Juneau & Me

WHAT'S UP WITH THE GROWLS?

Tue, 05 May 2009 13:30:53 -0500

The above photo shows an unsuspecting Juneau headed off to doggie day care this morning. "Daddy" Dave was off to work after three days off. Juneau thinks she is headed to the big field at Middlesex Fells to frolic with her friends and me. She likes doggie day care, but I'm glad she likes me more. I was off during April school vacation and it seemed Juneau was no more than three feet away from me the entire week. The major issue right now with Juneau is her territorial attachment to me. She barks and growls -- yet still retreats -- whenever I am sitting with her and someone approaches. Like at my son's baseball games. The worst barking and growling is when my youngest son Matt approaches Juneau and me sitting in the same room. If I am not home, there are no barks or growls directed at Matt. Juneau also does not bark or growl at other people who approach me with dogs. She is not so threatening now, but still, this is a disturbing behavior that needs to be broken. Meanwhile, while I was writing for the newspaper last week about swine flu, my real concern was kennel cough. A notice went home with Juneau last week that two dogs at her doggie day care facility came down with kennel cough. But it has now been five days, and no coughs from Juneau. Just occasional barks and growls.

PLUGGING ALONG WITH JUNEAU

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:05:21 -0500

Juneau isn’t getting any easier. My oldest son, who would drag Juneau outside while I was at work, left last week for a job in Colorado. This week Juneau will spend three days in doggie day care. That will become four days during most weeks from now on. That will be $104 a week until I figure out something more reasonable than quitting my job. Juneau seems to enjoy doggie day care. One benefit is she comes home dead tired. So her owner gets a good night’s sleep. That makes him more observant of Juneau’s cuteness and absolute dependence on him, all of which makes this trouble seem worthwhile and rewarding. Three days a week, man and dog’s sleep is interrupted at 4:30 a.m. to drive my daughter to crew practice on the Charles. Juneau comes along for the ride, then I take her for a run through Breakheart Reservation in Saugus, so she can chase birds at sunrise. On a recent warm day, I put on my baseball cap for the first time this spring. Juneau was terrified. She looked at me like she never had seen me before. She sprinted down into a corner of the basement. Maybe because I wear a Yankees cap.

CROWDED SHELTER

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:43:14 -0500

Just received this announcement from the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, which is where I adoped Juneau ... NEWS FLASH! The Northeast Animal Shelter has puppies that need homes today! And, 48 more are on the way. Saturday, 4/18, they'll all be available. It's going to be "crazy busy" here, but that's why we love what we do. Please stop by, but you may need to be patient! Our animals need you to give them great homes. We need you to give our animals great homes to make room at our shelter for more animals in need. Please contact us 978-745-9888 or www.northeastanimalshelter.org.

UPDATE

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:12:05 -0500

Juneau continues to eat dead things, and then throw up. I pulled a fish and a mouse from her mouth during recent romps in the woods. In an earlier post, I told you about the leg of a dead deer. At this one rock by a lake where I always sit to rest, Juneau each time manages to unearth the same old rubber fishing worm and commence chewing it. A week ago, in a moment of excitement, she sprang into the lake after some ducks. The ducks were only 10 feet from shore, but it was still exciting to see Juneau swim. She has since come to her senses, though. I’ve tried prodding her to dive into the water again, with no success. I will throw her tennis ball 10 feet out in the water, and it will take her 30 seconds to get it. She will put one leg in the water, then retreat. Gradually she slinks into the water to get the ball. But I’d sure like to see her dive in again. I’ve been bringing my camera on walks in hopes of getting Juneau swimming on video.

CLICKER GRAD

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:27:18 -0500

I am now the proud companion of a graduate of Canine University. Juneau received her diploma Monday night. Truth be told, she probably graduated last in her class. After six lessons in clicker training, Juneau was the only dog in the class that still would not lie “down” no matter how many clicks and chunks of cheese and hot dogs came her way. (I almost had her down in the last class.) But the training did get her to interact with me beyond just running into a corner when it’s time for me to put on her collar and leash for a walk. And in fairness to Juneau, I didn’t do as much of the assigned homework as I probably should have done. Her teacher nonetheless wrote on Juneau’s report card: “Juneau is a lovely dog — she made huge progress (and) clearly trusts (and) depends on you for security and comfort. Keep up the good work — I’m sure she will continue to improve.” Juneau received a bag of treats and a pink-elephant chew toy that she tore into on the ride home. Finally, due to the computer-class dropout who owns Juneau, I accidentally deleted several recent comments to my blog. I apologize to those who took the time to read and write. Feel free to re-send any deleted comments.

Juneau Beach Video

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:16:42 -0500

My wife Maura plays with Juneau on Lynn Beach in attempt to strengthen Juneau's bond with somebody other than me. If you notice, though, Juneau keeps looking toward me holding the camera.

JUNEAU AT THE BEACH

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:44:38 -0500

A beautiful Sunday afternoon. For the first time, put Juneau on my old dog Hayley’s leash in the back yard. It was a little sad. Hayley’s old brush was on the tree stump next to the leash. Think I spotted a few of her reddish-brown hairs. Hayley died last April. I hope she doesn’t mind Juneau using her leash. I put Juneau on the leash while I picked up trash revealed by the melting snow, including an empty bottle of raspberry vodka. (I live next to an elementary school that the high school kids occasionally gather around after dark.) Suddenly, I heard a yelp. Juneau had sprinted toward me unaware of the concept of a leash not being held by me. She nearly strangled herself. Took Juneau to Lynn Beach for the first time. Another lesson for her. She learned that salt water is not for drinking. Eating dead things on the beach is another story. The other day at Breakheart Reservation, she began gnawing on what I thought was a big stick. Upon closer inspection, that big stick was what was left of a leg of a deer. (Can coyotes kill a deer?) Juneau has gradually worked her way onto our bed for a few nights’ sleep. She seems to sense when I’m too tired to lovingly soothe her to sleep inside her crate. We did move the crate from the kitchen into our bedroom, thinking the closeness to us would satisfy her. But three feet away wasn’t close enough. She has to be ON the bed. The only time she will sleep in her crate now is when she is too tired to put up a fight. And with her sleeping on me most nights, usually I am too tired to put up a fight. Overall, Juneau’s progress in overcoming her fright is painfully slow. She is totally attached to me. It’s wearing me out. If I’m home and sitting with her, she barks and growls at my sons Matt and Tom if they get too close. And that is the only time she barks or grows. She is a totally silent dog 99.999 percent of the time. In fact, until Juneau barked and growled at Tom, I didn’t even know she could bark and growl. Her bark and growl are not too menacing. Nothing against Juneau — but if I wanted a guard dog, I wouldn’t have picked the most frightened animal at the shelter. If I’m not around, Tom takes Juneau for walks, once he wrestles her out of her crate. He called me excitedly the other day after he ran Juneau clear around Lake Quannapowitt. Again, once you get her outside, different animal.

SIT! STAY! ROLL OVER! FETCH!

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:52:51 -0500

A quick Juneau update … Juneau has attended two clicker-training sessions. Lots of clicks. Lots of treats. But they have not gotten her to “come here” or “lay down (on command, that is).” She does “sit” and “stay” with hardly any instruction or reward; probably because “stay” is her normal state of being indoors. Food does not really motivate Juneau, adding to the challenge of clicker-training her. We went with steak and chicken leftovers for her first class. But my hands got so greasy, I could barely open the car door to go home. And I found myself looking over my shoulder to make sure the other dogs in the class weren’t trailing me. We went with hot dogs for her second class. Didn't seem as greasy, but Juneau seemed to lose her taste for them about 45 minutes into the hour-long class. She likes steak. On the home front, a tag team was painstakingly pieced together so that Juneau would not be alone and in her crate for more than 3 ½ hours in the morning and 2 ½ hours in the afternoon. I get up at 5:30 a.m. and run Juneau in the woods to tire her out on days she must be crated. But my son Tom’s changing work schedule is upsetting The System. Which means tomorrow Juneau will be dropped off at Doggie Day Care. The cost: $26 a day. The facility is within a mile of my house, so the drop-off is convenient. But it is 20 miles from The Sun, so mad dashes may be necessary to retrieve Juneau before the place closes at 6:30 p.m. Otherwise, Juneau gets kenneled there for the night at an additional charge of $50. And I will not get any sleep knowing she is not in her crate in the kitchen, but a mile down the road wondering why I didn't pick her up. As the above pictures show, though, Juneau isn’t as keen on her crate now that she can leap in a single bound onto my half of the bed. This shows her Sunday night while I was in the living room watching the Academy Awards. As soon as “Slumdog Millionaire” was announced as Best Picture, I clicked off the TV and carried Juneau to her crate, where she whined about her suddenly cramped accommodations.

From Lowell (and Dracut) with Love

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:47:27 -0500

Once an animal-control officer drops off a stray dog at Wignall Animal Hospital in Dracut, a grim clock starts ticking. Hospital staff has 10 days to find the dog’s owner, find the dog a new home or make that decision every dog-lover dreads. “This is a healing facility,” said Patricia Mancini, the hospital’s manager. “To be put in the position of having to end an animal’s life is traumatic. We try to take solace in that at least here the animal is loved and not killed by somebody out of cruelty, or not dying on the street. But it’s very difficult on our staff. It takes a toll.” Nearly 400 dogs picked up each year by animal-control officers in Lowell and Dracut wind up at Wignall. Nearly half are happily claimed by their owners. If a dog is not claimed within five days, though, the staff knows the dreaded decision of the 10th day is certainly coming. Some animals are unadoptable because of behavioral or medical issues and must be put down. Others are in need of only love. But this 10,000-square foot animal hospital, which also includes a boarding facility and dog day care, has not the space and resources to house them all. Staff members, their soft hearts further softened by each case, often break down and bring home a sad-case animal. “In fact, it’s become a joke that it’s an initiation for new staff members,” says Mancini. Being unable to take them all home can be unbearable. As day 10 approaches, Jolene Landry, the hospital’s kennel manager, sends out e-mails searching for shelters with space. One of those e-mails last year resulted in Wignall Animal Hospital forging a relationship with the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, which Mancini says so far has saved almost 100 dogs from the Lowell area that probably otherwise would have been euthanized. Laurie McCannon, the development director at Northeast, drives to Wignall in a van each week. On one trip, she returned to Salem with eight dogs after driving to Dracut to rescue four. The Wignall staff kept pleading, “Take this one, too!” “They all have a personal thing with each dog,” says McCannon. “They’re kissing them goodbye and putting them in the van.” Northeast is a no-kill shelter. McCannon laughs, recalling the first dog she came to rescue at Wignall. “Strangest-looking dog I ever saw,” she says. “Short-legged. Basset-hound body. Big head. Scruffy and tan. Big underbite. I said, ‘Oh my God, what is this thing?’” Strange as the dog named Stohli looked, it was cute enough to be adopted from Northeast within three days. Last August, the staff at Wignall convinced McCannon to take a big old black lab with a graying muzzle that had been abandoned in Lowell and faced being put down. The dog named “Riley” would lie quietly under McCannon’s desk but bark in his cage when potential adopters arrived. He was adopted last September by a Somerville woman who saw his picture on the Northeast Animal Shelter Web site. Wignall Hospital owner Dr. David McGrath and Mancini recently presented Northeast Animal Shelter with a check for $3,009, raised during Wignall’s annual Santa Sunday photo event in December. “Northeast Animal Shelter has been a fantastic partner,” says Mancini. “They have made a huge impact on the outcome of the animal kingdom in Lowell. Animal-lovers in our community are fortunate.”

JUNEAU ON THE RUN

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:42:29 -0500

Juneau in the woods, returning to me when I call, showing off her Santonio Holmes speed. In nature she is a free-spirited, fun-loving animal — a far cry from the jittery indoor Juneau. Perhaps she understands her name is the capital of wild Alaska.

HEEERE, JUNEAU! COME BACK, JUNEAU!

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:31:26 -0500

Big fright in the Saugus woods. We nearly lost the Juneau half of Juneau & Me this past Saturday. For nearly an hour, I considered the possibility that Juneau was indeed gone. In a daze, I wandered the neighborhood near Breakheart Reservation. People hurried their children into their houses and peeked through curtains, fearful of this dazed man howling JUNEAU! HERE JUNEAU! My two daughters, Annie and Marybeth, had taken Juneau for a walk in the woods. With me, Juneau will run 50 yards ahead on the trail, but always wait. With my daughters, Juneau reached a point on the trail, sat down, stared at Annie and Marybeth, then burst off in the other direction. She was seen running through the parking lot and down the street, past a busy hockey rink and toward a busy street lined with shopping centers. After Juneau failed to respond to my younger daughter Annie’s calls, I am told she screamed, “The stupid dog doesn’t even know her name!” I was home when an hysterical Annie called on her cell phone. I could barely understand her. I thought the dog had just run off somewhere in the woods, so wasn’t too worried. I figured I could find her. But when I arrived at the Breakheart parking lot four miles away, and my daughters pointed in the direction Juneau headed, I got a sick feeling. The street was so busy with Saturday shopping traffic, no way Juneau would have made it across without being hit by a car. My only reassuring thought was that she is so timid, she wouldn’t have even tried to cross. She was more likely huddled under a porch somewhere. As I searched from the busy street back toward Breakheart, my daughter Marybeth’s boyfriend Joe came driving toward me. There, sitting in the front passenger seat, was Juneau. Joe found Juneau back near one of the entrances to Breakheart, playing with another dog. Juneau was wearing her pink sweater, but had lost her blue overcoat during her adventure. She looked scared. Hopefully too scared to try that again. I was somewhat amused then hearing other people’s tales of their pound dogs running off, and eventually returning. I then remembered my previous dog, Hayley, had once run off and wound up in the Lynn pound.

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:12:36 -0500

CLEAN DOG

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:10:54 -0500

These photos are from Juneau’s first bath on Saturday night. The second bath will be the real test, since who knows what deep emotional scars were imbedded during this initial suds-filled exercise. Juneau seemed not to love being bathed, nor did she seem to hate it. That is sort of her demeanor toward everything but runs in the snowy woods. She is a different animal in the wilderness. I can't wait to take her to the mountains this summer. I took video Sunday of her running the Ridge Trail in Breakheart Reservation just to show my family. They couldn’t believe the dog on video was the same creature they see cowering around the house. A developing problem related to Juneau is I am prematurely exhausting my 2009 vacation time trying to forge a routine for her. The attention she requires also makes it difficult to pry myself away for a drive to Philadelphia to visit my granddaughter, Madeleine, age 6 months. I mean, I love Juneau and all, but ...

CINDY

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:50:13 -0500

Like Juneau, this dog was rescued from a neglect/abuse situation in Puerto Rico and needs a home. The following description is from the Northeast Animal Shelter Web site. Cindy Age: 4 years Weight: Breed: Smooth Terrier Mix Gender: Female Altered Been with us since: 12/1/08 Status: available Cindy is from Puerto Rico! She was rescued from a neglect/abuse situation. She was tied out in a back yard for weeks on end and the only glimpse she got of a human was when someone threw out food and water for her. She was very lonely and very depressed when she was rescued. Because of that lack of socialization she just loves to be in the company of people. It does take her a while to warm up, she won't be your friend immediately. She loves to play and even learned to toss her own toys and fetch them herself. When there is no one to play with I guess you have to make do! There is a lot to learn about our Cindy so if you are considering adoption please come in and say hello.

BIG DOINGS

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:15:34 -0500

The above picture is of Juneau pleading with me not to go to work on Thursday morning. Two big events in the young life of Juneau will unfold over the next few days. More accurately, these will qualify as two big events in what my life has become; a life altered irreversibly by one cold nose and two frightened eyes. On Saturday, Juneau will get her first bath in the Pevear house. On Monday, Juneau begins classes at Canine University in Malden -- though from what I understand, these classes really are more for my benefit than for Juneau’s. (As it turned out, the first class was for dog owners only. Juneau shows up to begin clicker training on Feb. 9. I have my clicker and bag of cheese bits all set to go.) During these major events, I will take pictures on a scale comparable to my children’s christenings and graduations. The bath is daunting, since I turned my previous dog’s first soapy experience into something so terrifying, Hayley barely would drink water after that. Baths became operations requiring weeks of planning. I had the energy for only two or three a year. Because Hayley was even more terrified of trash barrels (don’t ask) than of the hose, I would line up barrels to corral her in the driveway within range of a soapy bucket and hose. Hayley died clean. I had bathed her only the week before. She succumbed quickly to lymphoma. One day she seemed fine. Five days later I was crying all the way to Foxboro to cover the NFL Draft. Anyway, I don’t want a smelly dog on my lap during Super Sunday. Juneau will be deposited in the upstairs bathtub on Saturday. I have it on good authority she on Sunday will be watching Puppy Bowl V on Animal Planet and then rooting for the Steelers. She knows of her master’s admiration for Hines Ward.