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Saturday, Sep. 12, 2009

Carol Reiter: Never had a dog like this ...

My puppy, Moss, has reached his six-month birthday, despite himself.

Unlike a lot of border collies, Moss doesn't have a shy bone in his body. He loves everyone, he careens through life with a perpetual smile on his face, and he is driving my other three dogs crazy.

Moss' biggest problem is he hasn't figured out that other dogs, and people, need to have a bubble of space around them. If something, or someone, is in Moss' way, he just bulls his way through. He was doing it to me, but I have pretty much cured him of running into me, crashing into my legs or trying to push past me to get out the door.

Unfortunately, the dogs haven't done as well as I have in training Moss. As a result, they pretty much hate him.

Len has the most issues with Moss. Because the puppy doesn't seem to care if you're mad at him, he doesn't give a rat's behind if Len gets angry. This infuriates Lenny, and he lurks around, waiting for Moss to get too close.

I sit outside on the back porch a lot of nights to eat my dinner. While I'm eating, the dogs are running around, especially Moss and Peg. Len goes under the porch, and waits until Moss gets too close, and then Len gets him.

Moss doesn't care. He hasn't learned yet to stay away from Lenny, and I spend my dinner time telling Moss to get away from the porch, because I get sick and tired of hearing him yip when Lenny gets him.

It doesn't do any good. Every single night, Len gets Moss. And every single night, it's like Moss has never been around Len. When Lenny nails him, Moss looks completely surprised, and he gets his feelings hurt.

But it's not just Len that hates Moss. Jan isn't too fond of the freckled puppy either. Jan thinks that she is the queen of the place, and no one messes with the queen. Unfortunately, Moss doesn't believe in royalty, and he slams into Jan, harasses her unrelentingly, and just overall makes her life miserable.

One of the things that Jan hates, as do I, is Moss jumping on and off my bed. He couldn't do this until about a month ago, and he's so proud he can do it now that he would spend half his life jumping up and down if I let him.

But the bed is Jan's abode. She hates Moss being on the bed, and she nails him for it every time. And again, Moss doesn't seem to learn. He cries, and cringes, and acts like Jan is going to kill him, even though she has gotten him every night for the past month.

And then there's Peg. Actually, Peg tolerates Moss much more than Len and Jan do. Peg and Moss will play, but it always ends up with Moss getting his feelings hurt. He plays very roughly, and Peg is a petite little dog. Moss already outweighs her, and I have seen him knock Peg into a rolling ball of black and white fur, and that makes Peg mad.

So Peg snaps at Moss, and Moss gets his feelings hurt. Again.

I've never had a dog like Moss before. He is convinced that everyone loves him as much as he loves everyone, and that just isn't true. Especially with dogs.

But Moss isn't cowed by the other dogs. When the dogs come in at night, Moss finds a toy, runs through the house with it, crashes into the other dogs, and makes me crazy. He jumps on and off the bed, usually with a big toy in his mouth, until both Jan and I are madder than a hornet.

Despite all of Moss' problems, I love the big, goofy puppy. Nothing gets him down, and he's always so glad to see me he can't contain himself. He jumps and leaps and grins and lets me know how much he's missed me during the hours I was gone. He's learned not to jump or leap on me, finally, and I kind of enjoy being welcomed home by him at night. Oh, the other dogs are glad to see me too, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that they haven't learned how to open the shed door and get their own food, so they have to be nice to me in order to get fed.

But Moss just loves me. Yeah, he loves the rest of the world too, but that's OK. We all could use a little more love, even if it is from an annoying puppy.

Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com