It definitely felt like I aged 10 years in a few minutes this am. I must have looked like a complete crazy person. My neighbors don't know me because I moved up here mid-winter, and only recently has it warmed up enough for chance encounters with neighbors outside. I went running outside at 10:30 am with 2 leashes, 1 dog, a sample bag of cat food, wearing Christmas themed pj pants, a bright yellow Georgia Tech hoodie sweatshirt, no glasses so i can't see, randomly shouting "HAVE YOU SEEN A LITTLE DOG RUNNING AROUND!" at my neighbors.
Both of my girls are microchipped. I know there is a lot of debate about collars. I fear, especially with the martingale style, that mine will strangle themselves if they get caught on something when I'm not around. In this case, I'm glad Callie didn't have a collar on because the rungs on the porch are so close together, she may have caught the collar without realizing it & jumped & hung herself. I do worry that they will get out & somebody will find them but not know to check for a microchip, but even dogs with collars can lose them while running around loose. So I don't think there is a right or wrong answer for when to collar them. Mine don't usually dart out of doors, so I don't worry about it too often.
As for the porch; that will not be accessible to them if I can not supervise them from now on. Fortunately I will only be here for a couple more weeks, so I won't worry about adding chicken wire or anything. I'm already saving up for a basenji proof fence for the new house though. Callie is quite the escape artist when she has motivation (clearly!)
The day I got my Heart Broke
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My wife knew the pecking order in the house long before we got married, Sheba (my female Basenji) then her. I love my girls (my wife and my dog) but don't be mistreat my Basenji. Sheba sleeps under the covers curled up behind my legs and sits by my side when we watch tv. Sheba only wanted to be next to me and I would never push her away. In 2005 I got orders to deploy to Iraq, I was very lucky in the fact that it was going to be a short deployment, only 7 months and not 12 - 15. The day came for me to leave and I kissed and hugged my Basenji goodbye and prayed that she would be ok without me. During my deployment I would talk to her over the phone if I could, yes, I am still talking about Sheba, haha. Well, after those long months without my Basenji it was finally time to come home. My wife picked me up after the welcome home ceremony and we drove home, yes I kissed and hugged her… When we got to the door, (4am) I opened it and got down on my hands and knees and crawled to Sheba's kennel and looked inside and in a very soft voice I called to her, "Sheebaaa" then opened her door. She started to come to me but then she backed up and growled at me. My heart sank and I almost cried. It took her a few minutes to come out and when she did, she sniffed me up and down for several minutes before she finally realized who I was and began to wag her cute curled tail and jump up on me.
For that time that she didn't know me, my heart was breaking... I will deploy again at the beginning of 2009 and now we have a pup, I don't want to go through that heart break again... -
It is very heartbreaking to see things like that, yrs ago my bf at the time deployed and we had a dog together, when he got home the dog (who was now attached to me and used to it being just us) had no idea who this strange man in our home was and had the same reaction your Sheba had.
Since you're are not leaving until 2009, you'll have time to bond with the new pup, they won't forget you completely and might take a little getting used to prior pace in life, but they will be okay. My bf deployed twice while we were together, when he returned from his second deployment he walked in with cookies held out, that time there was no growling or backing away, it was all about the cookie. LOL easiest way to a dogs heart is a cookie
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It was just the initial greeting that was off right? Dogs do forget certain cues sometimes…she obviously remembered you...but it might have freaked her out if you crawled up to her kennel, particularly if that wasn't something that you normally do. Imagine this...if my husband was gone for a long time, and he didn't tell me he was going to come home while I was sleeping, and creep up to the bed...it wouldn't matter how nicely he was talking to me, I would be SCARED by his unusual behavior, and his unexpected arrival.
Next time you arrive home, try just walking in like you normally do and say Hi Sheba (and puppy) like you normally do, and I bet she will be overjoyed.
We have to remember that dog brains work differently than ours in a lot of ways. If we try to think of them just like people, we usually end up getting our feelings hurt
Hey, and thanks for serving our country! Stay safe!
