Ziggy, 2012 adopted dog

Ziggy has bounced back quite a bit. Getting raised dishes for water & food for him helped – he’s not falling into his food. I generally try and keep him downstairs during the day, so there’s fewer falls. On days he can’t hold it all day any more, we have wee-pads out which he is now using pretty consistently. He’s always kept walking, even at the worst, but most days now are at a good walking pace uphill, and the usual Ziggy swagger-trot on the flats and downhills (“this way”, said Ziggy. “Keep up.”).

I found that the Halo formula for his hips is working pretty well – he seems to be better, and I’m able to give him a very controlled dose, dropping it down a hair if he seems drowsy. He takes less than he should for his size, but it’s helping.

All in all, he’s doing very well. He’s his happy Ziggy self. Less barking, but still the happy grin and the little dances when he’s happy, and constant hugs.

I’m sure you saw I was REALLY scared for him this winter, and I know the vet was trying to get me ready for some bad news, but it seems like it really was a) some unrelated stomach ailment, and b) just falling over and over and over. We’ve cut way down on the bad falls (hasn’t had one for awhile – knock wood), and have deployed non-skid rugs in strategic spots – that seems to be helping. Now and then there’s a little slip, or he walks into something because he’s looking at me and not where he’s going, but ..much much better.

Ziggy bear running in our driveway at night. Most evenings, we play hide-and-go-seek after our walk around the cars in the driveway. Ziggy tries to find me. I try and stay on the opposite side of the parked car. And Alex tells me where Ziggy is, so we can keep the game going.

It was one year ago today that Susan and I drove over to pick up Ziggy and bring him home here to Kirkland. I'm attaching a photo of Ziggy from Labor Day Weekend - we were just starting out on a walk, which makes Ziggy very happy :-) .

I can't tell you how wonderful this dog is. Thank you all again and again for rescuing him, and for letting us give him a home.

wanted to make sure I told you this story while it's fresh in my mind - everyone's fine, no injuries, no worries - it's a happy (but weird) story.

We spent Labor Day weekend on Henry Island in the San Juans - there's a nice dock, and a path that's about a 20 minute walk through the woods, a big lawn to play on, etc. Ziggy heaven.

One evening (Sunday?), we were taking Ziggy on a final lap just after sunset, starting down through the lawns. When we're someplace like this, we use a retractable leash: while I can't walk him safely around Kirkland on a 20 foot lead, someplace like this, it works great.

As we left the woods starting down the lawns, we were passing by a thatch of blackberries, Alex, Ziggy, and I, when all of a sudden WHAM

Ziggy rocketed VERY aggressively into the blackberries - he was a blur. At the same instant something in the bushes turned and ran away fast - we caught a glimpse of a tail, and think it may have been a group of Raccoons. The other alternative would be one of the Foxes on the island, but given the height of the prey's retreat and the color of the tail, we think Raccoons.

Yes. Our Ziggy. Your Ziggy. He went after whatever that was in dead serious fashion: whatever that was he was going to drive it off. He wasn't chasing it, he was just going to make sure it went away. Or he'd tear it to shreds if it didn't go away. Raccoon's choice.

When it/they ran off, Ziggy stopped, and then calmly trotted back to us and resumed walking like nothing had happened: "Nice sunset. Looking forward to my dinner, hope the kibble is fresh...".

Alex and I stood there with our jaws dropped. I saw the whole thing and I still don't believe it. We have never EVER seen anything like that from Ziggy. Never. This is the dog who the previous day walked by a group of 4 small deer about 10 feet away from us who were trembling in their hooves going "OMG OMG IT"S A DOG", and Ziggy's like, "OK, past the tennis court and then let's take the higher path to the woods", completely ignoring them, even though he couldn't have helped but see them right there just 10 feet off the path.

I can only guess that whatever was in that thicket was something that Ziggy read as a threat to his sheep (Alex and I). We don't mind that he did that. We were just flabbergasted.

And to Ziggy, it just seemed like normal business. He wasn't hyped up afterwards (like my goldens would have been). He was just ...Ziggy.

I just wanted to share that story with you - almost a year after adopting him, we're still learning new things. :-)

Ziggy had a great Christmas - we had Alex's Mom Phyllis staying with us for 5 days. Phyllis loves dogs in general, and she and Ziggy got along great. Ziggy sat in the middle of the kitchen while I was cooking Christmas dinner. We had 9 over for dinner, and Ziggy sat at my feet, with his own little bowl (he got a little beef - not too much, because I didn't want him to get sick :-) )

Here are a couple of photos of Ziggy in front of the tree, before everyone arrived:

And here's Ziggy, supervising the cleanup and hoping that a little more beef is going to fall into that bowl....

Ziggy has learned that the first thing that happens when we start moving around in the morning is that he’s going to get to go for his WALK. If I get up at, say, 5:00 AM, Ziggy will wake up, follow me to get a drink of water, and then follow me back to bed, where he will hopefully and cheerfully in that Ziggy-like manner, sit right next to the bed, staring lovingly at me, tell me that he’s happy to go for a walk any time I’m ready, and he’ll just sit there, and look at me hopefully, as if saying, “now? I think it’s light enough now.”.

This morning, Alex got downstairs first, so Ziggy was pelting up and down the stairs to check on his progress in getting his shoes on, and my progress in finding clean socks and my shoes.

And then, once I’m dressed and headed for the door, Ziggy will do his happy dance. It’s like he’s part Pomeranian (which is possible, of course J) – he’ll jump straight up in the air about a foot 2 or 3 times, and then he’ll do a happy spin. And then he does his prance (front legs up), and then as soon as we’re at the stairs he RACES down, to make sure that he’s there in time for getting his leash on.

But I was thinking about it this morning, comparing how much energy he has now (did I mention the tail wagging prance/strut dance he does for the first few blocks?), to where we started. When we first met Ziggy, I don’t think I could have imagined him jumping around like an over-caffeinated Pomeranian.

Now Ziggy’s other problem is that because I’m not doing as many little walks around the yard with him (because I’m sitting at the computer), we’re doing little 5 minute play sessions when I take breaks. I decided a few days ago to teach him how to play red light/green light, which seemed like a Ziggy sort of game. He thinks it is very fun and exciting, and is thrilled to play along, but I’m not sure he has the proper competitive instincts for winning at Red Light/Green Light. But he seems to be having a blast *not* learning how to play it, so maybe we’ll stick with it.

As you know, Ziggy seemed to already know “Stay”. He learned “Ziggy Stop” on our walks instantly (our daily walks always cross at least one or two intersections with poor visibility, so we make Ziggy come to a full stop before crossing J). “Ziggy Come” is unnecessary, as he’s usually already there.

But “Sit” eluded him. Every night, I have worked with him with treats, and were he a cat, I would say he was pretending not to learn so that he could get more treats (why kill the gravy train?). But as this is Ziggy who is so anxious to please, it was clear that “Sit” was just new.

So we work: Take the treat, say “Ziggy Sit!” in a happy upbeat voice, move the treat backwards over his nose, and press down ever-so-lightly on his backside (respecting his hips, which I always worry about in an older dog) to maneuver him into position. Praise excessively and deliver treat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

So now, we work on retrieve. Which will be quite interesting, as I’ve never seen a dog like this who simply doesn’t notice that you’ve thrown something.

It looks like the digestive difficulties were a bacterial infection, which the meds have cleared up. He’s still on them (as we have to complete the course – a few more days), but his symptoms have been completely gone since Friday. His energy is 100% back up – he dances and prances out of the house, down the driveway and for the first block or so of his walks, morning and night, and trots along with a happy smile and wagging tail for the rest.

We had one more boat weekend this last weekend. Will send more photos when I have time to go through them.

He went to an offleash dog park in Anacortes twice this weekend – once with Alex, and once with me. We did it separately, as we thought he’d better focus on the other dogs without two humans. He’s more interested in humans than dogs, but accepts the other dogs' overtures cheerfully enough. Alex reports that Ziggy was flirting shamelessly with two older women that were there with their dogs. On my visit, I had to walk laps around the big field to get Ziggy to run around at all – once I was mobile, he pranced ahead, and then ran back to make sure I was following, and then ran ahead, and then ran back, and then ran ahead….. – he had a great time.

We took Ziggy out on his first boat trip this weekend – we went Saturday out for about 1.5 hours to Friday Harbor, where we tied up and stayed overnight, coming back on Sunday. Ziggy was a champ: at first, he was not sure how to get on the boat. He was wearing his PDF (Personal Dog Flotation), which has two nice wide padded straps across the chest and a handle on top, so the first 5 times from dock to boat (or boat to dock), I lifted him by the handle. On the 5th time, I mistakenly tried to lift him to the dock while standing on the boat – it turns out that doesn't work as well as lifting him towards you! Ziggy's back feet and tail were dunked in the cold salt water!! I have to say, it was hilarious. He only went in about 4 inches and only the back legs and tip of his tail. But he walked away, and gave me this look over his shoulder like a teenager rolling his eyes: "really? Dunk me in the water?" really?", but I was quickly forgiven.

After that, Ziggy decided he needed to take charge of matters, so on the return to the boat, he hopped right off the dock and onto the swim step, and from then on has disdained any assistance. I think he looks really sharp in his lifejacket!

The boat itself he loved – no cats, it's small, so both humans are easily kept under observation, and he idly watched things going by.

Zig has been experiencing diarrhea, which we took him into the vet for yesterday, since it had been going on for a few days. On the vet's advice, we have him temporarily on bland diet (chicken, white rice, cottage cheese) which seems to help a little, and we'll be gradually reintroducing regular food. He's also got some meds that he's taking, in case it's bacterial. Out of concern for his fluids, we have been walking shorter distances and spending more time sniffing flowers in the yard – Ziggy seems like he feels fine, so hopefully between the meds and being gentle with foods for a bit that will resolve it. We ran some other tests as well, which we won't know for a day or two about, just to make sure that nothing else (kidneys, etc) is involved. But Ziggy is his usual sweet, happy-go-lucky-can-I-get-any-closer-to-you self.

"Zippy" and I just got in from our afternoon walk. Zippy and I went to the waterfront park, where Zippy went wading and splashing, and considered herding some Mallard Ducks. After he got tired of that, we walked up to another park, where there’s a nice nature trail through the hillside (this looks flat on a map – it isn’t). Ziggy sniffed for squirrels and other vermin for a bit as we wound through those trees. After sitting on the lawn together to cool off, we walked back uphill to the house. According to my little mapping app, that’s 2.1 miles, and was up and down a 250 foot hill.

Ziggy’s doing great – he loves this: tail up, wagging constantly, and he dances and prances along. We are having the best time.

I should have mentioned: We’ve not been worrying about training yet, as Ziggy 1) has no behavior problems (no jumping up, no mouthing, etc) that are an immediate worry, and 2) we’re just focused on making him happy and comfortable here right now. For play, we’ll work on things like “sit” and “down” and “shake” etc. when he’s calm and happy and ready to do that – a few more weeks from now though.

He seems to already know “stay” means, “I don’t get to go with you”, which as he can be a little anxious when I leave is good – it means no drama when I walk out, which is better for him. He has learned “Ziggy Stop” while walking, as for safety, we always stop before crossing intersections. Ziggy sometimes looks back at me as if to say, “BUT THERE ARE NO CARS THERE COULD BE ELK UP THERE LET'S GET GOING!!!”, but he’s a sweet boy, so he indulges me by stopping and waiting.

Skip (Head Cat) does ask me to inform you that the one problem we are having is that Ziggy does not yet understand that one of his purposes in life is to allow the cat to rub against him. Skip’s major hobbies (other than chasing the laser pointer) are head-butting people and things, and rubbing up against them. The dog does NOT understand that his role is to stand still when Skip does this.

Skip has gotten a wagging dog tail in his face a few times in the last week or so. And just now, much to his disgust, he nearly got licked accidentally while moving in for a rub – this is the 2nd near-dog-licking that Skip has received in as many days.

Skip is now sulking downstairs. Fen is sitting here on the desk. And Ziggy is warming my toes while I work. I’m amazed at how quickly they all seem to have declared a truce.

I opened this and just about fell off my chair laughing. It was the “grandparent” on the far right that just pushed this over the top.

When people have asked, I have told them that we don’t know what Ziggy is, and that I suspect he’s a Heinz dog (Heinz Ketchup having 57 varieties). I have had people assure me that he’s an Australian Shepherd – my very sweet neighbor has one, and she’s POSITIVE that Zig’s an Aussie, and possibly a purebred. The women I see most mornings on our walk assures me that he’s a retriever – a cross between a Lab and a Flat Coat, just like the one she had growing up.

But we now have the answer: Ziggy has broken the test. Now I have the perfect answer for people when they ask me what he is – that fourth grandparent on the right. Definitely, that’s his breed.

The nice thing is that if I say “refrigerator” in the right tone of voice, he comes to it. So I think it will be easy enough to switch him over.

And yes, taking him out in the yard w/o the leash on was a different dog. He pranced around like always, but then he started exploring my shrubberies and trees, and actually started digging after some vermin that had dug a hole in my yard (probably squirrels). I was so happy to see him being a DOG! It was great!!!

We’re noticing that he’s still a little startled sometimes (in a minor way) by the noises of life in a suburb: more cars going by than he’s probably used to, construction sounds, weed wackers, playing kids, etc. I wanted to be absolutely sure that when we’re in our yard he knows that’s “home” before doing our potty breaks off leash – maybe another week. I’d rather pick up an occasional mistake (although I think we’re getting it down now), than risk some bang from the construction a few houses uphill startling him into running. He’s handling it well – he shies, looks at us, and seems to conclude, oh that’s no big deal, and onward he trots.

We learned last night that he will come when you call – "dad" was on a phone call with China, and snapped his fingers as he made some point in the phone call. He instantly got a dog head in his lap: Oh! You wanted me! Here I AM!!!

While we’re walking, it’s very cute – he’ll be out front, tail held high, wagging, and then he’ll turn around – OK, you’re still here, and yup, you’re still here – and then off he trots for another 30 feet and then – OK, you’re still here and he’s still here – etc. Around the house he’s always within a few inches of me – and the cats are now voluntarily coming within a foot of him, so I think we should soon be good there. He is anxious when I leave, but after a little whining, seems to pretty quickly decide to go sack out.

On the breed testing, the vet said something similar – just do it if you think it would be fun. It’s just a few drops of blood, and they were already having to do that for testing for heartworm (yes, we know you don’t have it there, but since we can’t know 100% that he’s never lived somewhere else, the vet felt better to be safe before giving him heartworm meds), so thought we’d give it a try. My guess is a mix of Aussie and either Newfie or Bernese, with probably 2 or 3 others thrown in further back, but who knows.

He has staked out positions for sleeping on "dad"’s side of the bed, at the foot of our bed, by my side of the bed, and in his dog donut (which is by my head, but slightly over). Unless I roll over or something, in which case he will come stand at attention next to the bed with his nose on my hand, if he can reach it, making sure that if I WANTED to pet him, he was right there. I’m going to get him some flatter style dog beds to put in a couple of those locations, so he’s got something other than carpet underneath him.

He does use the dog donut to observe us while we’re showering and getting ready. And I think that’s where he goes to when we’re gone (at least, that’s where his dental chew goes).

We walked up a few blocks to the middle school, through the sports fields, down a jogging path, that connects up with an old railway. The rail line has been purchased by the city/county, and will be redone into a proper trail, but in the meantime, it’s open for walkers and joggers. Anyway, here are some more pics from his adventures today.

Today was also his first vet appointment. This vet is estimating 8 years of age, based upon his eyes, but gave little confidence in that – it’s a guess. Our boy was perfectly well behaved throughout, and won more new friends. As they had to do a small blood draw for heartworm test (before we administer an anti-heartworm med), I had them do another small draw to do genetic testing, just for the fun of it (well, he may not have momentarily considered it fun). Will definitely share the results.

The only issue we’re having is with poop. He is so very focused on us, that when we take him into the yard or even on a short walk, he’s just not getting into the mood. So he’s now pooped in cars twice and pooped on the stairs once (either between waking up and my getting my clothes on for the morning walk, or after our walk while I was cooking my toast). I think it’s just a learning thing: he’s getting over his anxieties and learning our routines, and we’re learning how to read him and learning his rhythms. Other times he has been as good as gold, so I think it’s just I’m excited, I forgot to go/you didn’t know I needed to, and whoops. This is totally within expectations – if it’s still happening in a month or so, I’ll come back for more advice.

I’m also working with the carpenters to get the back yard entirely closed off – perhaps if we leave him outside for 5 min on his own, he’ll have less of an issue with wanting to gaze into our eyes rather than pooping.

Oh, one funny comment from the vet’s office: a man came out with two gorgeous Huskies/sled dogs of some breed, and the two dogs were crazy: pulling, jumping, etc. The two maniacs, tumbling over each other, came to greet us as we sat in the waiting room, and there was a nice sniffing of noses, with our boy very calm and the two maniacs jumping over and falling over themselves. The man with the huskies asked me how long I’d had our boy (as he complimented Flop’s calm behavior, sitting politely next to my knee and exchanging polite sniffs), and I said two days. He pulled his dogs out the door and left without another word……

Thank you again and again. We are having a fabulous time with our boy. He’s now using his fluffy dog bed at night, although about half of the time, cuddling up against it rather than on top.

Here he is walking with Dad. This is a park (and old 9-hole golf-course that’s now a public park) that’s about a 15 minute walk from our house – we drove to it this morning, so we could spend an hour+ walking around. (TBD) is doing great on his walk – he trots, he prances, he had a ball bouncing up and down between the boardwalk and the main paved path on this long bridge (the old road-turned into a pedestrian walk way) that extends for a mile along the wetland.

Having had his walk and his breakfast, he’s now passed out asleep, lying between us.

The cats are approaching and investigating him – he is just as good as gold. He totally ignores them in his happy way.

We are getting close on a name. We think we have it, but we’re letting it bake today to make sure it’s right.

“Flop” and I got home safely at about 10:00 tonight. Susan headed off for her home, while we took “Flop” for a walk through his new neighborhood for about 45 minutes – he seemed eager to go and stretch his legs.

He’s had a good dinner, and we’re now waiting him out, to see if we can get him to pee/poop before we all hit the sack.

The cats took one look at him, and said, oh, he looks nice, and then they fled for the hills. They keep peering at him, but no contact yet. Flop has been perfectly behaved.

He was great in the car – at least until we got to Monroe. As we pulled in, he decided that he was going to drive the rest of the way. We had to convince him that no, we actually knew where we were going.