Tag Archives: French Bulldog

Torque’s a strange little Frenchie

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torque_birdwatchingI’ve been hiding a secret. Torque is a weird little dog.
He doesn’t jump up on stuff. Not chairs, or couches. Not even the bed. He doesn’t even follow Teddy’s naughty ways – kitchen chair to kitchen table to kitchen counter. We’ve learned to keep all edibles off the counter, but not because of Torque.
It took Torque a long time to learn to climb stairs. He’ll climb up if the “steps” are small. And he’ll jump down from anywhere – recklessly, if I don’t watch him.
I’ve asked other trainers I know if they had any ideas to teach him to jump up onto things. All suggested trying to gradually increase the height of whatever I was asking him to jump on. And I tried. He’ll jump on two-inch things. And four. And six. And eight. Then he’s done. I put his dinner dish on a platform measuring 10 inches high. He didn’t eat dinner. He sat there, looking at it, and whining. Or put his front paws on it and tried to grab it. But it never occurred to Torque to jump up to get it.
As everyone with more than one dog can attest, dogs do learn from each other. And almost every evening our family room becomes a racecourse, with Booker, Tango, and Teddy racing around, floor to couch, around and around. And Torque follows along – always on the floor.
It’s a bit unsettling for me. I always planned to do all kinds of performance stuff with Torque, including Obedience, Rally, and Agility. All of which include jumping, to some extent.
And he will jump over stuff that’s lower than his eye level. So he’s doing the jumping I need him to do for our activities.
So I’m going to try to stop worrying about it. At this point, the only consequence of Torque not jumping up is that the other dogs in class might laugh at him. I can deal with that.

It’s all his fault

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Teddy and meWe love having the opportunity to travel with our dogs. And we’re fortunate that they’re all terrific in the car.

Never utter a peep. Which is why, on my (Hope’s) recent road trip, I didn’t notice until a mid-afternoon potty break (for me and the dogs!) that Teddy had been bitten by something and his face was swelling up.

Teddy has had a couple of allergic reactions over the years, so I always have some Benadryl with me in the dog-travel-box. I gave him a dose and decided there wasn’t anything else I could do at the time, other than to continue to our destination and check him every half hour/45 minutes.

Which is why we wound up having a very difficult afternoon. It’s all Teddy’s fault.

The six-lane highway we were traveling on was completely stopped. Apparently there was an accident up ahead. All I could see was an endless line of cars and semi-trucks, all stopped dead. For over an hour.

Since we weren’t moving, I was able to check on Teddy. He was fine – breathing normal, swelling and redness next to his nose already starting to subside.

When we finally got moving again – and I have absolutely no idea why we’d stopped, because the highway was entirely clear by the time we got to wherever it had been – we motored along happily until our next Teddy check.

It wound up being only about 30 miles from our destination, but I thought it was important to check him on schedule. He was fine.

But he was also why we were where we were when we were – where I really, really, would rather not have been.

Back on the highway, a big, white SUV went racing by in the lane to the left. Then it cut me off, zooming for what he/she thought was an exit, and turned out to be a truck weigh station. He must have been going over 100 mph. When he saw it wasn’t an exit, zoomed back, cutting me off and racing down the highway – with three police cruisers now in pursuit.

I could see the police closing in and the SUV attempting to weave in and out of traffic, finally skidding out of control, hitting the center barrier, and spinning back across all three lanes of traffic. The three police cars surrounded it – stopped any which way on the highway.

Meanwhile, all the non-involved traffic (like me!) was trying to figure out which lane to be in, how slow we should be going, which lane we could creep by the debris, and how to let three lanes condense into one shoulder-creeping line without anyone else being smushed.

I saw one of the officers grab the SUV driver’s door open – but I couldn’t see anything inside other than the side air bag had deployed.

Much too much excitement – and it was all Teddy’s fault.

Torque the Terrible

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sweetTorqueI don’t know whether it’s the change in the weather (a bit warmer), the light (a bit sunnier), his age (almost 16 months now), or what – but Torque, my wonderful, sweet, easy-going boy is turning into a bit of a whirling dervish with an attitude.

Yesterday our friend Alisha and her French Bulldog Moe came for a play date. Moe was good, mellow, and entirely appropriate. Torque went lunging to bite his ears. (He’s an ear-biter from way back, thought we had it under control.) Moe objected – rightfully so. They reached a truce, but never really played.

On Saturday mornings here at the shop there are a couple of obedience classes. If there’s time at the end of class, the instructor usually lets the dogs play, and invites Torque to join in. I was a bit reluctant, based on yesterday’s experience, but since the other two dogs involved are sweet, pit-bull-mix sisters, I thought they’d be safe from “Torque the Terrible.”

Fortunately, they were! The three of them had a grand time chasing each other around and playing. And Torque responded immediately when I called him to me (recall practice!). Then, when the pibbles and their people were leaving, they told me Torque is the only dog to date to stand up to their style of play. A bit much for most other dogs.

No surprise – Torque is, too.

Peace reigns

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How do all your dogs get along?

Booker, Teddy and Torque

Booker, Teddy and Torque

It’s a question we hear a lot – between Fran and me, there are four dogs around; her Boston Terrier Booker and Brussels Griffon Tango, and my French Bulldogs Teddy and Torque.

The truth is – they get along great, for the most part. Tango is the oldest and really enjoys pouncing on Torque, growling and, apparently, biting him. Tango doesn’t actually have many teeth, so Torque thinks it’s pretty funny and bounces right back for more.

Torque likes to chew on ears (both human and canine), which the other dogs find annoying and let him know. He’s also the youngest, most easy-going of the bunch, and least likely to sulk or take anything to heart.

Teddy is kind of a cuddly blob. He doesn’t instigate any mischief, but is the object of both Booker and Torque’s teasing play – they’re always trying to get Teddy to join in the fun.

Booker is the most active dog in the house – which makes sense, because he’s a Boston Terrier. If you want a couch potato – this is not your breed. He’s also sweet and playful and incredibly soft – if you can get him to sit still long enough to be petted.

We haven’t (knock wood) had any serious battles among this crew – but that doesn’t mean we’ve always been immune. Many years ago we had a couple of male dogs that would, on rare occasions, get into real, serious spats. Fran made the mistake one time of reaching in and trying to pull them apart. A couple of stitches were her reward.

Ever since then, we’ve had a “puppy battle protocol” which we actually practice, just like fire drills. When you hear a dog fight, raise your hands over your head, wave them around frantically, scream like a banshee and run in the opposite direction.

It astonishes the dogs so much they break off what they’re doing and follow to see what the heck you’re up to. Works every time.