Pastimes
My Bodacion was a 2 month old female when I found her at a local dog pound. My fiancée and I fell in love with her at first sight and adopted her that day. She is a highly entergetic pooch, but is more than happy to cuddle up with you anytime, day or night, and won’t leave your side if she has the choice. Extremely loyal, especially to those who show her more attention. She lived with me the first month after her adoption, while she was recovering from her spaying. After that, she moved to Michigan with my fiancée and lived with her for 5 months. I assumed she wouldn’t remember me after 5 months apart. Apparently I showed her enough affection that she did, because when I finally went to move my fiancée and Zeni from Michigan to my hometown, my little girl couldn’t contain herself and jumped all over me for 15 minutes before she calmed down. My fiancée claimed she never showed anyone the slightest interest, even people she knew and was around often would only get a minor greeting from the dog. Even now, after having the dog and my fiancée home for 2 weeks now, Zeni has already chosen me, the guy she’s only lived with for one month, over my fiancée who she lived with for 5. My fiancée treats her just fine, but doesn’t interact with her as much as I do and it heavily influences who Zeni runs too when we come home, whose side of the bed she sleeps on the floor next to, who she obeys commands from, etc. She is very intelligent, and at 2 months old after just an hour of training had already mastered the basic “sit, stay, lay down” and had house-training figured out quickly as well. Even while dealing with the spay recovery, she still had intense energy and loved to play. It took all of my constant supervision to ensure she didn’t exert herself and rip her sutures open. I feel if I had given her the choice to run as she wanted to, she would have had serious issues. She can NOT be left alone indoors, as she will destroy EVERYTHING. She knows she’s not supposed to, but puppies with that high energy just can’t help it. Once I got home and found the house destroyed (the little escape artist managed to somehow open the pocket door to the kitchen I had her locked in while I ran to the store) and all I did was stand in the middle of the destroyed living room, get down next to her and point a finger at her, inches from her nose and sternly tell her no, bad dog. I didn’t tell, I didn’t hit her, I simply brought her next to whatever she had ruined, showed it to her and gave her a tap on the snout. Her body language was a dead giveaway that she knew instantly she was in trouble. Head down, avoiding my eyes, and when I started cleaning up the messes she had made she followed me around, head still down, a sad, slow walk. Since than I’ve started leaving her outside during the day if the weather is nice, with the teaching aid of a shock collar. A nice rig I picked up at tractor supply, that runs off a radius up to 90 foot from a tower you set up in your house. It has 6 levels of intensity for your dogs “stubbornness” level. I left it on the lowest setting and went for a walk with her to the boundary of the range. The collar beeps 5 times quickly, and gives one small shock. She only needed one shock to learn that beeping=bad. After that, she wore the collar until she learned the parameter of the yard (never being shocked again, just moving back to the house when she heard the beep) and now she doesn’t even need the collar. I can go outside, leave the gate open, and walk outside the boundary and she sits down and waits for me, just feet from the edge. I’m convinced she KNOWS she can go outside without the collar on, but she also knows that the boundary is the boundary and will not leave it unless I were to carry her. She is pleasant to all people she meets, even strangers get a warm greeting. She rarely barks, and is great with people. The only time I’ve had concern is when I realized after watching her for awhile with young kids, I noticed she seems scared of children. When a group of 3 girls, ages 4-7 tried playing with her and petting her she would run away and hide, or run to me. I assumed she was just not in the mood for attention. But than a week later my 3 year old niece wanted to pet her and she did it again, came and jumped in my lap on the chair and started shaking. I held her to my and spoke to her to calm her down while my niece came closer to pet her. The dog never raised her hair or ears or bared her teeth or even tensed a muscle, but she did let out a long, low growl at my niece. Since than I’ve decided not to let her around children until I figure out why she’s so scared of them, I don’t know if she had a bad experience in Michigan or what happened, but it is slightly concerning, though I don’t think she would attack a child. I feel like her growl was out of nervousness or discomfort, not aggression or a warning. She was pure white, with black ears when I got her at 2 months. Now at 8 months, she is flecked with black spots. Not nearly as much as a full Dalmatian, but enough to know her bloodlines. She has the body of a collie, the face and ears of a collie, but the legs and black eyes of a Dalmatian. Her fur is in the middle. It’s longer than a Dalmatians fur, but shorter than most any collie I’ve seen. And it’s not as dense as a collie, but more than a Dalmatian. Whoever had her when she was born docked her tail, and although her stub is growing as she does, she still doesn’t have much of a tail. When she’s happy, the whole back half of her body wiggles back and forth, so it’s still easy to tell when she’s excited, even without a tail to see wagging. The vet ruled her healthy, good circulation and respiratory, no problems with her health. I have noticed she has dreams. A lot. Every night she will pant, or groan in her sleep. Just for a few minutes. Or else her paws will all twitch and her lips will curl, or she’ll just start breathing heavily and shaking. It worried me skit at first, but after watching some videos I took my vet said it’s nothing to worry about. At the end of the day, she’s exactly what you would expect from a bodacion. She has more of a collie’s mentality and nature, and her body is a mixture of the two. She is loyal, energetic, highly intelligent, friendly, and loves to please people. Collies and Dalmatians are both great dog breeds, and a hybrid of the two is no exception. I don’t know what I would do without my little Zeni.
6 years, 4 months ago