Scruffy The Legend

We have now had Ruby since the summer and Charlie for a few weeks. Ruby is about 5 years old and Charlie is about 4. Supposedly, you multiply the dog’s age by 7 to get a human-equivalent age. This would make these dogs about 30 years old. Let me assure you, that they act almost exactly like 4 or 5 year old human children and not at all like mature people of 30. The sibling rivalry is amazing. They really like each other just like a brother and sister do, and most of the time play very nicely (and wildly) together. But give them each a rawhide bone, and the only bone Ruby is interested in is whichever bone Charlie has at the time. Same for toys – toys Ruby was never interested in are very desirable if Charlie is playing with one. I think Charlie has started to consider the space under the coffee table to be his space and he has begun to hoard toys there. Ruby regularly checks to see if any really important toys are in that space. If so, she makes sure to remove them and put them closer to the dog bed (her space and historical dog toy aggregation place for all toys – ever since the times of Major and Scruffy).

Both Ruby and Charlie love to jump up on hind legs to greet you when you enter the house. Here Charlie is the more aggressive. He will stand on hind legs with front paws on your lower torso. Ruby likes to do this too, but with Charlie right in front of you, she has to stand to your side. Charlie, seeing her try to jump up, now moves to the side to block Ruby. Ruby now moves to other side, where Charlie now places himself. There is a constant battle for attention between the 2 dogs. If I am seated in a living room chair, and accidentally make a motion that Charlie interprets as “come”, he will be on my lap in an instant. Ruby, seeing this, will immediately also try to get up on the chair. On the sofa there is more room, so I usually have both dogs lying on me if I am lying down watching television.

In spite of this type of vying for attention, Ruby and Charlie are, without doubt, the 2 most submissive dogs on the planet. Both Ruby and Charlie immediately drop to the floor and roll over on their backs at the first sign that maybe you think they have done something wrong. If, of all dogs you have known, you rated the most alpha dog as a 10 and most submissive dog as a 1, Ruby and Charlie would be like numbers -40 and -41. Yes, there is a slight difference and Charlie is 1 point more submissive than Ruby. Scruffy was certainly a 1 and Major had no rating. Major was not dominant or submissive – these words simply did not apply to Major. Scruffy and I, on the other hand, constantly challenged each other for the pack leader spot (Scruffy usually won). I have now had the opportunity to see Ruby attack a dog (Moma – Scruffy’s old friend –described in the Scruffy book). Here is Ruby’s fighting strategy: snarl, make loud growling noises, open mouth wide, place open mouth on adversary’s throat, do not close mouth, immediately roll over on back to let the other dog finish the fight. I haven’t seen Charlie in a fight but he would fare even worse. He is even afraid of cats. At least Ruby plays with cats. Charlie is still new to us. I think he will become more assertive over time. For example, he has now started to chase the cat. If the cat does something unexpected, however, Charlie will immediately run to me and sit on my foot, looking upward at me to be sure that I will protect him if necessary.

2009 January Jumping, Toys