Pawcraft. Jade was handy with her paws. Jasper's paws, as handsome as they were,
still came in as standard cat's equipment.
Good for grooming, scratching, licking, flicking and pinning down dogs
tails.
But Jade
had sign language and she made sure that I became reasonably proficient at
it. Not purely paws, it has to be
admitted. They would initiate contact,
sometimes carry out the whole message, but often there would be concomitant
signals with ears, eyes and tongue. Any
one or all three, depending on the emergency.
If I had
a dollar for every comment I ever had regarding the 'tricks' Jade was good at,
I could have fed the five thousand.
Thing is, I never, ever, actually taught her any 'tricks'. All the part I played in things was to guide
her when she was in danger of being socially offensive or troublesome. So she did learn the basics of sit, stay, lie
down, wait, speak when spoken to... You
know the stuff. We all have to learn it
at some point. Most of us do so at our
mother's knee.
Right
from puppy-hood, Jade used her front paws more like a kangaroo than a dog. She would actually pick up the yoghurt carton
in them to angle it just 'so' - that way the tongue would reach the bottom and
the edges with ease. This occasionally
involved dropping over onto one's back with the hindlegs stretched to knees-up
position, like someone going into ab-crunches!
Then again, if there was a special treat like peanut butter toast, it
was carried to the favourite eating spot, put down the proper way up, then
circled a few times before lying down and - get this - scraping the peanut
butter up with her claws and licking them with great relish and
tongue-slapping. Only when she was sure
she couldn't get any more separate from the base, did the bread itself get
chomped down!
Then came
the day I clicked that this amazing girl would start the conversations and not
just wait for me to notice her. I was
sitting studying when in she came at a pace slightly more than her leisurely
style. She didn't go lie behind as
normal, but sat perfectly poised beside me.
I winked and got on with things.
Next thing, the paw had come up onto my knee. Now this is not an unusual act for a dog
wanting attention. Majority of you dog-mates out there will know this one.
What made
Jade's different (and me sit up) though, was that, when not getting what she
wanted, rather than try to climb over me - or give up and go away - she put the
paw back on my knee… and PRESSED. She
was still sitting perfectly. Removing
her paw, she repeated the action. Rest the paw first, then PRESS.
Okay. I turned to look at her fully and when she
saw she had engaged me, she stood and walked towards the door. When I didn't follow, she came back and did
the knee press thing without sitting this time, then turned and headed out
again, checking to see I was behind. I
can be slow - but I can also be pretty quick on the uptake. I got that there
was something she needed me to do.
Outside
she was sitting pretty beside her water bowl - an old 2ltr icecream container
with deep sides. Thinking she was asking
for it to be filled I leaned over and got a surprise. The bowl was full. At the bottom however, was one of the deadly
Sydney Funnelweb spiders! These
creatures in the heat of late summer, will often be found in swimming pools or
kiddies paddle ponds and, indeed, if short on those, a doggie's drinking
vessel. I cannot vouch, though, for how
many pooches would recognise that the item in the bottom was not a stray food
morsel and try to eat it. I am just grateful that Jade had more nouse than
that. I laughed out loud and looked
straight into those liquid browns. The
soul that looked out at me (all 10 months of it) was smiling in a manner that
said - well finally you caught on mum!
Funnelweb's have a right to life as do we all. I watered the compost
heap with it.
Then
there was the "please may I have a treat?" signal. This, I learned, was the paw half raised and
the tongue licked from left to right. If
necessary there was a bit of lip smacking as well. It didn't stop there. Usually I had two and sometimes three choices
of flavour or style. Did she want
chookie biccies or vegemite hide chews?
Was it to be the liver strips or the coconut oatmeal yummies? To begin with, as you may imagine, I would
give what I thought she should have. It
would sometimes be refused so I'd have to go through them one by one.
May I...? |
Then,
when in a hurry one day, I just grabbed the three different boxes between my
hands and held them down to her. She
tapped the middle one and accepted the contents. Intrigued, the next time I did
this, she again picked, only this time it was the right.
On it
went. She'd sniff at them, then
decide. Sceptics seeing this would say
that she would choose always the same one.
But she did not. And I would not
always offer all the choices. This would
occasionally result in her sitting down looking at me ruefully until I came up
with another alternative, because, that day, neither of those would do!!
Or the
"do you feel like a walk?" question.
This would come up when an extra outing seemed like a good idea - and
generally came after I had been sitting studying for rather longer than was
healthy. She would do the knee press
then, when I looked at her, the ears would come forward like radar
saucers. If I was in less than best
fettle, she'd lie and press my foot instead, then lay her ears back at a
comical angle - invariable raising a smile from me.
Extra to
all this was the actual talking. Just
every now and then, Jade would go into verbal mode. Not barking (and naturally one became aware
of the different tones there), but mumbling, gruffling, snorting talk. "wrrfooh. Soojd ddjfooe.
Lsooddn;p jajas[[plttppjk" I
was hugely gratified that my clever girl thought I was intelligent enough to
translate. It usually took three or four
goes before I got close to what she was saying though. I recall once when a new friend had paid a
visit, right there in front of Tee, Jade turned and spoke. She looked from me to Tee and back. I had a go at several possibilities like
"are you offering Tee something to drink?
No, well are you asking Tee to play?
No, okay are you asking Tee to pat you?" None of these. For some reason I then translated "Are
you telling me you like Tee?" at
this, Jade put her paw up high. YES.
Now
normally, Jade would have done what most dogs would do - run circles round the
new friend and generally make a
fuss. But if I tell you that Tee was an
intellectually disabled lady I had met at college and who was unsure around
animals, you may be a tad more impressed.
As was I.
Jade
never failed to keep surprising me with her methods of getting a message
across. Sometimes on behalf of Jasper
too. More on that next week!
Don't
forget to visit BOZO and take a read of this week's edition of the CanineChronicles.
I can do the treat request thing too, sometimes you just do not fancy a boring old bonio and only a markie bone will do. I can talk too but mine come in the form of squeaks, but they have the desired effect. xxooxx
ReplyDeleteOh, how wonderful, Yam. Jade sounds like a super companion, getting you to walk when you've been studying too long.
ReplyDeleteOur Lindy talks, too, but she is less discriminating in her choice of treats. The only one she'll turn down is broccoli tops, but she likes the stems cut into coins, and she adores cucumber.
She's fun to watch at 10 in the evening. That's when she and her daddy share an apple, and she tells him about it in no uncertain terms. She doesn't bark, but she talks to him, and dances for him.
Animals are wonderful, and I'm enjoying reading about Jade.
Luv, K
Hari Om
ReplyDeleteOh Lady V and Lindy - I knew I made friends with the right sorts of doglets!! I truly believe that given the space and love, you can prove to humans who is really running the shopping list... XXXXOOOO