One ungroomed schnauzer...

Okay, I know that schnauzers are one breed that do need grooming. All the schnauzers I see around all have that "old man" look. Danny had that too when we first brought him home.

Now when I look back at this shot, Danny actually has sort of a weird alien look. Sort of like Stitch. It's the typical Schnauzer look which, quite frankly, I never really liked. After 4 ungroomed months with us, he now looks like this:

And there no sign that he's ever going back to being a neat dog again. We brush him down and bathe him regularly, but to us, he looks more like a dog with his fur all long and scruffy. I just think dogs look a lot cuter when they are not so manicured and prissy.

And it's not just schnauzers.

For example:

VS

And to seal my point...

VS

I read somewhere that ungroomed schnauzers will eventually look like small Old English Sheepdogs. I think we're going to find out ...

Future Danny?

Peeping Dan

Forget peeping tom. The latest offender in the Chew family is Danny. He hasn't been charged as he is still a minor.

The scene of the crime is the ground floor bathroom.

His favourite victim? Mum.

Background info: When we can't keep an eye on him, we normally leash Danny to the railing near the balcony. We give him a fairly long leash which allows him to reach the bathroom door. Which brings me to yesterday.

I came home to find mum complaining about the dog having loose morals. It turns out that in the last week, every time mum uses the bathroom, Danny would er... interfere. Even though she takes care to close the door properly, Danny has managed to figure out certain "pressure points" to effectively nudge it open.

Once it is slightly ajar, he would poke his face round the corner and peek in all curious-like with the "so whatcha' doing in there?" look. Mum would shout at him to go away, but Danny is one dog that is oblivious to screams.

After several encounters, mum has now taken to walking all the way upstairs when she needs to go.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Sweet Thief

A description of schnauzers in a dog encyclopedia states that they are not fussy eaters. Danny takes this to a whole new level. Danny eats everything...even things that no dog in his right mind would like.

His most recent discovery are ginger sweets. And I'm not even talking about sweets with a hint of ginger; I'm talking eyes watering, mouth on fire ginger sweets.

I found a box of those in the pharmacy and bought them for mum. They were chewy too which mum absolutely loves. She put them in her bag and placed the bag on the stairs while she went to get something.

When she returned she found this:

Front view

Back view

Danny had fished it out of her bag, torn the box open, and was finishing up his second sweet by the time she found him. Each sweet is individually wrapped and the wierdest thing is that he had carefully removed the wrapper before consumption.

Still, he was kind enough to leave a few behind for us. All I could stomach was one, and I could feel it burning in my mouth.

I'm surprised he wasn't sick after that.

Yipes! Time flies!

Goodness! It's been two weeks since my last post! I've been extremely busy, busy, busy with work, finishing up Spanish class, doing up my brother's guest book for his wedding, and recording the song I wrote for him and future wife. I've also been working on some new songs. No idea what in the world I'll do with them, but it's been good fun!

Danny's been up to more rubbish. You know, the funny thing is that when I first held Danny at the shop, I called him a silly rubbish dog. It was a term I used on Chass when he was deperately trying all ways and means to get attention. Danny, however, appears to have taken the term quite literally.

He's learnt how to open the lid of the kitchen bin with his nose, and fish out whatever smells good. He will then carry it to wherever we are sitting and gnaw it in front of us. Humph. Show-Off.

Now whenever things are a little too quiet, we'll drop everything and head to the kitchen.

We need a taller bin.

Danny-long-legs

Danny has a set of really long legs. He's my first schnauzer so I don't know if it's common with the breed but they seem a little...disproportionate.

He's like a spider with such gangly trotters. But when it comes to waiting on the stairs though, he's almost human. The silkies could sit nicely on one step, while Chassard would simply stand and wait. Danny, however, will sit with his legs on one step and his butt resting on the one above it, kinda like how we would sit.

It's been months but we still find it funny.

Tubby Puppy

I've been giving excuses and brushing it aside, but there's no denying it. Danny is getting fat.

He's always been a greedy dog which has been absolutely wonderful for training, but between getting two full meals a day and the tidbits mom sneaks to him, he's been putting on some.

I took some ariel shots of him lying down and...

Taa-daah! Check out his curves, man! Different days, but he still looks like he needs a good slim wrap.

One satisfied customer...

19 nails and counting...

Yesterday, Danny was let off his leash. Ever the hyper active schnauzer, he took off like a race horse. He shot around the dining room, scampering under chairs and racing through the kitchen.

Somewhere around the 10th lap, mom heard a loud yelp. She rushed over to find him hobbling about on three legs with blood dripping all over the kitchen floor. She tried her best to calm him down as she and Rhoda hunted for the source.

Their investigations churned out this:

It appears that as he was in fifth gear, he dashed past a metal rail on the floor and one toenail got caught in it. Totally unaware and unable to stop, the nail ripped off, leaving Danny with badly bleeding paw.

Mom tried to stem the bleeding by applying a rubberband to his paw as a sort of weird doggie tourniquet. It didn't work. Rhoda kept asking for him to be brought to the vet.

I was happily driving down Orchard Road on my way to meet a friend for drinks when I received the frantic SOS. At first I thought something had happened to my dad (daddy and Danny sound alike - see previous post), but I relaxed a little when I realised it was the dog AND it was a damaged toenail, not toe.

Being the wonderful, caring owner that I am, I told mum that if he wasn't fine by the next day, I'd bring him to the vet, but there was no way I wasn't going to miss my beer binge. Mum muttered something about him missing a toenail for life thanks to a lousy owner before she unceremoniously put the phone down on me.

I wasn't too worried because when I was six, I lost my toenail when my brother (who was suppooosed to be babysitting me) slammed the door on my left foot. The entire nail on my big toe broke off and I was nailess for about two months. I had blood pouring from the toe and when my parents came back, they simply bandaged it in tissues until it stopped bleeding. No doctor, no meds, no fuss.

I figured that if I lived, he'd be fine.

When I got back, I went straight to see him. The bleeding had stopped and he was his happy, sappy self.

The whole of today, he has been the best dog ever since he came. He was nice and quiet, didn't make a peep when he was left on his own. Gone was the mad rush about the house, the ripping of paper and sneaking to the garbage bin for snacks. He even stopped nipping completely.

Everyone loved him and we figure it's because his paw is still hurting him. He walks about normally but he licks at the wound occasionally.

I know it's terrible, terrible, terrible of me to say this but....he really is a nicer dog when he's in pain.

"Aww...whaddaya want? My paw hurts!"