Oh dear…

[tollermom]

So I’m spending some quality time with Petey this evening, where he’s the only dog loose in the main part of the house with me, and I discovered some interesting things.

First… he’s firmly convinced, from months of playing fetch with Nick, that fetch should be a contact sport, in which I’m the quarterback, Nick is the wide receiver who goes out for the long pass, and Petey is the defensive tackle who body blocks Nick, causes a fumble and steals the ball. The first time I threw his hedgehog for him tonight, he just stared at Nick (who was in the crate) and looked thoroughly confused about not having a receiver to block. He did get the hang of it pretty quickly, but it’s clear that I need to do a lot more one-on-one work w/ Mr. Pete on retrieving.

Second… he’s really used to having a playmate to keep him occupied. That can be me, or it can be Nick, and in the absence of either of us, he creates his own fun. I came up from downstairs just in time to see Petey vault onto the dining room table (which is bar-height… so substantially taller than your average table), where he proceeded to come nose-to-nose with a very startled Fiddler, who quickly gave way to allow Petey unimpeded access to the cat food*.

Good grief.

This is going to require a whole new level of puppy-proofing!

* Yes, the cat food is on the dining room table. I usually eat in the living room. The cats’ food bowl is on the dining room table to keep it out of reach (until now) of the dogs.

Originally published at reddogs.com

Comments

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I used to feed the cats on top of the freezer because the beagle could not jump that high.

Maybe something with slats, that the cats can pass through but Petey is too plump to?

[tollermom]

I have a baby gate... but it's not as tall as the table, so I expect Petey would just vault it too!

I'm just going to have to work on convincing him that getting on the table is a Really Bad Idea.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more along the lines of the catfood being inside a pen...
Not sure what you'd put the pen on top of, though.

Teaching Petey 'table manners' *would* probably be simpler.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Oh my. From meeting him last year, I expected he would be interesting, but I doubt either of us expected quite that much of a handful! Fortunately, he's very cute.

[tollermom]

Yes, he's very cute... and very sweet. Just a bit of an adolescent brat at the moment, with a huge dose of curiosity and very little fear. He has a healthy respect for the cats. I'm not sure he'd've jumped onto the table if he'd realized Fiddler was there before he jumped.

[fionapatton.livejournal.com]

you have my sympathy sister. teddy floats onto the dining room table where the cat food is without so much as a scramble of toenails when he lands-the little booger. Don't think Liam can make it--yet-- I have a series of things like water bottles and boxes spaced evenly to stop him but to still let cats up there. Not certain it works-have heard very suspicious noises from that part of the house in the night.

[tollermom]

That's what Petey did! For a puppy who still has a big dose of "I've grown so fast I don't know where my corners are," he was amazingly graceful in just vaulting up there. No scrabbling and only the slightest skid.

I like the idea of spacing things that will hopefully (a) change his perspective of the table and (b) startle him if he knocks them off. Of course, if it's bottles, he'll just take the plastic bottles as toys.