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August 25, 2019

The Quizzer

Gaiya used to be my most athletic dog. Then came Quizzie.   While some dogs run as fast or pull as hard as she does, Quizzie's abilities to cut a turn and jump over anything set her apart. Think of a gymnast who can hit 30 mph.

The three twins, Quizzie, Crumbs, and Leftovers, joined Silly Lake just over two years ago.   All three are lanky and have broken coats. Most Siberian Huskies have coats with a fair amount of symmetry. The right and left sides aren't identically marked, but the differences are usually small. Broken coated dogs have blotches, like cows, and the blotches are random. Crumbs has a white chest and shoulders, but her rear half is black with a couple of white blotches.   Quizzie and Leftovers are basically white with a couple of black spots.

With less than three months in age between them, and four years to the dogs next closest in age, it's not surprising that the three twins spend most of their yardtime playing with each other. More than any other dogs I've owned since Dawn and Tenaya were young, the three twins love running. The play energy of the yard used to be about scrums. Now, running dominates.

Two things will actually distract Quizzie from racing around the yard. First, she thinks Motor Man is the dog of her dreams, and she tries flirting with him every yardtime. Motor Man's reaction has varied from trying to ignore her to barks and warning snaps.

"Dad, how do I stop her?"

"Sorry, Motor Man. I've never had a female of my species that interested in me. I can't help you."

Of course, even if I could help him, I wouldn't.   I'm enjoying her canine attempts at looking sexy and his total disinterest way too much.

The second reason she'll stop racing is to challenge one of the other females. I stop fights as soon as I can, but I still get a pretty good idea where they'd end up, and she's definitely moving up the pecking order. Interestingly, there haven't been any brawls between her and her playmates. Crumbs and Leftovers remain happy not concerning themselves with who is and who isn't on top of the pecking order. To the extent she's challenged them, they've just trotted off.

While Quizzie is toward the top of the canine pecking order, that doesn't seem to affect how she reacts to me. I can still go, "Quizzie, what are you doing?" in an almost, but not quite, disciplinary tone and she'll go into a deep submissive pose. She still has no clue that I'm teasing her. With her attitudes toward me and the other dogs, she could actually end up being a great leader. That is going to start this fall.

Aside from energy, all three dogs enjoy conversing with me even more than most Siberians. Crumbs is inclined to inform me of my errors.   Leftovers and Quizzie enjoy more of a back and forth discussion.   Fran Lebowitz said, “No animal should ever jump up on the dining room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation.” There's no question in Quizzie or Leftover's minds about this.   What may disqualify Quizzie from the dinner table is she loves playing with her food bowl. That usually means spilling all the water in it and then knocking over anything the bowl happens to hit. That's probably going to be a problem.

Part of building a relationship with a dog is giving it its names. Every dog should have at least two, and preferably three, names. We're there. Any of Quizzie, Quizzer, or The Quizzer result in ears up, eyes toward me, and tail wags from my broken coated brat.

Audio: The Quizzer

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