The quirks thread

Laurelin

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#1
To go along with the venting thread and proud of your dogs thread. I know my two are really quirky dogs. Every day there is something they do that is amusing to me.

1. Summer has been doing her 'I'm going to stay randomly until you notice and release me. Then I'm going to act like I'm the best dog ever for doing things you didn't ask for!' I was walking them at the park last night and I'd eventually notice Summer standing halfway across the field, eyes locked on me and tail wagging ever so expectantly. 'What are you doing!?' *Tail wag* 'Come Summer!' *looks as if she thinks about moving then gives me a 'I know what you're up to' look and stays. Me: 'Uh.... free?' Summer bolts to me, grinning and oh so pleased with herself for being the best dog.

She used to do that all the time when we were in agility/obedience. Now that we've started again, the staying is back. I swear it's about half a dozen times a day at the park or around the house that I notice Summer has put herself into a stay and is waiting for me to release her.

2. There's a soccer complex next to my house and they have a sidewalk there where a few of the squares are textured. Mia leaps over each square every time we walk through there. I guess she doesn't like the way they feel. :lol-sign:
 

Red.Apricot

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#2
Elsie HAS to be on the bed cuddled up with me when I get in, but if it's hot, she'll give it about three minutes (of heavy panting) and then hop off to go sleep on the tile.

But she can't just go sleep on the tile. First she has to cuddle up against me.
 

yoko

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#3
We've learned to tell when Yoshi is lying.

If you tell her to sit and then ask "Do you have to go out?" If she does she jumps up and starts running in circles to go to the back door. If she wants to go play she just kind of perks up and either walks toward the door or watches you.

I think she is confused as to how we know she is lying or not XD
 

BostonBanker

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#4
Of my two, Meg is slightly more normal. I never thought I'd say that. She does a "Summer stay" every morning at the top of the stairs. Lies down, waits - so excited - for me to tell her "okay!" and then runs downstairs as fast as she can. I have never once asked her to stay there.

Gusto...yikes. He has one spot on the bed where he sleeps. One spot, no other one is acceptable. It is behind me at shoulder height. If Meg gets into bed first and is up there snuggling with me, he can't handle it. He fusses, he cries, he stares, he will not settle until she moves to her spot and he can have his.

If I'm standing still, he becomes obsessed with getting on my shoulders. Obsessed. He will sit next to me and continuously spring at me. No matter how many times I knock him out of the air with my arm, he will persist until he is on me. This is especially fun when I'm hand grazing Tristan with one hand, holding a book with the other, and have a Gusto shaped projectile flying at me. I'm covered in scratches, and he's ripped two of my shirts.

Gusto is mostly oblivious to people. He doesn't mind them, but unless you are working him - he'd rather you don't bother him. Except His People. His most favorite person in the world (probably even ahead of me) is my friend who fostered him. He can't contain himself in her presence. She came to watch an agility class one night, and he didn't notice her right away. He was on the start line when he saw her across the room and of course almost died from the joy. My friend was talking to someone else who had been in our classes for months, and whom Gusto had never so much as glanced at. But when he saw that person talking to HIS person - he decided she must be cool. He now gets very excited to see that person every week.
 

maxfox426

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#5
We've learned to tell when Yoshi is lying.

If you tell her to sit and then ask "Do you have to go out?" If she does she jumps up and starts running in circles to go to the back door. If she wants to go play she just kind of perks up and either walks toward the door or watches you.

I think she is confused as to how we know she is lying or not XD
Morgan does something similar to this. He will ask to go out, and if you ask him, "Do you really need to go out?" he will do one of two things. If he actually needs out, he will pick up a toy and "pay" to go outside. If he just wants to play, he only just stands there and wags a little.

In terms of quirks, he does often "pay" for things that he wants. It's something we never taught him, but if he wants dinner, wants to go for a walk, needs to go outside, etc. he will bring one of his most favorite toys and use it as currency.
 
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#6
I guess she doesn't like the way they feel. :lol-sign:
Oh god Maisy has princess paws like crazy. She particularly does not like to walk on fallen autumn leaves. She will hop and skip around them or, if it absolutely necessary to step on them, she does a weird slow motion "test three times then put my foot down" thing. Last week I was worried she'd hurt herself scootering until I realized what was going on... there were leaves all over some parts of the trails. :/
 

JacksonsMom

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#7
Oh god quirks and Jackson go hand in hand.

God forbid someone swats or kills a fly. He starts acting all strange, ears back, etc. Same reaction with any kind of smoke (i.e. coming from the oven, or the fire pit, etc). He stays so far away. He also does not like people raising their voices (my step-dad screaming at a football game on TV). He doesn't bolt or dart, he simply slinks off, usually under the bed. Sometimes I'll see Jackson just looking... weird. He gets a weird look on his face and I'm like "what's wrong?!" and it will usually take me a minute to discover "Oh! the oven is on!" or something stupid, and realize why he's acting the way he is.

It's not really that he's even a scardey-cat dog or anything... he's very confident and can walk through large crowds in public, pet stores, meet new dogs, new people, etc, and be 1000% fine. Loud noises, fire engines, loud trucks, loud people, etc don't bother him. But the smallest things will just set him off, it's kind of sad, but he's super quirky. And he remembers everything. So if something bad happens once in a particular place, he avoids it and will not forget about it.

Or he associates things with other things... so the fly swatter thing started because one night while trying to kill a fly, I knocked over a lamp. Made a loud noise, lightbulb broke, whole shebang. So he refused to come into my room for 2 nights. But then his fear shifted to just plain being afraid of fly swatters. Which he now knows are used to kill bugs/flies. So now whenever he sees a bug, he walks away too. lol. So yeah he associates every little thing and never forgets!
 

Doberluv

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#8
Jacksonsmom...your fly swatter story reminds me of something with Chulita. When I was hiking a lot when I lived in Idaho, there was a time when the mosquitoes were really, horrible. We were walking along and those darn insects were really getting aggressive and getting me. I'd pick up my speed, flail my arms around and swear at them. I guess one time I got pretty loud and agitated sounding, "these gosh darn mosquitoes!!!!" and little, sensitive Chulita kind of got freaked out. I tried to down play it as time went on, but I found and still find that if I use the word, "mosquito," no matter how inoccuously, she gets a very worried, nervous look on her face. So, I have to be careful.

She's a very quirky little dog....loves to burrow under a blanket, even if it's really hot, she still likes to be all covered up and works very hard to get the blanket just so. Jose` likes to burrow too at night. But he doesn't usually want to stay there for very long. He'll come out and get on top of the covers after a while. And on the couch, he pretty much likes to stay on top to look around. But not Chuli.

Jose` has a huge amount of character. It's so easy to anthropomorphize with him. He'll get a toy and carry it around to show people, especially visitors. If you're on the floor on couch where he can get at your level, he brings it over and stands right over you (if you give him a chance to) with his face vertical...kind of tucks his chin. He'll hold kind of still except for the tail wagging and a little bit of wiggle in his body. But he makes sure to get the toy very close to your face so you can see it. He struts like he's very proud and pleased with himself as he shows his toy off. It has become his signature. Everyone is so amused. It could be annoying to some people, I guess. It happened once, we all laughed and he got reinforced. This was a long, long time ago and ever since he's done this, especially for other people. Lots of dogs want to show their toy off. But he's different. I'll need to get a video some time because he really changes his whole way of walking, movement, how he holds his body and his head...very quirky.:D
 
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#9
Kharma . . . The Queen of Quirkdom, lol.

Her newest?

You know how cats will play the "walk through the room without touching the floor" game?

Yes.

All 150 pounds of her.

Never knocks anything down somehow. If I try to make her walk across the floor she goes and gets back on the bad and refuses to move.
 

JacksonsMom

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#10
Jacksonsmom...your fly swatter story reminds me of something with Chulita. When I was hiking a lot when I lived in Idaho, there was a time when the mosquitoes were really, horrible. We were walking along and those darn insects were really getting aggressive and getting me. I'd pick up my speed, flail my arms around and swear at them. I guess one time I got pretty loud and agitated sounding, "these gosh darn mosquitoes!!!!" and little, sensitive Chulita kind of got freaked out. I tried to down play it as time went on, but I found and still find that if I use the word, "mosquito," no matter how inoccuously, she gets a very worried, nervous look on her face. So, I have to be careful.
That does sound very much like him!

I'd love to see a video of Jose. You don't post enough of them!

A different thread just reminded me, too:

When he's trying to get my attention (when he's bored and under-exercised lol), he will pick up the most random things (like the other day it was a big plastic thing from a Barbie package) and he was just standing there staring at me holding this big ol' hunk of plastic in his mouth for like over a minute while I was on the computer, lol. Or he'll find a tiny piece of wrapper or plastic. He always tends to find bottle cap lids... I guess they fall out of my trash can, god only knows where he finds them. But he'll bring them to me, drop it by my foot, and when I try to grab it, he runs away. He requires a lot of attention, LOL
 

Snark

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#11
Murphy likes to contemplate when things go wrong (ie, Sis yells at him to stop digging in her garden in pursuit of a mole). He'll go off and sit in the middle of the yard and stare off into space for awhile. Probably trying to figure out stupid humans...


Riley, who asks to go out to play in thunderstorms, hates hearing the sound of a hand slapping down to destroy a gnat. He also hates having his food portions touch each other in his bowl - kibble in one area, canned food in another area, any extras in another area and god forbid if any overlap.
 

Catsi

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#12
Riley, who asks to go out to play in thunderstorms, hates hearing the sound of a hand slapping down to destroy a gnat. He also hates having his food portions touch each other in his bowl - kibble in one area, canned food in another area, any extras in another area and god forbid if any overlap.
Lol, that is funny. I remember someone posting once about their dog loved to just sit and stare in the distance.

Abby's quirk I mentioned in another thread, but it's the fact that she loves to be patted on top of the head. I run one finger from her nose to the top of her head and she melts away. And theoretical she should be merely tolerating it I guess. But nothing beats her reaction to this - it's definitely her favourite spot!

Grace actually likes to wash her face after eating. It's mandatory. I turn a blind eye and pretend it's not happening, thankfully she usually chooses an old towel we hang in the kitchen for spills but I have seen her use my doona and the side of the lounge chair (it's covered up).
 
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#13
Grace actually likes to wash her face after eating. It's mandatory. I turn a blind eye and pretend it's not happening, thankfully she usually chooses an old towel we hang in the kitchen for spills but I have seen her use my doona and the side of the lounge chair (it's covered up).
Bimmer does that! :)
 

Catsi

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^ Yay! I'll let Grace know she has a partner in crime! Funny dog, she doesn't do it very quietly either. A fair bit of slurping and sneezing goes on and lip smacking. She has also done it on my dressing gown if I happen to be standing in the way.
 
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#15
Bimmer keeps up a steady monologue while he does it, lol. Along with moaning.

Someone was commenting the other day about how I always have vocal dogs -- they look at you and talk TO you. If you try to ignore it . . . well, just try :rofl1: You'll get poked or prodded or whacked with a paw.

I figure it must be because I've always carried on conversations with my dogs (and my cat).
 

Brattina88

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#16
Quirks? Well... Bailey has too many to list! :rofl1:

Like this morning (or last night, however you look at it, 3am).. she.... fell out of bed... :rofl1: Not gracefully, at all. She tried to catch herself, which made it worse, of course. And then she limped around for about 10mins, enough for me to be really concerned, enough to get out of bed and feel her over. Which induced a bout of zoomies, and then barking at her leash, wanting a walk :rolleyes: Oy.
 

Shai

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#17
I honestly don't even know where to start...Webster and Kim especially are just unending series of quirky behavior lol...
 

Lyzelle

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#18
Zander likes to sleep in until at least 9am. Preferably noon. He is usually in bed by midnight. And no, he doesn't move once he's in bed. That's pretty much where he is staying.

Every morning when he gets up, he comes downstairs, greets me with zoomies and lots of grrrooooing and dancing to go outside. I let him out, make my coffee. Usually I put food in his bowl and we do a sit/wait routine. If I forget, he'll still sit by his bowl and stare at me yelling until I put food in there.

He then promptly takes a nap for 3 hours or more.

He has to walk the fence line when ever he goes potty. Even if he is on the complete other side of the yard, he HAS to go around the fence line before coming inside. It's almost impossible for him to just go straight across the yard.

He MUST wait for me at the bottom and top of the stairs. Just so he can run away at Mach 5. Or trip me down the stairs.

He can open doors. But still insists I open every door for him. And will cry pathetically until I do.

Zander's entire life is a giant quirk.
 

Laurelin

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#19
I honestly don't even know where to start...Webster and Kim especially are just unending series of quirky behavior lol...
So are my two. I just picked the ones from today. :p

Another one: At my dad's house if you let Summer inside from going potty she must run and do at least 6 or so laps around the couches.
 

~Dixie's_Mom~

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#20
Speaking of flyswatters, Chloe FREAKS out if you smack a fly/bug with a flyswatter. She will bark at whoever is using it. She gets really protective if anyone hits or act like they're going to hit someone/something. Especially if you have something in your hand. Which is really sad cause it makes me think she must've been abused or seen abuse in her original home. :(

Violet's not really quirky, she's just a spaz. Lol!
 

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