My tunnel visioned dog

[Chase Mueller]

The LOML and I have been moved into our place for about 3 months now, and have noticed quite a few critters like to frequent our side yard/backyard. The only problem is, so has the village doofus. The village doofus being our loveable mutt, Marnie. We believe she is a Min Pin/Terrier mix, so when that nose starts going, well quite frankly there's no stopping it. Her favorite is the skinks and lizards. Sometimes the occasional Opossum or Coon will suffice.
It was a lovely Saturday afternoon in May, mid 80's, cool breeze, could have been perfect if it weren't for the fact that you could literally see pollen raining down from the heavens. Not even exaggerating, it's unreal.
Anyhow, little miss numbskull decided it was time to pee, so I get up to let her out, and as I open the door, I see a deer right at our fence. Like, RIGHT there. Maybe 10 feet away. Not knowing how she would react to a deer, the thought "Hey man, maybe chase the deer off first?" never occurred to me. Instead, my bright self says, "Hey Marnie, look its a deer!". Now, I don't know if it's cause I said it excited and it rowled her up, or if she just really wanted to sniff that deer's hoo-ha, but she took off. It was like watching a cheetah almost, except much much smaller with a gazelle-esque leap here and there. She even lowered her head like she thought she was a ram or something. Unfortunately, the deer was way smarter than our dog, which honestly is not much of a feat, she's "special" :D.
The deer, unlike Marnie, saw the wire fence separating the two, so it just kinda stood there enjoying the show that was about to unfold. Marnie runs as fast as her little legs could carry her, with her head held down like she's using it as a battering ram, directly into the fence head first.
... My dog is now terrified of the fence. If the ball goes near it when we play fetch, she whines until one of us grabs it. She's a really brave girl.:rolleyes:
I think the deer thought it was funny though, cause the next day there were more deer just sitting there watching the house hoping to catch a glimpse of the second act.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Well this sounds funnier than my friend's autistic GSD.

[Chase Mueller]

Well this sounds funnier than my friend's autistic GSD.

Poor pupper. I've never seen a GSD with autism before. Friend has a pug with Downs though. Not trying to be mean or anything, but pugs are already ugly little things, but his.. wow

[Carlos Alvarez]

He's brilliant. He will bring a chair from the dining area to the kitchen, hop on it, get food out, open it, and eat it. Seriously. But he also can't really ingest the world around him like a normal dog and is constantly anxious.

[Chase Mueller]

Your friends dog with autism is more intelligent than my "normal" dog. The LOML will be thrilled to hear this.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Well that's the thing about intelligence and autism; it varies by how we define either or both. His dog is completely unable to figure out other things, like coordinating a ball chase. He's just a mess. Totally out of touch with spatial reality.

I can relate; as a touch autistic/ADD myself, I constantly bump into things, even if I can plan all my steps ahead in my mind.

[Chase Mueller]

Interesting. It seems like the ability to learn is there, but lacks a bit of the natural order side. Sounds like a cool dog to have around nonetheless.
On the other hand, my dog thinks it's a ram. Not too sure what's going on with her.

[Wade Lippman]

A dachshund started "running" at my 35 pound Toller. I didn't think much of it, assuming he would stop at the road; but he kept coming. My dog ignored it until the last moment, when she stepped to the side and the dachshund went running by. He turned sharply to run back at her, but rolled over on his back because he couldn't make the turn.

I can't imagine what he was thinking; attacking a dog 3 times his size and many times his agility.

I think it was funniest thing I have ever seen.

[Kev Williams]

We picked up a 'used' Malte-poo just before Thanksgiving, one of our kid's neighbors was moving to a dog-free apartment I guess... 4 years old, her name is Daisy. Her thing is she watches TV. She knows all the commercials with dogs and cats in them, she can tell from the music or the talking. When a dog or some other critter comes on she jumps up & down and barks like an idiot. If I tell her there's a dog on TV she'll go check the TV to see if I'm lyin'... ;)

On Thanksgiving day one of our kids thought it would be entertaining to plug in "Air Bud" and watch Crazy Daisy jump herself to death. Instead, after a bit of jumping and barking, she sat on the floor and just watched the show while we all ate turkey. Gotta get some video one of these days...

[Chase Mueller]

I absolutely love it when animals do that. I've since given up on trying to figure out why, and just enjoy the moment :D
When my dad and step mother adopted a dog together, they got a pit bull mix and named it Chloe. Chloe is a sweet girl, lick ya to death kinda pit. Well, we fenced in the yard for her and just lined it up with the neighbors fence, not realizing she could easily slide through it, until she did..
She see's Winston(neighbors full blooded Bulldog puppy, maybe 6 months old) and halls butt through the fence after it, barking like crazy. Winston was maybe 1/3 the size of Chloe, but as soon as he saw her, he ran at her and actually made Chloe turn around and jump right back through the fence, straight to my dads legs. It was hilarious. Winston wanted to play, Chloe was terrified. Never understand that one.

[Carlos Alvarez]

This is a great toy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuvIJmJfrgw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxgR8Ccu0u8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpBpUFTNkH4

[Chase Mueller]

If you do, please share! That sounds hilarious!
Doorbell? Nothing. Open a slice of Kraft cheese, on you in a millisecond

[Chase Mueller]

I would like ten.
Tried to get my Dad one of those automatic laser pointers for his Pit mix since she loves chasing lasers, but nope. This big mean, terrifying, fearsome dog is scared of a plastic object standing a grand total of 18 inches tall. She's also terrified of cats now thanks to the newish cat they got. My dad named it "Glock". I thought that was stupid, so I told everyone to call him Van Buren. It stuck :D

[lowell holmes]

We have two 70 pound black dogs, one a female black lab and the other a male lab mix. They both have their idiosyncrasies, but she is the queen bee and acts like it. He is sweet dog, but something of a scaredy cat. Just like the humans in this house, she is the boss. :)

[Carlos Alvarez]

Keep in mind that laser pointers can cause OCD and other psychological problems. Please google it and know what to watch for and when to stop it.

[Chase Mueller]

Huh, I wasn't aware. Thank you for telling me.

[Marshall Harrison]

We sort of have 3 dogs. The wife and I have a Golden Retriever. But my son has a mixed bull dog/terrier and my daughter's dog is a mutt that looks like a large brown rat (I love her though) and often stays with us for a few days at a time.

Someone comes to the door or the fence and our dogs bark at them but my daughters dog just barks and nips at our dogs when someone is at the door. When that happens my golden has learned to go raid the other dog's food bowls while they are distracted at the door.

As for laser pointers and OCD etc., my daughters' dog loves to chase the red dot and when it goes away she will sit for hours in the spot where it vanished just waiting for it to show up again. We had to stop using it with her. The other dogs and the cat just ignore it.

With a little training my daughter's dog could be come a world class frisbee dog. She loves chasing and catching it and will do so until she wears herself out.

[Chase Mueller]

Your daughter's dog and our dog have that in common. Looks like a rat with rotweiller markings and when you say playtime is over, or stop throwing the ball, you just get an error message followed by a "does not compute" retort. If you take too long to acknowledge her existence, she grabs her favorite pink forever bone, and runs full force at whatever part of your body she can access, and uses her head like a big horned sheep defending its turf. She's kinda cute in a slightly ugly and really neurotic kinda way i guess
I'm speculating, of course, my dog talk is rusty.

[Carlos Alvarez]

As for laser pointers and OCD etc., my daughters' dog loves to chase the red dot and when it goes away she will sit for hours in the spot where it vanished just waiting for it to show up again. We had to stop using it with her.


I'm glad you did, that's the exact sign of the potential worse damage. Some dogs know it's a game, some get obsessed with the idea that a thing exists in their world that they cannot catch. Our current two know that the dot comes from this little stick, and will in fact bite the pointer or bring it to you sometimes. One of our previous dogs had no idea and would obsess over that. Our dogs also go nuts over reflections in the morning. We keep the doors open most winter when the weather is great and they love to chase accidental reflections from our watches and phones.