woodrat 399 Posted May 31, 2016 Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 Just thought I'd swing by for an update in honor of Rune's birthday, which is today (Memorial Day). He and the rest of Azteca x Jay's 2015 pups turn one today. Man, how time does fly... He's doing... okay. He's improved in some areas and gotten worse in others, but overall I guess he's headed in the right direction. Some days I want to bash my head against the wall and pull out all my hair, but for the most part I'm proud of how far he's come. He's really coming along with his training, but his anxiety is quite severe at times and often overrides his thinking brain so he has a tendency to appear completely untrained out in public. I do have hope he'll grow out of it to a certain degree or at least learn to manage it a little bit better. He's still afraid of a good deal and his barking is not exactly improving.. he still barks at EVERYTHING, which is extremely frustrating and means I now have to shield him quite a bit to prevent him from developing bad habits before I can train him out of it. If I can train him out of it. But anyway, all negatives aside... Rune's birthday weekend was truly special. On Saturday we met up with Shiloh's family where they were vacationing in VT and Rune got to meet his older brother for the very first time (we'd been trying to plan this for the past year!). Shiloh is also from Azteca x Jay, but from the 2014 litter. We've been keeping in touch and comparing notes (very helpful as the boys are similar in a lot of ways) all year long so it was exciting to finally be able to get them together. Now I know what you all mean when you say these dogs seem to pair up like long lost friends! That was exactly what happened - it was unreal. From the moment they finished introductions they were inseparable, attached at the hip and shoulder. They shared a level of communication and understanding that neither I nor Shiloh's parents had ever seen in either dog before and despite the 90 degree muggy heat the two of them were going nonstop for the entire day, aside from a break for lunch at a nearby burger shop with outdoor seating (where Rune got to show off some of his worst behavior - despite being regularly taken out in public since he was a tiny puppy he still has a tendency to shriek like a banshee <_ their play styles are so similar but just barely different enough to be complimentary and language is complex unbelievably fascinating watch. they clearly speak in the same tongue i think each of them was both a little surprised relieved by that. relationship evolved over course day what started out as careful assessing others temperament you really>just like me??") developed into mutual camaraderie ("yes, you are, and it's so much fun!"). I was so engrossed in watching their behavior all day that before I knew it the sun was setting and it was time to leave and I still don't know where all those hours went. Collectively we have literally hundreds of pictures, videos, stories from what has come to be known as The Very Best Day. I'm still in the process of going through my bunch but I will share some now and maybe some more later as I sift through them further. I wish I could express just how incredible a day it was, but I'm really at a loss for words. It was like watching the stars align before our very eyes. By the end of the day neither of them could keep their eyes open and dozed off together in a glorious field of dandelion puffs (Jason has a great video of that). We are going to try to plan for another meetup this summer, and I'm pretty excited to see how the dogs will react to a reunion. And going back to the birthday part - here's a little compilation I've been working on all year to keep track of Rune's growth. I appreciate not only his size development but also the development of the relationship between him and Tamarack. You can see T gradually becoming not just tolerant but more relaxed with him. They are not best friends, but they are family members now and do act it to a degree. Though if you ask T, I'm sure he'd say he liked it much better before the Tiny Turd came into the picture This next one is another fun one I made up a few days ago to demonstrate just how genetic some of those little quirks in our dogs are. On the left is Rune's mom, Azteca, whom I got to meet when I went out to Song Dog to pick up Rune. She would come up from behind, walk between your legs and just poke her head out and stare up at you with those sweet blue eyes. I had forgotten she did this until I went back to look at Rune's baby pics in honor of his birthday and saw this picture in with them...cracked me up, because Rune does this every single day when he wakes up in the morning or when I get home from work! And just some of my favorites from the past year in no particular order... 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sherab 2,337 Posted May 31, 2016 Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) Happy Bday Rune! I'm glad you had "the very best day". Wow Woodrat he was one striking pup and now one striking adult. One of the best masks ever. I think Linda's grey dog Snake? or was it Malachi has a mask like that. One of hers was kind of shy. I wonder if it was the one with the mask? You have 2 gorgeous boys and it looks like they get on very well. Hope you post some tips on how you acclimated T. I've been thinking about adding a third to our pack when Shiva passes but my 2 get on so well I hate to risk it. 3 is a funny number. Seriously, how do you go on hikes or walks w/o being stopped every 5 feet and w/o having strangers shoot pictures of your dogs? Cake when she was younger could act "untrained" in public, which was unhelpful because some people didn't think she was a dog. She mostly did it during growth and she was nutty and easy to spook then. Hopefully that's some of what's going on and it will mellow. Both of mine have had nutty phases that totally changed as they approached adulthood. Waki isn't even the same dog, he's been 3 different ones. Baby, insane teen and serious, earnest adult. Rune - how you describe him, honestly it reminds me of some kids that are autistic and said to not be able to filter all the sounds and sights and smells and so on the way you and I can tune 99% out and focus on one bird or the computer screen. All of it comes in at 11!. Who knows. Glad it's working out. Congratulations. Very well done. Such good looking boys! Edited May 31, 2016 by Sherab 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
woodrat 399 Posted May 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 "Rune - how you describe him, honestly it reminds me of some kids that are autistic and said to not be able to filter all the sounds and sights and smells and so on the way you and I can tune 99% out and focus on one bird or the computer screen. All of it comes in at 11!. Who knows." This has occurred to me also and it's a perfect way of describing his behavior. Total inability to filter so whenever he goes anywhere new his brain explodes. This is especially frustrating for me because I have a hard enough time being in public as it is due to my own anxieties, so coupling an already uncomfortable person with a dog whose obnoxious behavior is going to attract the negative attention of literally everyone in the vicinity is a recipe for disaster. On a good day I can pull myself through it to a degree, but I've learned that if I don't have an 85-90% good feeling about it any given outing then I shouldn't try it in the first place because it simply won't end well. I've gotten pretty good at turning people down when they ask me to go somewhere or do something. "Nope, sorry, my dog can't handle that." This is where my immense frustration lies because I had specifically asked Kim for a confident 'go anywhere dog' that could help support me when I needed it in public. As far as T - I really had to keep Rune from terrorizing him too much, because he is a total brat. If left to his own devices he will shove T out of the way, steal his toys, his bones etc etc. Tamarack has a tendency to just turn around and walk away, which is his decision really, but it just means that Rune is getting his way all the time so I've had to be diligent about training Rune to inhibit some of those tendencies. He at least now will wait his turn while playing chuckit, though he has to be in a down-stay next to me or he will steal the ball or stick from T's mouth every time he retrieves it. Really T doesn't have much reason to like Rune at all because he does nothing but harass him, but I think he's slowly starting to at least appreciate the company a little. He used to dislike it when Rune tried to snuggle up to him, now he just ignores it and allows it to happen haha. However, Rune's barking at everything is starting to affect T's behavior so that now he tends to jump up to see what Rune's barking at (he used to ignore it completely), which is extremely unfortunate because that alert energy is all Rune needs to reinforce the idea that whatever he's barking at is actually indeed worth barking at. So I've now had to start splitting them up at work and in the backyard so that they can't feed off of each other anymore. It's a royal pain in the butt, really, and completely the opposite of what I had in mind when I decided to get another dog. I admit I have some regrets. I can't even imagine trying to handle 3! But yes, he is a very attractive dog and I do hear whispers of 'what IS that dog' sometimes when I'm walking him. Never had anyone stop for pictures but I did have one car turn around and come back just to ask what kind of dogs haha. Unfortunately for Rune his good looks means that everyone stares at him and he is super skeeved out by eye contact, so this is not a particularly good thing! He is getting better about not being quite so reactive to people, now it's mostly just people with quick or unnatural movements or who have an outline he's not used to (if they're carrying something awkward for example). And yelling - any time he hears anyone raise their voice he starts barking immediately. Today I was leaving work with a coworker and as we parted ways she called out 'see you later' over her shoulder and that was enough to set him off barking at her... despite having literally just been happily walking alongside her a split second before. <_> Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sherab 2,337 Posted June 1, 2016 Report Share Posted June 1, 2016 Sounds like you are doing a really good job raising him. We have had 5 GSDs and only maybe 1 of them might have been a go anywhere dog, sort of. I hope you leave him at day care or at home and have some time to your self with your friends and with T on a regular basis. I get what you are saying about needing to be in a good place before any challenging situations. Hopefully he continues to mellow. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jasonparkin 130 Posted June 2, 2016 Report Share Posted June 2, 2016 (edited) Yes! The Very Best Day indeed! Here are a few of the videos from this truly wonderful day as well: Barking at the stick that's too far to get in the pond https://www.instagram.com/p/BF-L-_KPaAW/ Playing with a small stick https://www.instagram.com/p/BF-NKp_vaDA/ Playing with a very large stick https://www.instagram.com/p/BF_fKZ0PaOY/ Pooped! https://www.instagram.com/p/BGAZGzePaDp/ Edited June 2, 2016 by jasonparkin 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sherab 2,337 Posted June 2, 2016 Report Share Posted June 2, 2016 Awesome. I remember the days of skinny pointy elbows and giant "wolfie" feet. Hope you guys get many more chances to visit. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NyteByker 535 Posted June 3, 2016 Report Share Posted June 3, 2016 Those are the best, Jason! LOL! The "pooped" one is perfect 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
miz molly 1,800 Posted June 3, 2016 Report Share Posted June 3, 2016 ahhhhhhhhh the cool green grass and warm sunshine....it just doesn't get better than that. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Denise E. 1,485 Posted June 5, 2016 Report Share Posted June 5, 2016 Great videos!!!!! Coffey and Tayamni both came over with barks answering Rune and Shiloh! Love the sleepy grass vid too! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Felix 366 Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 Thank you for the update and all the detailed information. I really appreciate hearing about your Rune so I can look out for certain behaviors with my own pup. Janessa and I were just talking about how wonderful you are with your dogs and just know your effort is appreciated. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jasonparkin 130 Posted June 7, 2016 Report Share Posted June 7, 2016 That's awesome. Great videos!!!!! Coffey and Tayamni both came over with barks answering Rune and Shiloh! Love the sleepy grass vid too! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Allison 2,369 Posted June 11, 2016 Report Share Posted June 11, 2016 I got a huge kick out of those vids. You got me goin'. Just a short moment, right? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nrrosque 232 Posted August 16, 2016 Report Share Posted August 16, 2016 I LOVE the collage pic of them sleeping together! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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