Been quite an eventful year so far for the Sam-monster. Everything from the M-House to her current bout of a urinary tract infection. Poor thing. Will have to dig a bit into the memory banks for this section, however, I would venture to say that there have been drastic improvements made in our ability to handle Sammy. I now understand the term “Dog Handler.” How we got to this point though is quite an interesting venture into the animal psyche.

Most people, and the Mrs. specifically, look towards owning a dog as a way to gain the undying love of a warm, fuzzy loyal animal. Combine that with the cute adorable look of a new puppy and you have a recipe for a quick spontaneous purchase. That was Sammy. On this site you have had some insight into the various adventures we have had with Sammy. With the awareness that we have a baby to now think about and plan for, these adventures could not continue. We needed some discipline.

I have always looked at Sammy as a child. Difficult to handle, understand and predict what she would do next. Following basic human nature I tried to pull on previous dealings with dogs growing up. However, as a kid, I don’t think you really appreciate the work involved in raising a dog. You had other responsibilities. Going to school, hanging out with friends and for most the only responsibility was to take the dog out. Being two grown adults who only had the responsibility to take care of each other, having to focus on a puppy and how you teach them to behave was almost overwhelming and definitely exhausting. The basic math is simple: 2 people + 1 puppy + 1 baby on the way = serious trouble. We had tried sending her to what we thought at the time was a school, but in retrospect turned out to be more of a dog camp. Sure, they told us we would have to go in for lessons, on how to “convince” her to behave through touch, love and scoobie snacks. I have to say that despite the fact that we only did one class, we failed miserably and even now, I used to think that I could hear Sammy laughing about the whole incident. I don’t think she feels the same way now after the M-House.

With the Mrs. expecting and your need to put Sammy away for a couple of weeks over Christmas so we could travel home for the holidays, the decision was made. Something needed to be done and quick to correct Sammy’s behavior. I have mentioned the M-house in previous blogs, but will attempt to ellaborate a bit more here. After almost 12 sessions with Sammy and the instructor at the M-House, we had to realize that the only way to deal with the situation from our point was to understand how the dog thinks and what they expect from us. Oh, the leash didn’t hurt to have either. It was difficult for me to go through but I can tell you it made the world of difference.

Day one visit to M-House to see Sammy was a bitter sweet experience. I knew they would be hard on her, but I had no idea what that meant. We entered M-House and were quickly escorted upstairs to the waiting area. At some point they brought us downstairs and there they were, the instructor and Sammy sitting at his side. I expected her to see us and lose her mind like she always did. I think the onlything that displayed her happiness to see us was her tail which was going about 300 miles an hour, but…… she didn’t budge and kept rapidly looking up at the instructor. It was amazing! There was one odd thing though, her eyes. Somewhere in them I could hear her screaming “HELP! GET ME OUT OF HERE! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY DO TO US HERE!!! SAVE ME!” I soon found out why.

We hit the bottom step and moved closer when she quickly started towards us. The instructor yelled “SAMMY!” took one foot back and gave the leash one hell of a yank that sent Sammy flying back towards him with a yelp. She recovered and walked back around him and sat at his side. I was in horror. He then explained that this was something that we would need to get used to doing when she didn’t do what we want her to do. He also said that it would take about 2 minutes or so of ignoring her for her to settle down. We chatted a bit and sure enough, Sammy had lost interest in our presence and was calmly looking around and waiting patient for him to have her do something next.

Over the following weeks more of the same occured. We went in 3 times a week for sessions with the instructor and Sammy. I should add that we did not take her home after the first visit. They did not recommend that we do that and gradually through lessons we could ease her back into our lives. One thing to note was our day one visit departure. I believe that after 2 weeks straight being taught how to literally eat, sleep and shit through tough love, she was fully under the impression that we were there to rescue her. Again as we left, I could see it again: “HELP! GET ME OUT OF HERE! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY DO TO US HERE!!! SAVE ME!”

I have to admit that I did not like watching or participating in yanking the shit out of her just for the sake of teaching us, but if we didn’t do it, I don’t think we could have effectively undone the discipline damage or lack of that we did during the first year of her life. We created the monster and this guy had his job to unwind it, and more importantly to unwind us from trying to treat her like a baby. Their logic is simple. Before a dog will do what you say, you have to get their attention, thus the YANK! But when you have it, they will obediently await your commands or directions. If you don’t show the animal that you are boss and that there is a consequence for not listening when you speak, they will test you and push your limits now that is their nature. Watching him do it you could see that he rarely had to discipline her. She was hanging on his every word, direction or command. Sit! sit. Down! down. Stay! stay. Come! come. We got it all. Instruction on everything and how to do it.

She is a completely different dog now. Despite all of the basic issues we had there was one that drove us crazy and was a serious concern. How the hell to get her to go to the bathroom on walks or outside. Like we said before, she would walk for hours and would only go on the balcony here at home. 2 weeks at M-house, problem fixed. Dude, brought out a dish of water, she drank it, we walked outside and he had her circle him while he said “toilet” repeatedly. As if in a trance, she stopped, squatted and did her business. He kept going and in a matter of seconds she squatted again and went #2!!!! The two of us who had been trying for a year to get her potty trained stood there under the night sky with our mouths wide open in amazement. Over the next few weeks that was always the highlight of the session, taking Sammy out to go to the bathroom.

For those who are thinking of getting a dog, there are a couple of things we have learned about Sammy that might come in useful when you are looking for a Lab or Retriever. This is from the instructor: Labs are generally smarter than retrievers, retrievers are generally more physical and loving than Labs (but not much). Chocolate Labs are both smart and a tad bit more hyper. Ya think someone would have told us this before we decided on a chocolate lab?!?! Now when I say smart, I mean that they have the ability to find, remember and exploit all of the buttons that they can push to drive you nutz. Unless of course, they spend some time at the M-House.

I had written rather comically about the various dramas encountered with the Saminator. It has been however a bit trying at times to tame a dog with a rather hyper streak. In response to this, and with the holiday trip approaching, the decision was made that we would have to do something with Sammy. Our response? We decided to utilize the services of “M House.” I don’t think I have mentioned this place before, but basically we had checked it out once and thought it a bit odd. Why? We went there with Sammy and found the main space of this facility littered with Golden/Labrador retrievers just lazily hanging out while mellow classical tunes echoed around the facility. It was almost as if they were drugged. No hyper dogs playing around, just all of them laying about just checking things out. Sammy of course was the exact opposite and was trying to get them up & playing.

We later watched as the instructors walked about speaking to the various dogs who immediately reacted to what they were being told. I thought there was an undertone of intimidation. I just wasn’t too sure what was going on. We left after speaking to one of the instructors who seemed nice enough, but there was just something about the place that we wrote off and just forgot about. Running up to this vacation and finding out that we have a little one on the way, we decided to give them a shot. Something had to be done to calm Sammy down and get her to start listening. So 2 days before our trip for the holidays we decided to put here in the M House.

The drop off was pretty uneventful with a similar experience as last time, the only difference is we were escorted up to the loft area where a sofa and chair were waiting for us. Sammy did pretty well getting up the stairs and sitting down despite having to make it past all of the other dogs laying about. As the Mrs. went about explaining to the interviewer what things we were having problems with, Sammy wasn’t really sure what was going on. On a couple of occasions one golden came up the stairs and around the corner, hesitantly wanting to see what Sammy was all about. But after a quick command from the interviewer the dog about-faced and headed back down the stairs. Very interesting. Shortly after the interview, the actual instructor came up to speak with us and wanted to simply understand why Sammy was being so quiet. We could only say that it was because the other dogs were paying her no attention. Again, Interesting. So we got to the end as I stood and handed the leash over to the instructor. The look on Sammy’s face was simply that of confusion. We walked out. That was a little over a week ago.

Even though we have been on the road since then, I often wonder how she is doing and what she will be like when we get back. I know that I thought the schools was sort of a place of severe discipline (it had to be if the dogs where that controllable) but after speaking to the instructor we found that basically it would be one instructor who would take Sammy as his/her own for the duration of her stay. She would live & travel with the instructor all of the time. I guess that is a good thing. Sort of immersion training. That reduced my thoughts of some huge warehouse someplace with kennels where they stored the dogs and took them out for training (tough love style) and walks. Not the case apparently. The only thing left is that we will have to do our part and make sure that we don’t undo whatever it is that they are able to do with her. I will suck it up though and say that I do miss her.

Often I have been heard saying to Sammy “Are you stupid?” or “Stop being stupid!” In reality I am learning that she is anything but. I know this and also have found how ingenious she can be.
Lately every day I come home she has been into something. I am at a loss, as I am really running out of ideas on how to keep her out of things that she can destroy. There are blogs in here that outline some of the things she has gotten into. However it is getting more difficult to “Sammy-proof” everything.

The most recent battle is the fact that about a month ago she realized that she could pull up the carpet upstairs in the hallway. That was the way she had access to go outside on the big balcony. Since she has torn it up, we decided to block it with a gate. We also have a gate infront of the door between the kitchen and living room. “There, that should fix your butt!”

Nope, lately she has realized the “Power of the Nose.” She has discovered that by putting her nose between the bars in the gate, she can push it left and right. In doing so, she is able to basically move the gate and get where she wants to get. This has resulted with another nightly adventure when I get home to find out what she has gotten into.

So far this week alone, she has gotten into the bedroom upstairs and trashed the place. Yesterday, I ensured that I closed the bedroom door and that even if she did get upstairs she would have access to nothing. And if she did tear up the carpet, so what, she can’t do any more damage there. Last but not least, the gate went up at the base of the stairs and a side table was put agains the gate.

To no avail, it didn’t work. I got home and the kitchen floor had the Mrs. clothes everywhere, coat hangers chewed up and strewn about. “HOW THE HELL?!?!” After further investigation, She had gone to the opposite side of the gate, pulled it out, got upstairs, pulled up the carpet (which is due to be replaced sometimes in the future), and in doing so, accidentally pulled the bottom of one of the closet doors in such a way that opened it. PLAY TIME!!!!!! I am sure that is what was going through her mind. She got an ass chewing for that one. Luckily, the damage to clothing was minimal.

This morning, in preparation for another day of trying to outsmart Sammy, I stood in the kitchen with my tea in deep thought while looking at the gate setup. I think I have figured out the most effective strategic placement of the end table to ensure she can’t get past it. As a test, I have returned from her morning walk and she is in the kitchen. Of course she was trying to screw with the gates, I guess testing them out for the day ahead and after becoming frustrated that she couldn’t move it, has now retired to her blanket. The scary thing is, is that she is facing the gate as if she is in deep thought about how to get past this latest challenge.

In conclusion, I can say with every bit of assurance, that she is no “Dumb Dog.” Quite the opposite. Guess we will have to see what the evening holds in store for me when I get home. Will let cha know.

In the past weeks Sammy has done much damage to the household. Our financial files have been made into carpeting on the kitchen floor. Several CDs have been destroyed and she has basically had her way exploring the house. But today….. that was when reality set in.

Now, I grew up with dogs and to me a dog is a dog… period. They eat, sleep and, well you know what else. Other than that they are generally low maintenance. At least, that is what I thought. I have found out that a couple of things are very serious no-no’s…. Chocolate and Raisins. It seems that these two items alone can kill a dog. I had no idea.

So there I was, good day at work, heading home at a relatively decent hour and looking forward to a night of PHP work on website design. Then I opened the door to the kitchen to be greeted with a very hyper Sammy with a tail pushing around the floor torn up bits of boxes of raisins. We made a run to Costco and picked up a few packs of Raisins. Sammy in her most recent growth spurt had managed to get a pack down from the counter. The rest they say was history. She ate well. I though, damn another stupid owner making things accessible to a 10 month old dog. What the hell. Then I headed out to the balcony to see what damage she left for the day. There they were, the mounds of what could only be described as melted chocolate with raisins sprinkled in it. Ugh…. and I had to clean this up.

When completed, I did what I have done over the past couple of weeks, I dropped a line to the wife to tell her of the day’s events. Immediately I get a call on the Cell. “Ham says its poison!” We have to take her to the doctor asap. Now knowing how the Mrs. likes to over react, I did the most logical thing…. Google! I was a doubter, but hey the query confirmed it. ASPCA says that Raisins can cause renal failure and must be treated immediately! I had no idea. Don’t believe me?

Check out the Urban Legend site.

There is more real information on the ASPCA website.

So we did just that rushed the little monster into the vet. He did a blood test and all was in order and within the appropriate levels. But most of the sites say that they should be observed in a 24 hour period just to make sure. So we left her to spend the night again with her favorite vet.

During the visit, in true Japanese fashion he brought us up to speed on the gory details of what dogs should not eat and surprisingly enough, chocolate is worse than raisins. Followed by onions. Then the conversation drifted into things like dogs eating towels, socks and other assorted fabrics and how that can clog the intestines and kill them. Boy talk about a depressing visit. Well she should be IV’d up tonight and hopefully getting some rest. She should be fine because we reacted quick, all thanks to our good personal pet consultant…. HAM.

Sammy has been a bit of a handful since she joined the family. But you can’t help but loving her anyhow. That is, until the neighbors start complaining…. again. In other places around the world, part of owning a place is getting to know your neighbors and building a true community. Here I think we are still trying to figure out how all of that works here. Allow me to explain.
When we first got Sammy, she was a little monster within the walls of the house. That is, until she realized that she had a voice in the family and that if she barked, we would quickly arrive to try and silence her. You see I think we try to be good neighbors. Sammy barking is one of those things that would really piss me off if I was a neighbor. We handled it rather badly. The more we responded, the more she barked for attentions.

About 5 months ago, the inevitable happened, the building management company called to complain on behalf of the neighbors. I am not sure what pissed me off more. The fact that I was frustrated with Sammy, or the fact that our neighbors didn’t have the guts to just come to the dorr and tell us that we were bothering them. No, like a 5th grader, they had to run and tell the teacher. What were we to do? Hell we couldn’t even apologize.

Things settled down a bit as we started to ignore her barking. After about the 2nd bark, she stops. Good news. The next unforeseen situation was when I would leave for work in the mornings. She would bark and I could hear her on the way down the street. She would stop after a few minutes so we thought everything was working out fine. But having gone through the previous experience, I was still concerned because someone was bound to complain about her barking at 7:30 in the morning.

So we consulted some professionals who suggested a series of toys that you put some sort of food into that she would have to play with to get to the food. We though that would do it, and it did. We bought a plastic ball that you fill up with dog food and as the ball rolls around it spits out bits of food. She loved it and it kept her quiet as I left in the mornings. She was at the point where she expected me to leave and didn’t bark at all. She accepted it as long as she had her toy.

O.K., here is some advice. If you have tile floors and a hard plastic ball, the noise generated by the ball rolling around, is a bit disturbing. But since we live in a concrete building we figured the noise was only in our apartment. Sound waves are a funny thing. They do travel through concrete. So we found out this morning when the management company called to complain on behalf of one of the downstairs neighbors. In this case I did feel bad. Lord knows how long she was pushing that damn ball around all day. It must have been driving the downstairs neighbors crazy.

Lucky for them we came home the other day and found the plug to the ball in bits on the floor. Sammy had figured out how to get the plug out, eat all of the food then carry and drop the ball all over the place. It was ruined, and we had to toss it. She is toyless again, but I think she understands that we are always going to be coming and going and she is getting much better at keeping her trap shut. If only we could get her to be quiet while we are there. If she sees us and can’t get to us she barks. I think she will get over it, after all she is only 9 months now and has come a long way so far.

Potty training gone horribly wrong. From the first days of her 3 month old life we have struggled with how to handle her bathroom habits.
We did the Japanese thing by buying the “potty” mats that you put down lay a diaper sheet on it and try to convince her that this is the location to do her business. WRONG! She found more pleasure in playing with the diaper mat. If you ever want to know what those things are made of, I can tell you first hand that there are millions of little water absorbent beads that are just waiting to cling to some sort of moisture. So after a full day of being home alone, you could imagine what it was like to come home to a room full of beads that had soaked up the pee she had in different places. That room has been through hell and back.

The next thing we tried was to use some liquid that was supposed to target her to the mat. Sprinkle it on and they come running to put down their own scent. Again, WRONG! That just made her attack the mat even more. Hundreds of rolls of paper towel and liters of Pine Sol later, we gave up and began trying to convince her to at least go out on the balcony. She started doing that but still had the occasional Sammy spill on the tile floor.

You might be asking yourself why don’t you just take her out? Well here, you are told that the dog should not go outside until it has had it’s myriad of shots which take about 3 more months to complete. I know better, having grown up with dogs, but I wasn’t sure if they had some sort of Doggy version of 24’s CTU that would arrest us on the street. That was the most painful 3 months that I have ever gone through with a dog. She was going stir crazy and you really couldn’t get mad with her about it, so the balcony was our only option. It WORKED!

When we were finally allowed to go out and about with her, I began to walk her first thing in the morning and at night when I get home. It is a nice thing to do with your dog. Relaxing, calm and exercise to boot. What it turned out to be however, was a battle between us and Sammy. Why? She refuses to go to the bathroom out side on the walks. To date, she has only gone out side 2 times. That is only because I now take her out immediately after I feed her. Then if I walk slowly, she is sometimes at the mercy of her bowels. But not often. As soon as we get home, she bolts for the balcony to do her business.

I guess I should look at the bright side. She doesn’t go in the house anymore. But winter is coming and that means that we will have to pay more money to have the construction dude come back to install a dog door so we don’t have to leave the doors open all day like we do now. Thank god we live on the top floor of the building. But I will be damned if I am going to leave the doors open in the dead of winter. It will also be interesting to see how she deals with going outside in the cold. It will be her first year to experience it as a non-puppy. Sure there will be more to follow on this one.

Japan is very strict on pets in general. Small apartments, insane rules and regulations around owning a pet and of course the unmentioned hidden costs involved. Tokyo is a concrete jungle and it is a very unforgiving place to have a pet, let alone a dog. Dogs need space to run, space to socialize with other dogs and basically do their business when they feel like it without having to be prompted. The solution….. THE DOG RUN.

Tokyo is a pretty crowded place. For people, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a social kind of environment. People generally stay to themselves. I think in part because you are always around people here and the prized moments are when you can get away from people. Outside of that, people do generally congregate in packs. Not unlike dogs, they tend to huddle with others who have things in common with each other. Some form “Train Clubs” where they get together and memorize train stops from the hundreds of train lines across the country. Some get together and practice plays in the park. Basically packs of strange groups that really geek out on mindless topics. I had no interest in being involved in this type of activity whatsoever. That was, until we got Sammy.

When you get a dog, it is a very pleasant experience. You try to do the right things. You play with them, give them love and try to give them the best life possible here in the concrete jungle. So when we realized that the walls of our apartment were closing in on the Sammers, we went on the hunt for the elusive dog run. Magazines, that was the solution. This is the only country that manages to find a way to publish a magazine about any topic and you can bet your boots that there are at least 20 different magazines about dogs alone. In one specific magazine there was mention of a dog run not far from here in the large 1960’s Olympic park known as Komozawa Koen. We were on our way. The great thing about Sammy is that she loves to ride in the car. So we packed her up and took off.

The first thing that went wrong was that the park management had decided to scrap the dog run and relocate it. We walked, and walked, and walked before finally asking someone. They pointed us in the right direction and there it was. Brand spanking new. Double gate to allow you and your pet to enter, close the gate behind you before opening the internal gate to enter the run. It really wasn’t bad at all. Despite the brick on the ground and the “Potty Pits” which were basically over sized sand pits with dirt and bushes.

Back to the people who bring their dogs. In three words… Entirely too social. But generally down to earth people. That is until the weird stuff starts to happen. Generally there are the regulars. You know who they are because they are packed in a group socializing while their dogs are hanging out, running around an playing as dogs do. You see, they are the experienced dog owners. They like to whisper and make fun of the other people who show up with their dogs. But the only rule among everyone is that every dog is cute and it is not their fault that they have the owners they have. In this world, the dogs can do no wrong. The king dog of this group is a massive chocolate lab named in typical Japanese creative fashion… “Choco” He is massive and built like a barrel. He is however completely not interested in Sammy. He does however, have the hots for a specific black lab that shows up on occasion. For some reason her presence makes him realize that he needs to get his lovin’ on. It is funny to watch the owner chase him around and struggle to continuously pull him off of the black lab. So as you can imagine love is always in the air at the dog run. I thought quite nice to be around normal animals for a change. That is until the two chows….

You see, recently we were hanging out at the run and Sammy was doing her regular run and play with the various dogs that were either bigger or faster than her. When I realized that two chows appeared to be getting it on. However, the one on the bottom was simply standing there panting, while the other was trying to share its love… with the other dogs head! I didn’t know what was worse, the one on the top getting the wrong end and not realizing it, or the one on the bottom panting away just letting things go as they please. Now when these types of things happen the owners scramble to break things up. But after looking around, I realized that everyone was just standing there watching this freak show. Finally some women approached to break things up. An older guy then stopped her (one of the dogs was obviously his) and said “Its o.k., they are both male.” CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!?!?! Not only were both of the dogs stupid and sexually challenged, but the show had an audience! This was far much more than I would have ever imagined happening in this place. FREAKS! ALL OF THEM! FREAKS! It was funny however. Gay dogs at the run.

Sammy is in a unique situation however. She is a Chocolate Lab, but is relatively small for her size. That puts her in the category of the big dogs, but smaller than them, but bigger than the little dogs that she can bully around. She is definitely not scared of anything and likes to try to throw her weight around. She is good however to make sure that she doesn’t hurt the little ones though. Here she is trying to de-shirt some little thing.

Now you might be asking yourself why in the month of August someone would put a damn shirt on a dog? Allow me to explain. When anything in Japan becomes a fad, or popular it is called a “boom.” So there was the Tamagotchi boom of the early 90’s. The High School girls with the massive tube socks boom and now, we are in the throws of what some have labeled the “Doggy Boom.” It seems like the true dog lovers are being out numbered by the young who have found owning a pet to be the latest trend. As such, they treat their dogs as fashion accessories. Once you buy your dog the first thing you are required to do is to further accessorize it. NO JOKE!!!! There are TV personalities who are showing up on TV with their dogs sporting bows in their hair and painted up claws. Hell, we were even suckered into buying a rain coat. In our own defense, there is nothing worse than walking a dog in the rain then keeping them cooped up in an apartment all day long. But the most insane thing is that they are now selling toe nail polish branded as “Dog Friendly” so you can get your pedicure, while your dog gets its “PETicure”

And then there is the Doggy Cafe boom that is running in parallel. They are springing up everywhere. Not only can you take your dog and hang out sipping coffee, but when you are really in the mood to get personal with your dog, you can take them to dinner. Complete with a small doggy table and separate doggy menu. LIKE THE DAMN DOG CAN CHOOSE WHAT IT WANTS TO EAT! That is the current state of owning a dog in this country.

What this new “fashion” has done has made the inexperience people with their fashion accessories, believe they can come to our dog run and blend in. Here is a funny, but at the time, frightening story. I must add before hand that all ended well an no one or dog was hurt in the story that follows.

So the regular crowd was hanging out, Their dogs mingling as normal. Sammy was somewhere down at the end of the run with a few other dogs including a large black retriever. All was well at the run. At the far end where the sammers was playing, is another entrance to the run. At that entrance approached a woman with her pocket pet fashion accessory on the end of a nice new red leash. The woman herself couldn’t have weighed any more than about 80lbs. Now on the run it is standard practice for the dogs to great each other with the standard butt sniffing welcome. That was what was going to happen as the dogs began to circle around the entrance. The woman was full of smiles as she stepped into the run. That is when all hell broke loose.

Her pocket pet freaked…. probably never saw a dog before in its life let alone this many of all sizes, shapes and colors waiting to greet it. It began to squeal. Not bark, squeal! I though it was one of those damn play toys. Of course, the other dogs went in for the butt greeting. And it freaked more, squealing more. I guess the other dogs thought “Hey, this woman brought us a toy!” so they began to push it around and basically play with it. Of course it squealed more. At this point the woman froze and did the only thing that she thought normal; retrieve my dog. So she began to pull on the leash to retrieve her pet that was, at this point completely smothered by dogs. Of course sammers being the litter of the runt, couldn’t get into the mix. I decided to stroll down and get sammy out of the way. When the black retriever, figured “O.K., squeaky toy, leash with a person pulling it…… TUG OF WAR!!!!” So he decides to take the squeaky toy in its mouth and pull back. There you have it, head out one side, feet out the other and more squealing than you could possibly imagine.

The more the woman freaked and pulled the more the retriever pulled back. Finally the experienced crew had made their way down and started pulling dogs out of the pack. The lead woman got to the retriever and made it drop the pocket pet. Of course the retriever never bit down on the thing, it was just playing, but the horrified expression on the pocket pet owner’s face spoke volumes. Her pet was handed to her and she clutched away at it, turning her back to the other dogs who were panting away wanting to play more. The woman was escorted out of the gate with a couple of back rubs and sent on her way. She huddled outside of the gate for about 10 minutes before she had the legs to continue home.

What do you think happened next? The run committee gather to talk about the event and how stupid the woman with the pocket pet was and how her dog resembled a rubber fish after being retrieved by, well, the retriever. Aaaah life at the dog run, I can’t wait until we go back again. I know the Sammers can’t wait.

The one thing about having a busy life and a dog, is that you never want the unexpected to happen….

We had been anxiously awaiting the Sammer’s first period. It was a stressful time for us. The thought of how to handle that was a bit more than I think we were prepared to deal with. At the same time, we had found a great place called a “Dog Run” located in Komozawa Koen (park).  Most weekends we were in the habit of taking her there to play with other dogs. It was really good and I will comment on that whole experience later. Anyhow in the process of watching Sammers play with her new found friends, we notice that there were no “rules” really pertaining to the act of sex within this group of canines.  Basically if you weren’t watching, someone was getting it on.

This opened up a whole new door of concern for us. “What if she get’s preggers?”  There was absolutely no way we would, could or should entertain that thought.  So the next thing to consider was putting her under the knife. It was a hard decision with much in the way of moral dilemma discussions. In the end we decided that it was probably best to move ahead and have the little thing spayed.

She went in on a Tuesday night, under the knife Wednesday and back home on Saturday. She survived and is doing just fine. The only thing is, is that part of the payback is the fact that she has to wear one of those damn cones on her head to prevent her from licking the stitches. A side benefit to her is that she also has a new weapon to unleash on our shins. All I can say is that I can’t wait until we take her back this Saturday after one week with the cone and antibiotics to have the stitches removed and the cone returned.

The saminator has done it again. This time, she has gone upper class. She went for the Apple PowerBook cord. In the end, the cord won. But was injured on the play. I happened to notice while moving my PowerBook that the white block portion of the power cord that plugs into the wall was scorching hot. After looking closer, I found that Sammy had been in what could be described as a fierce battle with this little cord.

Maybe thinking it would give as easily as the Thinkpad, but the Apple wasn’t giving in so easy. First there is the extender cord that plugs into the white transformer block, this was had actually taken injury in two different place. One was cut 1/2 way through, but at no point was it a complete disconnect. Then there was the little wire between the PowerBook and the transformer. Took some minor damage, but again came out of it intact.

I was impressed. The little cord survived the Sammy attack. It still worked. I do think though that it suffered the loss of the ground return which is why it was getting so hot. Just to be safe, I celebrated by purchasing a new power cord. Much more expensive of course than the ThinkPad cord, but well worth it, if somehow Sammy realized that she could not win a battle with an Apple power supply! Another win for Cupertino!

After a couple of months things grow….. Sammy is no exception. Here is the latest in her world.  This past Saturday was a big day in the life of Sammy. Probably more so for us as it was the first day of removing her from “The Leash.” To be honest, it has to be compared to the first time you would let a child drive your car. I was needless to say a bit less than enthusiastic about the whole deal. You see, ever since she was tiny, Sammy has been what you could call an independent thinker. No matter what you told her to do she would do what the hell she wanted to. On top of that when being scolded she had no problems telling you that you were wrong, not her.

As usual, I am going to drift a bit here. You see in Japan, things like having a dog, a certain kind of car or even a child, by default make you a member of some sort of unannounced exclusive club. Generally, there is the “Mommy club” where new mothers gather at a local park during the day to hang out and generally gossip about how their life’s appear better than everyone else. Then there is the Dog club.

This secret society can even be broken down into breed specific sub-committees. There is the Retriever crowd, the Golden Retriever crowd, the Labrador retriever crowd and the list could go on and on. Many say that Japan is in the middle of a “Doggy Boom” which refers to anything currently popular that everyone strives to be part of get’s a “Boom” attached to the end of it. It is very cultish. Not to mention that there is a whole etiquette involved. You just can’t walk up on another person and their dog, the dogs greet with the standard butt sniffing exercise and you smile and go on your way. No, not here, you have to ask silly questions; “What type of dog is he/she?” “How old is he/she?” and close out with an obligatory “KAWAIIIIIIII” (cute) and a “Domo” for allowing their dog to interact with yours.

So anyhow, we got the call from a friend and his wife inviting us to Yoyogi Park. They have a very smart, energized Miniature Pincher (read in Japan Min-Pin). The plan for the morning was to head to the park and let the dogs play. Sammy, of course had no idea what was going on and really didn’t care. She was on her way to the car and was stoked to get in for a ride.

Swung by, picked up the friends and headed to the park. It was a gorgeous, but scorching day. After a brief walk, we reached out destination which happened to be a huge field with a nice little pond/fountain area. Because somehow we managed to forget the scoobie snacks in the car, I decided to let Sammy have her way. Into the water she went. She really likes the water, but you could expect that of a Labrador.

When we finally reached our destination, the time of truth came. Time to unhook the leash. Keep in mind that there was nothing preventing her from bolting and us never seeing her again. *Clip*….. nothing. I am not even sure if she realized she was off the leash until I took of running. She gave chase and realized that as long as we were within ear-shot, we would let her do what she desired. It was a good day. I am ready to begin phase II, teaching her to swim. She loves the water, but hasn’t gotten to the point where she is confident not touching bottom. Sure this is to be continued.