Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Taking the Grrrr out of Murphy

I can hug Murphy, roll him over, scratch his tummy, do just about everything I used to with Sirocco and he greedily laps up all the fuss and attention. But there is a Grrr in him. And that comes out when he's gnawing on a chewie.

Murphy, no grring, I said, laying my hand on his head.

Grr.

Disregarding his grrrrr, I brought my hand toward his paws. He snapped his great big jaws at me.

This happened on the second day he was with us. Murphy was not the only dog in his previous home, so it's possible that his little doggie friend might have attempted to steal Murphy's treats. I want Murphy to have absolute trust in me, so if ever I need to take something from his mouth, I will be able to, without him biting my hand. I started handfeeding him his meals and then, later on, every time he was eating, I draped my hand inside his bowl, so he got accustomed to my hand being close to his mouth and to eat his food carefully without chewing up my fingers. And when I gave him a chewie, I held on to one end, so Murphy was forced to stop chewing as the chewie grew smaller and smaller and my fingers got in the way.

Today I gave him his chewie and after a few minutes, as he was working his way into it, I slipped my hand between his paws, he stiffened, covered the chewie swiftly with his paws, but did not grr. It's only couple of weeks now. I'm sure in a few months, he will be fine with my taking his chewie from his mouth when he's eating it. If not, I get bitten, no big deal. After all, he’s had his rabies shot.

Which reminds me, when we were living in Kapuskasing, I had a lab mutt called Karun (I had named him after my brother-in-law). Karun had a bit of the terrier in him and was a biting dog. Once, when the newspaper boy reached out to pat him on his head, Karun bit him hard, drew a lot of blood. I rushed the boy to the hospital and then phoned his dad, told him what happened.

“As long as it was not a wolf, that’s OK,’ said the dad.

2 comments:

Rima Kaur said...

yes its very important for pets to be comfortable in their owner's presence, even when they are eating, because they tend to get a little growly then.

once when sandra was eating her food, a bone got stuck across her upper teeth. my mother and i didnt notice it at first, but then we saw that she was sitting rather still in a corner and her mouth was salivating a lot. my mother gently opened her mouth and i plucked out the bone. sandra was quite nervous, but cooperated very well.

another time, robo was hopping around on the terrace alone while the rest of the family was downstairs. after a few minutes, the running around stopped. i thought he must be taking a little breather, but then he started giving out short barks every few seconds. mummy immediately sensed that he was in trouble. she rushed upstairs and found him standing on his hind legs, his collar stuck on a nail in the wall. he became quite still when mummy began to free him.

had robo and sandra become scared and barky, it would have become very difficult to relieve them from their discomfort. we must teach not only our pets, but also ourselves and our children to remain calm when faced with a problem.

Anu Jayanth said...

Yes, Rima, absolutely. Murphy is eight years old and set in some of his ways, I'm sure, but he's a remarkably intelligent dog and I think he's beginning to get the message that I have zero interest in chewing on his chewie.