Willy is a Goldendoodle who boards with us at The Light of Dog regularly. We sometimes joke that we share custody of him since he's here so often. When dogs board with us, we keep a Boarding Log where we post daily updates and photos. We could write a book with all of Willy's adventures here, so we thought we would share a few of his stories. This is an excerpt from Willy's log, dated 1/20/23.

Willy and I did our walk midday. I was hoping the temp would warm up a bit this afternoon, but instead the snow started and the temps are not all that warm. But we went anyway.

Willy, of course, has a love/hate relationship with the snow. He LOVES the snow. But he does not love the snowballs that collect on his feet. He spends time between having fun, exploring, sniffing, rolling in the snow, etc. and having a heckuva time getting those snowballs off him so he’s not carrying any extra ten pounds around. 

Willy and I invented a new game/puzzle toy today on our walk. It’s called “Minnows in the Ice” and you play it like this:

You find yourself a nice chunk of snow that’s icy/crusty.

You take a few minnow treats and stick them in the icy snowbank like candles on a birthday cake, and then you tell Willy to “find them” and he goes after them.

First game, he didn’t do so well. He missed two out of the four minnows. I had to send him back to try again.

Next round he did much better. He likes that game. I don’t think the chunk of ice/snow would work well in the house, so this puzzle toy/game is best played outside. 

Oh, I almost forgot! Normally, when I call him, he’s. . . not super responsive.

Sometimes he will come after a few calls. Sometimes he ignores me.

So today on the walk, we were walking down the south driveway and he was back a ways, looked like he was munching on something. Not sure what, maybe a piece of mulch? Whatever it was, I wanted to call him away and see if he’d leave it behind. He was probably, I don’t know 40-50 feet away?

I called him, and. . . he came RUNNING to me immediately! That was clearly an accident, because he NEVER responds that fast. Ever. Crazy!

Oh, and if you think THAT is crazy, wait until you hear this. . .

So Blitzen likes to go in the back yard, he loves being outside. But he doesn’t like being outside alone. He will head out the door then turn to wait and see who is going to follow him. He expects EVERYONE to go out when he goes out.

And you know that Willy and Blitzen are not best buddies. But, oftentimes, when Blitzen goes out, Willy is right on his heels. Weird, right?

Ok, so Blitzen and Willy go out this afternoon and they stand over by the gate waiting for Zooka, who decided not to join them. So, I figure they will go out, pee on something and come back.

Well, I look out there, and here’s Blitzen doing his “I am going to put my front feet on your head and see how you react.” He does this to Zooka frequently to try to get him to play. Or to try to get some sort of reaction from him.

Blitzen does like to push everyone’s buttons. But he’s doing it to WILLY! WTF?! Before Willy could decide how to handle this new development, I called them both in. I figured that could only go in a bad direction with those two. 

So, I don’t think Blitzen actually hates Willy. I don’t think he’s even indifferent to Willy. Well, I know he’s not indifferent.

But I think he really wants Willy to like him and to WANT to play with him. But Blitzen just does not know how to handle when Willy just ignores him. Nothing worse than feeling like someone does not care, as far as Blitzen is concerned.

He wants everyone to like him, even if he does not like everyone. So, mark this day in your calendar. The day Blitzen tried to get Willy to play with him. (And not just scream in his face.) 

I think that’s enough crazy for one day around here. I feel like I am living in the Upside Down today.

Our goal is to positively impact the lives of as many dogs and their families as we can, in part through our extensive library of video, infographics and text articles. If you like our work, please consider supporting us through a donation!