Zeeke has been very, very hyper lately. It’s like he got into some pure sugar or something, he’s just rather psycho. Zoe will play with him every time he starts up, but soon as we remove him (which we have to do, for our and Zoe’s sake), she sacks right out. She just doesn’t have the energy level to keep up to him when he’s like this. And he’s driving us a little crazy.

One side-effect of all this constant playing (constant), is that Zoe needs to pee about 3,000 times a day. I can’t sit down for more than 15 minutes before her asking to go out again. This isn’t the same constant whining as it was a few weeks ago. That stopped a few days after it started, I’d say when I started feeling better and was up and about again. No, this is that she honestly needs to pee about every ten minutes. All that running around and such, it stirs up her insides, I guess.

Up and down, up and down, in and out, in and out. I am thankful that she’s able to run outside, pee, and runs right back to the door again. Small miracles, and all that.

:: ::

I did a little bit of reading up on Shelties today, since it’s quite obvious she’s about half Sheltie. I read again - as I’ve heard before - that Shelties are notorious for constant barking. That is one thing I am very glad Zoe’s genes skipped, she’s definitely not a barker. A whiner, yes, when she always needs to go out - but she rarely barks, and when she does it’s usually towards Zeeke in play (taunting him, usually). It’s a funny little bark, too. It’s not really high-pitched like a small dog’s, it can sound pretty deep for such a small little thing!

Another personality trait that’s in-line with Shelties is her cuddly attitude - she sure loves to climb up on you and cuddle you to death. She’s really been happy lately that I’ve been watching more tv on the couch, she gets up beside me and sleeps curled up next to me - or against me. She just likes being in very close proximity. And to lick you to death, she’s a licker.

She is definitely over-size for a Sheltie, though. Crossed with something bigger, like a Tervuren. She’s several inches too tall and several pounds too heavy for even the biggest sheltie (she falls way outside the “oversize” range on Sheltie growth charts). But she’s smaller than just about every Border Collie for her age.

Every night when I get up when Den is sleeping, Zoe is a pain. She wants to stay and sleep with daddy and Zeeke, but she also can’t stand to have mommy up and about with her locked in the bedroom. What ends up happening is that whether she’s in the bedroom or outside, she scratches at whines at the door the entire time. So this time I let both dogs out with me. They are now curled up asleep on the dog bed in the corner. I guess Zeeke’s presence was enough to soothe Zoe and let her sleep.

:: ::

This evening I made a trip to the McDonald’s drive through, so I decided to take Zoe with me, which I haven’t done since I first got her. She’s not really happy about the whole vehicle thing, so I decided to limit her use of it until she was more secure with everything else in her new life. I think she’s at that point now, so I’m going to start getting her used to car rides. I figured a nice quick trip to McD’s and back with me never leaving the car should be okay.

She did wasn’t happy about being put in the truck, but she did really well - she just curled up on the seat. She didn’t like bumps or turns, but she wasn’t pacing or panting like Zeeke nor did she insist on standing up like Oreo always has. So I pulled up to the speaker, ordered our dinner, pulled ahead, paid, pulled ahead again and waited for them to bring the food out. I was talking to Zoe the whole time, saying what a good girl she was, telling her the food was going to be out shortly. So as we pull up to the pick-up window I look over at her and she is sitting straight up and shaking from head to toe. Holy cow, I’ve never seen a dog shake that bad, even Oreo in thunderstorms! I felt so incredibly bad for her. I tried reassuring her, distracting her… but she just sat there with waves of shivers taking her. When the girl working there saw I had a dog in the car she smiled and gave me a dog cookie for her - Zoe barely even sniffed it. After we pulled away she slowly stopped shivering, and then was fine again. I think having the window open and some stranger reaching into the vehicle just terrified the heck out of her.

I guess I won’t be going through another dive-through for a while! Yikes. She is going to need some serious socialization, and I’m not even sure where to start.

Self-evident lesson of the day: it is a lot easier to hold down a 25lb dog to clip their nails than it is a 100lb dog. This is getting rediculous. The dogs need to get their nails cut. I did a lot of desensitization with Zoe and the nail clippers, but I’m no sure how much it helped. She just started squirming like mad again soon as I held her paw. But there’s no longer a choice in the matter, her nails HAVE to be cut. So I just held her down until she stopped squirming, then clip clip clip. And she’s up and happy and I praised the ever-living HECK out of her for being such a good girl. I had to do it three or four times, sometimes I’d only get one nail before she’d start squirming again, but in the end she did actually calm down. None the worse for wear, but minus several really long talons that were starting to worry me.

Zeeke, on the other hand. That didn’t go well. I tried doing it really calmly and nicely, and he just bared his teeth and told me in no uncertain terms that I was not getting near him with those clippers. So Den grabbed him and I got three nails. Three, before he totally flipped out and both of us couldn’t hold him. I don’t know quite what to do with him. I will be taking at least him in to get groomed in the next few weeks, and I’ll get his nails done, but I don’t know how much better he’s going to be for them than with us.

I don’t know what’s up with Zoe, but she’s been driving me absolutely bananas lately. For instance: Den and I went out to dinner. When we came home, I took her out to pee as usual. In the next thirty-five minutes she pooped twice and peed three times. And she was still whining at me every single time I sat down. I gave her water, I fed the dogs, I took her out some more, still whining. I don’t know. I really don’t know what she wants from me, but it’s driving me crazy. This is NOT how she usually acts.

I think she has a bladder infection. She has never asked to go out this frequently.

This is the Belgian Tervuren, which someone suggested Zoe might be crossed with:

Belgian Tervuren are a lot bigger than Zoe: females 22-24″ and 60-70lbs. But look at the colors, especially the black-tipped fur and the black muzzle. Even the shape of the body reminds me of Zoe. So it’s definitely possible. Ironic, too - a herding breed.

Holy moly. I was just looking at some photos, and looking at the change that Zoe’s gone through in the past two months:

Look at the change of her coat! Wow! I think she is absolutely *gorgeous* with her new coloration. Also note the “bulls-eye” effect has faded away. When I get a straight-on picture of her, she doesn’t look like her muzzle was dipped in paint.

Height at the shoulder blades:
Zoe: 16″
Zeeke: 26″

Watching Zoe try to carry one of Zeeke’s big bones up onto the bed always causes me to giggle. The poor girl just doesn’t have the jaw strength of a larger dog. She can carry the big bones around the house, but when she jumps it inevitably slips out of her mouth and lands on the floor with a bang. You can almost see her sigh as she looks down at it from her new vantage point on the bed, before jumping down to try again. This time she gave up - trotted off to lay on the floor with it. lol

Just now Zeeke was happily curled up beside me, watching and resting. Zoe was laying further down the bed, chewing on a nylabone. She leans way back and stares into Zeeke’s face, upside-down. She then rights herself, grabs the bone, and leans back over, leaving the bone hanging about 3″ from his nose. He leaned forward, grabbed it, and tried to pull it away - but she didn’t let go. When he did, she went back to where she was and continued chewing on her bone, completely not caring that now she had taunted Zeeke and he wanted the bone. So I reached over and gave him a different one, which he took happily. But that wasn’t good for Zoe, no - she immediately left hers and ran over to take his. Oi, siblings.

Sometimes I think that one of the reasons Zeeke’s behaving so much better is that he feels better being in a pack where he’s not the lowest on the totem pole. Before we got Zoe he was constantly trying to take my place in the pack. Now he seems a lot more secure… and when he gets frustrated (like when Den or I tell him to stop doing something he shouldn’t be doing) he pushes her around. It’s like he’s making himself feel better by at least being better than someone.

Amazing things happen with age. Remember when, upon waking, I had to get Zoe outside in .2 seconds or she’d pee where she was standing? Well that gradually progressed to her saying hi in the morning, then when the greeting ritual was over, she’d go to the door and demand to be taken out. And now this morning, the alarms go off, she greets us - though less psychotically than normal - and then goes and lays back down. Den got up to take a shower, which is usually her cue, and she just curled up on the bed in his spot, and fell back asleep.

Bladder control. It’s a good thing.

Today I hauled up the new/old wire crate that is to be Zoe’s. I had bought two different crates, one a smaller hard-plastic crate, and the other a wire crate just like Zeeke’s. Both I got at garage sales, used, for extremely good prices (I am so happy about that!). Well Zoe’s been using the plastic one since we got her, it’s tucked under the dining table in the living room - I put her out there because I wanted to keep her and Zeeke seperated for the first few months.

But, it’s time for her to graduate up. She liklihood of any potty accidents in her crate has decreased tremendously, and the smaller one is starting to get a bit cramped for her. However the wire crate is too big to put under the table, and there’s not a whole lot of room in the living room, so I set it up in the bedroom beside Zeeke’s crate. Hers looks so small compared to his, but Zeeke still manages to fit himself into it.

I set it up (with the “help” of Zeeke, who kept trying to climb into it before I was done setting it up!), and then just left the door open. I’ll keep using the old crate for Zoe when I go out, and let her get used to the new one slowly - locking her in it wouldn’t exactly cause her to love it. But she likes Zeeke’s crate, so I think it’ll be an easy transition.

[Edit] Just as I posted this, she jumped off the bed and explored both crates (maybe she’s comparing them?) and then laid down in hers. What a good doggie. Unfortunately, she’s trying to eat the wire bars. *sigh*