Last week we decided it was time to add another doggy to the family. See, Joe is pretty much my dog. According to Steve, Joe likes him, but he loves me. What can I say, Joe’s a monogamous guy

Getting another dog was going to be tricky. Steve wanted a female because they typically bond better with men. Fortunately Joe also needed a female, preferably black and about the same size as him.

As luck would have it, we found the perfect little lady at the SPCA across the street from us. On Monday Steve and I went over to check out the doggies. Based on their sex, size and descriptions we narrowed it down to two: Guitara and Sweety. After meeting them both, we decided Guitara was the best bet. However it was too late in the day for a dog to dog meeting.

The rest of the night I tried not to obsess about Guitara too much, because if Joe didn’t like her the search would have to begin again. Their meeting was crucial because Joe only likes 9 out of 10 dogs that he meets and I’d rather not make Joe spend the rest of his life fighting with or growling at a dog he doesn’t like. That’s part of why we were so particular about our choice. The other reason had to do with our own preference, wanting a somewhat mellow dog that was smart enough to be trained.

On Tuesday we took Joe over as soon as they opened at 11:00a. Mollie, the trainer, spoke to us about Guitara for about half an hour explaining everything she could about her personality so that we knew what we were getting into. She said that Guitara freaks out a little when she’s on a leash and sees other dogs. She’s not dog-aggressive, just very anxious to go and meet them. She needed a refresher on potty training and lots of exercise, both physically and mentally.

Because Guitara freaked out on-leash, introducing her to Joe had to be done in a very controlled environment. Joe and I headed outside to a fenced in area, while Mollie and Steve went to get Guitara. Mollie led Guitara out with treats to distract her from the fact that Joe was present. Eventually she calmed down and they met face to face.

It was at this point that I was most nervous – will he growl and show his dislike? Or will he happily sniff and accept her? They sniffed each other and quickly approved. Then they lost interest and Guitara started investigating the fenced area. It was basically like neither dog cared that the other was there, which is pretty much what we wanted. Just once there was a little chasing, another good sign.

After they “hung out” a bit, Mollie showed us how Guitara freaked out about other dogs. She would whine and pull toward the dog, maybe bark a little. Not enough of a problem to prevent Steve and I from adopting her. A bunch of paperwork later, we were walking her home across the street!

Since then we’ve changed her name to Lana. She wasn’t really responding to “Guitara” anyway, so we felt it was safe to switch. Every day we try to get them to chase each other for a little bit. Lana is a Kelpie mix, which is basically like an Australian sheep dog, so she likes to herd. Whenever they play she herds Joe into a corner. Meanwhile he tries to hump her, and sometimes she tries to hump him.

All in all they get along pretty well. I love watching them run because right in the middle they’ll flip around a couple times, making it look more like a dance then a chase. I hope they continue to get along this well and bond. Occasionally they’ll lick one another’s mouth; wait for the other by the door; and once Lana dropped her bone by Joe’s feet!

The first couple weeks are most important for a solid relationship, and week one has gone extremely well. Here’s to hoping that week two is just as great!
More Pictures

Over the weekend we played this captions game (attempted explanation here) with some friends. My caption was “Joe dressed like the Easter Bunny and passed out many eggs.” It was handed over to Steve, who drew the cutest rendition of Joe in a bunny costume. It totally captures the essence of Joe! It even has his “sock” ears.

I took roughly 35 pictures to get one good shot. This is the last one. As you can see by his polite, gentle paw, he’s had enough and he wants me to stop.

Joe has preferences. On several occasions I managed to catch onto what Joe was trying to tell me.

Once, I made him sit, put the food in his bowl, then told him to go ahead and eat it. He just sat there staring at me. I walked away thinking, eh, he’ll eat it. Moments later he was still standing there, staring at me. The staring wasn’t working. He started to give a low rolling growl (not at all mean sounding) and batted at his dish a little. I came over to him and thought about how he likes to back onto trees to poo. Is the dish too close to the corner? I moved the dish out a bit and viola! He began to eat.

On the other occasion Steve was trying to get Joe to roll over. He learned this a while ago, but we haven’t used it much so he sort of needs to be re-taught. In the kitchen on the hard tile floor, Steve repeatedly told Joe to lay down – the first step in teaching a dog to roll over. Once the dog is laying, you use the food to make him roll. Well when it came to the roll part Joe kept getting up really fast and running over to the coffee table. After doing this about three times I realized that he wanted to roll over on the rug under the coffee table instead of on the hard tile floor! Steve went over there and Joe rolled on the first request!

I find it so fascinating that my little doggy has managed to communicate with me despite the fact that he can’t talk. How frustrating that must be when I don’t get it right away. I realize that dogs tell their owners things all the time, like “hey, I want to go out.” But I see the things above as a little more complicated than that. I wonder what else he would tell me if he could.

I just saw Joe’s identical [thinner] twin! Her name is Lady and her owner wrote me to say that they look almost exactly alike! The only difference is that Lady actually has the beagle saddle, and she’s much thinner than Joe. Pretty neat

Sometimes Joe does the cutest things. So cute that I think my head is going to explode. So cute I have the desire to eat his entire head, starting with that soft, delicate ear. In this photo he has placed his head on my sweater, which I anthropomorphically interpret as him missing or loving me. Isn’t it just so freaking adorable???

Post #11 (50-100-50)

I just took one of those goofy quizzes where you find out what celebrity your dog would be. As it turns out Joe would be George Clooney.

Why do they always make these things so damn ugly?

Post #7 (50-100-50)

We went to the dog beach again yesterday. Leigh and Sammy (Joe’s girlfriend) joined us. Joe didn’t run around as much as he did last time, but I think we all still had fun. Steve buried Sammy in the sand – she just sat there and let him do it like a good little doggy. Here’s the entire photo set.

Saturday, well actually the last three days, were extremely and uncharacteristically warm here in San Francisco. We were going to ride the motorcycles with our friend, Jordy, but Steve’s bike wouldn’t start. After failing to get the bike running (I won’t go into details here), we decided that a trip to the park or beach would suffice.

I half expected it to still be a little chilly at the ocean, but it wasn’t. The day was truly a warm one. We went to Fort Funston, a beach that allows dogs. The parking lot was full and we had a long walk to the beach itself, which was probably about 100 feet down a sandy cliff.

As soon as we reached the bottom Joe took off running after all the dogs. It was like dog heaven, there were so many running around, splashing in the water, chasing each other. And Joe was running! Yes, actually running (this is also extremely rare)!

We settled down and hung out for a while. Surprisingly Joe just did whatever we did. If we were up and moving, he was running, if we sat on the blanket, he was laying next to it. After a while he made friends with a chocolate lab that kept him chasing after her. Joe is sitting in most of the pictures because I failed to take the camera out soon enough. But you can see how dirty he got while having tons of fun. (Here’s the photoset)

When we were all done we had to hike back up that cliff, which was not easy. You can kind of see it in the background of this picture (I added a note). Joe was so tired from it all that when he reached the top he laid down to rest for a while, but we kept moving. He went about 10 more feet then laid down again. He was so pooped! What a fun day

How do you like it? The Jolly Green Munchkin… Toupee Joe… Cabbage Hitler… Or a very well behaved dog that lets me take pictures of him with cabbage on his head.