Pupdate May 21

I actually have a few stories to share today. 

Let's start with poor Volos.  Before I actually get to the heart of the 2 stories, I must go back a bit.
At my last house there were two things that helped "socialize" my dogs. Got them accustomed to these things so they could "deal".

The first was the gun range.  A gun range backed our development so my house was a few hundred feet from the border.  This meant we heard gun shots (multiple gun shots) on the regular.  Peryn & Lada could ignore them.   Duchess could ignore them. Athena just barked at them.

The second: ANYTIME I cooked in my kitchen, my smoke alarm would go off.  This smoke detector was around the corner, in the entrance hall.  I cook, it goes off.  It was annoying as 1. I would have to walk all the way over there & find something to push the button so it would stop.  2. If I didn't get to it in time, the next alarm in the chain would go off. Soon the whole house would have multiple alarms blaring. DROVE ME CRAZY.   Hated it. 
Peryn would get a little nervous, but he was ultimately OK.

Now onto current day.  Since moving here, I can cook regularly without issue.  I say regularly and not all the time.  Certain meals that have a lot of grease & smoke will eventually set off an alarm.  We try to be pre-emptive and open windows and doors.     

However we don't always win.  The alarm outside of our bedroom will be the one to set off.  Now, if that one goes off, they all go off.   No biggie right? Wrong.  The security system in THIS house is an upgraded one compared to the one in our old place.   Additionally it "listens" for the smoke detectors & will only go off if it registers them going for more than a few seconds...(10-15?).  

Well the new alarms in the house are not easy to turn off. NOT AT ALL.  So essentially the one outside of the kitchen/bedroom will go off, setting off the one in the front hall. The one in the front hall is 15 feet from the monitor.  So THAT goes off.  THAT one is loud. That one is annoying.  That one triggers a call from our Service.  So when they go off -the first thing I must do is FIND MY PHONE. This is the most important one of them all.   Once I have my phone, I can head to the panel to enter my code to turn off the monitor alarm.  

HOWEVER if the house smoke alarms are still going, this will just kick off the security alarm again.  Round & Round we go.    The reason that I must have my phone is they call. If I do not answer the first time they call, they will dispatch the fire department.  Even if they get a hold of me & I give them the all clear..  We've met our friendly neighborhood firemen a few times because of this.

All that to tell you on May 6, I was making dinner waiting for Rich & the pups to get home.  Sure enough, there was a lot of steam/smoke. SO I am running around turning on fans & opening windows.  Rich comes home & as soon as the dogs are in the house, alarm goes off.

Volos does not deal well with this at all. Freaks out big time.  The one time when power was out for awhile, a beeping from the panel & alert from the smoke detectors goes off. He was shaking so badly, we had to go sit in the car. 

Well Rich & I are trying to get this under control and close the garage door so no one runs off.  FINALLY we stop it all.  Head back to kitchen to finish up dinner & realize I can't see Volos.  We start looking for him, but can't find him.   Calling for him... Rich heads outside to look for him. Nothing. Eventually Rich starts looking in the house again (Mind you our house is not that big).   Turns out Big Dude hid in a small 12" wide spot between my desk & the wall.   Poor guy.

2nd Volos story.  We go to this private dog farm with the dogs. Most of the time there are no issues. However the neighbor doesn't like hearing dogs bark.   So he'll start out by shooting "caps". If that doesn't deter the noise, he starts shooting his gun.   Peryn & Lada.. don't stop. They're used to gun shots. 
Volos...not so much.    He freaks out trying to hide. It kills me cause there is nothing to do but hold him & talk quietly to him.    If we stop going to the farm, this would be the reason.      Jerkface.

Now, if you remember last post was about the A.H. aka PERYN....
Today he earned the title for life.

Morning-time Mommy is on the floor stretching.  Trying to work out a bad kink in her back.   Volos & Lada love this as it means Mommy's face is right there to kiss & she can easily hug & hold us.   Peryn...not so much.  Peryn takes this to mean Volos is up.  Volos should play.   

This morning while sitting there, Peryn comes across my lap to put his face, with the big ball he's holding, into Volos' face (who's off to my left a bit).   Taunting him as per usual.  

Well, Volos decided he wanted the ball & went for it. Peryn moved out of the way & what remained was Mommy's upper arm. 

So I have a bruised arm, in pain & went to get a tetanus shot.   Just need to pick up my antibiotics now.    So Peryn doing Peryn things got me injured.  Poor Volos has no idea he is the reason I'm crying out in pain.     

Such is the life of a dog Mom.   

Peryn: The A H

 Hello. My name is Peryn and I am a major asshole.   

That's how I imagine him introducing himself  to people. It really is a mystery how the sweet little puppy we brought home turned into the little shit that he now.     

Don't get me wrong, he's the sweetest dude when he wants to be. However if he doesn't get his way...

Peryn isn't overtly affectionate not like Volos & Lada are.  Those two thrive on love and affection-demand it even. When they're just lying there relaxing, they love when they get pets and cuddles.  Peryn tends to move away from it.  When we force the issue, he grudgingly accepts it. 

What we mean by that: he has a purr-growl.  He's indicating he's not exactly a fan of the physical part of this attention, but at the same time he likes it. It's like he is fighting his nature.  "I don't like being touched, but it's Mommy giving me loving".

Peryn is OBSESSED with two things. Ball & Volos. He is a MAJOR brat when trying to get his way with either.
First we'll discuss BALL.   Ball is any ball, BUT it also is anything that can be thrown & returned by him. So this extends to his toys.   He is an interactive player.

He is happiest when someone other than him is involved in play.  

I warn people when they first come that if you throw his toy once, you're in for it. This is no exaggeration, he can play for hours.   Trying to ignore him or telling him no is where the AH part comes in.  He will first bark insistently at you to play. This bark, the heeler bark as I call it, is so high pitched and annoying. He does not stop until you give in. Give in you will.

Once that doesn't work, he moves onto his next phase. He climbs up on you or on the  back of the couch (where ever you are sitting) and proceeds to climb on top of you. So he will either be on your head, shoulders, or lap while being overly loving and a major pain in the butt, trying to get you to play with him. 

In the basement is their herding ball. He loves that thing. He is very skilled at controlling it.  I am seriously impressed with him. Sometimes he will play by himself, toy in his mouth, while pushing the ball around with his paws.  Dude has real control over it.  He prefers when he has an audience.

When we take the ball to the park with us, he turns into a monster with his barking because he wants Rich (who usually carries it) to drop it so he can play. I mean his high pitched barking is ridiculous at this point.   

Taunting as usual

As I said, anything ball is his favorite.  Ball is anything that can be fetched. His FAVORITE item is actually a cheeseburger. I have a gallery of photos of him & that cheeseburger. We had to buy so many to put in reserve since he adores that dang thing. 

 In the game of fetch where he is OBVIOUSLY the BIGGEST JERK is the blaster guns I have.   I have two different ones that shoot tennis balls. The one upstairs shoots small tennis balls & the one in the basement shoots regular sized tennis balls.    
LADA lives for this. Her favorite thing is to play fetch with Momma.   Peryn....used to love doing that, but his thing these days involves ruining it for everyone. 

MOST times we play it is Lada chasing after the ball with Peryn running alongside her to make sure she picks it up. He usually will have another ball or toy in his mouth already when doing this.   He will play like this until his toy becomes disgustingly drenched or until he decides he wants the current ball.  

When all 3 are playing (Volos loves to get involved) Volos gets excited too. He goes after the ball.  The difference is these days Volos drops the ball after taking a few "chews" on it.   Lada will pick it up and bring it back.  
Not Peryn. The jerk will drop whatever toy he currently has in his mouth, go after the ball in play & then hold onto it if he gets it first.   This is one of the reasons I usually have to take a minimum of 3 balls when playing with the shooters.    Lada is particular about which balls she plays with, so if the one he just discarded isn't a ball or is not "the one" in some ways, I have to bring out another. 

another day, another taunt

He will do this over and over in a game of blaster fetch.  With the tiny balls, since they are cheap I can buy a lot and use the older ones to shoot directly at him to catch.  He's happy either that instant or for a few more shots.  The bigger ball blaster (say that 3x fast) extra balls aren't as easy to come by.  
SO there have been times he's interrupted a game when he takes a ball & holds onto it.   

He can be sweet when he keeps the one in his mouth & runs along with Lada & stops the ball from going out of bounds or something....but these days it's far & in between.

 Oh and when he WANTS to go after the ball, he starts this OBNOXIOUS barking (see barking mentioned above).   It's worse because we're indoors. He will bark and bark until he gets a ball/toy in his mouth.  Truthfully, Volos gets excited as well and will bark while we play.  It gets VERY noisy.

Big brother....

Before Volos, Peryn would ALWAYS want to play.  He demands an audience or participation most times. He would often go downstairs by himself to play with his herding ball or whatever else he did down there. A lot of the time he wanted us to play with him.

Sometime after we brought Volos home, he began to be obsessed with him. Constantly trying to get him to play. This led to fights..physical altercations between the two. They were bad in the beginning. We're talking blood & fur flying.  Vet visits were needed.  

Now they still get into (all Peryn's fault), but I can't tell if it's their brand of playing or not. They're over quicker & Peryn thrives on these.  I am telling you I raised an asshole.

SO, If you've viewed our YouTube videos, you'll  have seen the Chronicles of Peryn & Volos.  Peryn loves ..is obsessed with...getting Volos to react to him. We think he ultimately wants Volos to chase him, but he takes what he can get. 

The two of them rumble over toys all the time. Volos loves to collect/hoard them.  Peryn knows this and tends to find one to rub in Volos' face. LITERALLY. He straight up walks right up to Volos to taunt him with said toy.  He tries to get him to react & go after him. ALL. THE. TIME.    

Volos can be next to me getting pets, there is Peryn walking up to him as close as he can with a toy. If it makes noise, he'll make sure to shake it or squeak it right in his face.   Peryn is a SERIOUS ASSHOLE here. Over and over until either Volos follows him to the basement or they get into. The times where Volos manages to take it away, cue Peryn's obnoxious bark.   

It can be funny, but when it ends in a tussle it just pisses me off.  

So as you can see he is a jerk when he doesn't get his way & he knows how to manipulate us.

Back to the fetch thing. The past few days he's been like this. He used to do this all the time, but not as much lately.  When he tries to get us to play fetch, he used to drop his ball or toy on the floor in front of us. This is to get our attention when we "hear" the ball. If that didn't work, he'd do it again or twice back to back.  
When that didn't work, he'd drop it against your foot or leg. 

Next he puts it right next to you on the couch/chair.  The more you ignore him then it moves to ON YOU.   He knows if he does it enough you will push it off or toss it off of you. THAT is what he's aiming for and he goes after it to bring it back-to start the process all over. 

When I am serious about not playing and tell him "NO" sternly. He gets this look like you just gravely hurt him.  If it's near the beginning of him trying to play, he climbs up on you to shower you with kisses, trying to butter you up. 

If you've been playing for awhile and are tired, he'll get this hurt look and go lie down.   

The collection of his prized possessions (cheeseburger, balls taken from Volos...) end up in the bed with us. The reason is two-fold. One to keep them safe. Two to keep them away from Volos.  Three to have them ready when he wants you to throw them.  This usually happens on Sunday nights when Rich is doing his big shave & shower for Monday.  He will keep dropping it at Rich's feet to play.  He's even dropped in the shower when he wasn't done.
   
He'll do it in the middle of the night if he's in the mood & you've gotten up to use the restroom.  He will do it while you're using said restroom. Sitting there minding your own business and you'll here the soft sound of plastic hitting the floor along with a faint "rrrrrr' (not a growl, but this sound he makes to let you know he's there, wanting your attention).

I try to stretch in the mornings.  I do this in the closet, on the floor. He'll bring his dang toy & throw it at me.   He's gotten so good at knowing what angle to drop some of his stuff that it comes right to you...like he threw it.   

When he wants to be sweet--to be sweet, he's a doll. He's also extremely sensitive. He HATES being yelled at.  He is petrified of storms.  He gets bent out of shape when the house gets messed up. The one year when we were redoing the first floor at our old house, he refused to be downstairs until everything went back to normal.  

He is a good brother though. He keeps annoying dogs away from Volos at daycare. He watches over Lada at daycare & at parks.  

Besides fetch, he does love tug.  WE had a tether tug at the old house. He & Lada broke it when the tag teamed it.  He loves playing tug with Lada, Volos, & us.   He is a very interactive play dog.   Just wish he wasn't such a jerk about it. 

And YES, I call him an Ass Hole to his face all the time....