Watch Dogs?

One description of keeshonden states that they are "alarm giving watch dogs."  When I first read that, in my mind I thought, "guard" dogs. In my experience though, that couldn't be farther from the truth. A friend of mine said, "the only thing my dogs would guard is their food bowl."  In twenty years of owning kees, I have never had one that would even do that. They are happy to share everything. They freely swap toys back and forth.  If you want to share their food, however, you had better be fast. 

Let's get back to the term, "alarm giving."  Technically, that would mean barking. I mean, how else would they give an alarm?  Cooper has been trained to ring a bell. But, his method of choice would still be barking.  That said, he is not a compulsive barker. And, as we have discussed before, Sadie isn't a barker at all. The vet even checked her vocal chords to make sure there was no medical reason for her muteness. The result was that she didn't have anything to say. I know there are some kees that are barkers. I personally have never met one, but I have heard stories of dogs that seemed to bark non stop at everything. 

The second term is "watch" dogs. Cooper watches everything. Very little will get by him. He spends a lot of time bird watching. He especially watches everything I do. Sadie is a little bit too self-centered to bother watching mere mortals. Not to say she doesn't notice things.  She does.  She just doesn't pay too close attention to things that don't concern her highness. 

Watching is not synonymous with guarding. And, not all kees are barkers. Some will only bark in certain circumstances. My dogs don't bark in the house. I guess they expect me to take care of things inside. They also don't bark while in the car. 

Example:  the other day we were going up to Los Alamos to work on the house. We stopped to get gas at the new truck stop. I went inside to use the facilities and hubby pumped the gas. The two vehicles we drive the most have no bells and no whistles. You have to roll down the windows by hand and push the button to lock the doors. On this trip, we were in the Jeep which has electric door locks and power windows.  One of us hit the button when we got out of the car. The car locked with the windows up and the dogs inside. A couple of the ladies from inside came out to try to help. They tried a coat hanger in every window. I called Roadside Assistance, but by the time I actually got through to a real person, a guy came over and offered to help. It took him a while, but he had the door open and we were on our way in a short while. He didn't want any money, so we gave it to his wife. 

The dogs never said a word. No barking, certainly no growling. How many strangers does it take for them to become nervous?  These people could have been trying to steal the car. Yes, they could maybe see and hear us.  But what if it was a hostage situation?   Our main concern was that they had no water and the windows were rolled up all the way. Luckily, we were in the shade right by the pumps. I'm sure the truck stop people didn't appreciate the fact that we were tying up one of their pumps. As soon as possible, we had an extra key made so we can unlock the doors. It won't start the vehicle because it needs a chip activated for that, but at lease we could get in and take care of the babies. 

Another example:  a few years ago, my daughter's house was broken into.  She worked nights so wasn't home. Mostly they stole things like electronics and jewelry. She was living in an RV in an RV park at the time. She had neighbors pretty close. Her kees was in her crate. No barking or sounds of any kind. Nobody heard anything that would indicate something was wrong. Luckily the dog wasn't hurt.

The bottom line is, there is no doubt in my mind what is going to happen if we ever get robbed.  Cooper is going to show them where we keep the good silver and Sadie will show them where the good treats are.

Here are Cooper and Sadie "sharing" the hedgehog toy. 

Velcro Dogs

Is your dog nosy?  I mean, do they have a need to know exactly what you are doing at all times?  No!? You must not have keeshonden then.  They have got to be the most inquisitive breed there is.  If something is going on, they want to know about it.

My mother passed away in May.  Since then, we have had to go through the house, sort everything for the estate sale, have an estate sale, clear out the house, and do some renovation and updating so we will hopefully be able to sell the house.  During most of this, the dogs have had to stay confined either to a particular area in the house, or outside.  At the time of the estate sale, we put their crates outside under the tree and they stayed there a lot of the time.  We had things for sale in literally every room of the house and kept the front door open most of the time.  We were right to be worried about them.  Someone walked off with their food bowls!  Who does that sort of thing?  First of all, who steals from an estate sale anyway?  Second, does anyone really need used dog food bowls?  They were covered with dog slobber.  I just hope that whoever took them at least washed them before using.

After the sale, and after we pretty much emptied the house of the contents, we went to work on the house itself.  We hired a contractor and his crew to help.  There was wallpaper on top of wallpaper all dating back to the 60's.  There was paneling that needed to come down.  We ripped up all the carpet and updated the master bath.  (no more green counter!)  We removed a wall in the garage that covered the garage door and made it into a garage again.  Because of the debris on the floors (nails, screws, splinters from the paneling) and the dust from sanding the sheetrock, not to mention the wall texture and the paint, we couldn't let them loose in the house.  

They loved the back yard there.  It is all grass with a very large apple tree for shade.  It did get a bit warm at times, but there is no air conditioning in the house, so they were probably cooler outside.  The workers would all talk to them through the windows and play with them on breaks.  Of course, they had to know what was going on inside.  If we went into another room, they would follow and peek in to see what we were doing.  

After we finished with the garage, we pretty much lived in there.  We slept on an air mattress that we moved room to room depending on what was going on in each room at the time.  The dogs loved being in the garage with us while we were resting after a long day of work.  But, from there, they couldn't see into any of the other rooms.  So, they would want out so they could run around and look into the windows.  

I think they are happy to be home.  I know I am.  Basically we were away from home for about 5 months.  I don't know how those people that have vacation homes do it.  When we were there, I always had home in the back of my mind, wondering if the yard was doing okay, etc.  When we would come home (usually on weekends) to get mail, etc. I thought about that house.  

I am glad to say that we are finished.  Except for the carpet installation, but that is a story for another day.  It has a new master bath, all new paint and new carpet.  It is in a very nice neighborhood with a dog friendly yard.  I hope somebody loves it as much as we did while growing up.

Mud Puppies

We live in an area that regularly gets less than 18 inches of precipitation in a whole year. Imagine what it is like if we get a fourth of that in one day. We have had major flooding in the past along our little "river". The most recent was caused by remnants of Hurricane Dolly. There are places in town that are still recovering.

This week we have had a ton of rain. Almost 4 inches here in town and over 5 inches up by the lake. Sounds like a good way to get out of the grip from the drought.  But, last year we had a major wildfire that burned most of the vegetation. So, now there is nothing to keep the water from rushing downhill. 

So far, so good. No major damage and no bridges out yet. But, rain is expected for the next 3 days. Our back yard backs up to a vertical cliff that is approximately 30 feet high. When we get rain like this, we get a waterfall right into the yard. Could be really nice except it is always really muddy water and totally floods the yard. So, the dogs can't spend too much time out there without getting really dirty.  They get covered in mud from head to fuzzy tail!  Okay, that is a problem. But the real problem is that when they come in, they always wait to shake until they are inside the house. Mud and dirty water gets flung all over!  What a mess. Why couldn't they do that outside?  Honestly, they look like they have been rolling in the mud. 

I meet them at the door with a beach towel and catch each one and dry them off as much as possible. But, my floors need mopping several times a day and the walls and everything else needs cleaning as well.  So, until the water goes down some, I am taking the dogs out on a leash to potty in the front. It is less muddy there. They don't like it, but I am sure it won't be for long. The plus side is with their waterproof coats, they are relatively clean once they dry off.