Living Large

I don't think there's any place else left in the house where Mojo won't go.

Including the bathroom, where he started drinking from the toilet (seriously:  where do dogs learn this????) so now I have a post-it note on the way out reminding me to keep the lid down.

But the most fun place to see him is in the living room. 

One spot and one spot only, but it's just great to have him in the living room with us when we're watching TV or reading or whatever.  It has always been kind of weird to have an "invisible" dog, even though we completely understand that Mojo has a lot to work out for himself.

There are still a few quirks -- what would this dog be without quirks? -- such as not laying in the living room unless one of us is either in the living room or kitchen, and not always coming in when we're in there.  Not sure how he weighs out when it's the right time or not, but we're just glad to see him!  One of us often will sit next to him on the floor, and he's completely fine with that. 

... and if we happen to be snacking on something, all the better: at times like that, Mojo's nose is much less shy than the rest of him!

On the Road to Normal

When Mojo first came to live with us, every day was a new adventure.  Every minute, actually. 

He was, as Churchill said, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. 

Now, we are just shy of the 6-week mark together, and while there is still a long way to go, I think we've hit the point of exhale:

He sleeps at the foot of the bed every night, and now he comes into the living room to hang out with us when we're there.  He won't always do that if we're elsewhere in the house (or when we're gone), but he has declared us presence-worthy.

When he's out in the yard, he spends most of that time off-leash.  We realize now that although he would pee and poo on leash, it was only because he really had to go ... now, he waits until he's off leash and immediately runs to "his" corner to take care of it all.  However -- I personally have a challenge that needs to be addressed: since he doesn't know any commands, he doesn't come when called and I can't get him into the house.  Jay can; he will lay down when Jay approaches with the leash in his hand.  Me?  He just laughs and runs the other way.  We'll begin interviewing obedience trainers next week!

Jay has been working with him to eat and drink when we're present.  Up to this point, he would only eat or drink from his bowls when we weren't around.  And he ate as if someone was going to take the bowls away from him at any second, filling his mouth with food and running back to his corner to chew it.  Now, Jay sometimes brings his food bowl to wherever he is and sits next to him while he eats, to help him understand that he doesn't have to rush and he doesn't have to be afraid that he'll lose his food.

He's started to become very interested in what we're eating, and has the potential to become a classic irresistable beggar, complete with big soulful eyes and just a hint of a wrinkled brow that will make it really hard for us to not accidently drop a little food under the table now and then.

We've found a kind of rawhide chew bone he likes, and he's showing interest in them as soon as they're presented rather than ignoring them until we're not in the room. 

In other words, Mojo's becoming a dog!   There is still fear, but it continues to abate in leaps and bounds.  He is exposed to a lot of loud noises outside with the traffic on the road, and it doesn't seem to phase him anymore.  He still drops down when he's unsure of something, but we see him standing tall much more than we see him go low.  He runs and leaps a little when he's in the yard, sometimes for no reason what so ever. 

So now, I think we start working on the things that we have chosen to overlook while he was coming into his own.   We need to start giving him rides in the car.  He needs to spend time with other dogs.  He needs to spend time with other people.  He needs to learn to sit, stay, lay down, and (most of all) come.

Every day is still a new adventure, but what a trip it is!

Blink and You'll Miss It

There are some things that we see Mojo do that could be a hint of the dog he's going to become.

Or, maybe better put:  the dog he was designed to be that has gotten buried under layers of fear, stress, and overall disappointment in the human race.

Anyway, the problem with these glimpses is that they're so fleeting I don't usually have a camera at the ready, but this wouldn't be much of a blog if I didn't at least mention a couple of things over the past couple of days that happened -- albeit briefly! -- that took us by surprise.

But first off, I need to mention that Mojo has relocated.  He now "lives" in the bedroom instead of the kitchen.  It's his new safe place, and he hasn't selected a corner.  He stays at the foot of the bed.  But, considering that I work out of the bedroom a lot, and (obviously) we're here all night, we're encouraged that he's chosen to be where we are.

The logistics of this are that he comes in from outside at the far east end of the house.  The bedroom is at the far west of the house.  So he does traverse the entire house to get to his new spot.  And it did take him several days to make the decision permanent, which is Mojo's typical timeline:  he tests the water for reallllllllllllllly long time before he's willing to jump in with all 4 feet.

What we're hoping is that he'll develop a love for the middle of the house and hang out with us when we're eating, reading, or watching TV in the great room. Maybe on a nice doggy bed.

Which brings me back to the fleeting glimpses of things to come. 

Take, for example, the super-deluxe-memory-foam doggie bed that we've been trying to persuade him to use from Day 1.  His foster parents mentioned that Mojo loved using dog beds when he lived with them, so I snagged him the best they had at PetCo the very day he came home.  I've slept on it.  Jay's slept on it.  Mojo ... has found it interesting that Jay and I have slept on it, but hasn't opted in.  We've put him on the bed (picture left), but when left to his own devices, he is always found as in picture right.  But now that he has laid on it, he's been sniffing around it a lot, so maybe he'll go for it eventually.

The other glimpse of the future that took us by complete surprise is that he actually stopped to pick up the tennis ball out in the yard during his off-leash laps.  It must have surprised him as much as it did us, because he dropped it a second later and hasn't touched it again.

But it hasn't been for a lack of trying on our part:  Jay and I have been tossing the ball in his direction just in case he gets the urge to play again.  But so far if there's any fetching going on, it's being done by the two of us!

Round and Round He Goes ...

So, Mojo is working through how to handle his freedom off the leash (in the fenced yard only, of course).  He's apparently burning off a couple years of pent up energy he couldn't express as a puppy or young dog, and I'd have to guess he has walked and/or trotted a few miles so far.

He's chosen the south and east fence lines, then he kind of does a diagonal cut and back around again.

It's wonderful to see him go.  Sometimes he kind of does a sideways thing:  he looks at you the whole time, but runs past.  Luckily there aren't any obstacle in the yard or he would be bound to run smack into them since he isn't always looking where he's going.

However ... it has made it even more clear that we'll need to start working on basic commands, because when it comes to, well, "come!" he's having none of it.  Oh, sure, he likes to tease every once in a while by heading toward you when called, but when he's just beyond arm's reach, he zooms off.  I swear he's laughing when he does it!

He's been out for about an hour this morning (Jay takes his Bible study out and sits on the porch since the weather's so nice) and Mojo hasn't stopped yet.  Needless to say, he'll be sleeping like a log all day.

To get him in, Jay needs to go to him with leash in hand, and then he'll go down to get hooked up. 

Progress, thy name is Mojo!

Mojo Unplugged

Mojo's been breaking out of his patterns in leaps and bounds (and scurrying back into them when he's feeling insecure), so we figured it was time to see what happened if we broke one, too.

On this glorious "summer" day in March, Jay decided to take the leash off within the confines of the fenced yard.  Just to see what would happen.  And with plenty of daylight left in case we needed to figure out which corner he was hiding in!

Well, as it turned out, he didn't run and hide at all.  In fact, he stayed completely at heel for several laps around the yard.  If Jay did a 180, not only did Mojo turn with him, but he also re-placed himself to the right side.  It was fascinating to watch!  And it begged the question:  why is he so good at this?  What was he taught?  Who taught him? For what purpose?  And how did they train him this well and yet treat him so badly?  The mind boggles.

We tried to mix in a little fun with this -- I brought out a ball and Jay tossed it around, but as usual, Mojo was having none of it.  Didn't chase it, didn't try to catch it, didn't care.  Ah, well.

The story doesn't exactly end here, however:  Jay walked in the house without him and then went back out, and it was as if a lightbulb went off in Mojo's head that said: "Hey!  I'm unfettered!"   He did not report back to Jay's side.  He wandered around a bit, and since he doesn't answer any commands, he wouldn't come when called.  He didn't exactly bolt away, but he kept his distance.  It wasn't until Jay got the leash in his hand, moved to Mojo's left, and walked as if they were on leash together that Mojo fell back into step with him. 

Then Jay snapped the leash back on to lead him into the house again.

So now we have yet another new experience to work out together. 

... and we definitely need to make plans to get some obedience training for this dog!  You can bet that will lead to some interesting stories.

A Most Curious Sign of Curiosity

I'll admit it:  I'm not a great housekeeper.  Having a shedding pet in the house will mean I have to step up my game, since dust bunnies (and dog hair bunnies) reproduce at a rate much faster than real bunnies do.  I confess that I didn't inherit my mom's cleaning gene.  You could eat off her floors ... mine don't even qualify for the 3-second rule.

Anyway, the point I'm going for is that even though I know I tend to let things go longer than maybe I should, I know for a fact that the smudges on the window over by Mojo's eating station weren't there last week.  And I know nose prints when I see them.

Somebody's got his eye on the backyard!  What's he watching ... the grey cat that has started hanging around lately?  The squirrels who run up and down the maple tree?  Those stupid moles (or are they voles) who are turning our yard into Swiss Cheese (and shouldn't the cat be doing something about that)?

Whatever is catching his attention, the point is, he's paying attention!  He's never made a sound for us, but does he bark at the critters outside the window when we're not home?  It's sort of like that old riddle about the tree falling in the forest:  When no one's here to listen, does Mojo make a sound?

The Beak and the Squeak

As I've mentioned before, Mojo doesn't play.  He just doesn't.  On the day he came home, we got him one of those twisted rope bones, a bunch of tennis balls, and a ducky/chicken/bird-looking thing.

They have seen no action at all, other than me moving them when I step on them in the dark of night, at which point they have been known to zoom across the kitchen floor!

A few days ago, Jay started "squeak" training ... showing Mojo over and over that there was a squeaker in the head of the bird toy.  Mojo seemed intrigued (in an ear-forward kind of way), but it didn't compel him to try and make it squeak himself.  In fact, several times I've been caught running from elsewhere in the house when I heard it squeak, only to find that of the two creatures in the kitchen, only Jay had his play on.

However .... today, when I went to say good morning, I gave the toy a squeak myself and lo and behold, Mr. Ducky had a soggy beak! 

So, who knows?  Maybe one day soon Jay's squeak training will pay off ... and it will be music to our ears.

When in Roam ...

Mojo's progress could be costing us some sleep for a while!

Last night, he spent a good portion of the evening wandering around the house.  He didn't have to go out (we had already cleared that hurdle) ... he just must have decided it was time to expand his horizons.

He meandered around the living room, sniffed the rug Chloe -- our Big Ol' Dog who died at the ripe old dog age of 125 in December -- used to sleep on (a rug that has plenty of stories to smell), and wandered around and around and around the house.

It was hard to say if there was an agenda to any of this.  If we lifted a head to peek at what he was doing, he'd bolt back to his safe place in the kitchen.  Even if we didn't peek, but so much as moved a foot or started to adjust a blanket ... back he'd run. 

It appears he was so emboldened by the nighttime raid, that he was still at it this morning as I sat down to read in the living room.    (notice the 2 coats on the dining room chairs ... that's so we can find them easily in the dark if we're summoned for an overnight constitutional)

So much progress!  What's next?  We can't wait to find out.

One Small Step for a Dog ...

Even though we know that something new doesn't mean something-that-Mojo-is-going-to-start-doing-regularly, we're definitely seeing a lot more interest on his part to be a part of the world beyond the kitchen threshhold. 

We're seeing a lot more of this:

(Sorry for the bad lighting ... I sometimes have to set up "stealth" photograhy before he catches on!)

He even walked all the way down the hall to the bedroom where I was working yesterday evening while Jay was out. I figured he needed to go out, and so we did, but apparently he just wanted to come and see where I was since the trip outside was a non-event.

Each day, we get a bit more of a glimpse into the dog Mojo's bound to become.  When these little things are so rewarding, we can only imagine what it will be like when he comes into his own!