It took a few days for the dogs to settle in to their new environment. I knew the corner had been turned when Jasper didn’t growl or bark at the fella sweeping the sidewalk in front of the hotel on our morning walk. People can now get into and out of their cars right outside our window (we’re on the first floor) and he looks at me before he does anything. This afternoon when housekeeping knocked on the door, he looked at me and when I didn’t say “quiet”, Jasper let ‘er rip. Just a few barks, but enough to let the person on the other side of the door know there was a dog in the room. With so many learning situations presented, he got the hang of it. I am so proud of him! Knowing when to bark and when not to is an invaluable skill. For dogs, too.
Onyx, on the other hand, has become quite the little pistol. Since Jasper is not barking at every noise and everyone, she’s taken up the torch. Not consistently, you understand. Just when she feels like it. The Princess of the Known World can’t be bothered with such nonsense as remembering stuff.
And she has become quite naughty. This morning she chewed up the corner of the blanket on the bed. Why, I asked, would she do that when she owns all the toys in the room? There is no answer other than she can. So she did.
We went for a ride this afternoon and she stretched out full length in the back seat leaving no room for Jasper. I tried to scooch her over to one side and it was like she was velcroed to the seat. Right now she is coyly trotting back and forth across the room with her prized chew bone in her mouth, waiting for Jasper to take the bait. He swings his head from side to side following her every move, lays down, trying to look nonchalant. Here’s a photo of Herself.
It’s hard to get past her beauty, her elegance, to see the little devil that lives inside.
I am delighted to say that the three of us have become quite the synchronized team when we’re taking a walk. For the first few days we looked like a sledding team without the sled. Onyx would stand under Jasper to see what he was doing when he was marking the plants, then he would see something of interest and jump over her back, step on her leash and she’d stumble. He wanted to charge ahead just when Onyx wanted to stop to pee. The leashes would get all tangled up with me in them. Oh, and remember that the first few days Jasper was barking and growling at anything that moved. I’m sure we were quite the sight. Now we look like we’ve been doing this all our lives. Extraordinary walkers, that’s us.
Jasper got his name from a rock. As you can see in the photo below he was golden brown with a spray of black on his overcoat. (Click on the photo.) I didn’t think he was a very good-looking puppy, as puppies go, so he would need a nice name. Since his coat looked so much like one of my favorite stones, picture jasper, that’s what I would name him.
Looking back at this photo, taken the first night I had him, I can’t imagine why I didn’t think he was the most adorable puppy on the planet, but I didn’t. Maybe it was that smell thing he had going on. Or perhaps it was his complete disregard for me. From the moment I brought him into the house he acted as though I was someone who lived in his house and was there to take care of him.
He gave me no love, no cuddles, no sweetness. He was demanding and distant. He bit me, scratched me, walked between my legs tripping me up, he didn’t want to sit on my lap and was generally incorrigible. And he loved men. He went nuts over the pool man, the mail man, the gardener. It was embarrassing. My rescue dog could care less if I lived or died.
I became determined to understand him. Terrier being the only identifiable part of him, I bought a generic book on terriers. Never having been owned by one before, I thought perhaps there was something terriers specifically needed that I didn’t know to provide. The book did not provide any answers to that question, however I did learn that their self-assured arrogance is genetically hard-wired. Self-confidence is a positive trait. However, it’s my opinion that one can be confident without being aloof. This puppy was both and I didn’t much care for his attitude. I wanted to be loved, appreciated! I saved this dog from a terrible fate and I wanted to at least be liked.
As I came to know him, I found Jasper to be a very complex personality. His love is subtle, but evident. When I leave the house he sleeps on my bed which is near the front of the house so he can hear my car come into the driveway. I was away for a week recently. When I returned, he was so excited that he forgot he was Mr. Cool and licked my face all over and made funny little sounds of happiness. I adore this dog and in his own way he adores me right back. Life is good.
Jasper, Onyx and I are traveling. Sort of. We’re no longer mobile, having landed for an extended stay in a Best Western hotel about 100 miles from home. I’m here to work on getting back into shape after knee surgery.
The dogs haven’t had the benefit of travel or socialization in their short lives (Jasper is 13 months old, Onyx is 6 months). About six weeks after Jasper came to live with me the meniscus in my right knee tore while I was walking him one evening. Several months later I had surgery on both knees. Two months after the surgery Onyx came along. Because of the painful condition of my knees for the better part of a year I’ve been unable to take them to classes, dog parks, or even for walks. My health and physical condition are now rapidly improving. Not only am I looking forward to being more active with the dogs, they are my inspiration for continuing to work so hard to get well.
Jasper is off his game here on the road. Poor guy didn’t know there are different rules for different places. At home it’s okay to bark when someone approaches our property. Here it’s not. If he sees someone ‘lurking’ around at home, it’s okay to growl and carry on. Here, it’s not. If he’s outside at home at 1:00 in the morning and he sees or hears a ‘bad man’, it’s a-okay with me that he cuts loose with a blood curdling war cry. When he hears someone outside our hotel room window at 1:00 in the morning and lets loose with that 100 decible bark to sound the alarm of imminent danger, I do not have the same appreciation for his hard-wired gift of protection.
Now that he has claimed the hotel and grounds for his own, no one and no thing escapes his diligent eyes and ears . He growls and barks at children, men, women, cars, the security guard, the housekeeping and maintenance staff, other dogs, and voices coming from the parking lot. At home he is rewarded for being a good protector. Here I tell him to be quiet for the very same reasons I reward him at home. My son was kind of screwed up for a while so I’m really hoping to get it right with the dog.
Onyx is pretty much a wash & wear dog. As long as her rank and status of Princess of the Known World is respected, she’s good to go. Being Princess means she gets to settle in the back seat of the car first, taking her half out of the middle. It also means that she can take all of the special chew toys I’ve given both of them here at the hotel and stash them under an end table in the farthest corner possible where no human or male dog can ever get them. And it’s okay to parade around the room with one of them in her mouth to show just how good it is to be Princess.
I am hoping that as we have more experience traveling together Jasper will come to understand that different places have different rules. Of course, there are no rules for the Princess of the Known World other than to oversee her subjects with grace and parity.
