Stewie

For the second time, tonight he jammed himself between the slats in the table legs. He can't get out of this by himself. He just sits there and waits to be rescued. I laughed my head off at him last night, and I think that's why he repeated the performance.

Stewie Update

Someone named Anonymous asked how Stewie's doing. He's on meds to get rid of some urine crystals. He is still having bouts of peeing, but not as excessively as he was. His accidents are fewer now. It also helps that I'm watching him more closely.

Today he played in a friend's rock garden and, as usual, spent some time beating up on Rip.

Stewie Beef

Yeah, I know, he looks so sweet and innocent! He comes when I call him, loves riding in the car and likes to sit by my feet. But what is up with the sporadic and indiscriminate peeing? Sometimes he holds it, sometimes he doesn't, even in the crate! He's on his second course of antibiotics. How long can this go on?!

Equine Art and Cliffy Pics Are Fine, But....

Word has it what I REALLY need to blog about is Stewie. Check out those choppers! GRRRR.... He's not chomping on me quite as hard as he used to. It's like he learns everything that a normal puppy does; it's all just coming later.



Yesterday he actually came running when I called him! Housebreaking is still a challenge. He's going on five months old, but I have to keep in mind that bladder-wise, he is currently in the stage of about an eight week old puppy. If I take him outside every fifteen minutes, he does okay. He gets really excited about praise. His eye contact is getting better all the time and recently he just started looking up at me from the floor, and he looks me right in the eye when I talk to him. I can't tell for sure if his vision is improving.



He still loves to beat up on Rip! He's happy all the time and has a real sense of fun. He weighs over seven lbs now! He's gained over three lbs since I've had him.



I got him a rope toy, which he LOVES! He swings it around, growls and snarls and shakes it! It's hysterical! I really think he's going to be okay.

Stewie's Sit-Down Strike

I gotta admit, I'm stymied. What dog doesn't love to take a walk? The Lakeland Trail is pretty innocuous -- it's just a long, flat, paved, revamped railroad. I carried Stewie a good distance from the road. Then I set him down on the ground and expected him to follow along. Here's what he did.



I put a leash on him to try to coax him to follow. He simply flattened himself on the ground, with his legs stretched straight out behind so that his body resembled a bear rug. He allowed himself to be dragged along the pavement on his belly.

I ended up carrying him about a mile and a half. Finally on the way back, he decided to come to life. He ran circling around me, barking and yapping, the rest of the way.

I guess I will have to scrap any plans for him carrying a backpack.

Stewie *IS* Batman!

Two days ago, I noticed for the first time that Stewie is beginning to make eye contact with me. He was riding in his crate on the seat next to me, looking out as usual, but I noticed that now when I speak to him he looks up into my eyes. He still seems to be extremely nearsighted. I've been trying to orient his gaze more and more, up toward my face. I do this by tempting him with boiled chicken liver. YUM!



He still has the bladder infection so we're continuing antibiotics. Housebreaking remains a challenge.



He's actually running in the pic below, and it shows his odd little head tilt. He sometimes runs or sits holding his head at an angle like this.



Note the priceless expression on Rip's face, below. This is what they do all day long. He usually can spot her -- he must lock in on the black and white blob pretty easily.





I like the picture above because it shows his Batman tag. The back of the tag reads, "I AM BLIND AS A BAT"!

Two Stews Forward

So I catch him out of the corner of my eye, heading for the spot where he usually pees. I don't say anything but he suddenly doubles back and comes over to where I am sitting at the table. He does his little alternate sit/down/hop, like he does when he is begging for food.

"Do you want to go outside?"

He starts to spin, wagging his tail and making it clear that yes, that is what he wants. We go to the door and he runs out and immediately squats.

I am ecstatic. "STEWIE! GOOD BOY!!!"

He comes back in and I run to the fridge and get him a big piece of chicken liver. He gulps it down happily. I scritch his belly and hug him and squeal. He wiggles and snorts in appreciation.

After we calm down, I go back to my project. As I cross the room, I step in a puddle of pee.

A Dog Story

As we walked down the driveway in the slanted evening light, I felt a bit sad watching Stewie come to terms with his disability. For a pup that was born with a hole in his head, he's really not dumb at all. His poor vision is an impediment. He is working on honing his other senses, but the way sound tends to bounce is often confusing to him. When a situation gets beyond his control, he makes the choice to just sit still and wait for rescue. I find this incredibly wise, especially at his tender age of four months.

Though he possesses a generous helping of terrier bravado, he has enough sense to know he's not immortal. Tonight when we were walking we met the neighbor's new German shepherd pup, who is about Stewie's same age, but an elephant by comparison. When he saw her, he immediately had to run up and say hello and offer to play -- but then quickly realized she was going to be way too much dog for him.

The GSD, named Celine, thought Stewie must be her own personal squeaky toy. She wasn't biting him as much as wanting to flatten him with her paw. Stewie could see well enough to tell that I was crouching down, and he made a beeline for me.

But he was never in any real danger, because Big Sister was there. Ripple helps me in puppy classes, as she has a terrific sense about how to put a stop to inappropriate stuff. She was on this German shepherd like a bullet! It was amazing to watch.

Celine tried to rassle with her at first, but that went over like an anvil. This wasn't a game. That pup was going to learn some respect, and that was that. When Celine flashed around in a game of dodge, Rip simply outran her. She body slammed her and sent her rolling. Every time she hit the pup, she snarled. Pretty soon Celine decided that her best option was to bolt for home! Once again, that was not an option! Rip ran her down and hit her again, this time circling to drive her back to us. Finally, the pup learned that her only acceptable recourse was to lie flat in submission.

Once Rip had established the rules, they got along just fine. They even sat together for treats, and Rip even played with her! Who knows... It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

All Stewie, All the Time

He can run like the wind; he just can't see where he's going!

Here comes trouble!

Stewie Update

Housebreaking was getting nowhere. I was getting worried the constant peeing, peeing in the crate etc. might be due to Stewie's congenital problem. I met Lori and we took him to her vet. He has a BAD bladder infection. Both Lori and the vet COULD NOT BELIEVE the difference in him after three weeks. He was doing sits, downs and his little dance twirl for treats. He was happy and attentive. Lori said it was amazing. He has gained ¾ of a lb (now up to about 5 ½ lbs), and is a little thin but I imagine it is because he’s burning it all off right now. Lori couldn’t get over how much his coordination/movement has improved. That’s all muscle tone. She also kept commenting on how quiet and happy he was in the crate.

I was relieved to know that he is indeed growing. It’s hard for me to tell. I did know his muscle tone was better but couldn’t tell about size. Also vastly relieved about the infection. He's on Clavamox and we'll see how he does with the crate-peeing when his health improves!

We came home and Rip wore him out with some playtime.

Totally Terrier

Here is a pic of Stewie with the longsuffering Rip. She really is great with him, although I don't leave her trapped with him for long periods and she's never alone with him. The little guy is getting stronger all the time and developing a neat personality. Today he ran into his crate to ask for breakfast. He still bites but is showing a little more inhibition now with the amount that he chomps down. I'm working on gentling him in increments.

Housebreaking has been a different matter. I let him off the hook since even though he's three and a half months old now, he has the size and bladder of an eight week old pup. However, his random peeing and pooping all over the house is getting old. Plus, since he had never been outside, he prefers to pee on a flat surface and that has included the inside of his crate. I'd had this happen before with a toy poodle and I never was able to break him of this nasty habit. I decided this time will be different. I have assigned Stewie a smaller crate -- one he barely fits in. He spent the night in it last night, and got through it just fine. So far so good.

Wholly Terrier

Now Stewie, given a breakfast of kibble in a bowl, thinks he would rather earn chicken or baby food. So he forsakes it to come and hang around my feet, sitting and waiting.

This is the calmest he has ever been, and it's early in the day! This is what I was hoping to see -- the cerebral cortex kicking in.

God Loves a Terrier

Stewie's been with me about ten days now, and I've been just letting him be a dog. He runs a lot and is calming down a little bit. He shows no separation anxiety indoors, but fortunately for me he is really making an effort to seek and stay close to me (or Rippy) outside.

He had his first clicker session today. He gets absolutely wild when he smells food, so I decided to do it with baby food. He is so small that he can't chew anything quickly, and he can't see things well enough to find them if they hit the floor. (I've decided that he's nearly blind.) Besides that, he still bites so hard I thought eating from a metal spoon might deter that a bit.

I cracked open the baby food, and he was running around like mad, searching for the source of the smell. He was literally spinning, trying to find it. I clicked and stuck the end of the spoon right in his face. He went nuts! He clamped down on the spoon, hard. I just let him do it. He had baby food smeared all over his face and whiskers. I decided a smaller spoonful would be better. When I took the spoon away, he ran and dashed around trying to find it again. He paused for just a second to sniff the floor, and I clicked and immediately delivered the spoon again.

After a few repetitions of this, he had a, "Wah-wah" moment! He became very excited upon hearing the click, and I knew he understood. I started waiting for longer periods of quiet. First they started with just sniffing. Then, I began clicking only when his head was up. Finally, he settled down enough to pay attention, although he really couldn't watch. He would stand and turn his head, searching for any shadows. He used his ears, though, tipping this way and that, listening for a sign of movement.

Within twelve minutes of the start of the session, he had learned to "sit" on cue. He began doing it by voice command. Sometimes he would sit with his back to me, still listening -- he was that disoriented. I waited for longer periods of quiet from him, letting him think and making him really pay attention. With his handicap, he is going to have to learn to really listen.

I will do more attention work with him next time, but I was glad to see he was able to focus on this simple task.

Thinking is hard work, and tonight he is a much more mellow pup! I was able to get this picture of him when he stretched out for a few contemplative moments.

Holy Terrier - Day 5

The pup is slowly getting more tolerant of handling. He still is not crazy about being restrained. I took him to the grooming shop today in hopes of dropping him off for awhile, but they had only one groomer working and one dog coming in. Another day. He is certainly a valient little soul and doesn't mind trying new things. Housebreaking is still a disaster. Having never experienced the outdoors before last week, he has it all backwards. He thinks the bathroom is INSIDE. And with these temperatures, who can blame him?



Since we had a beautiful sunny day here in SE Michigan, he got to spend a little time outside playing with Ms. Rip. She's still not thrilled, but she puts up with him.



Being on the farm is hard work!

Holy Terrier - Day 3

As the puppy gets more comfortable, he gets more fiesty. He hates to be restrained! I realized today that he's going to need work. He resents having his moutn opened and teeth handled, and screams when I touch his nails. He would be one of those dogs that is hellish to groom or take to the vet. So, we will be starting a new routine. I hold him on his back on my lap, and force him to just put up with all kinds of stuff.

His vision, I am learning, is a challenge. He will wander off toward a tree, thinking it's me. His ears perk up when I call him, and he tries to find me. He is cheery about the whole business. Today he started wandering away in the fresh snow, and I sent Rip after him. She bounded around him in a circle and came back. He tried to follow, but when she moved out of his field of view, he began to wander again. I noticed today he was beginning to use his nose, sniffing the air in an attempt to track us. I like this and will continue to encourage this seek and find behavior. I want him to stay close.

All the activity tired him out and this evening he snuggled up to Rip. To my surprise, she endured it... For a while!

Holy Terrier -- Day 2

I decide that the puppy needs muscle tone and should learn to navigate stairs. I put him a couple of steps down from the top and stand below him. Rippy waits at the top, to tempt him to climb. He promptly does a nose dive and tries to roll down the steps. I catch him and put him back. He sits there. He is stumped. Finally he turns around and tries to climb, but his hindquarters do not have the strength to boost him up even one step. I carry him up to the top, so he can climb up one step, and then I hold one of his back feet up a little bit. He pushes off and manages to scramble up, but it takes all his strength to do so.

Holy Cairn

Normally aloof and bossy with puppies, Rip borders on openly contemptuous. He is just way too active and ill-mannered for her taste. Rippy reminds me a lot of my old German shepherd Reva in some ways -- gentle, ladylike and innately maternal.

Puppy has a strange sort of head tic when I pick him up and hold him facing me. His head bobs, flipping down toward his shoulder, first in one direction, then the other. His eyes are black and they stare blankly without expression. When I talk to him, his ears perk up, but his eyes register nothing. His nose will twitch and he will sniff in my direction as his head wavers unsteadily, but it is almost as if he can't really focus on me, or doesn't get it. I decide to do this exercise with him often, just hold him up and talk to him, seeing if anyone is in there.

It might sound kind of funny, but this brings back memories of my little sis Amanda when she was a baby. Amanda has Down's syndrome, and when she was really small she couldn't hold her head up. Her neck muscles were so weak that her head would kind of flop and roll after just a few moments' effort. My dad took her every day, and stood her on his lap, holding her hands, and would rock her in the rocking chair and sing to her. This forced her neck to work and before too much time, she could hold her head up.

Holy Terrier

"Do you want a puppy?" My friend Lori grinned at me wickedly. I was at the Morgan Horse gala last weekend and Lori, who breeds Cairn terriers, was there. She explained that one pup from her last litter was born with a hole in the top of his head. He was deaf and blind for several weeks.

"I think he may be A.D.D. or retarded or something," she added. "I need him to go to just the right place. When I saw you, I knew there was a reason I came tonight!"

I needed to deliver some art work to Lori's house, so I got to see the pup yesterday. At twelve weeks old, he is just under five lbs – the size of a Chihuahua. His littermates are a hefty eight lbs.



When Lori first took him out of his pen to show me, she turned him loose in the living room and he went zipping around crashing into walls, acting like he’d been wound too tight. I thought he had a neurological disorder or perhaps trouble seeing. But I could tell right away he wasn’t deaf. Lori stood in the living room talking to me while the puppy zoomed in circles around her feet at top speed. Unlike his brothers, his haircoat was short and coarse, more like an adult dog that had been shaved.

When I put my hand out, he chomped down on my finger, hard. I screeched and he let go immediately. That was the correct response, and I started thinking maybe he wasn’t so abnormal, after all. But he was WAY hyper; wouldn’t make eye contact, and wriggled frantically when he was picked up and held.

Of course, I was pretty intrigued and wanted to figure out this mystery. How much of his problem was behavioral, and how much was brain damage?

Lori's dogs are well cared for. She's an ethical breeder and she could have given this pup away several times over, but she wanted to be satisfied that he would get the attention he needed.

For me, it wasn't much of a hard sell. When I put him in the crate, he started circling again, bumping into the walls. He finally settled down and actually traveled quietly all the way to the vet for his second shot.

The vet Dr. Robinson asked Lori, "Are you sure he's not mixed with a rat terrier or something?"

We can see why she asked. Next to his littermates, he didn't even look like the same breed. I told her that I thought maybe his vision was messed up, as it seemed he could track, but not focus. She said the only way to tell would be to take him to a canine opthamologist and have his cornea checked.

Anyway, he came home with me. I am not sure yet if he is borrowed, or what. On the way, we stopped at my friend Claire's and then went to the grooming shop so everyone could make a fuss over him. He walked down to the barn with me when we got home. It's a long walk down the sloping back yard and he kept losing his way and trotting off aimlessly. I would walk back and get to within what I thought was his field of view, and he'd follow again. His attention span seemed really short and I had to circle back five or six times. When we got into the barn, he rejoiced. The aisle was apparently right up his alley. He flattened out and ran -- first one direction, then the other.

I have been calling him Stewie, for Stewart Little. Not too original, I know.

He slept soundlessly in the crate all night. Today he rode in the car, on the seat next to me. I could see that this time, he was beginning to watch me and listen to my voice. Then this afternoon, he went out to help me feed the horses again. He was starting to bond to me a little now, and he has suddenly figured out that his job is to follow me.



When this happens with a puppy, it's a beautiful thing. Most young puppies have a strong following instinct and it's a great time to take advantage of that. It can be instilled so easily this way. I walk a normal pace, which requires this guy to run as fast as he can. He still lists a little, first one direction, then the other. I am thinking there is probably nothing better for his balance and muscle tone, than to run a straight line over a long distance. So that's what he does. I don't call him, or talk to him much at all, but I do keep moving and he begins to learn what a task it is keeping up with me. He follows as I walk back and forth mucking stalls, feeding hay and filling water buckets.

The horses, of course, are off limits as he is just too tiny, but I do hold him up so the perpetually curious Clifford can check him out. Clifford gives him a good once-over, snuffling and snorting into his fur. The pup squirms and licks.

I find out later that this puppy has never been outside before. So the smells, the grass, the snow and ice are all new to him.

Regardless of the distractions, he is doing a great job keeping up with me and seems more focused than yesterday. So we go up to the porch and then I do something of which Lori would not approve. I put him on the cement step, and let him find his way around. He promptly runs to the edge, and, plunk! Falls off. It is not far enough to hurt him, but it is a hard enough fall to smart. He grunts on impact, gets up and starts to run off. I grab him and put him back on the porch. He runs to the edge -- and stops! He leans over the edge, looking down.

This tells me two things:

1) He has depth perception, and

2) He is capable of learning something the first time around.

Back in the car again, trundling off on another trip, he sits and stares at me through the door of his crate. He's not making eye contact just yet, but he is watching.