It was not fun combing through Hero's poop, looking for bits of Nylabone. I never did find the Nylabone. No idea what happened to them. They could not have been digested, according to the vet and the makers. They were all amazed that Hero had managed to actually chew it it to pieces. Among thousands or more Nylabones sold all over the place, Hero managed that dubious achievement.
Hero was clearly especially intelligent because of how fast he went through all of his basic obedience training. I believe he did it in about two weeks when still less than three months of age.
He managed to learn many more things very fast. He became an excellent cat fight referee and broke them up before anything got very serious. Things became very peaceful inside our little household. In spite of the cat fight referee duties, most of the cats loved Hero and often rubbed against him and curled up to sleep against him.
The town we lived in had very hot summertime temperatures, reaching as high as 126F. I could not afford air conditioning there, so even the cats were panting by the end of the day. I was especially worried about the cats having heat stroke, because our apartment had a garage door that faced west and it was metal painted a dark color. It got extremely hot in the garage, which transferred heat to the apartment as well. The apartment often got hotter than it was outside.
I found and invented things to cool the place off some, but it was still very hot. The afternoons were the worst because of the garage door. There would usually be a cool breeze in the late afternoon that came towards the garage door. I wanted to put the cats in their carriers under the opened edge of the garage door so they could cool off in the breeze.
The neighborhood was not a "good" one so I had not been able to put the cats out there in the breeze for fear someone would hurt or even kill them and steal from my garage. I could not stay there the whole time, and it would not have been any guarantee of safety for either my cats or from theft anyway.
I decided to try to see whether Hero would guard my cats and garage. I tried putting the cat carriers under the shade of the partly open garage door and tying Hero so he could reach the whole area. Hero was protective of my cats when I called them, "Babies". I told him to watch the Babies and to guard the Babies. I put a chair where I could watch Hero, the cats, and the garage door without being seen.
Whenever anyone came near the garage door, Hero would stand up, bare his teeth, and get between the intruder and the cats under the garage door. He hackled up all the fur in a ridge from his neck all the way down his back. The fur on his tail even stuck out. He still looked kind of strange due to his fur having been cut off of most of him. People were not even sure he was a dog. He was not that large yet, but managed to look very menacing anyway. Even ferocious gang members would often cross to the other side of the street when they saw him guarding the Babies.
Hero and I worked on his recognition of the space he needed to guard. He started by not letting anyone get out of a parked car for about a whole block. He didn't think anyone should use the sidewalk on our side of the street either and even wanted to claim most of the street as well. We got it down to the driveway, yard, and any closer towards the garage door. That way Hero stopped snarling and growling at people just walking by on the sidewalk or parking their cars. It took a little longer for people to stop being nervous about using the sidewalk on our side of the street.
More about Hero later.
Hero was clearly especially intelligent because of how fast he went through all of his basic obedience training. I believe he did it in about two weeks when still less than three months of age.
He managed to learn many more things very fast. He became an excellent cat fight referee and broke them up before anything got very serious. Things became very peaceful inside our little household. In spite of the cat fight referee duties, most of the cats loved Hero and often rubbed against him and curled up to sleep against him.
The town we lived in had very hot summertime temperatures, reaching as high as 126F. I could not afford air conditioning there, so even the cats were panting by the end of the day. I was especially worried about the cats having heat stroke, because our apartment had a garage door that faced west and it was metal painted a dark color. It got extremely hot in the garage, which transferred heat to the apartment as well. The apartment often got hotter than it was outside.
I found and invented things to cool the place off some, but it was still very hot. The afternoons were the worst because of the garage door. There would usually be a cool breeze in the late afternoon that came towards the garage door. I wanted to put the cats in their carriers under the opened edge of the garage door so they could cool off in the breeze.
The neighborhood was not a "good" one so I had not been able to put the cats out there in the breeze for fear someone would hurt or even kill them and steal from my garage. I could not stay there the whole time, and it would not have been any guarantee of safety for either my cats or from theft anyway.
I decided to try to see whether Hero would guard my cats and garage. I tried putting the cat carriers under the shade of the partly open garage door and tying Hero so he could reach the whole area. Hero was protective of my cats when I called them, "Babies". I told him to watch the Babies and to guard the Babies. I put a chair where I could watch Hero, the cats, and the garage door without being seen.
Whenever anyone came near the garage door, Hero would stand up, bare his teeth, and get between the intruder and the cats under the garage door. He hackled up all the fur in a ridge from his neck all the way down his back. The fur on his tail even stuck out. He still looked kind of strange due to his fur having been cut off of most of him. People were not even sure he was a dog. He was not that large yet, but managed to look very menacing anyway. Even ferocious gang members would often cross to the other side of the street when they saw him guarding the Babies.
Hero and I worked on his recognition of the space he needed to guard. He started by not letting anyone get out of a parked car for about a whole block. He didn't think anyone should use the sidewalk on our side of the street either and even wanted to claim most of the street as well. We got it down to the driveway, yard, and any closer towards the garage door. That way Hero stopped snarling and growling at people just walking by on the sidewalk or parking their cars. It took a little longer for people to stop being nervous about using the sidewalk on our side of the street.
More about Hero later.
