General vs. a Helicopter

James and General have a mutual animosity. Both of them like to bug the other. General's favorite method of tormenting James is to grab his pant leg and not let go, no matter what James does. General will even follow him upstairs all the while holding on to his pant leg with a death grip. General also likes to play "get the sock that James is trying to put on." Both of these games serve the purpose of frustrating James and giving me a good laugh.

Unfortunately for General, James got an upper hand on tormenting General. I present, General vs. the toy helicopter:

In the end, the helicopter won.

Enjoying the Farmer's Market

How does General enjoy the Farmer's Market?

By finding every scrap of shade possible of course.

Components of the perfect walk

Hydrant sniffing


Antagonize the neighbors


A good whiff of garbage


Give a squirrel a good chase


Have a great roll in the clover


And of course a long nap when you get home.

Is he a dog or a cat?

A few days ago, General noticed I had placed a basket of yarn in the living room. It immediately became his mortal enemy. He paced for a good hour and a half just barking and growling at the threat which I had placed in HIS living room. He would even flinch if so much as moved the basket.

I guess General must have won the battle with the yarn basket because he now thinks it is his personal toy box. Last night he kept trying to grab a ball of purple yarn, so I wasn't too surprised (still upset, but not surprised) when I came downstairs this morning to find this scene.









By the way, in this last picture, General is trying to "kill" the yarn. He seems to think that he has to vigorously shake everything he puts in his mouth. It can be quite comical.

The demise of a stuffed animal

Step One.
Buy a cute stuffed animal.

Step two.

Present said stuffed animal to your dog.

Step three.

Chewing and tearing ensues.

Step four.

Pitty the poor stuffed animal and question why you paid $5.00 for it in the first place when it only takes 30 minutes to eat.

Trick or Pug

Playing with the puppy

On second thought,

I’m not really sure who’s playing with whom.

Peek-a-boo

More freedom

We're cautiously letting General have more freedom. Usually when we leave the house, General has to be down in the basement. We've got a nice area fenced off with toys and blankets, water and food, but it is a chore to get him in the basement. He hates the basement and will do anything to avoid getting caught when he knows that's where we want him. We've tried to make it a better place by only feeding him down there, but even the wont of food for my food crazy dog isn't enough of an allure for him to voluntarily go downstairs.

We started to allow him to stay upstairs when we're gone for short periods of time. Twice he's been left alone with full freedom to wander (and possibly chew) and (so far) he's been a good boy. He hasn't torn apart my knitting. He hasn't chewed a shoe. We even (accidentally) left the bathroom door open and he didn't touch the garbage. He can be such a good boy (when he wants to be).

We've also been allowing him the freedom to roam a little. We don't put him on a leash when we're headed for the car. He loves car rides and will ignore anyone or anything if the car door is open and he thinks he gets to go for a car ride.

Finally, I've been allowing him to stay off the leash and wander a bit when I'm down working at the garden. He gets chained up as soon as he takes too long to come back or wanders too far, but usually he's good at staying right in the yard. He did scare me the other day when I called and called for him and he didn't come back. I ran around the block and couldn't find him. I looked in his favorite places and couldn't find him. On the verge of tears, I went back to the garden. Someone started to whistle at me and when I turned, a construction worker was holding my dog. General went over to talk to them and decided that they were much more interesting then our yard, so he just ignored me. I ran over to get him and needless to say, he was chained to the fence the rest of the afternoon. Silly dog. He has his freedoms, but he'll soon learn that they can be limited.

In the Jail house now

General came to us kennel trained. It has been a huge blessing. Every night around ten, we take him out to potty and then he willingly goes in his kennel. He usually goes in, turns around once, and falls asleep (as is evident by his incessant snoring). Sometimes he does just lay there and watch us, but he never whines once he's put down for the night.

Saturday night, General fell asleep on the floor while James and I watched a movie. We woke him up and took him outside. I think he was a still a little groggy when we put him down for the night. Instead of just passing out again, he sat in his kennel looking like the little jailbird you see above. He typically moves when we come toward his kennel, but that night, he just laid there, resting his head on the bars. We couldn't help but take pictures. After quite a while, General stood up, turned around, and fell fast asleep. But I just had to show off my cute little groggy jailbird.

Who thought it was his birthday?

Guess who decided to open my Birthday presents.

Comfortable?

Why relax in a doggy bed . . .

When Jessie's back is so much more comfortable?