Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Current Events

This is the house I'm hoping to move into. I love this house. It's a log cabin on 3 acres of land in a rural area. It has a stone fireplace and an open floorplan and a walkout basement that will someday have a dog door leading to the yard - as soon as I get the yard fenced and buy a dog door. Of course none of that can happen until I actually own the house.
We placed a contract on this house in September, but it is a government foreclosure, so I'm not sure we'll ever actually close on it. We have a tentative closing date of the beginning of December. I'm thinking if things keep moving on the schedule they have been, we might have to extend that out a few more months. I might get to move by March. I might be homeless long before then.

I left for work this morning after warning my husband that Ziggy was very wound up and I was not crating him since he and Noelle were playing. He woke up long enough to say "okay". Then I left and he went back to sleep. He called me two hours later saying he'd just woken up and Ziggy had been busy destroying his expensive racing helmet that he'd only used three times so far. Apparently he had worked all night and after being up 24 hours straight, he hadn't really heard me when I told him I was leaving and not crating Ziggy. He was not happy with me or with Ziggy. Ziggy really needs to live with a marathon runner. Or at least another playful dog. Right now Noelle will wrestle with him for five minutes, then she is ready for a nap. And Remi will play tug with him for about two minutes before he is ready for a nap. Then they take a nap and Ziggy proceeds to stand two feet from them and bark at them continuously. He does this even though Noelle can't hear him and he can't hear himself, and Remi pretends he can't hear him. It sure drives the humans nuts, but it doesn't get him what he wants - getting the other dog to play. Still he persists in this strange behavior.

Ziggy's training is continuing. His agility classes have been rescheduled until next session, but in the meantime he's learned "down" and I'm working on teaching him to stay for longer periods of time. I also tried to teach him to target, but he keeps chewing up the items I'm trying to use as targets, so I'm still looking for a solution to that problem.

The pictures of Ziggy in this post were taken by my friend Crystal at last weekend's adoption event. Ziggy keeps going to every adoption event, and he keeps trying to chew on everyone he meets. He usually knows better than to chew on me unless he is really excited, but I'm not having any luck extending that rule of "don't chew on people" to anyone other than myself. I'm going to try to take some video of the behavior this weekend and ask for help from my classmates (many of whom are professional trainers). If any dog ever needed the help of a whole school of professional trainers, it's Ziggy!

13 comments:

Zona said...

Oh yes, my papa has had those sleep talking moments and then woke up to have no idea what was going on even though mom told him before she left. Even this very morning! Sorry about the helmet though.

Good luck on the house - it looks perfect!!!

Wags,
Zona

brooke said...

That looks like a great house! I hope it finally works out for you! Fingers crossed!
And poor Zig. Well poor husband, but poor Zig, he's just a bundle of energy! Maybe you need to get a treadmill and run him on it!

Frankie Furter and Ernie said...

That is a beautiful looking home. I hope you will be able to get the paperwork and moving plans going full swing.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I hope you get that house sooner than you think you will! My paws are all crossed real tight for you!

I'm ever so sorry abouts Ziggy and the helmet. That boy is...well...as my grandpa would say...he's somethin' else!

Wiggles & Wags,
mayzie

JacksDad said...

Jack likes to chew on paper.

Mainly paper that is green with numbers on it.

We learned very quickly :)

Amy & the house of cats said...

Ok first that looks like an amazing house - I will keep my fingers crossed that things will move smoothly and quickly for you! I hate that you are having to go through all this because of the HOA. I hate HOA's so much (my boyfriend, who lives with me, is on the board of ours as a way to keep things in check around here - it kind of helps, but not enough in my opinion). I will have the cats all cross paws for you too - that is a lot of crossing so I hope it helps!

And oh Ziggy - I wish I had any sort of suggestion for you. My boyfriends mom's dog chews a lot too, though not nearly as much as it sounds like Ziggy does (she even ate lava rocks out of a plant - rocks - she ate rocks). I am so sorry that he is such a chewer and that it makes him hard to adopt out - hopefully his training will just click one day and he will be able to stop with the chewing. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed for that too!

Kristine said...

That house looks amazing. The perfect place to raise a lot of dogs. I really hope it all goes through for you.

My dog Shiva used to chew on her targets as well. It was a struggle, but the only thing that worked was timing. If she looked at the target I'd pop a treat in her mouth before she could even think of chewing on it. We built up to actually touching it from there. But Shiva is crazy food motivated if Ziggy isn't that could make it more difficult.

Cupcake said...

That house is perfect for you, I hope you get to move in soon. It really is a beautiful house.

Ziggy, Ziggy, Ziggy, what are we going to do with you. One thing we all agree on is that life would be boring without Ziggy.

Kari in Alaska said...

I sure hope you get the house. It sounds perfect

Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com/

kissa-bull said...

oh ziggy you is such a character. we sures hopes you gets that wonderfuls house. maybe when you gets it you cans let ziggy run his energies away

pibble sugars
the pittie pack

meowmeowmans said...

That house sounds as though it would be perfect for you. We have our fingers and paws crossed that it all works out soon!

That Ziggy sure makes every day a new adventure, doesn't he? :)

havetailwillwag said...

that house looks and sounds AWESOME!! i love it!!

havetailwillwag said...

that house looks and sounds AWESOME!! i love it!!