Lumos the Maremma

Lumos is a singer. When he’s excited or enjoying himself, he has no problem breaking out his vocal chords and letting me know it. I mentioned this to his breeder, who said “Oh, you got a woo-woo dog. Sorry about that, there are some in the line LOL.” Sorry? On the contrary, this is very useful. Yesterday, for example, while the other half took Ben to the park, the Fluffball and I wound up on the living-room rug for a cuddle and belly rub (his, not mine) of epic proportions. Then the conversation started…

“Lumos” I said, “do you like having your belly rubbed?”
“Woooo-ooooo”, was his reply. Possibly ambiguous, but there was no mistaking the tone.
“Good. Now, would you like sardines, lamb or scrambled eggs with dinner?”
“Woo.” Lamb, clearly. One syllable, see? I could have guessed his choice, but the confirmation was good to have.
“While we’re on the topic of things you like, baths are not on that list, are they?”
“Woo-Woo.” This sounded suspiciously like “nuh-uh” to my human ears.
“I do apologise, but they are sometimes necessary” I said. This earned me a departure from his usual vocabulary.
“Hmph” he muttered, and gave me a dirty look.

Talking to a dog can’t possibly be a sign of madness…but what about when the dog starts talking back?

Lumos came home to us 8 days ago, and to say it’s been an interesting week is putting it mildly.  Most readers of this blog will know that I have been researching Maremmas and preparing to own one for a few years now, and I’ll be honest: I thought I knew what I was getting into.

As much as I knew that Lumos would be a very different puppy than my Lab was, it’s still a drastic change going from a dog who, though scatterbrained, has a permanent “will work for food” sign on his forehead to one who is so…intuitive, and who values praise and proximity to me more than liver treats.  Ben needed to be shown what do to in almost every situation, then to repeat that often until it really “stuck”, with Lumos sometimes I feel as though he can read my mind, he’s so accurate in determining what I want from him.  Although in many ways this is wonderful, it does present some interesting challenges.  For starters, it’s much harder to enforce that he should follow commands when he doesn’t give me the chance to say them.

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Actually, he came home on Sunday, but it’s been hard to tear myself away from him long enough to write here.  As I type he’s asleep on my foot, which he seems to prefer to sleeping on any kind of bed.  It’s wonderful until I need to stand up.

Lumos is truly a joy, getting along with his Labrador brother Ben, house-training more easily than I could have imagined and he’s very quick to pick up both commands and house rules.  Part of me wonders if he’s being easy now to make up in advance for the challenge he may be as an adolescent.  He IS being a little swine to Ben on occasion, but a) Ben sometimes deserves it and b) Lumos needs to do these things and be told off as part of the puppy learning experience, so I just sit and watch, trying not to laugh too loudly at them.

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I finally have some news to share, which means I’m finally posting. I MET LUMOS! Yesterday the other half and I drove for a few hours across the country to see the litter and choose our puppy, though if I could have I might have chosen all of them, brought a flock of Maremmas home and bought a sheep to guard them. My breeder, Jacqui, and her daughter had already identified one of the 3 dog puppies as the most likely “Lumos”, the “little” guy cemented this when he sat in my arms and kissed my nose.
Temperamentally, the one we have chosen is the best fit for us, although he’s a curious and interested puppy, which they should be at just over 5 weeks, he’s not the pushiest of the boys.  Read the rest of this entry »