RUDY JOURNAL: STARDATE APRIL 2008: Rudy, our Jack Russell, has begun to expand his menu of tricks. A few months ago, we noticed that he had added a new move to his repertoire of ball chasing. He knows words too.
“Rabbit.” He goes to his stash and returned with Mr. Rabbit (a stuffed rabbit).
“Get the ball.” Another trip to the pile and he’s back with a tennis ball.
“Get the fly!” He attacks the kitchen towel hanging on the stove handle, slinging and neck-snapping it like a bullwhip while growling like he’s saving the house from a dangerous predator. I said he was smart, I didn’t say he wasn’t a little eccentric.
He taps on the back door when he wants to go in or out. He knows the difference when we say, “Want to go for a ride or walk?” He hates baths so badly that the mention of the word “bath” elicits snarls and an immediate bolt upstairs to hide under the bed where he positions himself in the diametric center, on his head, shoving all four legs into the springs above him for maximum extraction difficulty.
The new move involves Rudy facing his intended object of desire, sitting down and raising his front paws to sit at attention, like a rabbit or squirrel – not a big deal, except we didn’t teach him to do it. We sort of take credit for the fetching skills and the other stuff except the fly with the towel thing (we have no idea why he thinks the towel is a fly), but this move is his own invention and it is evolving.
Now he has added grunting or humming to his erect posture. Sometimes he will pop up on his haunches, nod his head and murmur like my grandfather used to do when asleep and in full-tilt dream mode. Last night I watched as he fixated on my face and did his thing and as I looked at him, he smiled. No joke, he arched his eyebrows and curled his lips. Not his lips, dogs don’t have lips, but he curled his little doggie jaws into a rictus that kind of reminded me of Jack Nicholson in that Batman movie when he played the Joker.
We have no idea what it means since no response on our part seems to satisfy his begging. Treats don’t do it. Letting him out doesn’t end his Jack Russell jones. Tossing the ball isn’t his objective. I even tried saying “sausages!” like the dog in the Bud Light TV spot. Nothing.
If we figure it out, I’ll let you know what it is he desires. It’s a mystery. I did catch him doing it in the direction of my cell phone the other day. Maybe he has some calls to make. He’s done it before.
