Some firsts

Today was Dieter's first 80-degree day. He was born in November, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe in asserting he's never experienced an outside temperature this high. He seems to think it's ok, but he's glad his humans bring a bowl of water outside when we play frisbee.

There have been plenty of firsts for me, too. Since Dieter is my first dog, I'm still learning. And worrying (I can't help it: I'm my father's daughter). And asking what I hope aren't dumb questions at class. Tonight I asked: "How do I know what is normal panting and what could be a sign that my dog is overheated?"

Turns out it wasn't a stupid question, and they spent a lot of time discussing it. What do I know? With cats, the only time I ever saw them panting was during the horrible heatwave in the Summer of 1995. I was living in an un-airconditioned apartment on the North side of Chicago, and Lucy and Brilly were walking around the apartment, panting. Yeah, that's not normal. What I was told to do in that case was lay wet towels on the tile floor in the bathroom and aim a box fan at the towels. Lucy and Brilly both sat on the wet towels; it cooled them down and they stopped panting. Oh, and Tarquin pants sometimes at the vet--he's been known to get a bit nervous there.

Pant, pant.

So for dogs, they said to look at the width of the dog's tongue. And the color of it. If the tongue seems a little bit wider than usual, it could mean that Fido is getting overheated. And if the tongue seems pale, that's a bad sign too. But the worst sign that you have an overheated dog on your hands is if the dog's tongue is wide and curls up at the tip. Both Dieter and the new kid in the class--a retriever--seemed to be potentially too warm. We had been practicing walking outside, on pavement, so they were glad to come inside and have a nice, cool drink of water.

Another pointer they gave us was to always have your car keys on you--don't set them inside the car while you're getting the dog situated. They told a scary story of a woman who was loading up her dog after a Narnia class. She put her purse and the dog in the car. As she walked around to get in, the dog hit the lock button and she couldn't get in. It was a 95-degree day, and in just a matter of minutes they could tell the dog was getting overheated. Luckily there were locksmiths next door and they got the car open, and the dog was ok after they brought it inside and cooled it off with water. 


Some other recent firsts for Dieter:

• He's mesmerized by the pair of Mallard ducks who hang out in our back yard. We get the ducks every year--probably not the same ones after all these years, but the word must be out that I put out cracked corn. Their names are Heathcliff and Honoria, and Dieter thinks they're wonderful when they take off and fly out of the yard. They make these great quacking sounds and their wings make a fantastic whistling sound. Oh, and the fact that they fly is super special.
• He went to visit a training class (we want to enroll him in some additional training courses--we hope if he isn't a Mensa dog that he will at least be well mannered and well educated) at Topline German Shepherd Dog Club of Illinois, and he was the smallest dog there. At Narnia, he's been the biggest kid in the class, but yesterday at Topline, they were calling him a baby. They predict he'll weigh about 80 pounds, full grown. His human mom thinks that's plenty big enough--we're not trying to win friends and influence people by having the biggest dog East of the Mississippi.

Secretly, I think his human dad is a bit sad to learn that his son might be--gasp--normal. And not the Incredible Dog Hulk.

Stay tuned for more Dieter firsts. I'm sure there'll be plenty.