Getting to know Iris

Dogs, like kids, have distinctive characteristics.  Iris is the first dog I've had who is not motivated by food.  Oh, don't get me wrong:  she LOVES food.  But she doesn't beg for it.  To watch her behavior, you would think she didn't care about food at all.  I give you this little video, in which I feed Iris some Fritos.





Notice, she was very nonchalant, acting as though she didn't care whether anyone gave her a Frito.


She is, however, very motivated by toys.  Especially by any sort of ball.  Now please forgive me for showing so much leg in the following video, but I had my shorty-shorts on that I only wear around home.  And if I had to change clothes for every video I make, I wouldn't make many videos.  Also forgive me for the fact that the vacuum sweeper is in the picture; hey, at least I USE it sometimes.



If you're wondering what I was watching on TV in the first part of this video, it was "In Plain Sight".  Pretty good show, I think.  Iris, on the other hand, thinks they need to get a dog or cat signed on to make it more interesting.

Iris watched the Dog Whisperer this evening

She tries to restrain herself, but it just isn't possible.  Something else I found out today:  If she hears a baby crying on TV, she comes running to me and barks, as if I'm supposed to stop the baby from crying.  

Things about my dog, Iris

I spend lots of my time looking for her.  A while ago I searched and searched; standing in the guest bedroom, I could hear breathing, but couldn't see a dog.   Finally I looked under the bedspread at the foot of the bed:  

Seriously.  Iris has issues.  She likes to be totally out of sight.    
She doesn't shadow me from room to room as much now; I guess she has decided I'm not going to disappear within the house.  She does worry, though, if I go outside without her.  
Her kennel cough is MUCH better; I'd say in another day or two, all symptoms will be gone.  
She prefers to quench her thirst at the toilet, rather than at her bowl.  I'm OK with that.  
One of my big concerns was that I'd have trouble keeping her off the furniture, but she seems to understand what I want from her now; twice I heard the sound of something getting OFF my recliner, ran in to see what was going on and saw my chair rocking and Iris cowering behind the kitchen table.  Obviously she had momentarily forgotten the rules, hopped in the chair, realized what she was doing, jumped down, and ran and hid behind the table, hoping I wouldn't find her and yell at her.  (My yelling consists of a sharp "No!")  
She is well house-trained; there have been no accidents.  
She still shows no interest when Cliff and I are eating.   
At this point, my main concern is how she'll get along with other dogs; I watched another episode of "Dog Whisperer", and once again Iris stalked, barked and lunged at the dogs on TV.  Once she's entirely over the kennel cough, we'll introduce her to Hawkeye, my daughter's dog.    I want to try her out with a big dog before we get her together with my sister-in-law's mini-doxie.   
I had always heard that dogs can't make out television images, but one of these days I'll make a video of Iris attacking the TV dogs, just to prove that she does it.

Here's a Baltimore Oriole at my hummingbird feeder; notice the hummingbird on the right, waiting for the interloper to leave.  I have seen a couple of them eating grape jelly at the oriole feeder, too.  This is the first year I've had orioles hanging around.  They're flighty and easily scared, so it's hard to get a picture of them.

Shhhhh...

Iris went to sleep in her kennel a couple of hours ago and never even made a protest.  Here's hoping.