Dog Names

Be careful what name you give your pet. It has been my experience they tend to live up to their names. An appointment with chihuahua named Nipper or even worse, a pit-bull called Chomper can make me a bit apprehensive. So when I named my little herding dog Nudge, I thought of many happy possibilities. Here is one way he lives up to his name.
We have a pretty consistent evening ritual in our home. After dinner Peter and I often settle in to watch a movie or TV program - he watches, I knit. When Nudge was a small and crazy puppy, he would get the zoomies at this time of day. You know zoomies - the dog (or cat) becomes possessed by a overabundance of exuberance, causing him to race around and around the house at top speed , jumping on the furniture and any cats or people in his pathway. It is funny to watch - to a point. As an antidote we got in the habit of giving him something to chew like a bone or a tendon. In order to get this bone, he had to learn to sit quietly on his blue mat. This ritual calms him down and more importantly gives us an hour or so of much needed quiet.
Now days though, if we are a bit slow - perhaps talking to each other or reading the newspaper before turning on the TV - I get the stare.....


And then Nudge starts running to his blue mat and nudging it with his nose and running back to me. Very clear communication on his part.


This running back and forth gets pretty annoying so it isn't long before I've spread out the mat and he is waiting, not a doubt in his little mind that the chew will appear.

And it always does. I don't dare run out . I'm embarrassed to say, but it seems he has me completely trained now.