Raven’s slowly growing up in the brains department and testing her rank in the Fort Doberdale hierarchy.
She’s still a puppy-head, but an older model puppy-head, and has little self-control over some of her impulses. OK, many of her impulses. For example, when I give treats to others among our group, she doesn’t think twice to either grab my hand (hard, I might say) as it and the treat move toward the non-Raven snout, or to grab any morsel that is hanging out or dropping from the non-Raven snout. How rude!
When I dole out treats, anyone who sits, gets one. And most of them will stay seated to see if there is a second treat go-round. Raven doesn’t get that part. She is one-of-a-kind and wants it all. So she sits, grabs, then grabs grabs grabs because she thinks that will get her more treats faster. It doesn’t. I have my second hand ready when I am moving the first one with treat towards another dog’s beak. That way, I can divert Raven’s beak before she clamps down on my hand. She will sit when I ask, but only for a second or two. We are working on the “Raven, stay” part, and that should resolve some of this, along with maturation. I have not received the “mature brains installation disc” yet for Raven. When that disc comes, probably in 12 to 18 months, the neighbors won’t hear “RaaaVeeeN!” echo over the sounds of freeway traffic and construction drills.
With that said, I was amazed at first, then not at second, when yesterday, Baby, the Queen Mother Herself, took her Abuelita Tortilla strip out into the yard away from the crowd to eat. Raven ran right behind her. The QM dropped her chip and gave the usual Queen Motherly warning bark, which every dog in Fort Doberdale understands and respects. Except Raven. Raven grabbed the chip, chomped, swallowed and ran. Baby and I looked at each other. Action was necessary. No one disobeys the QM’s warning bark without repercussions. I barred Raven from the QM’s territory, gave her Queenliness one chip for the lost one and one chip for pain and suffering, and we all listened to Raven thowing a fit while Baby crunched her chips.
Baby was recompensed by the fact that the majority of the FDSP watched her eat. That is one of Baby’s favorite ruling skills. She waits till everyone else is available before she eats something special, so they can watch her enjoy what they don’t have. She is always the last one to finish dinner, and has an audience of droolers by then. In between dainty bites, she warns them to stay away from the dish with her best, ferocious warning barks. She loves it.
Raven’s other current process is the toy guarding game, which I had witnessed for the first time last night. She usually guards her toys by keeping them in her mouth and generally swinging or shoving them at me. Last night, I sat on the sofa, Baby curled up next to me, and Luigi brought a toy. Somewhere in the games we were playing, Raven got that toy, and jumped on the sofa with it. Oddly enough, she placed it right by Baby’s tail, which didn’t exactly please the QM, but she could live with it. When Luigi approached, she growled a warning and snapped the air. This went on for a while, and had I had my camera, there would be pictures to share as it was the first time Raven initiated the game.
This behavior is common between Dobergirls and Doberboys. Generally, Dobergirls are hardwired to dish it out and Doberboys are hardwired to endure and react at the speed of lightning to Dobergirls’ snaps. Frankly, it’s downright comical when the game is played the way it’s supposed to be and everyone’s following the rules of nature.
Ginger and Luigi are experts as a team, and often play a prolonged and more sophisticated version of the game in the backyard. When Ginger gets Luigi’s ball, he follows her as she takes it from one place to the next, drops it nearby, sniffs the ground, looks up and lifts her lip at Luigi, sniffs the ground, and all the while, Luigi is taking one step forward, one step back, trying to figure out when it will be safe to grab that ball and walk away with it. Eventually, Ginger relinquishes control by finding a spot to sniff that is so darn interesting that she forgets about that ball. But it is her choice when that happens. She’s in charge.
There is a saying in Dogdom that is very true. Bitches rule, dogs drool. Raven is on her way to being true to her calling.
Helen