Friday, March 27, 2009

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Today, Baby Benny turns 7 years old!  I can hardly believe it.  It seems like only yesterday I was bringing that little guy home.  Technically, Benjamin is my first pug.  We picked him up on a Friday afternoon and he was the only pug in the house until Saturday afternoon when we brought home Henry.  The 24 hours that Benny was the sole pug of the house gave him the distinction of being the first pug to steal my heart.

Before we took Benny home, we made a stop at Aunt Laurie’s office so the two could meet.  Benjamin was charming as always, but he also had a potty accident while he was there.  And that little incident was foreshadowing for what was to come with Benjamin.  I don’t think I will ever meet a dog that will ever have as many potty accidents as Benny had in the first year of his life.  He was forever going to the bathroom in the house and there was a point, about 6 months after Henry was potty trained, that I thought he would just never learn.  We had ruled everything out.  There were no medical reasons hindering him or any other special circumstances.  It was just him.  Around the time I was contemplating pitching a tent in front of the house because one of us was always taking Benny out to go potty, the stars aligned and something clicked with Benny and he was suddenly potty trained.  He went from having accidents every day to having no accidents ever.  There was no occasional slip up, he just got it and he became a pro at going potty outside.  It has been years since he has had an accident in the house.

Benjamin’s learning style is similar to flipping a switch from off to on.  Benny can be completely inept at doing something one day and the next day he will have confidently mastered that very same skill.  When the boys were about 6 months old, we enrolled them in a basic obedience class.  They were known by the instructor as the wiggle butts and we had the honor of sitting next to two lab puppies who were the smartest and quickest learners in the class.  I would always sit with Benny closest to the labs hoping that Benjamin would pickup some of their savvy via osmosis because in the early weeks of the class Benjamin was in danger of flunking.

One of our first assignments was the “sit” command.  We learned the techniques on how to teach the command in class and then we were told to practice, practice, practice at home.  Henry had the sit command mastered a day or two after class and that was good because that gave us plenty of time to focus on Benny because it took him at least a few more weeks before he knew how to sit on command.  We would do about 4, 5 minute training sessions a day and each time no progress was made.

I will never forget the day we were visiting G-Ma & G-Pa and we were all sitting around outside.  I had a bag full of liver treats that had been broken into tiny pieces and I was going to show G-Ma how well Henry knew the sit command and how Benny just wasn’t getting it.  The pugs didn’t disappoint at first.  Henry sat on command each and every time he was asked and Benny, well, he just stood there wiggling his butt.  G-Ma & G-Pa thought that was just the funniest thing.  Then, I told Benny another time to sit and to everyone’s surprise he did!  I pretty much gave him all the treats that were left and everyone was giving him “good boys” and lots of love.  From that point forward, he never missed a sit.  It was like a switch went off in his head.  And for Benny it has been like that with everything.

Reflecting back over the last 7 years I can’t help but smile as all of the Baby Benny memories fill my head.  He may have caused us a lot of grief with all the potty accidents as a puppy, but he has more than made up for it over the years will all the times he has brought a smile to our face or turned around a crappy day by doing something silly.

Happy Birthday, Baby Benny!

A few of my favorite Baby Benny moments shared on the blog:

• Things I have learned from my pugs - Benjamin
• Puppy Pictures
• Standing Guard
• Benny’s Throne
• Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty
• Beach Bums