Sorry for the lack of blog post. We were all under the weather for a few days. There is nothing like being sick to make you appreciate being well. 🙂
Onward to the topic at hand!
I remember the day Flash came bounding out of his crate, toy in mouth, ready to take on the world. What he didn’t understand was that his world would include Merlot. I sometimes wonder how Flash would have turned out without the iron paw of my big poodle boy shaping his personality. I believe Flash would have grown up obnoxious, one of those dogs you meet and go “oh boy, my dog really hates him, he just doesn’t have any manners!”.
Most people and dogs have what is termed a ‘personal space bubble’. What does this mean? It is the space that you do not allow others to breach without permission. If I walked up to you, moved really close to your face and talked, you would likely feel very uncomfortable. This is because I would be invading your personal space. Everyone’s bubble is different. I have a pretty large bubble. Keith’s is much smaller, and most young kids don’t have a bubble at all nor do they understand the concept (well, except Kenzie who is far to much like her mommy!). Introverts tend to have a larger bubble. Extroverts much smaller.
Flash is the consummate extrovert! Merlot was an die hard introvert with an extremely large personal space bubble. These two dogs would butt heads over this specific issue their entire lives. Later in life, it became a game they both really enjoyed playing, but in the beginning, it caused a lot of strain on their relationship.
There was a story I read once, about a two young dogs who were playing hard, chasing each other at full speed across a large yard. In their joy of the game they inadvertently crashed into a third dog, who proceeded to let them know just what a bad choice they had made. After the quick scuffle, the other two dogs when back to playing, but both were paying attention to where they were in relation to the third, more mature dog. This is something I believe all dogs need to learn, and it is the main reason I keep my puppies until they are 8-10 weeks old before allowing them to leave. All puppies need to interact with adult dogs, not just their mom, in order to learn good manners.
When Flash arrived, he did not have good manners. I do not believe it was the fault of his breeder, I believe it was simply because Flash was so very hard headed, he needed someone to jerk a knot in his tail multiple times to grasp the point “oh, maybe I shouldn’t do that”. The first thing he did was greet every dog in the house with extreme happiness and joy. “You love me, I know you do, everyone loves me!”.
Flash standing over Cami, with his head in Major's mouth!
In this photo you can see Flash sticking his entire head down Major’s throat!! He would do it, just so happy to be alive, to be in the family, to have such a great pack of dogs to live with. This behavior really annoy the other dogs, except Major who seemed to think it funny. Merlot HATED this behavior. It made him nuts to have a wild monster running around, uncontrolled, getting in everyone’s face. He rolled Flash so many times I lost count. He had to develop some self control or Merlot was going to make or break him in the process. It isn’t that Flash was stupid, it was just the act of being rolled did not out weigh his desire to show his joy and happiness to be near someone or something.
I remember a specific day in my mom’s kitchen. We were visiting, Merlot was sleeping at my feet. Flash was romping around the kitchen, playing with a ball. I believe Flash was about 5 months old. My mom’s kitchen floor was really slippery and Flash did not realize this fact until it was to late. I saw him speeding out of control directly towards Merlot. I looked at my little pups eyes and saw fear. He knew he was going to get in so much trouble, he was back peddling, doing everything in his power to stop his forward momentum. It was no use. In slow motion I saw the event unfold. Panicking small poodle crashing into sleeping huge old grumpy poodle who came awake snarling, anger flaring in his eyes! Thankfully this happened under my feet, so I could stop Merlot from acting out of anger and snap him back to reality. Merlot came out of it quickly, but he wasn’t appeased, just willing to let me handle it while he grumbled under his breath and raised his lip at the stupid puppy who couldn’t seem to grasp common courtesy.
Another similar event happened after Flash was around a year old. We were at home and Flash was having one of his “I’m so happy, I’m so fast, I’m THE POODLE” joy moments where he would run around the house at break neck speeds. He was making a loop from living room, to kitchen, back to living room. Merlot was asleep in the living room right along Flash’s path. No problem in Flash’s mind, he would simply jump him, like an agility Jump. This was all fine and good, but I noticed the dragon crack his eye after the second spring loaded pass. As Flash rounded the corner for pass number three, Merlot went from totally still to standing, cleanly intercepting Flash’s jump in mid air. He didn’t hurt him, he just let him know that he wasn’t going to be an Agility jump for some young pup! GAME OVER!
Flash has a serious addiction to toys, and balls are his favorite. The problem with a ball is that it rolls, often into what we coined “the lair of the Dragon”. As I said, Merlot had a large personal space bubble and if a toy entered that bubble, it became the property of The Dragon. Flash learned this particular lesson early on, but he had methods to deal with The Dragon. The first was to see if The Dragon was really asleep. You sneak up very slowly, on your belly, ready to bolt back out of The Dragon’s lair in a split second. Merlot was a light sleeper and he loved nothing more than jerking Flash’s chain. So he would lay there, eyes closed, using his nose to tell how close Flash was getting. Merlot would allow him to get within inches of the ball, then slowly raise his lip and give a low growl. Flash would jump back and start pacing the edge of the bubble. Flash knew to the millimeter just how close he could get to Merlot without making him growl. He would walk that bubble line, wagging his tail, talking to Merlot in a ‘rooo rooo roooo’ tone saying “Oh come on Merlot, just let me have my ball please!” Merlot would glance at him, then close his eyes and ignore. Flash would try trading, bringing in a different toy and nosing it towards Merlot. This didn’t work most of the time, but I always gave him “A” for effort. Smart thinking in any case! Next he would plead his case with me. He would come over to me, put his head in my lap, look up at me with sorrow filled eyes, slowly wagging his tail. “PLEASE get my ball, mom!” Sometimes I would take pity on his little soul, and go retrieve the ball. If I did, Merlot would look at me, smile, give a sigh, and roll over hoping I would give him a tubby rub while I was down there, and yes I usually did. Such behavior likely caused Merlot to horde more balls from Flash, knowing Flash would bug me to get the ball, then Merlot would get a tummy rub. Win Win. Dogs are masters at manipulation. If all else failed, Flash would bark loudly at Merlot nonstop, making it impossible to sleep. Once Merlot raised up his head, Flash would dash around barking wildly saying “Come on Merlot, come get me, you know you want to get me, I am just so annoying!!”. Finally Merlot would get up, frustrated and annoyed, and run at Flash. Nine times out of ten, Merlot’s heart wasn’t in it. He was just trying to annoy Flash, so he would only take about 5 steps towards Flash before stopping. Flash would loop around at break neck speed and snatch the ball, running with joy, feeling like he succeeded in besting that old Dragon. Merlot, seeing Flash with his ball, would snort, give a little shake, stretch and yawn, and jump up on the couch, out of the stupid pups way to get a real nap. This game would occur a few times a week until Merlot passed away. They both loved ths game or it would not have continued for 5 years.
It is interesting to see Flash now. He is a changed dog. His depression when Merlot passed was so much more than I expected. I think Merlot was Flash’s stability, his steadfast leader. Flash is a joyful dog, and to see him lose joy was painful. Yet another reminder of how much Merlot meant to everyone in this family. The two pups have really helped Flash, but he will never be the same. He isn’t care free anymore. He is now the leader and he bares the responsibility with grace, though it makes me so very sad to see my sweet boy so stoic.
On an interesting note, Lincoln and Jazz were playing hard, not paying any attention to where they were going or what they were doing. They bowled right into Flash, who prompted turned into a snapping, growling, black hair ball of wrath that they DARE be so stupid and inconsiderate. It brought a tear to my eye. If Merlot had been here, Flash would have been in on the play instead of standing guard near me, calm and quiet, watching for danger and frustrated with the antics of young pups. Death and change has a way of causing us all to grow up, even a dog like Flash.
Merlot and Flash - Camping Trip Nov 2010.