MUNGO EATS Latin America

It is time for an update on Sargon the Great.  He has learned a few new skills this week.  The first one is that he now sits and waits for his food to be put in the bowl and continues to wait until he it told “okay”.  This is a huge improvement from when he would dive into the bowl as you were pouring, as this often resulted in kibble being scattered around the bowl and on his head.  It is VERY difficult for him to stay until he hears the key word, but he is doing it.  He spends a considerable amount of time trying to convince me, or anyone that will listen, that he is STARVING.  He likes to sit in front of the pantry door and give me this hang-dog look.  Good thing I know a thing or two about puppies!

He also learned how to go down the stairs this week.  He learned how to ascend the stairs a few weeks ago, but he would often get stranded at the top of the flight, not really sure how to get down.  Now as long as he concentrates and takes it slow, he can descend the whole flight of stairs.  If he does not concentrate or tries to go quickly, things can go awry.  The other day, he heard the door bell ring and “rushed” down the stairs.  He ended up going down half the flight head first, on his back…oops!!  He still bounced up when he hit the landing and raced off to the door, thank goodness.  Slow and steady, small hound, slow and steady.

Also this week something happened to his right ear.  I am not sure if his ear is just going through a “stage”, of whether his right ear will start to “airplane”, but I am NOT liking it.  If you look at his picture, you will see that his left ear is perfect, but his right ear is…NOT!

For you “not-dog” people out there, let me tell you about ears.  There is a huge amount of hoopla, mythology, and craziness that goes into making sure that dogs ears are “right”.  For instance, there are dogs that are supposed to have “prick” ears, which are ears that stand straight up, like a German Shepherd.  If you own a breed with this type of ear, you are likely told not to touch or play with the dog’s ear, because if you do, they may not prick properly.  Sometimes ears are taped up together, or with sticks in them to try to encourage the standing up form.  Some breeds have tipped ears, like Shelties, which are basically prick ears, that have the very point “tipped” down.  If you own a dog with tipped ears, chances are someone has told you to glue the tips of the ears down to the main part of the ear to get this tipped look.  I actually know of someone who asked their vet to cut  the cartilage in their dog’s ears so that they would tip.  Finally if you have a dog with hangly-dangly ears like my hound, you probably have heard of someone taping washers or weights to the bottom of the ears to make sure the hang downwards and don’t airplane (which is when the ears stick out to the side).  I will be honest with you, I have never really thought that any of these remedies help at all.  I am pretty sure that ears will do whatever they want to do and no amount of taping, playing, or weighting, is going to do much difference (I guess surgery might, but that is cheating).  I know there are many people that will disagree with me, but that is what I think.  And, I will admit, that I have always kind of giggled at people that worried so much about what their dog’s ears looked like.  Does it really matter??  Never would I have thought that I would have become one of the “ear obsessed”.  But as I look at Sargon and I see that crazy ear winging out to the side, I have to say I am having a hard time focusing on anything else.  I am constantly refolding his ear so that it sits “properly”.  This of course, lasts about 2 seconds, because as soon as he moves a miniscule amount, the ear “refolds” the way it wants and is once again “unproper”!!!  Am I going to tape a weight to his ear…no!  Can’t jump on THAT crazy train, but maybe… maybe you could all join me in keeping your fingers crossed that one day Sargon will again have two “proper” ears!!  (Wow…I am NUTS)!