Blake

 

Taken at the shelter, not a great photo. He was shorn like a Giant Schnauzer, but with fringes on his ears like a Briard. At 19 months, he is probably at the low point of his life so far as beauty goes. But his character is quite beautiful.

How the Dog "Blake" got His Name

Listen and attend, O Best Beloveds, and you shall learn how the dog "Blake" got his name.

All of this transpired, O Best Beloveds, when the world was no longer young -- and neither was I, O Best Beloveds, neither was I.

One bright and upright morning as Old Woman (for that is myself O Best Beloveds) was sitting on the porch of her delapidated wooden cave substitute drinking that coffee which is a gift of the Goddess from the Beginning of the World, surrounded by the lazy lounging pack of Neotenous Wolflings of variety Bouvier and thinking about taking a walk down to the great greasy grey South Fork Creeklet of the Putah (a name I will not translate for you because you are too young to know about such things), the Box of the Voice from a Distance began to ring. It was the Director of the Place of Incarceration of Innocent Animals calling to tell me that there was a young Neotenous Wolfling of variety Bouvier and could I pretty please come bail him out. His name , she said, was "Blake".

And indeed he was a handsome and friendly Neotenous Wolfling, as pleasant as that first ever Neotenous Wolfling, also called Wild Dog, who was lured by First Woman's first Singing Magic to move into her cave and become humankind's First Friend. Surely you will recall this story of the time of the Beginning of the World , O Best Beloveds, because my cousin Rudyard told it to you so charmingly.

But although the Director had given his name as Blake, the name given on his Documents ( and we know O Best Beloveds how potent is the power of Documents !) was given as "Winston". When I tried to discover his True Name by addressing him , oh most perfectly politely, by each of these names, he responded to each with no more heed than would the Cat Who Walks by Himself respond if called by his own genuine really truely True Name.

And so I decided to call him Blake, simply because it was a monosyllabic name and we all know that it is better to use a monosyllabic name unless of course you are the hairless hirsute Hippopotamus or the endlessly enquiring Elephant's Child. Besides "Winston" always reminds me of Winston Churchill , which always reminds me of the drastically deformed and respiratorily restricted oh so exaggeratedly neotenous Bulldog and the evn more pathetically periniciously paedomorphic Pug.

So Blake came to live with me and the rest of the pack in our delapidated wooden cave substitute not far from the banks of the great greasy grey South Fork Creeklet of the Putah (a name I will not translate for you because you are too young to know about such things) , and he soon learned to respond joyfully to the name Blake, which is certainly a most marvelously monosyllabic name.

Today, while sitting on the porch of my delapidated wooden cave substitute drinking that coffee which is a gift of the Goddess from the Beginning of the World, surrounded by the lazy lounging pack of Neotenous Wolflings of variety Bouvier and thinking about taking a walk down to the great greasy grey South Fork Creeklet of the Putah (a name I will not translate for you because you are too young to know about such things), by sudden and surprising illumination I discovered the True Source of Blake's name. He is named for William Blake. Surely you remember William Blake, O Best Beloveds. The man who could not spell "Tiger" but who could see the World in a grain of sand and Heaven in a wild flower.

So that, O Best Beloveds, is how the dog Blake got his Name. And if you don't believe me, why you can go ask the Crocodile what he would like for dinner.

UPDATE (6/28/06) :

Blake was rescued from my local Animal Control on 6/13/06. This (I later learned from his vet records) was the second time that his owner had dropped him off there. The previous time he changed his mind after 4 days, came back for Blake (whom he called Winston), then later complained that the dog had gotten kennel cough while at the shelter. This time , the Director phoned me to come get the dog right away, so the owner could not change his mind again. The envelope in the Night Deposit box included the dog's sales contract and pedigrees of his parents. He comes from a well known large scale breeder in the northeastern U.S. who has the reputation of being a puppy mill and breeding only with an eye to profit, and her contract certainly shows that all she cares about is getting and keeping money. The shelter was able to obtain the dog's previous veterinary records , which don't show much besides his Rabies vaccination, his neuter, and the kennel cough episode.

Blake is 19 months old, neutered male, tall and leggy, cropped and docked, black Bouvier. He is current on shots and is now on heartworm prevention.

In the short time I have had him , he has proven to be extremely trainable and willing to please. Currently he has a reasonably good response to Sit, Down, and Come, and he walks nicely on loose leash on a halter. He crates willingly and reamins crated calmly for periods of a couple of hours. Although his previous owner complained that he was a destructive chewer, in my home he has not been so and indeed does not have much interest in any of a variety of chew toys. He is a bit nervous in car rides, but I think he will get over it with more experience. He gets along well with my other dogs, 2 males and 2 females, and is playful with those who are willing to play.

Today at my vets (for his heartworm test and her opinion of his foot from which I'd removed a foxtail, he showed a lot of interest in my vet's two office cats , but he was readily controllable and did not show any kind of predatory intensity. So it seems that he could potentially learn to live with a cat if the owners did enough work with him ; and one good whack accross the nose from the cat would probably speed the learning process.

He seems to be friendly with people generally and he likes to be petted. Though he was initially a bit afraid (barking and backing up) of one visitor who is physically large and imposing, a few treats and being asked to do his obedience routeins by the stranger overcame that initial reaction completely. I'd suggest that visitors to his adoptive home be supplied with a few treats and instructions on how to signal him for Sit and Down.

He was fine on his first visit to the dog park, though he spent more time introducing himself to people and hanging out with them than he did in playing with dogs. Still a few dogs seemed to say the magic words to get him into a chase game. At home he does chase and wrestle games with my own dogs. I hope to get in another dog park visit one of these evenings.

He handled his first summer night Farmer's Market very well. Not at all afraid of anything , but curious and eager to check everything out. This evening Market is a huge crowd of people walking and lying about on the ground, with music playing (live band) and half a dozen inflated children's "bounce house" and "slider".

Although his former owner had claimed that Blake was a "destructive dog" and "ate his eyeglasses, canned goods, utensels, steering wheel and dashboard", I have seen absolutely no inappropriate chewing in my home. Of course I do use some sense about what kinds of things I leave in the reach of dogs. Blake does not even seem very "into" any of the variety of chew toys I keep available, though he does like to run after and pick up any toy that is thrown for him, especially if it bounces. He likes to pick up balls, Kong, Orka Jack, Pet Vantage K-9 Cleaner. I say "pick up" rather than retrieve, because he doesn't automatically bring any item back to me. But the bring back part isn't all that hard to teach.

Blake is an exceptionally nice dog. He will do very well with an experienced owner who is committed to doing basic training. He might do extremely well in one or more dog sports. I think he would be a natural for Agility and for Rally Obedience. He might be worth trying for Herding and for Tracking. In any case, he has the makings of an excellent house-dog and family companion. He's energetic on walks but laid-back in the house. He is pretty mellow for a dog his age. He is a wonderful dog but he learns quickly, so he needs someone smart enough and aware enough to see to it he learns desireable behaviors rather than undesirable ones.

Blake is being fostered by me, Pam Green. If you are an experienced Bouv (or other working / herding breeds) person and are committed to training your adopted dog, you can contact me at (530) 756-2997 between 10 am and 5 pm California time. I do not intend to do any kind of long distance placement with this dog. Also I will wait until after 4th of July to let him move to a new home, since I can count on my own home to be far from the fireworks and therefore a safe place for him. Some dogs don't react well to the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air.

UPADATE 8/24/06 : Blake was adopted a month ago.

On Aug 22, his adopter wrote :

I do apologize for not having been back in touch sooner. Life has continued to be full and now with a new dog, fuller.
I am in love. he has evolved over the last 3 weeks and the changes have been dramatic. I could not be more pleased although some days I am a bit less pleased than others.
Where to start. Well for starters we decided to change his name to Luke. one of my dearest friends has a son named Blake and she was not very enthusiastic about our having a big, black dog with the same title. He is their only son, yada, yada, yada. So he is now Blake known as Luke. I still on occasion revert back to Blake which is a great name for a Bouvier one one you should definitely use again. He did not seem to mind the change and readjusted quickly.
He is in obedience school in Moss Landing. The woman is a vet in Aptos who teaches very advance levels of obedience and I was told is the one involved with the local police forces who have dogs. She is gentle, firm and consistent. Meredith {her daughter} baby-sat two weekends ago when the classes began so took him for a private class with Jan. This weekend I did just the group beginner class and although he was not as crisp as at home he was definitely not out of his league. One poor dog seems to have been deprived of a bit of oxygen at birth but the other dog was more or less at the same level as Luke. I've decided to take an hour of private lessons each week for a while as I think Luke has real potential and he is a quick learner. He has days when he is less responsive and I need to get beyond his being 'opinionated' in his response to commands. I'm not impatient but i am not interested in a dog who NEVER stops testing the limits.
Food was a real issue. He was always prowling and in the trash [which we now empty immediately] or stealing from the counters [which never has food left out any more]. He still steals whenever possible but we are getting more tuned in to randomly left out food so there does not have to be constant, ongoing confrontations over it. I have also changed his meals to 3 times a day. 2 cups in am, 1 cup at my lunch time, and 1 cup at my dinner time. He also has abundant treats throughout the day with commands. He has stopped the incessant prowling but I did catch him with a nice bar of soap this morning that he snagged from my bathroom.
I discovered a contained beach in Santa Cruz which is off leash/dog friendly from 4-6pm each day. I was able to take him 3 times last week and I'm continuing to attempt to make time each day to go. He is the star of the waves as far as I can tell but it could just be the stars in my eyes. He never leaves a certain radius around me, comes when called immediately and although he loves a good running romp with another dog he is not aggressive or assertive--he is perfect. Lucy {daughter's terrier} on the other hand is an embarrassing alpha wench. He loves the water and it was lovely to watch the first time he got caught by a wave. He didn't seem to know what had happened. One minute he was just running with the other dogs the next he was soaking wet from an incoming wave. He actually seemed to hoot with glee once he realized he was safe.
Well, Pam, with that I need to get up and stain a chair. again, I cannot tell you how happy I am that Luke is now here with me.

And on Aug 31, she writes :

Well, Luke is progressing quite well. I'm in love.
We continue to to go to 'dog beach' about every other day and Luke loves the romp and the water. I am trying to use the outing to begin exercising myself and so I walk from one end of the beach to the other. Luke stays with me and runs with whom ever is in our vicinity. Lucy definitely tends to display herding behavior but Luke does not. In fact, he prefers to be the 'chaisie' vs the chaser. I did witness a behavior yesterday which was out of the norm for Luke~ he barked at a woman. He does tend to bark when people come to the door or walk by the house when he is on the porch but never have I seen him bark randomly at someone in public.
I was sitting at that moment watching Luke romp and observed the interaction and I still can not fathom what it was all about. The woman tends to walk back and forth as I do and she did not make any strange movements or do anything I could perceive as remotely strange. She is kind and gentle with her dog and any dog that comes up to her. Tthe first time he barked at her I did not respond and I thought he must have been startled but then he did it a second time. I got up promptly and put him on leash telling him 'no bark'. Probably not very effective for Luke but I wanted to display to the woman and anyone watching that the behavior was not acceptable to me. I was getting ready to leave anyway so once I had him on leash I left. Again, he probably did not put the two actions together.
The barking behavior is a complicated one for me personally. On the one hand i want Luke to be watchful and protective but on the other hand I do not want him barking at people I accept as 'ok' being at my door or being invited into my home. He tends to settle quickly but given that he is large, black and imposing i would like to have more control and have Luke be more discerning. It may be a maturity issue.
The 'Gentle Leader' is a god send! He is very responsive and is progressing with his heeling very well. Without the 'gentle lead' I was always barely in control and he knew it and pushed the envelope. He downs and stays nicely and allows you to walk up to and over without breaking and he comes directly. [in fact, he comes immediately off leash very well~99% of the time when we are on the land.] In his dog class he is not tempted by the other dogs and settles quickly once the initial excitement of the long ride is over and class begins.
His car manners are improving. He still paces but not not manically. The whining seems to start when he gets a whiff of the salt water on beach days so I do not tend to reprimand him then but other times I have and do. The ride on saturdays to the training class is about 40 minutes and by the end he he is saturated. each week though sees him less and less frenetic and whiney on that trip.
He is going in to be groomed tomorrow and I am going to call and make an appointment for him next week at the vet as I have insurance for him and that is when it kicks in.

 
Luke (the canine formerly known as Blake) in the redwoods at his new home.