Pleasing symmetry

September 23rd would have been Rufus's 7th anniversary with us. In an interesting twist, September 23rd was also the one year anniversary of the date that Teddy was pulled from the Bowling Green Humane Society and taken to Ohio to start his recovery. (If you recall, Teddy was severely underweight and had double pneumonia. Poor dude.).

Teddy has been with us for 6 months now and it's been interesting (and frustrating, at times) to watch him come out of his shell. In many ways, he is a typical Great Pyrenees and while I knew what they were like, I didn't know. This is sort of similar to the way that everyone knows that babies cry a lot and don't sleep at night but until you have one and are deep in the trenches, you don't really know.

Teddy, like all Great Pyrenees, is horrifically stubborn. From the Great Pyrenees Club of Western Pennsylvania:

Pyrs were bred to be left alone with the sheep up in the mountain valleys. They are a guard dog by instinct—not training. Their basic personality is different from most breeds, most breeds were bred to take commands from people, Pyrs were bred to work on their own and to think for themselves.

When homeboy decides he doesn't want to do something, it is very, very difficult for us to get him to do it. We have to trick him into realizing that it's in his best interest. Our friends, of course, think this is hilarious. It is, I guess, but when Teddy is absolutely insistent on going outside and refuses to come back in at 2 AM, a sense of humor is often the first thing to fly out the window.

Ironically, when it comes to guarding, Teddy is not a typical Pyrenees. He will notice when something is different and stares at it and thinks about it to decide if it's a threat to the flock (the flock = us. baaaaaaaa), but most Pyrs bark. A lot. Teddy doesn't bark unless he wants to play. Actually, I take that back, sometimes he barks at bugs. He barked at a stinkbug in one of our stairways a few months ago. I was in the laundry room and his barked echoed down the stairs and I almost had a heart attack, right there in front of the dryer.

Teddy never, ever barks at the doorbell. He doesn't even seem to know what it is. In fact, he doesn't seem to understand a lot of indoor things; it's one more sign that he was probably tied up outside and left to fend for himself. He also doesn't know that ovens are hot and I'm waiting for the day that I hear a yelp from the kitchen and find that he's burned his nose.

He does understand cooking, however. I call him my little sous chef.

"Needs more pepper."

Teddy is not really suspicious of anyone, unless that person is in the veterinary field. Vet offices are definitely not his favorite place to be. Unfortunately for us, Teddy has some joint problems. One of his front feet was broken at some point before he came to us and as a result, one of his knees turns out. Eventually, this is going to throw pain up the leg and possibly down the spine. He seems to be sensitive to pain and anticipates it at a vet's office. Throw in the fact that he does not seem to have been handled much in his former home and you have a recipe for trouble.

We had an incident at our previous vet's office, which you may have heard if you followed the saga on Facebook. Teddy had a wart on his face which our previous vet apparently just...ripped off. He responded to this by yelping and then snapped at the vet tech and the vet. We were then told that if we could not "get our dog under control," he would not be able to be seen at the practice again. Needless to say, we are now seeing another vet. We've been taking him by the office for visits, just to get him used to the new building and the staff (there is always heavy duty bribery involved) and this week he is getting his shots. I am very, very nervous, so keep your fingers crossed for all of us.

I am also 95% certain that Teddy has been beaten. If you accidentally step on him and he sees that it was you, he runs away and hides. However, things can turn nasty if he is in pain and surprised; then he feels the need to defend himself. When we were in Connecticut, my FIL accidentally rocked on Teddy's tail while he was asleep. Teddy shrieked in pain (I've never heard him make this noise before), jumped up in the air, turned around, nipped my FIL and ran away. He didn't break the skin and once Teddy settled down and realized what he had done, his eyes got huge and he ran back to my FIL, buried his head in his armpit and attempted to climb into his lap. The whole thing was over in seconds and it's a sobering reminder that we really don't know what he's been through.

"Jeez, who are you, Debbie Downer?"

Of course, there are plenty of good things, too. Teddy is friendly to everyone. If we come across anyone while we're walking, I know that he is going to want them to pet him and love on him. He hates to actually get IN the car, but once he is in, he settles down and goes to sleep. He is a total cuddlebutt and will often climb into bed for cuddles after The MWP goes to work.

Teddy went through an obedience class over the summer and he really liked it. Great Pyrenees are hard-core working dogs and it was a great opportunity for him to use his brain. In fact, for the rest of the night after class and for the next day, we were rewarded with this:

A tired dog is a good dog.

We'd like to sign him up for another class. He does really well at basics, but the facility where the class was held made the instructor reduce the length of the class from 6 sessions to 4 sessions. The last 2 sessions were rushed and I think he could benefit from taking it again. Of course, taking the obedience class doesn't change the fact that...

...the breeds strong independence may at times require extra training and proper socialization. Simply put, it is NOT the sit, stay, roll-over, fetch type of dog and will usually pass on such activities as in the Pyr's mind, it does not see the point in such tasks and sees it as a waste of energy. Most Great Pyrenees can be trained for most routine things, such as sit, stay, come as well as agility work and carting, however it is rare to see a Pyr that will respond instantly to its owners command, regardless of how well trained it is.

And you know, people just don't GET that (this includes our families). I get the impression that when somebody sees us having problems with him, they think that we're clearly idiots with who have no idea how to deal with a dog and that if we tried X, Y or Z, he would do what we wanted. We deal with it the best we can. Patience and a sense of humor is a must with Teddy.

Oh dear, this has gotten very, very long. Long story short. Teddy is cute. Teddy is funny. Teddy is smart (our trainer called him a philospher). For making it to the end of this, your reward is this: a picture of Teddy in which he is neither annoyed, nor asleep.

"Your leather shoe? I don't know what you're talking about."