Panda
What a wonderful post. All along I have thought, how wonderful that Panda has you. I see it a little different, how wonderful that you have Panda. I hope that came across right. I mean that he sounds so great! He has obviously had some type of training. I can't wait to see some new pictures. I always say one of these days I will put pictures up. It seems with school winding down to the end, I am busier than before. I loved hearing more about Panda, I can picture him bouncing the ball and catching the frisbee. He sounds like a big performer. What types of things are you planning on teaching the dogs when you put them in your shows? I would love to see you perform some day. Thank you for such a great story about Panda, he keeps me coming back to hear more. I love hearing about Blue and Merlin though too. I am off to go play with Jack and Annabelle and then I have decided to try to teach them to ring a bell to go outside. It sounds like a useful trick. Have a great weekend! Stormi and co. |
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| Sigh.. I know I keep saying I wasn't going to keep talking about Panda formerly known as Robin the amazing dog that thanks to Roy and Elby was rescued from a puppy mill and a date of execution in Hong Kong.
It suddenly occurred to me today that my relationship with Panda has evolved to what I call "Falling in Love". I feel I know him really well now and he's "my dog". I'm proud of him and remain in awe that despite his previous hardships he has a wonderful loving spirit. He's with me for life and I'm happy to have been fortunate to provide him with a forever home. It's been almost 6 weeks and his transition from the time I picked him up from the airport until today has pretty well remained the same. He has never shown any signs of aggression and although taking him to the dog park and exposing him to lots of dogs and people happened far sooner than I first expected it's always been successful. I mentioned on another post it was a sense of bittersweet sadness and deja vu when I discovered he bounces large balls on his nose just like Shaggy did!! I was so excited about this that I went out and purchased gazillion balls of all shapes and sizes for him to play with. I bought Frisbees too which caused everyone to laugh hysterically at the dog park one day. The frisbee I brought with me that day was a light weight floresent multicolored one with a hole in the middle. Panda would leap high into the air after the frisbee and when he placed his mouth on it the frisbee would flip up so his snout and big nose was seen through the hole but the rest was around his head. I know kinda hard to explain but the visual made everyone laugh and laugh. As here was Panda with his big nose sticking out of the hole but the remaining part of the frisbee surrounded his head much like a floresent multicolored halo. He kept walking around the dog park like that and would take turns bringing it to various people to throw. A sheepie with a multicolored halo!!! I've mentioned in the past he shows no fear of men and always greets everyone with a bum wiggle and this past week he has approached children and also brought them his balls or frisbee to throw. I still am always on guard and tell the children or others not to pull things out of his mouth but to let him drop them. He will always drop it at their feet and the majority of the time place it into their hands. He's become a favorite at the park and may knock Merlin from this top spot. I constantly hear comments about what a wonderful dog he is and how lucky I am. Hate to admit it, but he's far better behaved than Merlin whom never wants to go home from the park as with Panda I never have to call him more than once and he will race towards me and sit while I place his leash on. Walking through the trails he never walks more than a few feet away from me and constantly checks and looks back to make sure I catch up. Merlin always bounds far ahead and will only walk back if he realizes I'm not right behind, he's got far better as he is now following Pandas behavior. He's never had an accident in the house since the day I brought him home. I imagine he spent long hours in his previous 4 by 4 metal cage as the last 2 wks of his life in Hong Kong he was only let out for 20 mins - no wonder he supposedly had issues with hoses as I can only imagine how horrendous that must have been for him to sleep in his own feces and urine and then be hosed down. I've personally never seen a dog urinate for so long when he does go and I suspect he holds it as long as possible which can't be too healthy for him but I feel confident in time he will go frequently as he does on our walks. The first block is still pretty hilarious when I have both Merlin and Panda on the leash..I literally dig my heels in the ground and brace myself..both pulling and tugging. The second block is a little better and the third block which is the offleash dog park, they are walking fairly well one on the right the other on the left. The both immediately stop when I do, having taught them this on our walks when I had each by themselves. I felt this was really important as I stop at every street crossing, regardless if a car is coming or not. We have to cross a busy street to get to the dog park which is completely fenced in but I don't want both of them to get overly exicited and drag/pull me across the busy street..so no matter if cars are coming or not I will yank them both back if they tug across the street..we always walk slowly across the busy street. While Panda has joined in a few doggie games and play/chase he seems more content to stay by my side for pats or games of ball. Merlin on the other hand is totally preoccupied playing with all the other dogs. I always take Blue out first when I first arrive home for long walks around the neighborhood, sometimes with Merlin or other times just him and I. When he's worn out I let him rest, and then take out the other two for a romp at the dog park. It's meant for the past 6 wks I only get a chance to eat dinner around 8ish as arriving home at 3 pm I start the first series of walks, or visits to the dog park giving all three dogs a chance to burn off energy. Today was a day I decided to spent time with each one individually. When Panda and I were at the dog park people actually stopped their cars to watch him. I had brought a light weight bouncy type ball the size of a volleyball for him to play with. He would leap high into the air and bounce it on his nose right back into my arms!!! What a showman/dog!! Ha!! It was hilarious!!! Again, I felt just like old times when Shaggy did the very same thing and delighted kids for years with her antics. I'm thinking perhaps it should be Panda on stage with me some day instead of Merlin as he has such a natural goofiness about him. He's very unselfish too, as if another dog grabs his ball first he will immediately relenquish it and does not seem to be bothered by it. He never chases another dogs ball at the dog park either, which is pretty amazing as all the dogs chase balls whether or not it's theirs (the owners are all pretty understanding about this) as balls are fair game at the park. Not Panda, however, he never chases another ball other than his own. He's been attacked twice at the park by Alpha males whom challenged him as the new kid on the block and both times he did the belly flip. He's not interested in being the boss and afterwards when meeting one of these dogs they did not view him as a threat and left him alone. Just a few days ago, a fellow showed up at the park with a very aggressive dog that when let off his leash immediately raced for Merlin and attacked him. For the first time Merlin fought back (sniff his first fight) as he's known all the dogs since he was 11 wks old but this dog was a stranger and attacked him with no provocation. I immediately got hold of Merlin and then the dog went for Panda..gasp! The fellow managed to get his dog off and I had both Merlin and Panda sitting down. Which proved to me that even at my small stature and weight of barely 100 pounds I could keep both under control. They were not interested in going after the other dog and listened to me when I had them both sitting while the fellow leashed his dog and went through the trails. When he emerged from the trails other dogs had now visited the park and he immediately attacked them too. Finally, the guy just left the park. Whew! The one thing I did notice however is that Panda kinda dove to me when the dog was near me, I feel he was protecting me. I love walking home from the dog park with both of them. Both are so exhausted they walk in perfect heel positions one on each side of me. We get a lot of comments about this as they look like the most perfectly behaved dogs. Ha! I know better but it's nice to act the part of proud mama. Especially since they are such big dogs and I'm a tiny person I look like I have complete control of them (keep saying tired dogs are really easy to handle.) Afterall, they are herders and need to keep from being bored and need to "work". Lastly, I love watching him sleep. Unlike his first few days when he slept in a fetal position he now sleeps fully streched out, snoring blissfully with what appears to be a smile on his face. The computer room was formally the cats favorite place to come and hang out as I have a variety of cushions, futon and climbing post for them in the room. Sometimes they have walked in when Panda is here and he has never gone after any of them. They never shown signs of fear from him either. Wow! that makes life so much easier! I just sent a whole box of pictures to a friend of mine oversees whom made my critters website..yeah I know I'm behind the times - I'm so inept on computers and never find the time really to learn more about them. Who has the time when I'm out walking the dogs? Hopefully within the next week or two he will post the pics and you guys can see some of the hilarious photos of my boys. As usual long winded post that I thought I'd share regarding how Panda, Merlin and Blue are doing. Marianne |
Sók Marianne, most of us read, and 'speak'"typoneese"quite fluently.....
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| I transferred the guest post into marianne's post, but now they are a little bit out of sequence. Oh well, at least you can edit away if you like, Marianne. |
| Thanks Ron! Should mention to the other members my computer crashed when I was posted, so it entered under Guest and I couldn't edit it..so now Ron has fixed it.
Willowsprite..typonese..ha ha! Yeah darn typing virus always invades my computer it's not that I'm lousy at spelling. 
Can't wait to finally shows pics of Panda and how darn cute he is! |
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