It was really early in the morning, you see, when the dogs informed us that they needed to go out. My turn to let them out, unfortunately, but afterwards the three of us agreed the hike back upstairs was too long, so we settled on the couch for a nap until the sun was properly up. Well, Kajol – a total snugglebunny – and I settled on the couch, and Panda slept on the cool floor next to us.
Panda Bear is the latest addition to our family, and, as an Alaskan Malamute, he tends to be a bit too warm to snuggle comfortably for that long indoors. He’s about two and a half years old, and another rescue dog – poor pup spent most of his life tied in a field with grass so high he couldn’t see out of it before Animal Cruelty rescued him. When he came to us he was twenty pounds underweight and didn’t know what a treat was or how to play with another dog. He’s still a bit of a failure with treats – he’s excited to get one, but just drops it afterwards for Kajol to eat. Kajol, however, has taught him to play like a champion at the only game she knows: wrestling. We often look out onto the deck to see Kajol’s head disappearing into Panda’s massive jaw, or him just calmly sitting on Kajol while she struggles to get free.
They’re a well-matched pair, despite being from such different breeds – and I suppose there’s a semi-corny lesson in there for all of us in an intercultural relationship, or, really, any mixed relationship where looks or personalities or abilities differ.
Panda’s main weakness – a general shyness and fear of new things and people, due to his poor socialization as a young dog – has never been a problem for Kajol. The first few times I went hiking with them poor Panda was scared silly of water crossings and rock scrambles, while Kajol is fearlessness personified while on the trail. He follows her lead there, and also when we go shopping at some of the dog-friendly stores in the area. It’d be hilarious to see a Malamute quaking in fear of a shopping cart at Petco, if it weren’t a sad reminder of of his history.
Panda’s strengths, though, are one’s we wouldn’t mind seeing Kajol emulate. He’s an incredibly chill dog – very easy-going and relaxed when he’s in familar surroundings. Kajol, on the other hand, still has puppy-brain, and has been known to clear the sofa and coffee table in one bound when excited. She’s starting to take her cues from him, though. Recently she jumped on Aditya in excitement and Panda growled in disapproval – and Kajol didn’t jump on Aditya for the following week. She also likes to stick close by him when out on walks.
As far as how our mixed relationship affects the dogs – well, it doesn’t, much. Aditya claims that they know more Bengali than I, which is patently false – I’m sure they’re just responding to the tone of his voice, not the words. *grin* We’re both on the same page as far as training is concerned, and we share the responsibilities of care and upkeep, like any modern couple with their pups.
I’ll admit to being a bit worried about training when Aditya’s parents came for a long visit – this was pre-Panda. But that’s another post.
6. January 2009 at 9:53 am
What an adorable post. My primary* childhood dogs were a Cairn Terrier (the same breed as Toto from the Wizard of Oz) and an Alaskan Malamute. They were BEST friends.
We are looking to get a dog in the next few years and I will be really upset if we do not get a husky. Manoj wants a lab. Bleh.
*Primary meaning the ones that we had the longest. My dad is a freak about dogs, so we have had just about everything, including more huskies and terriers.
7. January 2009 at 11:55 pm
What a great pic, Gori! And it’s awesome that you rescued Panda – he seems like a great dog, despite his understandable neuroses. It’s really good that you guys have Kajol to help him get socialized and learn what being a dog is really all about. I’m kind of hooked on watching The Dog Whisperer, and as Cesar says, it’s all about being a calm, assertive pack leader!
Ricky and I have talked about getting a dog one of these days, though I think we have somewhat different ideas about what constitutes a “real dog.” Me, I’m kind of a small girl, so I’d rather not have a dog that could potentially jump up on me and knock me over, thank you very much. My ideal dog would be either a Norfolk Terrier (soooooooo cute!) or a bulldog (I’ve known a couple in my day and they’re the sweetest dogs ever). But I have a feeling we might end up with some sort of German Shepherd-y kind of dog, if Ricky has his way.
8. January 2009 at 8:59 am
Cagey, my father has a golden lab, who is sweet – but they’re so high energy the first two years, and then they get fat really easily. Panda is our first venture into the northern breeds – combining a Husky with Kajol, whirlwind that she is, would probably result in house looking like it’d been destroyed by WWF fighters.
mocroidh, he’s not at the level of neurotic, thank goodness, just really, really unsocialized. If he was seriously troubled, or was fearful-aggressive, rather than just fearful, I don’t think we could handle him. As it is, the two dogs together easily outweigh me (I’m small too), and they’re pure muscle while I, well, am not.
If you’re looking to get the first dog that either of you have owned, I’d highly suggest looking for a three or four year old dog from a breed rescue organization in your area. By that age they tend to be a bit mellower, although they still have plenty of healthy years of life. Breed rescue organizations will be able to tell you whether that particular breed, with its particular needs & personality, will be suited for your lifestyle. Since the organizations tend to foster the dogs in households, rather than keeping them in kennels, they can normally tell you a great deal about the dog you’re looking to adopt.
As far as a big dog vs. a little dog goes, well, Aditya and I are partial to big dogs (obviously), but that’s because we like to go hiking and backpacking, and want our dogs to carry their fair share of the weight! I do think larger dogs are a little bit chiller though – as long as they’re trained, you wouldn’t need to have any worries about them jumping up on you.
Kajol at 60 pounds is a good size – I can still pick her up when she refuses to go into the car, for instance.
9. January 2009 at 8:09 am
You’re a good momma to these doggies. Bless your heart! I hope you live a long and happy, healthy, safe, comfortable, content, successful and satisfying life!! You deserve it all!
-Lee Harless
Blacksburg, Virginia
28. January 2009 at 3:57 pm
I'm not commeting on who knows more Bengali : ), but just smiling at remembering that animals too speak different languages, which we often forget as humans. On a trip to Brazil once we were at my sister-in-law's farm and she asked if I wanted to go horseback riding. I got on the horse, they handed me Lucca (my then 2 or 3 year old son who wanted to go too) and then left! In the US you would always be on a trail or with a leader or something, but here I was in the middle of Brazil, saying 'nice horsey' out loud to myself, only to remember that the horse doesn't speak English! Of course we were fine and enjoyed our adventure, but it's interesting how when you don't have language available (I do speak Portuguese, but have idea of proper “horse back riding language”) how easily body language and posture and things like that can come to the rescue to help with communication. I think we have a lot of tools available in cross-cultural communicaiton, but sometimes people get caught up in language and difference and forget. Animal instinct and a willingness to get along can sometimes trump all that.
28. January 2009 at 5:38 pm
My Indian father-in-law really liked watching the Dog Whisperer while he was visiting us in the States, despite the fact that he found Ceaser's accent difficult to understand. I think it was because the techniques of dealing with animals – and the way we communicate with them – is the same throughout the world. He thought Ceaser was brilliant, even when he didn't know what the heck he was saying. And, of course, the main point you're making is completely correct – a smile, for instance, gets the message across the world 'round.
26. October 2010 at 1:33 pm
Question: From what I’ve read so far, and I’ve read a lot in the past few days on the topic, it seems that is imperative to have a fenced in yard to bring up a Malamute. What do you say/think?
26. October 2010 at 2:57 pm
Well, I think it’s easier to have any dog if you have a fenced yard so that you can open the door to let them go out – and that goes double for puppies. With our two, it’s great to let them sun on the patio, or roam around in the yard, especially when they start wrestling with each other. Without a fenced yard, I wouldn’t let any dog hang outside unless I was right there too, or we had a ton of property well away from roads – there’s too much chance for even a well-trained dog to see something interesting, walk towards it, and end up in the street. Most Malamutes, including our Panda, have too high of a prey drive to not chase after a squirrel or cat if they see one in the neighborhood, so letting them in a typical suburban front yard without a leash isn’t an option. Panda doesn’t have a high roaming instinct – he has liked running around the neighborhood in the two times he’s gotten loose, but he never goes far and always comes back after a few minutes. However, some Malamutes would be miles off if they got the chance, so, again, you couldn’t trust them in an unfenced yard, even if you were present. We do let him off-leash when we’re backpacking out in the woods, because he can be trusted to come back after awhile, and there’s no roads for him to run into.
Now, I don’t think any dog is impossible to raise if you don’t have a yard – it would just mean that you’d have to be vigilant about the dog getting enough exercise, since they wouldn’t have a yard to release energy in. Panda is a very chill dog, so I think he could be happy with apartment living – as long as we didn’t make the house too warm! He needs two walks a day, though, and I think you’d have to commit to that every day if you didn’t have a yard. There are bike attachments that you can buy that allows a dog to run beside you while you bike, which would probably be a very good idea to use daily if you got a Malamute.
26. October 2010 at 4:00 pm
Thanks for the detailed information!
We live in a twin-home and even though we have a nice yard and it has a fence, it is not an enclosed one. Hmm, lots to think about.
Few more questions, and might sound dumb (as neither my wife nor I have had any pets before): Since we both have regular jobs, outside the house for 9 to 11 hours on any given week day, how much of a problem would that be? At this point, only thinking about 3 to 4 year old rescue dogs.
Another point, the snow. I’m sure the DC area gets some snow, but here in Minneapolis we get, on an average, 50 inches of snow every year. How do you handle walking/running/biking in the snow for Panda to get exercise? Or is it just the yard then? In that case, the case for the fenced yard would be even stronger.
Thanks for taking the time out to answer these questions. Really appreciate.
26. October 2010 at 8:04 pm
Yeah, 3 – 4 year old rescue dogs would be your best bet, especially if you haven’t had dogs before. They’re past all the puppy antics, and are calmer.
Would it be possible to enclose your yard entirely? Depending on the dog’s personality, it may not have to be a super-tall fence to keep the dog from going off. Panda will walk out if he sees a gate open (did this weekend, in fact – third escape of his life with us), but I really don’t think he’d bother jumping a fence, even if it were possible for him. There are a fair number of couch-potato-inclined Mals that behave the same way.
Regarding staying out of the house for 9-11 hours – for most adult dogs that would be fine. There are two problems you run into there: not being able to hold it long enough for you to get home, and boredom. Our other dog, Kajol, has a bladder of steel – she’s been known not to go at all for a couple of days because she hates going outside in the rain. Panda isn’t so great at holding it, so we’ve always let him just hang outside (with access to appropriate shelter from the elements) when we were at work. If you don’t have a fenced yard, of course, that wouldn’t work so well, so you might want to discuss this with the organization you get the dog from. And, of course, you’ll want to walk the dog right before you leave and right after you get home, so that they have a chance to go.
On the second problem, you’ll want to talk to the organization to get a chill dog who’s happy to sleep the day away while you’re at work. Panda is like this – he’d never think of even toppling over the trash. Kajol, on the other hand, gets bored easily – and when she gets bored, she gets destructive. When we lived in DC we crated her in the house during the day. Now that we no longer have a backyard deck (which allowed the dogs view of people walking by), she has no one to bark at, so we let her hang out in the yard all day with Panda too. If she could see people, she’d bark at them (she’s just that kind of dog), but since she can’t actually see them, we don’t have to worry about her barking annoying the neighbors.
Snow – well, dogs need to be walked in all sorts of weather, which is one of the many reasons why owning a dog is more work than owning a cat. If we got as much snow as you guys get, I would invest in some snow shoes or cross-country skis, and take the dog out with a harness system so he can help pull me! There’s a sport called skijoring which is pretty much this, exactly. There’s also bike-joring for those of us in warmer climates, but I haven’t tried to do that with our dogs yet. Otherwise, well, you’re just going to have to go walking in the snow. You can get backpacks for dogs (which are great if you like to go hiking or backpacking), and putting one of those on a dog with a good amount of weight (train the dog’s fitness level up to it, of course) can tire a dog out quicker than just straight on walking. Even if you had a yard, you would want to walk the dog regularly – a walk for a dog is a chance to experience new things and be mentally stimulated. You can always tell when we haven’t walked the dogs for a day or two – their behavior slowly declines into restlessness and whining.
Anyways, if you can fence your yard at all, I would highly recommend it. It would let the dog burn more energy, give the dog more access to the outdoors (which our dogs love), and make life much easier for you, since you can just let the dog out the door if he needs to go, rather than going through the whole rigmarole of leashing up your dog. That being said, I know plenty of people with dogs and no yards, so it is possible – it’ll just mean more walking for you.