Saturday, September 13, 2008

Poochie's 2nd Video


When She's Hungry for Her Meal

Hungry Poochie
As of only a couple of days ago, she sits at her eating area whenever she's hungry and wanting her meal.

First Video! Boring, but it's Something!




Please ignore what is being said in the background. Cara and I are ordering dinner and I just wanted to get a quick video of Poochie. It's kind of dark, so.. please hold while I get I fix it.

Poochie's Visit to Cara's PHOTOS

Poochie Meets Cara
Dumbo's trying to fly
(You can't really tell, but that's a navy blue hoodie Poochie is wearing :)
Poochie Meets Cara
I know, it's kind of mean, but I love giving her the pig-nose. This time it's a bit lop-sided, but.. I didn't want to torment her.
Poochie Meets Cara
Poochie Meets Cara
The apt's really cold
Poochie Meets Cara
These photos were all taken once Poochie was done exploring the apt.
Poochie Meets Cara
Not too long after we got home, Poochie passed out. She pretty much slept with her head like that for most of the night. ... It can't be comfortable can it?

Ha! She just pulled her head back up.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Poochie's New Friend

I finally got to take Poochie to my friend, Cara's place. There was a guy delivering Chinese food while Poochie and I were walking up the stairs. Naturally, Poochie barked at him, but she quit after I was able to distract her and walk her to Cara's door. (It's when I take her out for her to go potty and something comes by to set her off that it's hardest to distract/control her. I guess that's mostly because we're still on my property?)
Soooo Poochie got to meet Cara. With a tiny bark and a growl, Poochie started exploring the apartment. Cara had a blast. Poochie is still wary of her, but by the end of the day started to loosen up around Cara. Like she did with David, anytime Cara moved or got up to do something, Poochie either growled or ran after Cara. There was no biting or any, ANY signs of attack. Still, she's doing really well with meeting new people. She had no problem with letting Cara pet her, etc. She did eat some of her dinner out of Cara's hand and Cara gave her a rawhide stick and Poochie didn't care for it until later in the day. Anytime Cara handed it to her, Poochie would take it into her hand then place it on the floor. Hurray~
I had left my digital camera in Cara's car so I can finally take videos of Poochie! Very exciting! Though, I think the lens might've been damaged from being in the heat. :/ I hope it's okay. I've had it for so many years, it can't fail on me now!
I have to do other things, so I'll be posting videos/photos soon of Poochie's visit to Cara's house.

Yikes


A woman loses her dog, Daisy May, to an unexpected attack from a dog it was previously interacting with. For the full story go to: abc2news.com
If there is an error then go to abc2news.com and search "petsmart dog attack".
It irks me that a dog that was calmly interacting with Daisy, out of nowhere attacked her. Very frightening... I guess this would be a lesson to everyone to be cautious with your dogs around others' dogs, esp when they're meeting for the first time. It's just unbelievable. I wonder what triggered the dog to act that way.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

More Territorial than Ever

Today was a tiring day...
I took her out this morning but she could barely pee because she was focused on my next door neighbors, who were all leave the house at the same time. Poochie loves their dogs, but doesn't like the people. After a little while I took her out again in case she might have to go but she never got to focus because there was a person yaaards down and across the street walking in and out of her house. Poochie had to bark and bark and bark and bark at that person. I tried all kinds of methods to keep her attention on me and at least distract her from barking, but nothing has stuck so far. I even did Cesar Millan's methods, but to no sign of avail. If I had the money to get Cesar out here and he did come out... I bet what'll happen is that she'll listen to him and it'll work like a charm while he's there.. and as soon as Cesar's gone... Poochie will be back to her old ways. I know I'm being firm and I'm pretty sure she sees me as the leader and yet it's still hard to get her to listen to me when there are strangers around.
So far she's only seen people walking and today, for the first time, she saw a jogger. Yup, she went nuts... I have bad hearing so I never even knew someone was running by until Poochie started going nuts. This was the 3rd time I took her out to let her go potty and hopefully be able to focus, but NO.

THEN.. THEN.. the neighbor's dog, Janey came out. That was fine, Poochie loves the dogs, BUT.. the little girl (don'tknow how old she is) came over, too. Poochie started to go nuts and so Janey started to yell at Poochie.. Little girl thought Poochie was being mean to Janey, so I told her it was the other way around. I have never been around little kids and I have no idea how I'm supposed to talk to them and what I'm allowed or not allowed to tell them, but I don't believe in lying to kids, so I told her.. Poochie was never around people so she's not used to them, bla bla bla. Of course, she's a little girl who grew up with really nice, huge dogs.. and didn't fear Poochie at all. Poochie's also very tiny... The LAST thing I need is for Poochie to nip Justina and for Justina to go crying to her parents and for her parents to come screaming at me. Don't want that. Do not ever want that. Ever.. Iiiiii do not like little kids. They ask silly little things like, "Does that man (pointing to my dad) that lives with you speak Spanish?" What in the world is her mother telling her?? And what the HELL are these kids learning in school? Clearly, nothing about ethnicity. I mean, it's understandable when you're going to a school in some rural town, back in the nineties, with only one Asian and no one knows what "Korea" is. Hell, you don't even have to go to school to learn these things.
Today, though.. it's different. Kids should know the difference between a Caucasian, African American, Asian, and Mexican/Latino/etc... Okay, if we were Indian and this girl asked if my dad spoke Spanish, I can understand. When you're 7, 9, whatever her age is, that can be confusing. Maybe they came from another all-white area?

Hey, a show of hands of those who've heard rumors that Finksburg, MD (that's me) has an underground KKK!

My dislike of children definitely does not help Poochie to feel less threatened around Justina; I know this...
Poochie almost got to play with a dog. It's a shame Justina had to run over. I don't blame her, either.. her dog was in our yard and she had to be a good owner and come get her.. Sigh..... I want to understand and like kids, but... phew... like Poochie and her socializing, I have a long way to go with that.



To end on a good note... Poochie is an angel on our walks.
As for an ultimate goal, this is how Poochie will be in the future. I whole-heartedly wish:

Min-Pin vs Pit Bull



I so badly want a pit bull...

RED CHAIR III PHOTOS

Poochie and Her Red Chair

Poochie and Her Red Chair

Poochie and Her Red Chair

Poochie and Her Red Chair

Red Chair III


Poochie and Her Red Chair, originally uploaded by JenBagelHan.

Poochie has been trained to stay in her bed and to leave the chair alone. After a few no-no's she complied.. That night, she was a tad sad.. but.. now she guards her bed like nobody's business. As soon as anyone of us get up to move and move towards the direction of her bed and she's not already there, she trots on ahead of us, and hops into her bed. Sigh... So paranoid.

Poochie's First Day in the City

So! Very exciting day, yesterday in Baltimore, MD. It wasn't that eventful, but.. it was Poochie's first day in such a busy environment with all kinds of noises, smells, and people walking by. I went to my friend, David's for a visit and I thought he would be the best person for Poochie to meet first since he absolutely loves tiny dogs like her. He has a Chihuahua, named Mr. Tuggles, back home; an even bigger plus.
She showed little to no sign of aggression or fear towards David and allowed him to pet her, etc. We hung out in his room for a while and she napped a lot. Anytime he got up to do something she growled a little. He went to the bathroom, she growled. He came back from the bathroom, she growled. These moments were each followed with a brief nap.
We also hung out on his porch. She barked and growled at any person that walked by. She only barked at a couple of people across the street. Nick, one of David's housemates, came home and Poochie didn't growl at him or anything! Very, very exciting. She just sniffed him and left him alone. David needed cigarettes and we walked down to the corner store on the block and she did very well just sitting there, panting away the heat. A customer came out, she barked at him once and kept growling. The guy talked to her for a bit. Shoftly after, he was on his way again.. Then Nick came up and was off to work. Again, she was absolutely fine with him. I wish I still lived in the city. It would help tremendously with the socializing. People in the city understand a lot more about dogs than the people in my neighborhood. Or maybe, I just feel that way because I myself am not comfortable in this town. I'm too used to the city... I'm much less insecure there.
Anyway...
Poochie was behaving pretty closely to a dog that I can't wait for her to be until Kelly, another one of David's housemates, came home from work. Naturally, Poochie started to growl and bark like crazy at the sound, then more so at the sight of Kelly. She didn't stop growling out Kelly until we went outside and Poochie was distracted by the neighborhood cat, Balls.


David, Kelly, Nick, Derrick's place
This is Balls. He has quite the cajones, in more ways than one. This was taken at another date, but that's him. Balls. He loved to tease Poochie. Poochie wanted to attack him so badly.. unfortunately for her, she had to be on a leash. So.. understandably, she didn't do well with Balls. He taunted, she had no choice but to stare at him and occasionally fail at attempting to lunge at him. Hopefully, she'll meet nicer cats and learn to like them whether they hate her or not. Baby loved the first cat she ever met. He didn't like her back, though... Oh cats and dogs.

This is David. Again, taken at another date. Sorry for the lack of pictures from Poochie's first day in the city!
David, Kelly, Nick, Derrick's place

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

I wish I could've had Poochie as a pup



That's not her. Just someone's min pin pup on youtube.com
We'll just pretend that this is in fact Poochie, but with a penis and cropped ears.
Can you guys imagine just how much wonderful, drop-dead-adorable shenanigans Poochie would've gone into as a pup in a normal living situation? It breaks my heart a little to think about it.

Templates

Wow... so... I downloaded and tested out a couple of templates and I lost interest in the first one and I realized that a tiny part of the 2nd one wasn't working... So... I tried to set it back the way it was, but I don't know what happened, but blogger decided to get a little nutty and change things... I spent hours to noooo avail, whatsoever.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Oh no!

It's hard for me to notice it (of course..) but my mom said, "oooo she's getting a little chub chub!"

We have started to walk for an hour everyday! Honest! We just didn't start right away...
I'm sure she'll begin to get fit soon with more walks and when she finally figures out what the damn tennis ball, that I got for her today is for. She likes to poke it with her nose then leave it alone. I think I had more fun with it myself...

RED CHAIR II

When I started to keep her from hopping up on the chair, I moved her bed onto the floor, right next to the chair. At first, when she was upset and confused she didn't like to come near the chair at all. This was earlier tonight, now she goes back and goes right to her bed and plays there.

Success!

Planning on taking her to the MICA campus for some socializing. Don't know if I'll go to my friends first, or second. We'll see. I don't think going to MICA will be too much for her, but luckily tomorrow's weather isn't looking so super. This means that there won't be as many people out wanting to greet her. I remember when Baby, the 2 month old pit bull mix I had (for.. two.. months.. :( became such an attention whore whenever I would take her out and onto campus. If only Poochie could've had some of that loving and attention when shew as a pup. It really is a shame.. Speaking of which... the lady who rescued her, Tara, recently e-mailed me Poochie's story and I'd like to share that with you:

Anne Arundel County Humane officers investigated a man who was a backyard breeder. The county only allows you 4 dogs without a fancier license and he had about 10. He kept them all confined in a room with little to no socialization. They were in good physical shape overall- decent body condition, but no social skills. The owner was forced to surrender 5 dogs in order to comply with the law. He gave up Hershey and Snickers (the girls) and 3 boys. The boys were unfortunately euthanized before we could get them even though our rescue informed them we would take them. They claimed they were biters. Well, duh! Unsocialized, terrified little dogs taken out of their regular environment will bite! We have rehabilitated many “biters” with great success. I personally own one that was set to be put to sleep by another rescue until I stepped in. He is one of the best dogs I have ever had and does not bite now that it is not allowed.

When I came to get the girls, they had them separated. They also would not let me put them in the same crate even though I was the one transporting them. Both girls were at the fronts of their cages, but the shelter workers treated them like they were rabid pit bulls and didn’t let me get them even though I offered. If they had been truly fearful, they would have been at the backs of their cages. Unfortunately, many shelters have prejudices against small dogs and especially min pins. I am just thankful that we were at least able to save 2 of them and get them into better homes. I would have really liked to keep them together as Snickers is the more shy of the 2 and took on some of Hershey’s confidence, but placing 2 dogs in one home at the same time is very hard to do. Hershey is being fostered right now and doing very well. She is the same color as Snickers, but her body type is completely the opposite. She is a TANK! I will send you some pictures of her as we had her for a few days as well. I am certain Hershey also had at least one litter if not more

RED CHAIR

No picture about it yet, but... today is the first day.
She's a bit confused and sad about it, but.. I don't want her to think she can start taking over.

My dad's quite the stubborn one. I tell him not to do certain things or I tell him how to do certain things.. and he doesn't listen. That's what I get for having a traditionally, stereotypically Asian (Korean) dad.

Wakey Wakey


Finally got her a fleece blanket and into her crate. When I first came downstairs, I couldn't find her. She had completely buried herself.

Woken up....

Falling asleep again....

Very, very, oh so cozy.

And then she went back to sleep for another 30 minutes.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Brat! :)




She's more adorable than ever. As bratty as she is.. she is die hard cute as well as very smart. So... It's always about the chair. The chair is hers. As much as my dad nags at her, the chair is hers. It is.. the Poochie Chair.



Even without her comfy bed, it is her chair. I'm sure I've mentioned how when she isn't in her chair and any one of us are walking near, or by the chair.. she runs over and hops on into it.



My dad. My dad is now sitting in the chair. He sat down before she got to. Still, she immediately jumped on and though it may appear that she is snuggling... she is not. What she's REALLY doing is reiterating that the chair is in fact, hers. In a nutshell... the chair is no longer ours...



  • Walks really well on the leash. I stop and tell her "stop" and she stops and looks at me. Then, I tell her to sit and she sits. This I do whenever a car drives by or whenever we come to a curb of the sidewalk.
  • Loves to bark at people and dogs... Working on fixing that.
  • Loves her Bobo doll in her crate.
  • Loves her weird tabby cat rope, ball thing...
  • Only downside so far... is that she doesn't listen to me unless I'm holding her leash. We started to get her to sit without the leash, but that was very shortlived.