The Chronicles of Ozzie-to be continued...Part 2

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Name: The Chronicles Of Ozzie-to Be Continued...Part 2

Created On: 08.19.07 12:00 pm

Last Modified: 12.31.69 6:00 pm

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Aug. 12, 2007-Hi, Robin, Ozzie is definitely into air conditioning! He wants to be outside only long enough to take care of business.

I can now report that the Oz has a permanent home - meaning that my spouse won't give him up regardless of what he does (there was some doubt about that for awhile).
Now that he's officially in his second six months, Oz actually shows signs of settling down (slightly). He's not chewing on us (or the furniture) as much, and is being quite civil around the cats (as long as they don't move).

He has a new and somewhat disconcerting behavior though. I have a big screen TV downstairs where I typically watch Cardinals games. Oz waits until I'm settled, watching from the top landing, and then he comes tearing down the stairs and literally throws himself into my lap - ready or not! The first time he did it, he and I both ended up with ice cream on our faces, which may have been his plan all along! What a dog!

Looking back at previous comments, I wanted to let you know that instead of "growing into" his ears as you predicted, the Oz-monster's "antenna" are keeping up and are longer than ever! As you correctly predicted, he continues to get lighter colored and is actually changing color. He now has a pronounced amount of gray on top of his head (to match his tail). He also celebrated his six-month anniversary by officially reaching 16 pounds, so heaven knows what the next six months will bring!

Well, gotta get to work. Hope the heat and the flies both give you some relief. Dave


Aou. 06, 2007-The Oz (aka, "Squeaky") strikes again! And, yes, he "ate" another piece of furniture, but that's not what this is about. Oz spends much of his time walking around with a squeaky toy hanging out of his mouth, munching (and squeaking). So there I was, having breakfast, when I heard the familiar squeak, squeak sound coming down the hallway. This time when he trotted past me, there was no toy in sight. Turns out, he had ripped one of his toys apart and was walking around with the squeaker tucked into his cheek - a walking, barking squeaky toy. Needless to say, I performed a quick squeakendectomy - after I caught him (which took several trips around the house and two doggie treats! He's getting very good at alluding capture when it suits him. He's also learned the joys of riding in the car and wants to go whenever anyone gets the keys out. He's fine and relatively calm as long as the car is moving - he gets agitated if you stop for more than a minute or two. Don't know what that's about. The other big event this week has been repeated exposure to the felines in the house. One just disappears when Oz shows up. The other, which is about equal in size and weight, decided enough was enough and went on the offensive. The result was Ozzie getting a very thorough (but clawless) beating right on the end of his nose. He's a little a more cautious about approaching that particular cat, at least for now. We plan to continue putting them together until he settles down and they accept that he's not going away. It may take a year or two!
Hope all is well with y'all. Dave

Update! Two more close encounters with the cat people and Oz is demonstrating a whole new form of restraint (not usually his strong suit). After doing his usual head-long bounce up to Dixie (the one that out-weighs him) and getting hissed and growled at, he actually laid down and put on his pitiful whimpering act (the one he uses when he really (really) wants something. He inched forward until they were about 4 inches apart before he couldn't stand it anymore and just had to bark - with predictable results. We'll try again today.

Update 2: Our granddaughters have a new Yorkie-Beagle (!!) puppy, so we took Oz to meet his new cousin (?) who, of course, is 1/10th his size. Oz wanted to play so bad but she was absolutely terrified. Of course, what can you expect from a Yorkie!

Cheers!



Date: 9/27/2007 12:15:00 PM
To: Robin Hurt
Subject: RE: The Chronicles of Oz - Schoolboy Edition

I can't remember if I mentioned yet another unusual behavior (at least in my experience with dogs).
Ozzie is the only dog I've known who not only watches TV but has favorite commercials! There is a commercial on these days that has a Great Dane who, towards the end of the commercial, woofs a couple of times. That got Ozzie's attention the first time he heard it, and now whenever that commercial comes on (before the dog appears), he stops whatever he's doing and waits for the big dog. At first, he barked back, but now he just watches. There's also a commercial where a deer walks across the screen and disappears off the left side of the picture. The first time Oz saw that, he went around the end of the TV to see where the deer went. But only once - now he just watches. He also likes commercials with monkeys and cats, but his favorites involve other dogs. What a character! I'm trying to get him interested in NASCAR, but so far, no luck! See ya.

From: Thurston, David [USA]
Date: 12/3/2007 7:29:28 AM
To: Robin Hurt
Subject: RE: Hey!


Good to hear from you! Hope all is well in the wilds of Mizzou. I doubt that a "play date" with Ozzie would be good for the Merritt's little guy. Oz plays like a WWF wrestler - lots of tumbling and takedowns! He and Skittle (our daughter's Beagle cross) absolutely terrorized their fellow campers at Camp Bow Wow over the Thanksgiving holiday. We were in Atlanta in a houseful of cats where Ozzie was not welcome and Skittle's family was in Dallas, so they both went to camp. In case you have not heard of these places, Camp Bow Wow is literally camp for dogs. They spend the day running around together (supervised, of course) and at night, have spacious "cabins" with beds rather than cages. It's not cheap but is a great alternative when you have to board a pup. http://www.campbowwowusa.com/ You can even check up on them on line through their "camper cams!" We plan to send Oz to day camp occasionally just to give him time with other dogs, and to let him burn off some of his boundless energy. After four days there, Ozzie was so worn out that he slept for the first two days after Thanksgiving. But he's now back to his usual lovable self, eating like a horse and demanding extra attention. Comparing notes with Denise Merritt, it's amazing how their puppy is demonstrating exactly the same traits as Ozzie at that age - he's like a clone! They are very, very pleased with "Mason."

Question - what's your take on "stripping" for Cairns? As his hair gets longer, matting is becoming a problem and he's getting a bit ornery about the detangling process. A groomer friend of ours says he should be hand stripped and trimmed, but we like the shaggy look. Is stripping necessary?

Dave



From: Thurston, David [USA]
Date: 12/4/2007 7:23:04 AM
To: Robin Hurt
Subject: RE: Hey!

Hi, Robin. Thanks for your comments on "stripping" which I assumed was mostly for show. Oz may be many things, but a show dog isn't one of them! His matts aren't nearly bad enough to cause problems - little ones on his back legs and under his collar - fairly easy to get out if I give him time to run around when he loses patience with the process. I brush him every other day so they don't get a chance to become a problem.

From what Denise tells me, there are no worries about their pup having sufficient energy. Like Oz, he's pretty much non-stop - including non-stop chewing. She's smiling a bit less when she talks about his chewing, but I keep assuring her it will stop (or at least slow down) in a couple of months.

In retrospect, Oz hasn't really done all that much damage (could have been much worse). There's puppy tracks (teeth marks) on five or six pieces of furniture but only one chair rung is really damaged beyond what I could effectively repair or disguise. As far as cats, that's really their problem. The smaller of the two still bats him on the nose when he gets too rambunctious, but I think she would actually like to play - if only he wasn't so "enthusiastic." They have touched noses and she will stand her ground up to a point. Oz loves to play "chase me" games and can't understand why that strange looking "dog" won't play like his Beagle cousin, Skittle. He walks up to the cats, gets down in his launch position (nose on the floor, rear end up, tail at full wag), barks and runs halfway across the room and then looks back to see where they are. Of course, being cats, they are above such silliness, but every once in a while he gets a reaction. He followed both of them into our bathroom last week and about 30 seconds later, came back out at full gallop with not one but both cats right on his tail, hissing and growling. Pretty funny.

Well, gotta do some work to earn money for more Ozzie toys. Bought him a new frisbie on Sunday and in less than ten minutes, he had torn the center out of it to get the squeaker. Sigh!

See ya! Dave