Pets - Pablo
What does Pablo look like?
Pablo is a big, black dog. His ears are black, his tail is
black, his nose is black, his feet are black, his paw pads
are black, his toenails are black, and even his tongue has
black spots. But his soulful
puppy-dog eyes are a striking shade of chestnut brown. His
fur is a medium sort of length, with great water-repelant
properties (which he probably gets from some Labrador Retriever
in his ancestry). His tail is bushy, but
not overly so, and is carried in a sort of half-curl when he
is excited. He has semi-erect ears; their tops flop over,
sort of like Collie ears, when something has his attention.
Pablo is a substantial pup, weighing in at around 65 pounds
and standing 23 inches high at the shoulder.
Where did Pablo come from?
We adopted Pablo on Friday April 13, 2001 from the
Oakland SPCA. They
said he was one to two years old at the time, so we made his
birthday October 13, 1999, so he is probably just a little
younger than Cammy. We weren't really looking to adopt a dog,
since we lived in an apartment at the time, but once I met
Pablo, I knew he was the perfect sort of dog for us. I had
just started doing some volunteer work for the Oakland SPCA
and actually met Pablo for the first time while I was
completing my required two dog-training classes before I could
start training the shelter dogs on my own. I asked which dog
I should take out for the class, and was told "Get Pablo.
He's a good dog.". And he was. Rather than remain sitting
when we stopped heeling, he would sink into a down by sliding
down my leg. And he didn't lunge at the other dogs, or run
to the end of the leash. He was just taking it all in stride.
It felt like a perfect match.
I brought Dave in to see Pablo a couple of weeks later, and he agreed that he was a good dog, so we adopted him on the spot. At that time we learned that his previous owner had taken him into the vet clinic on the SPCA premises to be euthanized (which the clinic will only do for health reasons). When the lady was asked what was the reason for his euthanization, she replied "Oh, he got out of the yard.". And then, while the staff member went to get some paperwork, she just left him there, so they decided to put him up for adoption, and the rest is history.
What's Pablo like at home?
Pablo is the world's most mellow dog - most of the time. He
gets super-excited whenever food is involved, especially when
it's dinner time. Then he gets wiggly and starts a little
prancing dance as he drools all over the floor. At any other
time, however, he's perfectly content to just lie around in
whatever room we happen to be in at the time. Occasionally
he'll get up and lick our elbows, or nuzzle us to be petted,
and then go back to sleep.
Now the only other thing that gets Pablo excited at home is somebody ringing the doorbell (he looooves visitors) or somebody saying "kitty!" in a very excited voice. For the former, he runs to the door and whines and does his excited dance. We tell him to "get on the mat", which usually takes some doing because that's not nearly as interesting as meeting whoever is at the door. If somebody says "Oh look, a kitty!", Pablo will run to the nearest window or sliding glass door and look around frantically to see the mystical kitty of which you speak. Most of the time there is no kitty; it's just so funny to watch him looking.
When it comes to our kitties, Kirby and Cammy, Pablo now
ignores them most of the time, just as they ignore him for the
most part. If you say "kitty!" and point at, say, Cammy,
Pablo just doesn't believe that she is, in fact, a kitty, and
runs to the nearest window. He seems to think that there are
"kitties", and then these small furry creatures he happens to
live with, which are, definitely not the same thing. But it
wasn't always this way. When we first brought Pablo home, the
kitties hid in terror for several days under the bed. I felt
so terrible. I cried. I brought them food and water under
the bed. I think they used the litterbox while we slept (and
Pablo was in the crate) at night. Pablo was tethered to
either one of us or a piece of heavy furniture for a couple
of months before we felt we could trust him around the kitties
(that and before we felt he was properly house-trained). Then
he graduated to just dragging a leash around (in case we
needed control in a hurry). Finally, he was free to roam the
house, while we were home.
Cammy, by far the bolder kitty, was the first to make progress
with Pablo. She became increasingly less frightened of him
until finally, one day, she started batting at him if he came
too close! "Now who's in charge?", she seemed to say. And
it was obvious she was the ruler of the household. We try
to put her in her place once in a while by telling Pablo to
"get Cammy!", which means "chase Cammy around the house until
she jumps up somewhere you can't reach, then whine about it".
It's fun to watch him go over and stick his nose in her,
causing her to take off, with him right on her heels. Kirby
came to accept Pablo much more slowly and gradually, but now
will walk right by him while he is standing without any
problem at all. So harmony reigns again. They have even (on
occasion) all been found lying in the same sunbeam, one of
Pablo's favorite pastimes. (What kind of strange black
dog likes laying in sunbeams anyway??)
Away from home, Pablo is still fairly mellow, but he is always
excited to go for a walk. He is somewhat less enthusiastic
about car trips, although he is always excited at the
destination. He came to us with a terrible fear of cars,
particularly large, rumbly trucks and busses that pass us by
when we walk on the sidwalk next to a busy street. He always
cowers while the vehicle goes by, then he is fine. We think
he was probably hit by a car before he was surrendered to the
SPCA, since he also has some scars on the front of one of his
back legs. This makes him somewhat less than enthusiastic to
get into the car, even though we almost always go someplace
fun (the park, PetCo, dog park, etc).
We got Pablo a doggie backpack which means he can actually be useful when we go for a hike. If nothing else, he can carry his own water, treats, bowl, etc. Usually, he will carry our lunch too, and if we're not going too far, our water. It hardly seems to phase him at all. He always has energy left over, even when we are about to die of exhaustion.
Pablo also has a little dog cart that he pulls. The cart itself is just a converted tricyle trailer to which I added some soldered copper plumbing pipe to make the shafts (yes I learned to solder pipe for the occasion!). He took to pulling the cart quite naturally and was not afraid of it at all (it is somewhat noisy), even backing up, which can be somewhat difficult to teach (it probably helped that he already knew the command before he was ever even in a harness). I always thought it would be cool to have a dog that could pull a cart, even since I was a kid. I didn't know it was a reality until a few years ago, when I discovered Bernese Mountain Dogs are routinely trained for draft work. Dave and I went to a draft competition in Alameda one day, and I knew I would have to teach any dog I owned to do that. So I did. Now I just need to figure out a practical application for it...
What does Pablo know?
Pablo excels at clicker
training. He loves to work for his dinner. It's so
much fun to "see the lightbulb go on", as they say, when he
finally understands what I am trying to get him to do. At the
SPCA, he was trained with the choke-chain method (aka "jerk
and praise") to do a few of the basics. When we brought him
home, I started over with the clicker. It was a learning
experience for both of us, as I had virtually no practical
experience using the clicker to teach dog obedience. It was
challenging at first, until I got the idea to reward him with
his dinner (which he always was crazy for, right from
the start). I started clicking and then treating with a few
kibbles from his food bowl. Then he seemed to "get it". He
became very excited when I got the clicker out, and much, much
more eager to work and please. It was the beginning of a very
good thing.
From there I started taking his breakfast or dinner out on our walks (depending on when), to teach him attention and heeling. On our walks, Pablo came to have great attention, unless he saw/smelled kitties (or squirrels or bunnies or deer or dogs or.. you get the picture). Then he sort of falls apart. At least now he doesn't try to take off after them. On one of our first walks around the neighborhood, he nearly ripped my shoulder out of the socket when he took off full speed after a distant kitty. But fortunately (espeically for my arm), I think he learned after he hit the end of the leash at full speed. Now the worst he will do is either freeze (ala a pointer) or stare at the kitty (or whatever) as we walk by. I'll take that. Much better for my arm and his neck.
Pablo now knows a number of tricks. Click on the command to see a picture and find out what it means.
Although I have to admit, he definitely know some better than others. It's my fault for not practicing them all equally.
Pablo's Achievements
Pablo and I have been working on getting some obedience titles, and so far have completed Open level work, and now have two legs towards our Utility title. We have also gotten into Rally Obedience, and Pablo just earned his Rally Excellent title. I hope to soon branch out into other fun activities, like agility and tracking. Here are the certificates and titles Pablo has earned so far:
Pablo's Feature Presentations
Here are some home-made movies of Pablo in action:
Obedience
- Feb 5, 2006 Utility leg #2 (8:14 min)
- Mar 12, 2005 Open leg #3 (14:53 min)
- Mar 6, 2005 Open leg #2 (8:40 min)
- Aug 22, 2004 Novice leg #3 (10:43 min)
- Jul 24, 2004 Novice leg #2 (8:44 min)
- Jul 24, 2004 Novice leg #1 (9:59 min)
Rally
- Apr 8, 2006 Excellent leg #3 (N:NN min)
- Apr 2, 2006 Excellent leg #2 (N:NN min)
- Mar 5, 2006 Excellent leg #1 (N:NN min)
- Oct 16, 2005 Advanced leg #3 (N:NN min)
- Sep 18, 2005 Advanced leg #2 (N:NN min)
- Jul 30, 2005 Advanced leg #1 (N:NN min)
- May 29, 2005 Novice leg #3 (N:NN min)
- Apr 3, 2005 Novice leg #2 (1:56 min)
- Mar 6, 2005 Novice leg #1 (1:46 min)
Miscellaneous
- Jul 30, 2004 Taking the CGC test (5:59 min)
- May 16, 2004 MBDC of CA 2004 Spring Fling highlights (11:09 min)
- Dec 2003 Fetching a tennis ball (4:16 min)
Does Pablo have any aliases?
Pablo has a few nicknames, including Pablolo, Pabolo,
Pablito, Puppy-Pup, Puppy-Mutt, Pup, Muppy, Moo, Muppy-Moo,
McMoo, Shmoo (sometimes he just looks like a cow), Stinky, Mr.
Stinky, Mr. McStinky, Stinky Moo (he is a dog after all), and
Muppy-Butt.
Why do you think that Pablo is probably part Chow Chow or German Shepherd?
We think that Pablo is probably part Chow Chow or German Shepherd because of his purple-spotted tongue. (Chow Chows have completely purple/black tongues and German Shepherds can have purple/black spots on their tongues.) It looks funny. Imagine a Dalmation coat pattern applied to a tongue. But instead of white with black spots, it's pink with purple-black spots. When we first saw his tongue, we thought there was something wrong with him, but we were informed that he was just likely part Chow Chow or German Shepherd.