I walked into the kitchen the other evening and looked over to see blind Widget doing "the Loom," as we call it. This is where she stands and stares at another dog who is occupying a chair or bed she wants. In this case, she’s focused on deaf Stuart. She will stand there for what seems like an eternity … and in dog time, it probably is a long time … staring intently at the hapless victim. There are a few dogs who are either too brave or, usually, too oblivious to notice her looming presence, but typically they wilt under the pressure and quickly give up the coveted spot.
Unfortunately for Widget, Stuart fell into the ‘oblivious’ category, which drives her crazy. She simply cannot understand why the overpowering energy-field of the Loom doesn’t work on all dogs. And in that first photo above, you can tell she’s not quite sure how this is going to work with Stuart, because her tail is down, signaling a lower level of confidence. (A confident Widget has an upright, bobbing tail.) Widget is also making soft growling sounds, which of course has zero impact on a deaf dog like Stuart.
But, principle demands that others bend to her indomitable will, so after one more of her "I’m warning you, pal" growls, she climbs up on the chair:
The next weapon in the arsenal is the ‘elevated Loom,’ which she is demonstrating here:
You can see that Stuart hasn’t moved an inch and is completely unfazed by Widget’s presence. She senses this, naturally, and therefore ratchets up the pressure with the ‘in-your-face elevated Loom’ … the message here is, "What part of ‘That’s My Chair’ don’t you understand?":
Now, by this point I was really intrigued at how this stand-off was going to end … Stuart had totally ignored Widget through the entire process. But then Alayne came through the back door and into the kitchen. Stuart saw her, leaped from the chair and bounded off to greet her. Widget put this one in the "win" column anyway — blind Beagle captures chair from deaf Beagle!
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Update on Duchess: Little Granny came through her spleen surgery just fine today. However, our vets discovered during the operation a growth on her liver that was not apparent on the ultrasound, so they removed it and are sending it in for a biopsy.
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