Tag Archives: Boston Terrier
Squeak Barking
Again, an even more boring video of Lucifer Sam and Jasper at the Token Creek Dog Park the other day. Warning: This will be boring unless you love watching dogs being dogs.
Continue reading Squeak Barking
Jasper and Lucifer Sam at Token Creek Dog Park
Warning: Unless you really get into watching a Pug and Boston run around at a dog park, this video is really boring. You have been warned.
Continue reading Jasper and Lucifer Sam at Token Creek Dog Park
Goofball
I haven’t written about Jasper much lately, so I think it’s about time for a Pupdate.
I apologize for not having a picture. At the time of this writing, I am snuggled down on the couch with both dogs, so I can’t be bothered to uproot myself to get a camera….oh wait…I HAVE a camera…on my laptop…hang on…ok…here:
So not as high quality as an actual CAMERA photo, but it will do. He was moving a lot too…trying to steady a laptop while holding a wiggly Boston is not easy. Notice how his tearstains have diminished? I don’t know why they were more noticeable as a puppy. He had his nine month birthday the other day. We took him to a pet store and let him pick out a toy…a stuffed jack-type shape.
Jasper is a nut. He LOVES my perfume. It doesn’t matter what kind…my own creations or commercial…he likes to sniff and lick my wrists. I try not to let him lick so he won’t lick it off me, as it wouldn’t be good for him and defeats the purpose of perfume, which is necessary with a Boston as I’ll get to in a minute. No other pet we’ve had, except for long-departed Natasha the Cat, has liked perfume. Most dogs and cats I’ve had really don’t like human perfume at all. Dogs especially prefer natural animal odors, and the stinkier the better. I don’t know what it is about Jasper, or Natasha for that matter, that makes them like the sweet smells.
Jasper has the makings of a musician and demolition expert as well (especially demolition of office supplies and personal care products such as emory boards, carmex tubes and unused feminine hygiene products). Jasper is a very musical dog, but his musicality is more in terms of what he does with squeak toys. He LOVES squeak toys, and makes great rhytyhmic sounds with them. Plato actually HATED the squeaker and would try very hard to remove the device from all toys that contained it. Plato’s musicality came more from his own voice…he used to sing as he whined. He sang so well until we boarded him for a few weeks one year (while taking Hieronymus with us…bad mistake–never, ever ever separate the pack…either board both or take both with). He was so lonely without Hieronymus, when we came to pick him up, he was practically hoarse from barking so much. He never sang right again. If Jasper and Plato could’ve known eachother when they were both young, Plato would be the singer and Jasper would be the musician. Jasper also clucks like a chicken. Sometimes we call him Chicken Dog.
Jasper is also an artist. We gave him some toys that were made of colorful synthetic rope. He shreded the rope, which created such beautiful fiber art. Hieronymus, named after Bosch, was supposed to be the Art Dog, but his vision was way too bad.
Jasper is a very social dog, loves to meet new people, very submissive with new dogs…very unlike Plato in that way. In other ways he reminds me so much of him….the way he “moops”, the way he “oofs” (must be universal Boston Terrier noises)…and the bad gas. Actually, as far as external body odor, I think Boston Terriers are the absolute best smelling dogs there are. You can put your nose right up against their body and they will smell so good…no doggy odor. Even Pugs, which are also very clean smelling dogs, do have a certain “Pug odor.” But not Bostons. Their short coat and lack of wrinkles probably help in that regard. However, do a search on “Boston Terrier Gas” and you will find that they are probably one of the smelliest dogs in that regard. They are very gassy. This is why I like need scented candles and perfume. But I’d much rather have a clean-smelling but gassy dog than a low-fart dog that has that constant doggy fur stink.
I just wish Jasper and Tim could’ve known each other as well as the other dogs knew Tim.
Comparative Bostons
As soon as we brought Jasper home and played with him in our yard, I knew immediately as I watched his reaction to our neighbors that he had a completely different personality than Plato. Plato barked at our neighbors almost until the end. Jasper rarely does. He wiggles a lot and jumps up a lot, but rarely barks.
We took Jasper to an indoor small dog play last Saturday, and he did not say a WORD! He was eager to get to know tiny dogs, and was very submissive with dogs his own size. Plato was always antagonistic with new dogs.
Plato was an Alpha, and Jasper is a Beta, which makes a bit of a problem with Lucifer Sam, also a Beta, as they try to establish their alphaness over eachothers betaness. With Plato and Lucifer Sam, it established itself very early. Plato was in charge.
Jasper is very friendly with people. His ears go back and he wants to jump up…you can see a wiggle starting throughout his body. Jasper’s tail is not waggable. It’s like a little stumpy curlique with no mobility. People often wonder if Bostons’ tails are docked. They are not. Plato had what we called a “thumb.” His tail was thumb-size and thumblike. I could wag. It also folded itself inward before he sat down on it. As he got old, the fur wore out on it where he would sit. Plato wagged his thumb around us a lot. But it took him a long time to warm up to new people.
I was just noticing recently that Jasper’s ears seem much larger than Plato’s were. They seem like very big ears. Plato smiled and grinned a lot, a great big ear-to-ear grin. When Jasper opens his mouth to pant, it’s not a grinning pant, but just an open mouth. Jasper seems like such a happy, comical dog, but he doesn’t smile. Odd.
Plato had what we called “a pouty little lower lip” and a noticeable underbite. Sometimes you’d see his lower teeth. Toward the end of his life, he reminded me of recent pictures of Stephen Hawking. Jasper does not have a pouty little lower lip. I’m sure he has an underbite as Bostons should, (our Cat Apollo has an underbite too!), but it’s not noticeable.
They both love/d sitting next to a furnace vent in the winter. They both love/d snuggling hard next to me in the morning as I drink coffee and check email. They both love sleeping by Stan’s feet at night as he rests on the futon.
Plato had a prancey little run inside the house. Jasper bounces. I thought he’d outgrow the bounciness, but still at 7 months (yesterday was his 7 month birthday), he hops and bounces. We nickednamed him “Boing Boing.”
Around 2000 or 2001 When Plato was a few years old, I started a blog for him, which rubbed some people @$$#°!?$ wrong. Today, everybody’s dog has a blog. I decided I’m going to raise Jasper as a luddite. I think he’ll be happier that way.
Almost Done
Getting close to the end of the Jasper Colorado videos. I think there’s just one more after this one.
More of Lucifer Sam and Jasper
Lucifer Sam and Jasper chase after each other and the weird blue ball…chew…play…thing. Then there’s a chewtoy wardrobe malfunction at the end. Cut.
The Jasper Dance
This movie was recorded probably when Jasper was about 12 weeks or so.
Lucifer Sam would always spin for his food. I don’t know why–we didn’t teach him this. It just comes natural to Pugs to spin. For our first Pug, Hieronymus, we put the spinning on cue, so when we said “Bagel,” he would make donuts.
Plato never danced for his food. He barked a lot. Sometimes he stood up as the foodbowl headed his way, but never danced.
When we first got Jasper, he just sat and watched as we prepped his food. Such a well-behaved dog. But then he started picking up on Lucifer Sam’s spinning. He could not spin like the Pug. His dance was sort like crossing a spinning Pug with Elaine’s (Seinfeld) dance. Sort of spastic and uncoordinated.
This is the early version of the Jasper Dance. Some time I’ll record his more recent version. He’s developing a style.
More Baby Jasper
Here’s another movie I took of Jasper when he was about 8 weeks old. I don’t have the exact date, I think I lost that info in the great computer crash of 2010.
Finally!
Ever since we got Jasper in June, I have been so busy that I haven’t been able to find any free time to upload any baby movies of him. (This one is taking over half an hour to upload). Then we went on a trip, my computer died, I came back from the trip and I was swamped trying to get my business back and running and restructuring some of my ebay listings to multi-variations (it’s like redoing your listings all over again, sort of like when I created my zen-cart store last fall)…doctor’s appointments, vet appointments, ophthalmologist appointments, too much. Way too much. Oh yeah, and a month ago my sites got hacked. No, not just the false alarm hack before the vacation. This time it was for real.
Now I’m getting toward the end of revising my listings, and the Ophthalmology appointments are done with (no, I don’t have glaucoma, fortunately…just scarred corneas as I’ve known for about a decade now…never was the diagnosis “it’s just scarred corneas” a GOOD thing to hear!). We still have doctor’s appointments…hearing tests for Stan, ultrasound for me, neutering for Jasper, yearly exams for the other animals.
But I’m finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. And a little time to upload these videos. So here we go…here’s the first one recorded a couple days after we got Jasper on June 16.
Ever see such a little dumpling?
Jasper’s Ears and Dream with Mouse
A couple weeks ago, Jasper’s ears started becoming a little more erect. His right ear was the first to stand up, although the tip bent backwards. His left ear was a little slower. I was wondering if it was ever going to stand up, or if it would always flop forward like a puppy. I know I went through the same thing with Plato when he was that age, and he made it through that “awkward ear stage” just fine. A few days ago, Jasper’s left ear finally decided to stay up. But his right ear hasn’t changed. I am now wondering if it will be permanently bent backwards. I’m hoping he’s just at that awkward stage.
Runaway Boston and Other Weirdness Dream
I took Jasper out for a walk on a leash and was holding him between my legs because I couldn’t hold the leash for some reason. I think I was in Fort Collins, but wasn’t sure. Then I see this dog running down the street and I am terrified that cars will hit it. It starts to run my direction and I see it is a Boston Terrier that is fully grown and has a leash attached. I grab it, and then wonder what I will do with two Boston Terriers. Then I look and see that Jasper is gone, and I realize the Boston I caught is Jasper.
I also remember hiding out inside an unoccupied doctor’s office early in the morning at the Monona Clinic because I was waiting for something to open. I was trying to not be seen by any personnel who might be there. The office, which was more like an administrative or clerical office as opposed to physician/patient office opened directly to the outside, much unlike actual claustrophobic windowless hermetically sealed doctor’s offices.
Dots
Mommy had a little baby
There he is fast asleep
He’s just a little plaything
Why not wake him up?
Cute, cute, little baby
Little pee-pee, little toes
-Talking Heads
It’s just the cutest little dumpling dots.
Not Sure What to Think
Precious Face
