Temperatures

There's a chill in the air and a change in behavior in my home. I have long known about the shift in behavior that weather can have on dogs. Back in Canada and in my "dog showing" days we always marked at the level of energy of the dogs when fall weather made its first appearance. Not only was there a change in the dogs I was showing; but my own dog's behavior changed as well. At the time I was showing I had my first dog, Mandy.

Mandy was a secondhand Airedale and one of my great dogs. She was an angel and not like a typical feisty Airedale in temperament. People would make comments like "oh watch that Airedale" that I didn't understand until I met several other Airedales. They are terriers and typical of terriers, feisty and confident; very much like my little Jack Russell Jessie. But, one thing Mandy loved was snow and cooler weather and her energy level raised as the thermometers dropped.

I remember way back when I was 18 and working at Merrill Lynch; when the first now showed up. It was all I could do to wait until the 5 oclock hour so that I could get home and take Mandy out into the snow. She absolutely loved playing in the snow, she would role in it, run with her mouth open scooping up the snow and could catch snowballs until spring. She was a joy to watch enjoying the snow.

We don't have snow here in Southern California but we do have cooler weather. A couple of weeks have gone by since I clipped my poodles and now with the cooler weather Luke and Tilley are displaying "cooler weather," behaviors. Tilley gets alot more energy; constantly running around the house with a tennis ball in her mouth. Which in turn fires Luke up; of course because he needs to have the ball that she has got in her mouth.

But Luke is getting pushy, he has a new haircut and he feels like a new man. He usually gets pretty grouchy when he has been recently clipped; afterall I just took his big fuzzy, warm coat off that he has gotten use to having on. I have to admit that I love his big coat; he is like a living teaddy bear. He is so enjoyable to snuggle with when his coat is huge but with that coat comes the giant "velcro" effect as well.

We all love the cooler weather but I now have to be on my toes and keep Luke from being too obnoxious. With the cooler weather comes the extra leadership duty of keeping my blondie in line.