Paco the supermodel
Originally uploaded by CW.
Life’s completely changed for me now Paco’s here.
We’ve been to puppy school. Paco was a bit wary of the other puppies at first - all bigger than him - but he quickly decided Mia the Alaskan Malamute was his favourite. Even though she can put his entire head in her mouth.
Paco can sit, drop, and come, and he’s learning to shake hands (we’re using a Dutch word pootje “little paw” as the command). He’s a bit strong-willed though and doesn’t always want to obey. Reminds me of a certain cat sometimes… (M and I like to imagine a meeting between Paco and Baubles.)
The park is one of my new favourite places.
I can talk to you about the virtues of liver treats as training aids, as compared to Schmakos.
Nylabone comes in flavours. Yes, flavoured nylon.
One can be very creative stuffing a kong.
And there’s a whole new world of doggy fashions out there…
I always thought those dog owners and their well-dressed pooches were a bit too precious, but Paco actually shivers on cold mornings (and is reluctant to get out of his warm bed) at the moment and I can see the point now!
I’ll have to take a picture of Paco in his other outfit, a red velvet and fleece Dracula-look coat - very smart!
Hyde Park is Paco’s idea of heaven, I think. We took him there yesterday - M was going riding with his unicycling buddies, and we thought Paco might enjoy a quiet time sitting in the sunshine. Little did we know…
I don’t have any pictures because I was too busy being dragged around the park by a tiny dog. I think it was all the smells - of dropped food, other dogs, lots of people, flocks of ducks and water birds - that meant that Paco found the whole place completely intriguing and utterly wonderful. He just wanted to look everywhere, sniff everything, and he even enjoyed running around from place to place. (I was worn out by the end of the afternoon.) We’ve taken him to a different park closer to home but he didn’t seem to particularly enjoy it. I think Hyde Park is The Park from now on.
We were wondering how Paco would react to meeting a whole group of strange people. I think he was the life of the party - he licked everyone and wanted to either play or cuddle, when he wasn’t distracted by everything else going on around him. He isn’t particularly worried by unicycles, and he thinks poi are chew toys.
Paco even enjoyed meeting other dogs, although he was a bit cautious and submissive at times (probably just as well). Every other person wanted to stop and say hello to the little dog, which was a new experience for me.
And the most amazing bit? Paco didn’t bark once! He doesn’t bark around the house either, normally. I’ve only heard him bark twice - the night we tried to lock him in the laundry room, and he also barked at his reflection in his mirror the first time he saw it. Paco’s bark is quite surprisingly deep for such a little dog. He does wuff in his sleep from time to time. I wonder what he dreams of.
At the moment, he’s fast asleep on my lap, covered by a bit of my sarong. (It’s a bit cool this morning and he was shivering a bit until I covered him.)
Postscript: Paco takes up a lot of my time at the moment - a good hour in the morning before work, and much of the evening after work. I’m thinking that I am going to need to reorganise my routine a bit so that I regain a bit more time for reading and writing.
