Adventures of Sammie and Barney

Hi all,


In my last installment I introduced our newest family member, Barney, a Bernese mountain dog and border collie mix that we adopted from a rescue a couple of weeks ago. This post is an update on his "assimilation" into our home. Resistance is futile you know!

Chewing a bone in our entry way
Barneyboy (one of his nicknames) is an amazingly energetic 14 -- he's very active for a senior dog of his size at 55 pounds. So far he's been to the beach and several parks, and it's fun to watch him explore new places with Sammie. His little legs may be shorter than hers but it's awesome how fast they can move when he's motivated.

Perhaps you've noticed their names change as I write. Tim and I have always been prone to using nicknames for our dogs (and each other), so they have lots of names in our house. For example Samantha is AKA Sammie, Sam, Samurai and I often call her Miss Muffit when she's being especially precocious. Barney is already Barneyboy, Big Guy (of course), Barn for short when we're in a hurry, and I sometimes call him Barnbarn too just for fun.

Sammie on the prowl

We don't really know if he actually hears any of these very well, because like Kennedy, he seems to be mostly deaf. So we'll be teaching him some of the same hand signals we used with Kennedy. I assume he can't hear but speak to him anyway, and combine it with the hand signals when he's looking my way: a big exaggerated move with the arm up and toward my face to say "come", patting my chest and smiling to say "good boy", and of course the standard flat palm in a stop position for "stay", and pushing the palm toward the floor for "down." It's amazing how fast they learn and how instinctual they are.

I often wonder if the human race wasn't better off before we became so "civilized" that many of our natural instincts and what connected us to nature simply became "conditioned" out of us. In the end, did we gain more than we lost, or lose more than we gained? Sometimes I'm not so sure. But I digress....(imagine that! :>)

Cruise ship arrives in Portland harbor as we chat with visitors and their dogs on Willard Beach

Anyway, Barney is adjusting very well into our home. He is learning our house rules quickly, and we are learning his signals and what they mean. We're all giving and getting a little bit to reach a happy middle ground that works for everyone in the house.

This big red kong is Barn's favorite toy

One of the biggest surprises we've gotten is that he appears to be an outdoor dog. He comes in during the daytime but soon after dark he asks to go outside, and next thing you know he's curled up in a corner somewhere sound asleep. The first few nights he wanted to go out but we'd eventually roust him back in before we went to bed. He'd try to sleep there for a while but sooner or later he'd wake up and want to go out again.

Finally one night I decided to put him out and go back to bed since I was pretty sure I'd hear him if he barked when he wanted to come in like he usually does. He stayed out there all night and each time I checked on him from our upstairs window, he was sound alseep looking very content.

Since then he's slept outside every night. His favorite spot is what we call "Sandy's Garden." That's a shady spot at the corner of the fence where our first boy dog, Sandy, liked to snooze on those hot days. After he died of prostate cancer a few years ago we planted some flowers some friends gave us in honor of him and ever since then it's been his garden.

It's interesting that neither Samantha or Jazzie showed any interest in laying there, but all our male dogs: Sandy, Kennedy and now Barney, seem to gravitate to that spot. I don't understand it but I think it's really cool.

Scouring the rocks with a little friend named Daniel

Barneyand Sam appear to be figuring out their places with each other. We've seen Sam growl and tell him what-for a few times if he gets on her nerves or invades her personal space too much. During the first week she snarled at him a few times but Barney was a good sport and quickly backed off and didn't seem at all daunted by the experience.

In recent years I've learned a lot from watching my friends with small children and how they teach them to relate to each other and work things out between themselves without always running to Mom and Dad to solve things for them. This seems like wise parenting to me, because if we haven't at least begun to learn to negotiate and compromise by the time we're five, it's unlikely that we'll be able to do it any better when we're 50. As they say, it's a process, and the earlier we start that process, the easier it will be and the better we are likely to be at it later.

In many ways dogs are very much like pre-school children that simply never get any older -- like young children they are very instinctual, very bright, and they understand WAY more than we "adults" think they do. We "humans" sometimes make similar mistakes with dogs, and mistakenly believe they can't learn or do certain things.

From my experience, the more faith I have in them to learn something, the more success they have in doing it. Whether I'm talking about children, dogs, or even adults, that axiom seems to apply. Hmmmm....maybe if I use that as a mantra, it will work for me too when I'm learning something new. I think I can....I think I can....

Barney snoozing in Sandy's garden. Notice the left ear laying in his water bowl?

Since Tim and I don't have "two legged" children of our own, it's been fascinating to me in recent years to watch many of our friends with their kids when the second one comes along and they start to fight over things. It's so cool to watch how quickly a child's whine at a parent can disappear when that parent reminds them to "use their words" and work it out together. Mom and Dad are there to oversee that the words are used nicely, not to solve their problems for them.

What a great concept, teach by example and then trust the kids to figure some things out for themselves by doing it themselves. I love it!

Tim is having to jog to keep up!

We use the same "use your words" rule in our house when we have a new dog(s) entering our "pack." They seem to do better in the long run if I also let them work out their scuffles on their own -- as long as its only vocal and there is no biting or blood involved. Or unless the growling goes on too long or things seem to be escalating.

Here's a better shot of the ear in the bowl.
He went to sleep this way and doesn't seem to notice or care.

Since Barney arrived, he's been testing his boundaries with Samantha (and us) to see what he can get away with of course (again, like most children). So far I've only intervened once when I thought Sam snarled at him when he accidentally stumbled into her -- that time her response seemed unnecessary. Other than those few expected "tests" of their boundaries with each other, they are getting along amazingly well.

I've always been a proponent of consistency -- if it's not okay then it's ALWAYS not okay, and vice versa -- that way there is no confusion about when it's okay and when it isn't. Perhaps with children they eventually learn what "later" or "not this time" means, but so far I haven't had much luck getting my dogs to understand that "later" context. If I say, "walk" or "treat" or "no" -- that seems to imply to them "now".

Although Samantha is still adjusting to Barney sort of invading her territory, it seems Barney has completely adopted her already. He follows Samantha around and always wants to know exactly where she is, and lately I've seen Sam looking for him too in that subtle way she has, so the buddiness seems to go both ways. Sam always tries to look so aloof and nonchalant about things, but if you watch her long enough you can see how she looks to see where he's going and always seems to know where Barney is and what he's doing.

It's so cool to watch the dynamics change as they get to know each other better. For example, now Barney always marks Samantha's spots now, which is new after about a week.

And just the other day Tim and I had gone out for a few hours and when we returned home and walked onto the deck we could see Sammie looking at us through the rear window, but she didn't make a sound. Now this was very unusual because typically as soon as she sees us she begins her "welcome home" howls which can be rather......well, loud. But this time all she did was stand there quietly and then come outside as we opened the door. Still no howls. Hmmmm. What's up with that? This is strange.

Willard Beach on a weekend morning

As she heads out into the yard we went inside looking for Barney and we find him sound asleep in the den --- in Sammie's bed. Apparently she knew he was asleep and didn't want to wake him up with her usual howling of our arrival. And she didn't seem bothered at all that he was sleeping in her bed. As they say, it was priceless!

Barney is also picking up some of Sam's mannerisms. He has learned her "down dog" move, and it appears she's been teaching him to howl too. The other day Tim was the first one home and as he approached the deck from our driveway Samantha began howling as usual, only this time Barney joined in. Aaooooo!! Tim thought it was very funny until it seemed Barney didn't want to stop -- even after Tim had gotten into the house -- Barney was still howling away. Sam just stood there looking at him like, "what are you doing?" It seemed like he'd found a new cool skill he didn't know he had, and he was saying "look what I can do!"

The morning beach walk with the dog is also a great time for meeting and chatting with friends and neighbors. Sort of social time for dogs and people too!

Today was Barney's first off-leash outing, as we all made our weekend morning constitutional to our local beach. Barney did extremely well for the first time -- so well in fact that it seems likely he's been off-leash before. He trots ahead happily but looks back often to see where we are and checks for cues on direction.

There is something about dogs and beaches -- somehow they just seem to go together. But then, what's not to like? Soft sand under the feet, easier on the body than pavement, water to play in, rocks to sniff (my personal favorite), and lots of people and other dogs to visit along the way.

These latest pictures were taken today during our morning walk on Willard Beach. During the summer dogs are allowed on the beach from 7-9am and 7-9pm. As you can see it's a very popular time for local residents to walk their dogs, and it's also a great social time where we get to visit with neighbors we might not see otherwise.

There are so many of us that know each other only from the beach with our dogs, when we meet on the street or somewhere without our dogs we may not both recognize the other. Then when someone says, "I have the golden" or whatever, the light bulb goes on and the connection is made. It's true what they say about dogs bringing people together.

After an hour or so on the beach we wound through the neighborhood toward home. Our beach day formula is beach, rinse, dry and rest. That means after the dogs go to the beach they know that is followed by a fresh water rinse (for us too) to keep sand out of the house, toweling them dry and then we all chill out on the deck for a while. I love summer in Maine.
As you can see from the photos, Barney wasn't too sure about the rinse part. He must have had some bad experiences somewhere along the way because he was originally pretty afraid of people, but he's coming along very quickly now. I've worked with him a lot and now he'll let me give him a bath (albeit with some howling now and then), brush him, and sometimes I can even use my hands to open his mouth if I need to look at his teeth or give him meds. He never bites, but he has this howl and bark when he pulls away that can be kind of scary if you don't know him.

But any dog we bring into our house quickly learns that I'm patient, but very persistent. That seems to have worked pretty well for me so it's a strategy I stick with, while learning more and more from each dog we have.

As lead dog, Sam shows Barney how it's done

Like most people who know me, my dogs soon learn that I'm not really one who's prone to give up -- at least not easily. Sometimes I think I'm turning into a dog. I seem to think like them, respond the way they do sometimes, move my leg back and forth when you scratch my belly....well okay, maybe not that last one.....but then again........ :>)

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and great week ahead.

Cheers, from Carla, Tim, Sammie and Barneyboy

Whee! We're free! We're free!