On Sunday, we took Frankie to a White House rally to protest India's blockade on Nepal which is causing Nepal to quickly run out of food, medicine, oil, gas and other basic supplies extremely necessary for a country still recovering from earthquakes.
Frankie was very excited to go to this rally, mostly because he was excited to look so sharp:
Frankie was surprisingly well-behaved at the rally; he didn't bark at people, he just walked by Nick and I, and diligently peed on every lamp-post.
I think he was on his best behavior because he was thoroughly enjoying being a celebrity dog. Every Nepali kid started shrieking in delight when they saw Frankie and many adults also came up to us to ask to take Frankie's picture.
the line of people kept going....
yes, most of these people were obsessed with Frankie.
Frankie and Nick together were a bit of a sensation; a little boy had to ask Nick if he was Nepali (I told him Nick is an honorary Nepali) and many people took photos of Frankie and Nick together.
Jacket sharing in the cold <3
Any day now we are expecting India's Prime Minister Modi to call Frankie and issue a personal apology for the challenges the blockade is causing on Frankie's Nepali relatives. Until then, with Rekha's help, Frankie is moving on to other political causes...
If you poke a balloon, then some other part of the balloon will bulge out. If you poke a balloon hard enough, it'll pop.
Training Frankie is like poking a balloon. He's getting a lot better with men, but suddenly other things are explosively terrifying.
Let's alternate between points of progress and the exploding-balloon fails...
**PROGRESS: MEN !**
Frankie now greets (most) men with a friendly bark and a tail wag. He has become very territorial of our apartment building, but will eventually "say goodbye" to people or things. Plus, he is now friends with Brian, Jim and Colin! Before I tried to get him to meet these three dudes, I had a working theory that Frankie warms up fastest to runner-skinny men. This was based on his rapid appreciation and friendship of Nick (who remains the only man he's humped-- liked him a bit TOO much...), Adam and Andrew (the dog trainer). So far the theory is still holding-- it took a few tries for him to befriend Brian, but he pretty much instantly befriended Jim and Colin.
Colin petting Frankie; Frankie on alert for carrots!
I guess I can't blame Frankie for warming up to skinny guys at the same rate he warms up to women. Except since he's just 10lbs and pretty much all adult humans he meets are over 100lbs, I think the issue isn't actually a matter of how skinny the dude is. I think Frankie must like how skinny men move....I can't blame him, skinny men got the smooth moves!
Anyway, this brings the tally to 8 male friends! Go Frankie!
**FAIL: "WHAT ABOUT JENNY!??!?!?!?!!"**
Frankie really loves our roommate Jenny. She's totally a part of his pack and this is where the problems start, because you see, Frankie thinks the pack needs to always be together under his protection. But Jenny is an independent woman who does what she wants.
"I can come home when I want, I can leave when I want, I can eat when I want, I can run when I want, I can sleep when I want!" --> concepts Frankie is having trouble understanding.
If Jenny comes home when we are about to leave for a walk or run, it takes a lot of patience and coaxing to get Frankie to leave the apartment. Conversely, if Frankie can tell Jenny got home while we're out, he tries everything he can to get home ASAP and check on her.
Today this almost led to disaster. We were doing our pre-breakfast walk on the trail where he generally is very well-behaved off-leash and typically sits at the trailhead so I can put the leash back on him for us to return home. Today was not a typical day. We were near the trailhead and suddenly Frankie stood alert, he glanced at me and then suddenly made like the road runner all the way back to our apartment (about a quarter of a mile).
"Peace out, bitches!! I'm outta here!!!!"
That meant he crossed a street and parking lot without me. Luckily it was about 7am so the only person out and in car was one of our dog-owning neighbors who is familiar with Frankie. He had stopped his SUV and waited for me to get Frankie before driving. I caught up to Frankie at the entrance of our apartment and forced him to walk a different loop with me before using a different entrance than the one he had run to to return inside. When we got back it was clear that Jenny had left for the office-- probably her biking by on the road was what inspired him to suddenly make like a valkyrie back to our fortress.
Anyway, THERE IS HOPE. Andrew had a bunch of suggestions for things Jenny and I can practice so Frankie will stop freaking out so much at her unpredictable schedule.
**PROGRESS: THE BRIDGE OF DOOM AND DISEASED RATS**
Remember this lovely and tranquil bridge?
Yeah, well to Frankie it still is this:
"Must we truly pass through Mordor to get home??? PLEASE NO!!!!!"
That said, he is getting more courageous every day and we haven't had any more 20 minute stand offs -- hell, we haven't even had to deal with a 5 minute standoff! Part of it is that during the day the bridge scares him less so he can be coaxed to walk on it. At night the bridge still totally terrifies him, I'll tell him to come but he'll just come to the edge and sit there like this:
So, I'll pick him up, walk a couple meters and set him down on the bridge. Then he walks as fast as he can until he gets to the other side where he gets rewarded for surviving the journey through Mordor.
This is basically how I reward him each time he crosses the bridge.
**FAIL: "I USED TO RUN WITH YOU? REALLY? I FORGET THAT. IT HAPPENED 5 DAYS AGO? FUNNY, I DON'T RECALL." **
Today's the fourth consecutive day where we have not run together. It's really like he forgot he used to run with me and I have to reset all the parameters in his brain to get him going again. I've been ending my runs by putting him on the running leash (yes, we use a different, shorter, ultra reflective leash for runs!) and then we go outside. It's as if all the training we've accomplished getting him to be well-behaved on walks only counted when it was the walking-leash and we have to totally re-do everything is he's on the running leash and I'm wearing a sport bra!
I maybe should have ended this post on a positive note, but for now having to reset all the running parameters is extremely frustrating because this dog has so much energy he really needs his runs.... I guess at least my hamstrings/glutes are starting to get extra jacked from dropping into a squat every two steps to get him to come...
This is basically me beckoning Frankie.
It's a slow process but hopefully we'll get there...until then, instead of runnin' with the devil, it's just those mean ole walkin' blues.
When Frankie is in a new place, he sticks close to me. Once Frankie decides a place isn't new, then he's constantly attempting a power-coup so he can decide the route we go. I guess sometime during this past week he decided he is totally familiar with the new neighborhood and since Wednesday morning we've been having A LOT of standoffs at the start of our walks and runs.
There is only one rule when we have a standoff: I always have to win. I'm pretty sure I look pretty nuts to passer-bys, a grown woman staring down a 10lb min-pin/chihuahua mix. Especially since the staring can go on for a long while...
A lot of the time the staring is broken by someone passing by-- it'll motivate Frankie to hop into action and sometimes I can use that momentum to get us going in the direction I want. That probably only happens about 40% of the time. The other 60% of the time the momentum just brings him one step closer to me and the staring constant just continues.
In just today, Frankie and I have had two incredibly epic standoffs.
Epic Standoff #1
The first happened during our run. We had just hit the one mile point on the trail loop and we came to a point where we generally go straight-- but there is a branch where you can turn left and run a shorter loop. Frankie has been loitering there more, not because he wants to run less, but again, because he's trying a power-coup and wants to control where we go. Today he came to a complete stop and started to alternate between staring down that path and looking at me.
Not to scale. We were probably 100m apart because normally he stops and sprints back to me, so by the time I realizde he wasn't catching up to me there was a bit of a gap between us.
I stopped my watch and hunkered into a squat so I could be more eye-level with him. I alternated between calling out, "Frankie, come!" and whistling. After a couple of minutes, Frankie finally started sprinting towards me. When he got about half-way, I praised him and clicked (training clicker ftw!). That made him speed up and when he got to me I clicked and praised him. After that, we were set and the rest of our run went by smoothly.
Epic Standoff #2
The second epic standoff happened on our pre-dinner walk. Since he is so afraid of the apartment's bridge, I wanted to start training him to not be afraid of it. My idea was that I would get on the bridge with him on-leash but standing off the bridge. Then I would tell him to come and when he got to me I'd give him a pupperoni treat since those get him even more excited than carrots.
That was the idea anyway. We got into position and it became immediately clear that Frankie was going to pull out all the stops for this standoff.
"I DON'T SEE YOU. THIS BRIDGE ISN'T REAL. LET'S GO HOME."
If Frankie was going to give the standoff everything, that meant I also had to (see the aforementioned one rule regarding standoffs). So, I decided to get comfortable and sat down on the bridge. Frankie was not pleased.
After about 8 minutes (yes, I was timing it) of me alternating between "Frankie, come!" and whistling, I decided to toss a little treat on the bridge near him. I know bribery isn't good and I should just reward him when he acts properly, but I was getting a bit impatient. Frankie stared at the bribe for a couple minutes and then I was finally able to coax him to check it out. He took a first step....
...I clicked and praised him. He ate the treat and somehow I was able to trick him into being on the bridge, albeit still a full-leash away from me. At this point, we were over 10 minutes in and I tried putting a couple more pieces on the bridge.
He stared at them and me for a few more minutes without budging. He was keeping his cool.
"So not interested. I am not here. F#@# you. I am going home."
Since he wasn't budging even with me attempting bribery, I felt guilty for trying to bribe him and put the treats back in the treat-bag. Maybe that was what inspired him to come closer to me, I don't know, just somehow after another five minutes Frankie finally gave up and came to my lap. I clicked, gave him a treat and after spending over 20 minutes sitting on a bridge I was pretty damn happy to return home for dinner!
In July I adopted Frankie from his amazing foster parents. Since then it has been an adventure as Frankie as adjusted to Colorado life. It's a whole new scary world beyond Virginia and we have a long way to go in training Frankie to adjust to it. This blog is dedicated to the hilarious (and sometimes frustrating) stories.
Many things in Colorado really terrify Frankie. Here's a non-inclusive list of the things that terrify him:
printing printers
"IT'S ALIVE!!!!"
people on bikes
people on skateboards
people on rollerblades
people with wheels including wheelchairs or strollers
people on motorcycles
horses
"HOLY CRAP!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU!?!?!?!!"
trotting grandmas
men moving too quickly (i.e. running) --> this is what caused me to start professional dog training with him so Frankie and I can run together in peace.
most men
Literally the list of men he likes is very short:
his foster dad
my dad (after three days of lots of carrots and persuasion)
my partner
my brother-from-another-mother Adam
Adam still thinks I'm lying about Frankie hating men since Frankie inexplicably loves him so much.
5. his dog trainer Andrew
See, that's just 5 men! When I first met Frankie, I thought Frankie was just a cautious feminist like me, but now I've learned he's a feminazi who needs to learn #NotAllMen are the devil incarnate!
things that cover water....... such as...
1- Rain drains. Whenever we crossed the street, if we were walking towards a rain drain, Frankie would do this awkward circle around it to get on the side-walk somewhere else. At first, I thought he was afraid of falling in, but then I saw these critters climb out:
and now I think Frankie is just afraid of the raccoons that seem to live in every Boulder rain drain!
2- Wooden bridges. A month ago we moved to a much nicer neighborhood. It's 3mi away from campus, so it is very quiet and residential. It's also right next to a lot of great trails where dogs can be off-leash. Here are some pics of the beautiful apartment complex:
Now, except for the bridge in the above picture, this place is a total dog heaven. There are so many places for him to romp around and he already has so many new dog buddies he plays with.
This bridge, however, remains an ongoing daily terror.
"Neesha, you realize THERE IS WATER RIGHT UNDER THIS? Are you sure about these pieces of wood? They don't seem very sturdy to me!!"
Successful bridge crossings happen one of two ways: 1) I coax him with carrots by dropping the leash, walking to either the middle or other side of the bridge, and then Frankie does this military-esque sprint-crawl as fast as he can until he reaches me (by which point he doesn't care about the carrot-- GODDAMMIT HE'S JUST SO HAPPY TO HAVE SURVIVED THAT BRIDGE!) or 2) this is much more in frequent, but sometimes nothing can persuade him that the bridge is cross-able and I just have to carry him. When we make it to the other side and I set him back on the ground, it's as if he's totally forgotten the terrors of the bridge and he's suddenly found himself in the wondrous land of grasshopper-hunting.
In Frankie's defense, under the bridge there are some pretty scary Olympic-level swimming rats....
backstrokin' rats
sprinklers
rain. Yes, Frankie is terrified of rain, or at least just seems to totally hate it (maybe he thinks he's been surrounded by sprinklers!?). I'm trying multiple strategies on this, all of which of course include carrots and rain gear.
He's a shining star in the rain!
But then I realized that cover didn't protect his belly/legs from getting wet (after all, when it rains grass lawns turn into rain forests for the tiny guy!). So then I introduced this coat:
"I know I look awesome, but seriously, let's just stay inside, ok?"
So yes,
...but Frankie and I will eventually figure it out. Whatever happens, wherever we go, it's a Bron-Y-Aur stomp.
