Meeting Murphy

Ruby's 'cousin' Murphy (with Pam and Halle - pictured) came to visit Friday afternoon. Murphy is 87 pounds of lab/retreiver energy sprinkled with a little slobber, and a 'you can't make me' attitude. Not knowing how she would react, I kept her off the floor for a little bit while Murphy and Sophie got reacquainted. Eventually, she had to get in the mix. She got stepped on a few times, but nothing stopped her from mixing it up, or at least standing on the sidelines barking furiously at the display of Sophie's brute strength vs Murphy's size and boundless energy.

What was really cute was the way Murphy's play changed from Ultimate Fighting Champion style with Sophie to this delicate slap and tickle with Ruby. Every so often we had to put Sophie away so she didn't have a stroke from all the physical activity. Ruby and Murphy then had some alone time and Murphy brought the play down to the little one's level. It was very cute. Shy, Ruby was not, but she also seemed to know that when the other two were playing, she needed to stay on the outside and just bark. All-in-all, all three dogs were very well-behaved.

Ruby, I've decided, is one of the smartest dogs I've ever known. All she needs is consistency. I started making her sit at the end of the driveway, without treats or any reward other than an exuberant 'good puppy!' when she did well. It only took her a couple of times to understand what sit means, and now she'll do it no matter what. It is so important to me that I have control over her because her size will have the potential to give her an advantage. I'm going to start spending some training time with her every week, not that we seem to have a lot of the initial items worked through.

The nighttime routine is perfect right now, but I think part of it is her being worn out from all the play with Murphy here. But I hope it sticks anyway. Last night she was in her kennel sleeping soundly from 11:30 until 6:40 this morning. The night before it was just about an hour earlier than that. Both times with no accidents. So nice to be able to sleep all night again. Ruby is still not a fan of the cold weather, but we've had some weather luck lately. With temps in the mid 40's nearly every drop of durty old snow is gone. So Ruby has gotten to explore the back yard a little more. It's so wet and sloppy that we don't spend a lot of time out there, but it was nice to see that she doesn't so much hate 'outside' as she hates 'freezing cold outside.' And rain. This morning it was raining and she was being a total wimp about it, got stubborn and then came in and left me a lovely present on the living room floor.

Last night after Murphy & Co. left, Ruby and I went for a walk where we met Walter, a 2-year-old Shih-Tzu/Yorkie mix (I like to think he's called a Yorki-Shitz). Walter was almost exactly Ruby's size and desperately wanted to play. But she was huddled behind my legs like a scared little puppy. Funny that 87 pounds of Murphy didn't look like a challenge at all, but 12 pounds of Yorkie-Shitz and Ruby's is reduced to puppy tears.

I realized this morning that measuring her weight doesn't give the perspective as much as her height. Great Dane's are measured to the shoulder (all dogs probably are, I dunno) so I taped a piece of paper on the dining room doorway and made a mark this morning. At 15 pounds, Ruby is 12" high at the shoulder. I wish I had thought to measure her height when I brought her home almost two weeks ago because she is visible bigger, but her weight isn't out of control. I know most of it is in her height. Starting to see some serious muscle definition in her shoulders and legs. She is definitely going to be a strong girl.

Oh well, more later...the beast is ready for a walk around the block. Temperatures are supposed to dip again this week, so we better get the walk in while we can. Come on spring!!