....that a dog's gotta wear what a dog's gotta wear!
Cody is not a fan of clothes. Nor is his foster sister Maya who would rather chatter her teeth to nubs than have to to wear a coat. I try to wait till the last chilly degree before I make them wear coats, but here in Seattle, we have gotten way too cold for the skinny, short-coated ratties in my pack (and the not-skinny, long-haired rattie-lover who walks them.) So on our walk today I dressed Maya and Cody with an apology on my lips. Fortunately Sappho loves clothes, and wears clothes the entire cold season with several-hour breaks just to let her skin breath and shed excess skin and fur, so she was already ready to go.
Sorry bud, another pink on.
Cody especially didn't like clothes at first - the contact all over his body is very stimulating and made him nervous. We've worked on that touch sensitivity as long as we've had him and over the past couple months we've made huge strides. He loves touch all over his body, including strokes, scratches, pats, grabs, wools, and kisses and will seek them out and "ask" for attention. We're working on his feet now (he needs a nail trim bad!!) but today was an excellent trial to see if his feelings on clothes has changed.
Alas, I thought I had the red version of this coat but all I had was the pink, so Cody strutted another walk in pink (his leash was red at least!). We started out very well, Cody at times shifting his body in a way that told me he was aware and thinking about the coat, but he was still eager to get along and he didn't do any vocalizations, stalls, spins, or other signs that he is getting upset. He still wanted touch and kisses too!
Notice the ears and the dropped hips - a moment of coat awareness.
The walk continued as normal, until Maya spotted something quickly followed by Sappho.
Maya, so well mannered.
Cody and Sappho join in.
Where is it?
Over here?
Eventually we had to move on and finished a great walk. The cold chased us in a little early but I believe the pups were as ready to come inside as I was!! Cody meanwhile did show a little increased sensitivity to the coat but very subtle. One time he softly growled at two woman laughing loudly across the street and then did a penis check, and other times I saw his ears stay vertical but rotate so that the back of each ear was pointing towards the other, which is a sign that he's thinking hard about something. He would also sometimes drop his hips where the back of the coat touched him, likely from the movement of it across his back as he walked.
Thinking hard, likely about his coat.
However, given how stressful clothing used to be this a massive improvement. Another reason to stop early is to not push Cody's tolerance, and in reward for taking such a big step he had extra cookies, a freshly warmed SnuggleSafe, and a fresh frozen Kong waiting for him when we got back to the car!
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