Last Thursday, Valtteri arrived home from the orientation session of dog obedience school with a look on his face that told me to “sit and stay.”
“Guess who the instructor is,” he urged.
I knew almost immediately—because even in a city so full of dog owners there is only one that truly stands out. Just one that he and I make small talk about. Only one that we tell our friends to be on the lookout for when they come or go. And that is the woman with the matching Afghan hounds that routinely wear ear muffs.
“No…” I said.
“Yes,” he insisted.
I could barely contain myself as we both brought our hands up to our ears. “The two with the ear muffs?” I asked.
Now it was Valtteri who looked like he needed to sit. “THREE!” he yelled. “They got a puppy! Same kind!”
As far as I was concerned the first class couldn’t come fast enough. While the primary point of enrolling Bravo in obedience school is to keep him from being an absolute menace, there is a part of me—the less responsible part—that is just doing it for the material. And three Afghan hounds responding to commands in Finnish while wearing earmuffs is, quite frankly, more than I deserve.
For the record, the dogs in question aren’t really Afghan hounds. They’re another breed that I don’t know the name of so I will just describe them as best I can—which is to say Afghan mixed with greyhound—and let the dog community school me in the comments. They are tall and skinny, with a coat that is longer than the greyhound but not quite capable of being groomed into a pair of bellbottoms, as is the case with the Afghan. As far as dogs go, these are 10 our 10 on the awkward scale.
But look. The breed isn’t really the point. What matters is that I will soon have direct access to a pair—no, trio—of dogs with matching earmuffs.
Luckily for me, I didn’t have to wait very long to get my first glimpse of the Afghan puppy. Valtteri and I were on our last walk of the day yesterday when we saw the pack prancing down the street toward us, all three of them on the same foot and looking left and right like they were the backup dancers in Swan Lake.
“Should we say something?” I whispered to Valtteri.
“Say what?” he asked.
“We can say that we’re in the class,” I suggested. “Or anything,” I added. It didn’t matter to me how we started the conversation so much as I had a natural opportunity to bring up the earmuffs.
“Be cool,” I urged Bravo, as the pack approached—a suggestion that my puppy loosely interpreted as “perform several back handsprings.”
Midway through the second flip, another puppy, a five-month old Dutch nobody, wandered over to watch the show. “What’s your dog’s name?” the puppy’s owner asked me.
Ordinarily, I am more than happy to chit chat with other dog owners. After all, part of the appeal of getting a puppy was to be able to meet people who were otherwise unwilling to speak to other human beings. But in this case, I couldn’t help but let my irritation show. I mean, Bravo is a great dog, but surely this man can see the three show ponies in outerwear coming our way. They were spectacular, hot-stepping and high-kicking in perfect unison like the Rockettes. How dare this man ask our dog’s name without first considering theirs. In my wildest dreams, they would be based on a famous trio, like “Earth, Wind and Fire” or “Hewie, Dewey and Louie”. I swear to God, if those dogs turn out to be named for the Three Tenors, I will never forgive this man for robbing me of having that knowledge even one day sooner.
With the puppies now tangled and in varying states of hysteria, it wasn’t possible to draw the other owner into a conversation. We were too busy sorting out the obstacle course Bravo had set up for us with his own leash for one thing, and I realized that I was holding a paper cup of red wine for another. Undisciplined lush isn’t exactly the first impression I wanted an obedience school instructor to have of me, never mind what she would think of Bravo.
Luckily, class starts tonight and I have so many questions: What breed is that? How did you teach a puppy to walk so well so young? Did anyone ever tell you that they look like a group of synchronized swimmers? But most importantly: Where do you get the ear muffs?
I have so many questions. One of which, is Bravo going to be bilingual? I was already here for your clumsy-ness and awkward adventures content, but I’m addicted by the puppy content.
haha… it’s a good question. bravo is learning in english but we will have to teach all the commands in finnish as well since people on the outside speak that first. most are happy to switch to english once they realize, but i think it would be better that he understands both for when we are at the park or if he is at doggie daycare or something. i think if we teach hand signals with the english it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch once we add the other language. now mommy on the other hand might hurt her little head…. :D
We lived in Germany when we adopted Phoebe, our Alaskan Malamute @ 2 years old. We lost her this summer @ 14 years old & she’s missed every day.
She was previously owned by Americans, but we lived in a German neighborhood & I was worried about her not understanding the neighbors if she was somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be. I taught her all of the basic commands in German after asking Enrico’s Dad, Frank (aka my Dalmatian owning neighbor) what they were.
Phoebe understood commands in English & German, along with hand signals – it took (maybe) 2 months. I had spent a lot of time with previous dogs @ obedience school, so I knew what was required & didn’t take her to an actual class.
As she got older, one of her favorite (naughty) things to do was “not understand” commands in English. She was very smart & unlike most Malamutes, spectacularly lazy… so she liked to put forth minimal effort more often than not.
She would pretend (aka blatantly ignore) commands not spoken in German were “confusing” or that we weren’t speaking to *HER* (despite saying her name). She loved to do this to my husband, because it never immediately occurred to him to switch to German if she didn’t respond when he spoke English. She taught this to her little brother, Ares, our Husky… so despite not ever living in Germany, he also knows all commands in English & German.
I don’t think Bravo will have any issues with multiple languages & you will eventually switch with no conscious thought between hand commands (with no spoken words at all) & 2 languages.
I also wanted to comment on the previously discussed crate training. Phoebe was 100% crate trained & regularly chose to sleep in her crate (with the door open) when she had other options. She liked her “house” & would easily go into the crate when asked – after coming to me to take her collar (‘necklace’) off.
She was able to be crated at the vet, in an emergency, when traveling, or boarded (if necessary). We only boarded her a couple of times & used facilities that had actual rooms with dog runs for each dog, but the vet needed to crate her when she had surgery & was really surprised that she didn’t care about being in the crate at all.
When we moved back to the US, she was crated for a 9 hour plane ride with ZERO issues & was very disgruntled at *us* when we picked her up for disturbing her ‘nap’ (unlike some of the other dogs on the flight who were completely freaked out – because you can’t medicate for flights).
She was crated in hotel rooms & never barked or whined, so we could actually leave the hotel & get food, do short excursions, etc. & not worry about complaints. We received numerous complements from hotel staff about how well behaved (& quiet) our dog was.
I have *more than one* friend who can’t travel with their dogs, who’ve paid THOUSANDS of dollars for their dog to have surgery after eating something while left at home alone…
Crate training isn’t always convenient or fun & it doesn’t always feel *nice* for humans or dogs -BUT- our dogs health & safety is 100% the most important thing. It’s also saved me many very expensive/unnecessary trips to the emergency vet &/or otherwise unnecessary surgeries.
ha – phoebe sounds amazing. i’m sorry for your loss. hand signals have been really helpful for us too since sometimes, with accents, bravo doesn’t recognize commands even in english. also, i kind of like the novelty of occasionally getting him to sit for “pancake” or some other assorted nonsense.
as for the crate, we really turned a corner here after christmas. he’s come to like being in there during the evening, even RUNS in after his last outing of the night and DIVES to the back. no more whining or crying about that. i don’t think he likes being put there when we leave the house during the day, but we always tire him out first and he’s always still asleep when we come back. valtteri sometimes hooks up an old iphone as a monitor, and he never seems to be fussing in there, so that’s good. overall, i am firmly pro-crate – but, at the same time, to each their own. i think a lot of trainers recommend them for all the reasons you mention, and long term i agree that it’s good to have a place where they feel comfortable that can be transported anywhere. i will admit that i did it mostly because i wanted to expedite housetraining and also eliminate the possibility of him destroying something while left along.. but i hadn’t really thought about health issues that would come from him eating or chewing something he wasnt supposed to. in my experience, it is definitely worth the initial discomfort as a puppy.
now we just need to master leash walking…. one day at a time.
We are now all in the need to know so there better be updates!!
Additional question—earmuffs like with a headband? Or like socks slid onto the ears? Pictures would be a big plus here!
so if you could believe it, the earmuffs, to me, look almost like industrial ear protectors but flatter. almost like a rugby ear guard. as mentioned in the other comments, the dogs were not in class and it was also pretty warm, so I didn’t ask about the breed or manage to snag a pic but now that i know there is a market, i will make it my business.
Are they wearing Mutt Muffs?
https://www.safeandsoundpets.com/
Although I can’t understand why they would wear these anywhere that isn’t excessively noisy (gun range, airplane, during fireworks). I knew they existed, but I haven’t seen them in action except on working dogs (police or military).
I also have questions! (WHY?)
I bet they are salukis. I am dying for pics of the earmuffs!
That was my thought as well. : )
could be – stay tuned!
could very well be! i’ll definitely ask but the dogs were not in the class yesterday and i am tempted to ask for a refund. maybe the will make an appearance in the weeks to come. in the meantime, i will be on high alert during walks. i know their route and it is getting cold!
PICTURES!
i am on it! the dogs were not in the class yesterday, not even the puppy and i feel SO GYPPED.
The amount of updates I require on this situation is disgusting. I need to know EVERYTHING about this woman and her dogs. EVERYTHING.
Well i will tell you that the woman is young, which is something i never noticed before because EARMUFFS. Just couldn’t focus on anything else really. Let that be a lesson to you… if you want to rob a bank, forget a mask. Just bring a big dog in outerwear.
more to come.
Are they wearing Mutt Muffs?
https://www.safeandsoundpets.com/
Although I can’t understand why they would wear these anywhere that isn’t excessively noisy (gun range, airplane, during fireworks). I knew they existed, but I haven’t seen them in action except on working dogs (police or military).
I also have questions! (WHY?)
ha! no i don’t THINK so, though i never got a close look. we haven’t seen the dogs in a while, but we did sign up for 2 new classes, so fingers crossed we get answers soon.
i think they wear them because it’s so crazy cold here… again, to be confirmed.