Alfie, our little Yorkshire Terrier, is flat out asleep on the sofa as I write this. He's become a bit of an attention-seeker at the moment. I think he's concerned about Carol being ill. He doesn't seem to understand why she's at home all the time as she's off work, sick. Its strange how he knows there's something not quite right. He becomes very attached to us both, particularly me. Apparently, when I went off to church this morning, he sat and waited for me until I got home. He barks at me when I come in, as if he's telling me off for going out of the house and leaving him. If Carol is in pain and in another room in the house, for example, the bedroom, he often comes to find me and barks as if telling me to do something about it. I have no choice to go and find out what I can do, to get pain-relief medication or whatever. He also goes outside into the garden and barks for no apparent reason, possibly if there is a noise beyond the garden, someone going past on the Redway or in the road outside.
Alfie, modelling the blanket that Carol made for him
There are some things that Alfie doesn't particularly like, particularly when he's on the sofa. He seems to dislike cushions, and if they're in the way, he will push them off with his nose. He has a couple of blankets which he likes to arrange into a bed. Carol has croched him one of his own (see the above photograph.) and if it's folded across the back of the sofa, he will attempt to pull if off by clawing at it until it falls off.
I usually check emails just before I go to bed, or watch something on television. He has his dinner at virtually the same time every evening. If Carol has gone upstairs, he will stay with me in the lounge. If I'm on the laptop, I end what I'm doing and he knows that I'm about to go upstairs and immediately barks. Sharp little dog, has worked out that as soon as I shut down the laptop I'll go upstairs. So he barks to remind me, or so I assume.
He'll ask to be let out into the garden and usually goes outside, but there are other times when he gets you to open the sliding patio door and then just pokes his head outside, as if to see whether it's raining, but doesn't go out. Other times, and this seems to be a terrier trait, he will just sit in the opened space in the door and just stare out at the garden. Our dog, Poppy, who died last February, did the same. Another typical terrier trait is sitting on the back of the sofa. My parent's little Jack Russel terrier used to sit in a similar manner on the armchairs or even the back of the seats in the cars we had when I was growing up. Also, Alfie likes to lay on the floor, flat on his stomach, with his back legs stretched out. Seems that this is also a terrier trait.
Alfie is quite good at asking whenever he wants something. He gives you eye-contact . He loves the Comic Relief ball (which I've mentioned in earlier blog posts.) If he wants to play with it, he will usually sit directly in front of you, usually whenever we're watching television, and stare at the ball where it's placed up on the bookshelf. Then, if I pick it up and throw it on the floor, (it has to be hard enough to set the thing 'laughing.') he goes into his backing routine, throwing back his head and yowling (not sure that's the right word.) and also barking until the thing stops it sound. The thing has been running down for the past year or two, so Carol had to do an operation on an older one and transferred to the newer one. I just wish they'd bring out a new version as these things are difficult to replace.
Generally, Alfie is quiet and makes very little noise, apart from the occasional bark. We don't have a door-bell, but what makes us laugh is when we're watching television and during the action a doorbell rings and he barks. How does he associate that with our front door, someone being there or that it requires him to bark for whatever reason? I have described on many occasions on here how, if he realises that we're going out, for a walk, or he's going to go with us in the car, he becomes a completely different little dog, going into what we call 'Tasmanian Devil-Mode,' growling, barking and even getting hold of his lead with his teeth and not letting go and also becoming quite aggressive and even attempting to bite if you get your hand in his way or scratching with his claws, which can be quite painful.
Alfie is very playful. He has this little game he has with things like dog biscuit or any treats he is given. Usually if you give him a treat, one of those chunky treats for example, he will eat it immediately, but he also does this thing where he will sit and watch whatever it is, then barks, then gets up and does a sort of spin around, pokes it with his nose and spins around again. When Poppy was alive, he used to shoot off upstairs when he was given a treat because Poppy would often pinch them off him. He is somewhat schizophrenic as I've described in his 'Tasmanian Devil mode. Considering that, when we lived at the house in Crownhill and the house was invaded by rats (read the earlier blog post for full details of all this.) Alfie caught and eventually managed to kill a huge rat, it just goes to show how a little dog of his size could manage to kill something so large. It goes to show how plucky a Yorkie can be when confronted by such a thing as a rat.
Alfie has become very concerned if he's done something wrong, for example, that he's done a wee on the floor. These little accidents do happen, particularly if he can't get outside if it's raining or we don't get to open the door for him on time. He knows perfectly well when he's done something wrong. You can generally tell when he's upset because his ears are laid back against his head. They're a good sign of how he's feeling. If you say 'bad' he knows he's done something wrong, but of late he puts on this act of being pathetic, as if he thinks he's done something wrong, when it's clear to us that he hasn't. He's a very sensitive little dog, one of the charms of Alfie. He picks up any emotions we have, particularly at present with Carol ill and at home.
Alfie can be very picky about what he eats. It's no use changing what he's given to eat as he's not likely to eat it. He's usually fed at around 7-7.30 each evening. He gets mixer and canned dog food, usually meat in jelly or gravy. If we're eating he will often come and sit in front of us and try and get something from us, scraps of food, but we don't encourage this too much. But if he's offered anything he can sometimes sniff at it or lick it and then not eat it. I know dogs should never eat of our plates, but he does finish off whatever we leave on our plates. He is somewhat addicted to tea, and if we're having a cup of tea he gets to finish the dregs at the bottom of our cups or mugs. Poppy used to be very tea-orientated and I think the habit of letting her have the dregs passed on to Alfie when we first got him as a puppy.
