Annoying Pet Traits
 

This has been driving me so incredibly nuts I just have to get it off my chest.

I have this wonderful 14-month old black Lab. Wonderful, except when he takes a drink of water. See, he doesn't so much drink it as move it. He is a canine aquaduct, transporting water all over my kitchen. Combined with the dog hair he won't stop shedding, he is creating this awful, muckish mess over which I am slowly going insane.

And the kicker is that I have this Pergo floor (my entire kitchen is a wonderfully tacky, laminate wonder--the cabinets alone are notable) and this stupid dog is warping it.

But that's not all. I am becoming tired of scratching this dog's ears. Yes, yes, scratching a dog's ears sounds innocent enough, but you see, this dog likes the inside of his ears scratched.

I don't know how it started. One day I guess I reached inside his cute, floppy ears and gave a little scratch. I was unprepared for the reaction I got.

I don't know if any of you have ever, truly made another organism very, very happy, but this scratch elicited a low, gutteral growly-moan of extreme contentedness from this animal. Sort of the dog equivalent of, "Ican'tbelievethisishappeningtomepleasedon'tstop!"

But now it's gotten bad. Now this damn dog comes over to me and demands to be scratched in his ears, ever deeper. It feels perfectly gross to do this and I nearly feel like I'm gonna hurl every time I do it. However I am convinced that, besides taking rides in the car, it is the single most wonderful thing that happens to him in his life. I can't stop. I don't want to hurt his little doggie feelings.

I'm being driven insane, and my dog is at the wheel.

Multiply your situation by 5, and you have matched my situation. :D
Smile, scratch his ears, and keep an old towel handy to clean up the floor after drinks.

I have two lab-ish types. One has the hole in the lip issue as well. One is very dainty about his water consumption and if he spills, is pretty good about cleaning it up. Almost OCD about it, but that's another tale.
The most annoying habit of the dribble dog (besides the dribbling) is that he likes rocks. Big rocks. We have a farmers wall hidden in the underbrush in our backyard which he is busily dismantling and redistributing all over the yard. Sometimes we will take the boys with us on a trip up the White Mountains in NH. A favorite doggy swim spot is at teh Swift River where this dog will also do his level best to relieve the river of its bed of rock.
Of course, over the 7 or 8 years he has been practicing this hobby, he has managed to wear his canines down a bit.

My dog likes big branches. Biiig branches. I've been told that a full-grown lab can pull 180 pounds. Whenever a largish branch falls off a tree in a thunderstorm, there my dog goes, dragging it all over the yard.

Fortunately for my sanity, this does not annoy me. Warping my pretty plastic floor, however, does.

And I can't say anything bad about him, because a) the kids love him to death; b) he is in every other respect a Wonder Dog; and c) I get reprimands from my wife.

Andy

How about cats?
 

We cat people have learned never to get within 5 feet of our pet when wearing black! I've made the mistake of picking up and stroking my cat while wearing a nice, new black t-shirt. You know how there are 101 uses for duct tape? In my household, the "one" is removing feline hair! ;-)

David

We have a cat as well. She's not so bad, although she has a tendency to jump out at our legs when we walk past her. Wearing shorts can be hazardous.

Oh, hold it--one more annoying thing about her. Round about three a.m., she tends to wake up and demand attention. She does this by nipping at our fingers. Now you'd think affectionate behavior of this sort from a cat would be charming--but not in the middle of the night. Downstairs she goes, with the door closed.

We do the same with our feline friend. It may not sound nice to those of you who don't own a cat, but they're not so lovable when they're stomping down the hall in the wee hours of the night, doing their impression of a galloping horse!

David

LOL
 

We have three cats.

one of them (baby kitty) insists on sleeping on our pillows at night. right above our heads against the wall. we need a headboard with a shelf. She also likes to wake one of us up early in the morning by sitting on your chest, putting her nose to yours, and going "MEOW" as loud as she can.

Not as annoying as it is cute: Tinker apparently likes the light from my girlfriend's eMac. After it goes to sleep at night, she hops up on the desk, bats at the keyboard until it comes back on, noses the screen some, then lays down. If it goes to sleep before she does, she wakes it up again. Talk about an expensive night light.

Pictures and movies at (time to test full .Mac account limitations):
tinker & friends
tinker too
baby kitty playing

And yes, my cats are my kids. :)

Re: LOL
 

I've got 6 cats to go with the 5 dogs.

I had a couple of cats who did that. They'd chase each other up and down the hallway and living room of our apartment in NYC.

One late night, we locked ourselves out and spent the night in our neighbor's apartment (don't let anyone tell you New Yorkers aren't nice--they're the nicest folks I've ever met). Sure enough, long about three in the morning we were awakened by this incredible cat thunder.

Nobody should be allowed to truly see themselves from another's perspective. Living your life in embarrassment is no way to live.

Andy

oh man having to scratch the inside of the dog's ears?
haha! that i has to get annoying really really quick.
i am so very glad i have only a cat.
who does not even need attention. she is a silly cat, does not even sit on people, just next to them. like a person.
Yoni from horsesring

We have two cats. One (ginger tom) used to be a right little psycho when he was younger. Thankfully he's mellowed in his old age. He would get this crazy look in his eyes then pounce on you and wrap himself around your arm or leg like he was trying to bring down a buffalo.

I have a cat from the rescue centre... she's a bit cwazy..

She will run up the stairs at full speed into the bedroom, fluff herself up so she looks as big and as scary as possible and will let out a single meeoow at the mirrored wardrobe doors before disappearing down the stairs as quickly as she came up...

it has me and the gf in fits of laughter :)

Sounds like you have a ghost in the wardrobe!:eek::D

I have a cat that will sneak up behind people and bite them whenever they least expect it. He is a beautiful cat, and he doesn't bite hard enough to really inflict much damage,(more like a friendly nip than an actual bite) but he does it just hard enough to get people's attention.

First of all, let me say that I love your James Harriot style of writing. For a moment there I thought I was reading about Tristan.

A few suggestions.

Try epoxying the water dish to one of those water heater drip pans. Your dog would have to stand in the pan to get to the water (keeping it from sliding) and the pan will catch any sloshing. (to minimize sliding, but one of those carpet anti-slip pads underneath)

As for the ear thing... ew... What I would do is pinch the outside of the ears and rub. This will give the sensation of being scratched inside. Also look to see if your dog has ear mites (it will look like dirt). Destroying the ear mites could save both of you some misery. If mites are not the problem, and your dog considers the above to be eargasmic interuptus, then try keeping something with a soft handle close by to use instead of your finger. Either that, or get a glove.

Me? I have a cat. Her only annoyance is all the other Toms in the neighborhood asking if she can come out and play in the wee hours of the morning! Worse yet, every rain creates a spray stink that is unbearable!

Yeah, ear rubs...I just fold the ear over and with my finger on the nice (relatively) clean outside wiggle it to give the sensation of scratching the outside. My wife loves it. ;)
No, really the cat loves it. She is also keen on the - sit sweetly in the corridor, and then just as I walk past, she swipes at my exposed calf and bites. She is also destroying our couch by scratching it - she knows she's not allowed to, but how do you stop them if you aren't there when they do it mostly?

Our dog's annoying trait is pulling used kleenex from the various little trashes around the house. And shredding them.

Fold his outer ear down over the opening, and then firmly massage his ears that way. My guess is he'll like it just as well, and you get to keep your fingers out of his ears.

Also, I've not met a (friendly) dog yet that doesn't like its back scratched right in front its tail, where it can't scratch itself.

A warped plastic floor is a small price to pay for a good dog. There are, however, floor materials available that are better suited for dogs.

I wonder in the 5.5 years since his original post, how Andrew, his dog, and his floor have been faring? :)