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Tag Archives: choco

In which Yaris learns a new trick

So…I’ve been remiss in my duties to raise Yaris as a cultured and refined dog. I haven’t really had that much time to really train her. I mean, she knows basic obedience and she has a pretty mellow temperament, but she’s largely a barbarian. I’m kind of lucky that she’s rather mellow. I imagine that if she had Choco’s temperament (who was a pretty wild and obstinate dog, but well-trained), Yaris would be off plundering and burning villages with a pack of other equally barbaric dogs. But she isn’t.

Well anyway, I recently found some time to teach Yaris a new trick. Mostly out of necessity. You see, Yaris has developed some kind of allergy (I assume it’s a food allergy but I still have to do some tests) and she broke out in rashes all over her body. It was terribly itchy, of course, and it was also causing her to shed like crazy. More crazily than normal.

Shedding, I can handle really. It doesn’t really affect me too much other than I have to clean more. The itching though…I am familiar with itching and how uncomfortable it is. I would much rather be in pain than to be itchy all the time. And, because Yaris was itchy and scratching all the time, she developed several hot spots in various places on her body and some of those spots were becoming infected. So…to the vet she went.

Welp, the prescribed treatment for Yaris was these medicated baths every other day for a week and a course of oral antibiotics. Yaris doesn’t really mind baths. She likes to sample the rinse water I keep in buckets if the water out of the hose is too cold and she really likes being dried because it’s an excuse to play and wrestle in a towel. But she’s never had to take pills before. Hence, I had to teach her this new trick of swallowing pills.

With Choco, I found it was easiest to just wrap her pills in some bread and she’d eat them, no problem. If I tried to just give her a pill, she’d fight me the entire time. Choco did not like pills.

With Yaris, I tried the bread method first. It didn’t work. The problem is that Yaris really believes in chewing her food. So, she’d eat the piece of bread, find something weird and hard in the middle of it, and then spit a moderately chewed pill out onto the floor. So, I forewent the bread and just dropped the pills directly into her mouth. The first few times, she needed some coaxing to open her mouth and then swallow. Subsequent times, she would swallow the pills on her own, even if I didn’t manage to drop the pills in the back of her mouth. If I accidentally dropped the pills in the middle of her mouth on her tongue, she’d move the pills back herself and swallow.

She swallows pills better than most adults. And that…is her new trick. I’m sure everyone will want her to do it at parties. Maybe I should worry about her becoming a drug addict now instead of her looting and plundering villages.

Counter surfing

Yaris used to counter surf a lot. It wasn’t out of hunger or a real desire to eat, I don’t think. She doesn’t have this overwhelming urge to eat like Choco did. But she does get bored. Easily. And she uses most of her brainpower to try and find ways to keep herself entertained, whether it’s shredding boxes, digging trenches, or pulling things off the counters, edible or otherwise.  These are all things she does when she’s left alone in the house for a prolonged period of time and not enough toys to keep her busy for that period of time.  There isn’t anyone to play with her and so out of boredom, she decides to wreak some havoc.  You know, as dogs do.

Well recently, my mother told me of an incident that seems to have been the last of Yaris’ counter surfing. For some reason, my mother left a loaf of bread in a glass 9×13 pan on the counter. Yaris found said pan. Yaris saw the said loaf of bread in said pan. Yaris decided that it would be fun to pull the loaf of bread down.

She’s done this before.  She’ll pull a loaf of bread off the counter.  She’ll eat a few slices of bread.  Then she’ll place the remaining slices around the house.  And finally, she’ll shred the bag.  I’m sure it’s all fun and games for her.

This time was different.  For one thing, someone was home.  And the big difference in the game of counter surfing is that there was a glass 9×13 pan.  This time, when she pulled the loaf of bread down, the pan came with it.  And you know how glass is when it’s stopped abruptly.  It likes to shatter.  It’s kind of a jerk like that.  Welp, the glass pan shattered.  Right next to Yaris.  Apparently she let out a yelp, as she’s not a big fan of loud noises, and ran into the room.  She wasn’t injured and the loaf of bread was saved, but the glass pan had seen the end of its useful days.

My mother was obviously not pleased.  It was her favorite glass pan.  I have no idea why she left it on the counter with a loaf of bread in it though.  Seems to me that it was just asking for trouble.

So yeah.  That’s my story.  Here’s a quick doodle of what I think of when I heard the phrase “counter surfing.”

Actually, yes. Yaris has lost weight recently.

Actually, yes. Yaris has lost weight recently.  But that isn’t actually Yaris in the picture.