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Blaze is a very quiet dog. When left to himself he rarely makes a noise. He will whine at me when he needs to go outside or when he is trying to convince me that he should eat earlier. He has yet to learn, as the other family members know so well, that I’ll get around to making dinner eventually, but don’t expect it to be soon. When I visited the breeder, I was amazed at how quiet her dogs were. A kennel of quiet dogs is a bit odd. I was thrilled that Blaze carried on the genetics. However, we have discovered throughout the last month that there is one individual who greatly enjoys pestering him into barking. When Blaze can’t be watched, he is in his crate, to prevent sock swallowing. Patches has the run of the house and she makes him aware of it every day. Sometimes she’ll sit right next to his crate and look at him, sometimes she’ll turn her back as if he doesn’t exist, but what she loves most is to partially hide inside or under something as if she is stalking him. It drives him nuts and I will hear him make a high pitched whiny bark. I am often sending the kids to catch and relocate her, but she always comes back to play her favorite game. When I take him outside into the back yard to play fetch, she waits patiently at the sliding glass door. I often go in and leave him outside a little longer, but he doesn’t like to be alone so he will soon be on the top step looking in the door. Patches loves this moment and will touch her paw to the glass. Blaze, who moments prior had been patiently waiting, then goes nuts jumping on the door. She’s a piece of work.

Josiah is watching the neighbor’s dog this week, so we attempted to go together on a walk. Blaze was so nuts trying to get the other dog to play, that I thought it would be best to have them run around the backyard a bit. Josiah forgot to shut the back gate, so they decided to run around the neighborhood instead. Thankfully, no cars were driving by, Josiah was able to catch Blaze, and the neighbor dog just ran home. As I ran out after the dogs, a feeling of familiarity overtook me. The feeling of familiarity ended as soon as we caught the dogs, however, for Czar and Sasha would have been long gone and I would have gotten in the car to continue the pursuit. We tried to get the dogs playing in the back yard again, gate closed this time when suddenly we heard this terrified yelp. Blaze came dashing for us with his tail between his legs. The neighbor’s dog did not want to play. So, Blaze is far down the pack order. Well behind the cat and the neighbor dog.

Patches and Blaze at Door

Blaze

Patches Stretching

Blaze Walking the Dog

We have been playing with Blaze using different balls, ropes, and bones. Today, he decided to invent a few games of his own. The first game was called Fight the Wisteria. The previous owner of the house grew a wisteria as a stand alone tree. Because it is a vine, the branches trail to the ground. Blaze kept grabbing a hold of the end of the vine with his teeth, backing himself up, and tugging with all his might. The wisteria, of course, won. As those who have ever attempted to get rid of it know, wisteria is not easily beaten. His attempt to pull down the wisteria reminded me of one of the numerous things Czar destroyed years ago. When we were in Germany, we lived in an old farmhouse with an enclosed courtyard. The back wall of the farmhouse was covered with ivy. The base of the vines were as thick as a person’s arm; it was quite old. One day, Czar decided that he would redecorate. He pulled all the ivy down and dug out the roots. Dale and I came home and just stared in shock. Blaze’s second game was called Don’t Let the Stick Escape. I had planted some flower seeds in one of the beds and had marked the rows with two sticks connected by twine. (My Mom’s favorite row marker.) Blaze decided those sticks were a great find. The kids would hold one stick and the length of twine and second stick would follow. Blaze had great fun trying to prevent the trailing stick’s escape. Blaze’s third game was called Keep the Towel. In the morning, his feet were muddy and I ran up to get a towel so Josiah could dry them off. I remembered I had used a small towel on my pillow because my hair was wet when I went to sleep, so I grabbed that one. Josiah used it to dry off Blaze’s feet, then Blaze grabbed the towel from him and would not give it back, so Josiah let Blaze take it into the crate with him for a nap. He curled up next to the towel and went to sleep with quite a bit less crying. I was sitting there thinking how funny it was that he wanted the towel, when I remembered a bit of advice that I had read about providing the dog with something that has your scent on it to comfort the dog. I hadn’t done it, because I didn’t really believe that it would work. So, Blaze did it for himself.