We had a three-day weekend for Easter, nice weather and next to nothing to do, so Saturday we took Maui to Hoogeveen (Wikipedia) for a walk around the Hofdstraat. The market was open, and there were lots of people out and about doing their shopping with kids and other dogs in tow.
Maui has been iffy with other dogs in public since sometime last summer. We think it might have started with him barking because he simply wanted to get other dogs' attention so that they could meet and play like he got to do when he was a puppy and like he would do at Paw Run. We know he's a friendly dog and just wants to meet others, but it can sound like a fairly intimidating bark. He's also taken to lunging at other dogs, but until now we've been of the opinion that if he was off-leash he would just run up to the dog (across traffic if he had to) to go sniff-butt and play. But the loud barking and lunging has gotten much worse since we came to the Netherlands.
Saturday, for the first time, he lunged and snapped at another dog - without any reason or provocation that we could discern. It started as just a friendly nose-to-nose meet and greet, and then suddenly Maui made a very ugly bark and lunged at the other dog. Scared me half to death. And we can't explain it. I wondered if Maui sensed something about the other dog that Charles couldn't read? (I had my back on them until I heard the bark.) Charles wondered if Maui isn't starting to get protective of me. Whatever the reason, it's rather concerning and I'm even more hesitant to take him out in public. To his credit, though, we took him around the market in Diever today, giving him a constant supply of treats and praise whenever another dog passed by, and he did pretty well.
Back at home, the little white hen (a.k.a. "Miss Chickie Bawk-Bawk") has decided that now that both she and Vrouw Pecker are laying eggs again, she'd better protect them. She spent three days sitting in the coop on a clutch of eggs and, as far as I could tell, left them only twice to go outside and eat. The second time I hustled out there and stole the eggs.
Seriously - they're not fertilized. They're not going to hatch. She doesn't need to sit on them. I don't know, is Vrouw Pecker doing things to Miss Chickie Bawk Bawk to make her think that those eggs might somehow have been fertilized? Do we need to keep a closer eye on those two?
And on a sadder note, Charles and I drove up to Lauwersmeer Sunday to take Maui for a long walk. While we were up there we drove across the Bantswei dijk, which had sheep grazing along the side. We stopped at the lookout point to watch the windsailers and kiteboarders and to take a closer look at all the sheep and lambs. One sheep wasn't grazing or sunning itself on the hill like all the others, though. It was lying on its side next to the fence at the bottom of the hill, head on the ground, kicking its legs as though dreaming about a nice run through the pasture. I don't have a heck of a lot of experience around sheep, but this was a first for me to see, this lying on its side and kicking. Sure enough, we took a closer look and saw that it was foaming at the mouth. The sadder part was to see one of the lambs run up to it and try to nurse. At least the lamb was mostly kept at bay by the kicking legs.
Comments