, we had worked out a puppy camp experience with our friend Nancy because she had sons and a different work environment and they also had Ava, a cute little black lab that we would be getting in exchange.

They also had Orchid, a female breeder lab, who had just been inseminated.

Ah, do you see a potential problem? Coach didn't.  We didn't.  He would have been content to wander around clueless (probably), but can you really ever trust a male dog's libido?

Nancy did the only sane thing a breeder host mom would do: she checked with Southeastern to see if there might be a problem.

Now, I suppose, if one were to look at this a certain way, you could say that Southeastern views Coach as a very macho dog.  He is now not allowed to co-habitate with puppies of the opposite sex during any puppy sitting or puppy camping. He must go to a home without another puppy or with a male puppy.  Oh, Coach, you are such a macho man!

I think this is a smart rule.  It's a lot like letting your dog guard your lunch.  There are very few dogs who have the strength of character to not eat that sandwich when your back is turned.  And Coach is only 9 months old.  Granted he isn't Jam, but he is totally functional.

And when totally functional gets in the same room with highly scented with intriguing pheromones  that's when you get oopsadores.

Close up of Coach's face.

And seriously, he's so handsome.  I think Orchid might have thrown herself at him.

Cursed with Manliness

Last night, we went over to our friends' house to have dinner and play music.  Claudia was doing all the cooking and I just contributed a dessert.  Fred and Tim were going to provide the musical entertainment. Jam was invited because they live way out in Lutz, they love dogs and know Jam and they are very nice people. 

Jam is trying to get Baxter to come over to where he is lying down on the rug.  

 When we got there, Jam and Baxter, who is a very sweet 3-year old golden retriever, got along great.

Jam and Baxter playing.

 There is nothing quite like young, energetic, frisky dogs playing to make you smile.

And then the humping started. Sorry, you were expecting something sweet for your Easter blog weren't you?

I feel terrible to disappoint you, but the evening just devolved (in terms of the dogs) from there.  At least I won't show you any video or photos of THAT. 8-) Jam couldn't go for more than four or five minutes with out hopping on for a ride on poor Baxter.  Baxter, who is very sweet, would just look around as if to say, "Would someone please stop this whippersnapper?  I know I'm the host, but really!"

Now, when we were at the Walkathon dinner, we happened to run into Dr. Edington while we were walking through the museum.  We had stopped and were talking with John Bauer when Dr. E stopped by and the topic of breeder dogs came up.  We happened to mention that Jam was pretty much a Player with a capital P as he would hump anything that let him.  Dr. E looked at us with a bit of concern and asked if we could stop Jam easily.

"Oh, yes. We just pull him off no problem." Dr. E said that you didn't want to correct for that behavior, because the breeding program wants dogs to be able to perform the act.  In other words: they want breeders that actually enjoy the act and will perform.  Evidently there were breeders who wouldn't or who had to be coaxed to do it.  So you had to be careful not to induce negative connotations with getting them to stop, but you had to stop them when they were doing it because it was inappropriate.

It's a conundrum.

We solved it by putting the ever sweet Baxter on the porch.  Jam went back and forth like a shark from the window to the door looking out the windows at Baxter.

Baxter sat in a patio chair.  He was thinking that perhaps the porch was the better part of the deal.

Claudia's dinner was amazing: a Brazilian feijoada. We all stuffed ourselves!  Periodically we would let Baxter in to see if the dogs could JUST BE FRIENDS.

But no.  After dinner, Fred and Tim pulled out Tim's guitars and started playing.

Tim is on the left and Fred is on the right jamming on the guitars.  They sounded great.

All I can say is that Jam still has no negative connotations associated with the act and is raring to go.

Deep sigh. I hope we get invited over again.  That feijoada was spectacular and Fred really enjoyed playing the guitar.  Perhaps we'll get a babysitter for Jam...

Risky Business

(Please note: For most up to date info on approved toys go to this post!)



Jam is quite the looker. He stops traffic. Much the way I imagine Tom Cruise did after the release of Risky Business. Risky Business is, of course,the movie of a young person, played by Tom Cruise, ... I'm going to stop now because I thought the movie was about him wanting to go to a nice college but ending up in a bad situation making some bad choices for romance and perhaps risking it all, but in the end finding out that people can be manipulated for money and sex. IMDB's summary has more of a Ferris Bueller feel to it. But it all boils down to boys, hormones and doing things you shouldn't, sometimes in public.

Now, why does that concern Jam? Funny you should ask.

Jam came to us out of the box, ready to go. So to speak. The second day we had him, we let him out of the crate and he ran over to the huge Orvis dog bed we had for Willow and Berkeley and he started humping it.

There is something a bit disconcerting about a 9 week old puppy humping a dog bed. I reached over and grabbed his collar.

"Jam, NO!" Then I dragged him away with him struggling to get back to that AMAZING DOG BED!!! Fred claimed it was AMAZING because it contained Berkeley's scent from when she was in heat. OK. I'll buy that. Pretty much, I'm the most gullible person in any room. I will buy almost anything anyone is selling.

Then we went to introduce Jam to Fred's yoga teachers. (I say Fred's because I'm not regular enough to claim them as my own! 8-)



Martha and her husband Claude would love it if we brought our puppies to yoga and could get them to sleep during a class. We've tried. Bingo was a washout. Berkeley had to be taken home. Yet, they still persist in being very open to the idea. They are so optimistic. Just what you want in a yoga teacher. Only seeing the good.

So we took little Jamster in to meet them and they were delighted. Then we let Jam down to walk around.

In the photo with Jam and Martha and Claude in the back ground there are some yoga pillows. Those are the pillows that are spread out throughout the room for people to use for corpse pose at the end of class to lie down on. When we let Jam down, the first thing he did was eyeball those pillows.

"Pillows!" In his tiny dog brain I think he equated them with a small dog bed.

And you know what dog bed means.

"JAM!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!" I run in slow motion as our 9 week old puppy puts the moves on a yoga pillow.

HUH HUH HUH! Jam is having fun.

I scoop him up.

"Oh, my!" Martha says in a very soft voice. Fred swoops in and takes the pillow and moves it way down the wall to the end of the room. I'm thinking, "Yeah, that pillow can't be far enough away!"



Do you see Fred holding Jam up? We can't afford to let his little humping feet touch the floor. Too many pillows to hump. I took Jam home after that photo.

I wondered if it was a pillow fetish. So I brought down 5 different pillows from my bed and set up my video camera and was going to create a video and do some training at the same time. Each time I put a pillow down Jam would sniff it and walk away.

Performance anxiety, I thought.

I turned the video camera off. Still nothing. It's only the Orvis bed upstairs and only when he comes out of his crate.

So then I suggested that Stephanie take Jam into work with her one morning in preparation for puppy sitting him in October when we go to New York to see friends. I brought over his diaper back and one toy: a stuffed duck, which he loves to distraction. There had never been any hint of inappropriate behavior between duck and dog up to this point.



Here he is on the way to work.



Jam didn't have a problem with the statue in Stephanie's office. They could almost be twins.



He doesn't have a fear of heights or railings either. Here he is looking out a two story window and watching the guys mowing the lawn. He was great in the glass elevator as well.



Here he is in the office and you can just catch a glimpse of duck in the background.

Stephanie had his coat off and had given him duck to calm him down as he was a bit crazy. He was playing and then all of a sudden:

HUH HUH HUH!

"Oh my!" Stephanie thought.

As it turns out, we didn't know that duck had that appeal for Jam. Nor did we realize he would do it in public. But as Stephanie pointed out, his coat was off and it was in her office. That was some comfort.

The SEGD manual says that humping (they actually use the more delicate phrasing of mounting) is a problem behavior and ask that you contact your AC for advice. Our AC Judy said that removing the Orvis bed and correcting him when he attempts the behavior and then redirecting him was a good way to go for now. That he wasn't doing it often or in coat was good. She also suggested we talk with the new Puppy Dept. Field Representative, who is also a trainer, for more specific advice.

And as for duck. Well, we had to think about duck. Stephanie asked if we knew about his...fondness...for duck.

No. It was a complete surprise

She suggested a new name for duck and some leniency since it was the first time and he did have his coat off.

Since we will be supervising their playtime together, I suppose...he could keep...

Duck Buddy.