It’s Our First Tansiversary!

Har har that was corny.

It’s April 6, a day that became special last year. Why? Because it’s Tans and my graduation day. On that day, we officially became a team, and the next day, we came home together. So, Tans has officially lived through a year of my crazy life…and still appears to be enjoying it…although right now she still seems to be exhausted from this weekend’s events.

As usual, I have an exploding list of things I could talk about in the Tansy department, but I’ll only talk about a few because I don’t think I have the energy and focus to power through a bunch of these.

Although she’s still what I’d fondly call the Tansmanian devil, she seems to be settling down in small ways, or maybe I can better predict her Tansmanian outbursts so it doesn’t seem completely crazy. I was listening to recordings I made when she just came home, and holy crap she seemed much more nuts than she does now.

Her jumping problem has become much more manageable. She doesn’t just jump on people at random…in fact people are commenting about how she’s less likely to jump. She will still jump if she’s super stressed or something like that, but I think I can predict when she’ll do it, so I can do what I have to do to prevent it.

Her nipping while playing has slowed down. I think I got it through her head that I didn’t like the nipping. Every now and then she forgets, but she knows it’s on the list of not so happy behaviours.

She’s got a thicker coat and greater resistance to the cold. I think this brutal winter forced her to adapt and quickly! I noticed a couple times that we could go out without her coat when it had gotten much warmer, and she didn’t shiver. Also, I started seeing more hair even on her very thin-haired belly. Although she still has a weird bald spot in the middle, there is much more hair there.

I got her when she was around 22 months old. She was a super thin pooch, and I think she was growing into herself still. She’s definitely gained a few pounds over the year, and I think some of them were much-needed muscle and her whole self sort of thickening up. There’s a wee smidge that’s probably fat because of not being able to get out there and walk and walk and walk, but not all of it. Even though she gained about 8 pounds or so, the vet doesn’t seem to think she’s getting fat. I know I’m still learning about her and how to keep her as my lean mean guiding machine, but I don’t think I’ve failed her. Hopefully now that the weather is warming up, we can put some more miles on and learn some more things.

Back in January, Tansy got her first new city tag. It amazes me every year how one new tag will change her jingle completely. But by now, this jingle sounds totally normal. Next January I’ll go through the same thing.

Remember how I thought she had learned the digits that make up the buzzer? Not so much. What she picked up on was whenever someone comes to the door, we pick up the phone, push a button and then put it back down…and when she sees that sequence of events, she heads for the crate. This was proven when Steve answered the phone one day and found out it was for me. So, he told me the phone was for me, at which point I picked up a phone and he hung his up. Then Tansy ran out to the crate and went in…and we laughed.

I’ve noticed this about other patterns. She seems to pick up on movements and actions rather than sounds. If I get up in the night and muck with my phone, she’ll think it’s time to get up because in the mornings, my alarm, which is in my phone, goes off and I get up and monkey with the phone to turn it off. The alarm doesn’t have to ring, it’s me doing things that matters. It’s the same with the whole buzzer thing. How odd, when Trix was so focused on sounds.

I’ve found another reason that that little travel bed won’t work anymore. Tansy has decided it would make a great tug/chew blanket! I think she thinks it’s a Skinneeez! I took it to CSUN, and when I set it down, she grabbed it in her mouth, and offered me an end to tug, then tore across the room with it! No, Tans, no! Your bed is not a chew/tug toy.

Then on our latest trip, she did the same thing, and more than once! Oh dear, oh dear dear.

She has different types of sleep. There’s the sleep where she’s still sort of watching what’s going on, and will get up at a moment’s notice. Then there’s this other type of sleep where it feels like she’s switched off. You can make all kinds of noise and she won’t notice a thing. I don’t think Trix ever slept like that…ever.

And she snores more, and louder! Often, I can hear her just snoring away, and some nights, Steve jokes that the two of us are having a snoring competition.

I’ve talked about her dream barking, but I have learned that she will also growl and howl in her sleep. The growl was weird. Whatever she was growling at in her sleep, I wouldn’t want to be that thing. And the howl scared the heck out of me. I actually ran to her to check on her because I thought she was in some sort of pain. Nope, she just lay there, as if nothing had happened.

I think that’s about all I can fit in this post. We’ve had quite the first year, especially with that evil winter…but we’ve made it, and it feels like the year just flew. I hope we will have many many more.