Joey
The first dog that came to us after Charlie was a little Yorkshire Terrier we named Mini. Sadly, she's no longer with us. Charlie had a difficult time adjusting to her since he had been the only dog in the house for four years or so. She followed him around everywhere, eager to play. He tried his best to escape her and hide. It was funny watching them. Eventually, they learned to ignore each other except for sporadically going through the motions of mating.
It was nearly three years after we got Mini that a new dog came into our lives. Three of my wife's cousins, brothers and sisters all, were attending an English class I was (and still am) teaching. Knowing that we are dog lovers, they let me know that their mother was looking for someone to take their poodle. They didn't have time to give him the attention he needed, being that she was always working and the kids were always studying. After talking it over with my wife, we agreed to take him.
[caption id="attachment_593" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Joey"]
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This dog was terrified of strangers. It wasn't like when we first got Charlie, who was scared of hands and feet after having been beaten by the children he was bought for. This was different. The dog shied away from every motion anyone made. When he was handed over to me in the classroom, he constantly tried to get back to one of my wife's cousins, Ji Hyun, with whom he was most familiar. Once I got him out of the classroom, he didn't know what to do.
It just so happened that my wife and I were supposed to go to dinner that evening with her sister and brother-in-law, so the dog wound up in the back of their car after my class. We went to an open-front beef and pork restaurant and kept the dog close to the table. He began to warm up to us a bit after we started feeding him some bits of the beef we were eating.
Once we got him home and saw how he behaved, we couldn't help but laugh. He was still terrified of us, and the other dogs, but obviously curious about his new surroundings. And he was incredibly clumsy. Compared to Charlie and Mini, he didn't seem very bright. That brought to mind my wife's favorite character from Friends. Joey became his name.
It's been nearly two years since we took him in and he has, of course, settled in over that time. Unfortunately, he's just as frightend and as clumsy as ever. Unlike our other dogs, he's not much of a jumper. It's not much of a jump for him to get up on one of our sofas, but he won't bother trying unless there's a great deal of space available. Even a bundled up blanket will deter him. Still, he sometimes miscalculates and winds up falling over, sometimes back onto the floor.
Joey is also the neediest dog I've ever seen. All dogs crave attention, some more than others. But Joey seems to crave it every waking minute. When he's not getting any attention, he sits and stares at someone, usually me, in anticipation. When the person stands up, he does too with his tail wagging. When he's passed by, his tail falls and his head goes down as he lies or sits back down in disappointment. And if he can catch anyone in an idle moment (he's learned to judge when people are busy), he'll press the attack, nudging hands and arms with his head. Once he gets any attention at all, he gets excited, rolls over on his back, and starts rubbing the sides of his head with his forepaws. I've never seen anything like it.
Joey has also proven to be a quick learner (so maybe the name isn't appropriate as we first thought!). The other dogs often need to be told repeatedly to leave a room or to stop doing something. Not Joey. If he's on the sofa or the bed, annoying someone trying to sleep, he'll jump down as soon as he hears the words, "Get down!" Similarly, telling him to "get out" of a room will send him straight through the door. And the commands can be in English or Korean. We didn't try to teach him any tricks like we did with Charlie, but he does know some of the simpler ones, probably that he picked up from his previous owners.
Joey is also very quiet compared to the other dogs. Well, when he does bark it is much louder than the others, but he rarely barks at all. Usually only when he's playing. Even when the other dogs get riled up about someone passing by outside, or a delivery person knocking on the door, Joey usually doesn't make a peep. He looks in the direction of the disturbance. If he can't see anything, he doesn't concern himself with it. But if he lays eyes on someone he doesn't know, then he'll join in with the others.
As I type this, Joey is sprawled out on the floor behind my chair taking a nap, where he usually is if I'm on the computer during the day. He seems to have a special bond with me that he doesn't share with my wife or my brother-in-law, so he usually directs his attention to me until someone else calls his name. So I try to give him as much attention as I can, though it's hard to do with three other dogs in the house. As needy as Joey is, I can't exactly say he's the most jealous. Jealousy is something they all have in spades!
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This dog was terrified of strangers. It wasn't like when we first got Charlie, who was scared of hands and feet after having been beaten by the children he was bought for. This was different. The dog shied away from every motion anyone made. When he was handed over to me in the classroom, he constantly tried to get back to one of my wife's cousins, Ji Hyun, with whom he was most familiar. Once I got him out of the classroom, he didn't know what to do.
It just so happened that my wife and I were supposed to go to dinner that evening with her sister and brother-in-law, so the dog wound up in the back of their car after my class. We went to an open-front beef and pork restaurant and kept the dog close to the table. He began to warm up to us a bit after we started feeding him some bits of the beef we were eating.
Once we got him home and saw how he behaved, we couldn't help but laugh. He was still terrified of us, and the other dogs, but obviously curious about his new surroundings. And he was incredibly clumsy. Compared to Charlie and Mini, he didn't seem very bright. That brought to mind my wife's favorite character from Friends. Joey became his name.
It's been nearly two years since we took him in and he has, of course, settled in over that time. Unfortunately, he's just as frightend and as clumsy as ever. Unlike our other dogs, he's not much of a jumper. It's not much of a jump for him to get up on one of our sofas, but he won't bother trying unless there's a great deal of space available. Even a bundled up blanket will deter him. Still, he sometimes miscalculates and winds up falling over, sometimes back onto the floor.
Joey is also the neediest dog I've ever seen. All dogs crave attention, some more than others. But Joey seems to crave it every waking minute. When he's not getting any attention, he sits and stares at someone, usually me, in anticipation. When the person stands up, he does too with his tail wagging. When he's passed by, his tail falls and his head goes down as he lies or sits back down in disappointment. And if he can catch anyone in an idle moment (he's learned to judge when people are busy), he'll press the attack, nudging hands and arms with his head. Once he gets any attention at all, he gets excited, rolls over on his back, and starts rubbing the sides of his head with his forepaws. I've never seen anything like it.
Joey has also proven to be a quick learner (so maybe the name isn't appropriate as we first thought!). The other dogs often need to be told repeatedly to leave a room or to stop doing something. Not Joey. If he's on the sofa or the bed, annoying someone trying to sleep, he'll jump down as soon as he hears the words, "Get down!" Similarly, telling him to "get out" of a room will send him straight through the door. And the commands can be in English or Korean. We didn't try to teach him any tricks like we did with Charlie, but he does know some of the simpler ones, probably that he picked up from his previous owners.
Joey is also very quiet compared to the other dogs. Well, when he does bark it is much louder than the others, but he rarely barks at all. Usually only when he's playing. Even when the other dogs get riled up about someone passing by outside, or a delivery person knocking on the door, Joey usually doesn't make a peep. He looks in the direction of the disturbance. If he can't see anything, he doesn't concern himself with it. But if he lays eyes on someone he doesn't know, then he'll join in with the others.
As I type this, Joey is sprawled out on the floor behind my chair taking a nap, where he usually is if I'm on the computer during the day. He seems to have a special bond with me that he doesn't share with my wife or my brother-in-law, so he usually directs his attention to me until someone else calls his name. So I try to give him as much attention as I can, though it's hard to do with three other dogs in the house. As needy as Joey is, I can't exactly say he's the most jealous. Jealousy is something they all have in spades!