Kris: April 2006 Archives

Hobie doesn't always finish his food in the morning. I think he is a little worried that we are going to bail on him. After all, we did try to sneak out a couple of times while he was eating. It's been a long time since we did that, though, but he's still a little skittish.

Well, this morning I decided to add a couple of pieces of zucchini to his food. There was a couple of small bites from the end, and one bite from the very top of the zucchini. After he got permission to eat he dove straight for the zucchini pieces, and the first one up was the top. He chewed on it, then spit it out to smell it a little bit. Then it went back into his mouth, and back out again. This kept going for a few times, until he finally gave up, and went for a regular piece of zucchini. The regular piece went straight down.

I guess all zucchini parts aren't made equal, not even if you're a dog.

Hobie has started to beg a little bit over the last couple of months.

If I chop something in the kitchen, he usually runs over to see what's going on. He doesn't beg when we eat, and if he tries, we just send him away.

He doesn't beg nearly as much as Rudolf, but the interesting thing is that he has gotten a lot more affectionate. He doesn't growl nearly as much when we try to pet him, and a few times he's even fallen asleep while Gladys has been giving him a bellyrub.

While I don't like that he begs, I do like that he clearly wants something from us. Maybe he sees us as more than just ball-throwing machines now. :)

In the park this morning, Hobie and I met two other Miniature Schnauzers.

Yes, this sounds lame, but for some reason it's exciting to meet other Schnauzers. Hobie did well, but the two other Schnauzers were mostly sniffing each other. Hobie did a little sniffing, and then he just circled around, and whined a few times when he wasn't sure what was going on. Whimp.

I tried to get a picture with my camera phone, but the dogs didn't stand still long enough for that to happen.

Gladys has seen one of the Schnauzers before, Kirby, and the owner remembered Hobie, too.

Hobie came to work with me on Friday. Hobie is warming up to my coworkers, and he's getting lots of attention. After a day with lots of fetching, it was time to walk home. It's about a 30-40 minute walk from work to our apartment.

It had started raining, so I hesitantly put on the coat he got for Christmas (from my coworkers). We left the building, and got about 20 steps away from the door when Hobie just stopped. I had my umbrella up, and Hobie didn't want to talk a single step further. I coaxed him with a treat to walk a little longer, but then it was full stop again.

People were walking by, smiling and pointing at the stubborn dog. One of them even told me with a laugh that "I don't want to walk any further."

Hobie is a little scared of my umbrella, so I put it in my bag, but that didn't help either. After about 5 minutes of me scratching my head, not knowing how to get the dog back, we went back into the building (which he was quite happy to do). I called Gladys, who drove that day, and she was going to pick us up. In order to get picked up, we had to walk to the corner of the block, which was a difficult task. I almost had to drag him.

We finally got in the car, and by this time it was pouring pretty well. Since Gladys and I were going out I wanted to give Hobie the chance to answer any calls of nature. I actually had to lift him out of the car to get him to go out, but he was not interested in relieving himself.

He didn't use to dislike rain this much, but now he just stops and refuses to walk in the rain. Probably funny to look at, but not that fun when you're holding the other end of the leash.

We took Hobie to Mountain Lake Park today. There's a great dog run area there. We sat down and spoke with an older woman who also has a Schnauzer. Here's her dog:

When we sat down, about 5-6 dogs came over to us, all wanting to smell us and say hello. I got lots of dog slobber on my jeans, including some that smelled like vommit.

Hobie says hi to a pug:

Maybe that's gross enough, but then I notice the other Schnauzer walking around my leg in a suspicious manner. Then he lifts his leg and pees on me!

I moved my leg, and didn't quite know what to do. I said out loud that the dog just peed on me, but nobody really reacted. Both Gladys and the people next to me noticed, and just kind of shrugged. OK, I guess those things happen.

Well, within a few minutes, another dog tried peeing on me, too. I guess I now smelled like a good spot to mark. Apparently, I got peed on two or three times as we were sitting there.

Great. Now I know what a fire hydrant feels like.

Hobie's got a picture on another blog .

Charlie is a friendly 100-pound Rottweiler.

Just as with Rudolf, Hobie has never met Charlie, but we think that they would get along.

He is about 2 years old, and he has one passion in life: food.

And no, dog food does not count. Human food is good, and human food with sauce is better. I guess you might say that Charlie is a little bit spoiled.

Charlie also loves playing with this toys, and he's very gentle. I was playing with Charlie last summer when we visited my dad (Charlie is my dad's dog). The most fun Charlie had was probably when he got ahold of one of my socks. He quickly realized I wanted the sock back, so he immediately ran around. I tried to be coy and pretend I didn't want it, but the dog outsmarted me and ran down to a small grassy area, where he sometimes does his business (and I didn't want to walk barefeet down there).

Playing with a big dog is very different from playing with a small dog. When we play with Hobie we don't mind if his teeth sometimes touch our hands, or if he sometimes get a little excited when eating a treat out of our hand. With Charlie, however, none of that is allowed, because he's so big. There's practically no neck, and my arms would barely fit around his chest.

He's very friendly, though. Just look at this picture.