Doppler’s Idiosyncrasies

Doppler at Ikea

We took Doppler shopping today. She accompanied us to Ikea in a camo bag slung over Helaine’s shoulder. A sign on the door said only Service Dogs were allowed. Doppler is Secret Service, Undercover Division.

I’m guessing they wouldn’t have bought that excuse had anyone asked. No one did.

Doppler was exceptionally good. After a brief attempt to let her paws hang out she settled back and took in the Swedish.

There’s a video attached to this entry showing Doppler’s pre-excursion excitement. Hyperactivity is the exception, not the rule for our puppy.

It got me to thinking about a few of Doppler’s idiosyncrasies.

Doppler must walk on the right… or from her perspective, you must be left of her. I have no idea why.

Doppler’s faster than me walking stairs. She’ll patiently wait for me upstairs then let me pass her so she can circle around and be on the right! She does it every time.

When we go outside for a walk Doppler’s also always on the right. She is adamant, even if I forget.

Today, when I gave her a large dog bone shaped treat she picked it up in her mouth then circled from the family room to the kitchen to the hallway past the front door and back into the family room. She made this circuit at least five times as Helaine and I watched and wondered.

This is not the first time she’s taken a bone on the grand tour of our ground floor.

Are these behavioral traits she was born with? Did she learn them?

Doppler came to us already grown up. We’ll never know.

11 thoughts on “Doppler’s Idiosyncrasies”

  1. I have the exact same dog as you but mines is a male he does the same thing when we bring him home new treats I just watch him doing laps around the house and just laugh…..love him to death even though he’s a little crazy at times 🙂

  2. Love it!! I’m pretty sure my dog would cause an international incident if I tried to smuggle her into IKEA. It’s pretty much chaos if I try to take her anywhere — for her, hyperactivity is the rule, not the exception.

    As far as the walking on your right side, if Doppler was leash trained before she came to you that may have been the side she was trained on. When my dog is willing to walk on a leash, she stays on my right because I prefer to have the leash in my right hand.

  3. My Cairn Terrier is a puppy mill rescue–he was 2 or 3 yrs old when he was rescued–puppy mills don’t keep track of birthdays for dogs that they keep as possible sires! He didn’t know from right or left–having lived in a crate 24/7 for all of his years. But he too–insists on walking on the right —I wonder if it is because they don’t like feeling boxed in–or maybe they want to protect us from those big cars, UPS trucks, etc. He is going to attend Obedience school in the near future and I’ll be anxious to see how ‘we’ will learn to keep him on the left!
    As for the bone—mine also carries it around to all of the rooms, before settling down to eat it. I think thay look for the place to hide it, in case they are interrupted. I cleaned under the couch last week–a feat in itself–and pulled out 3 kinds of bones—hidden from ??? Even he couldn’t have gotten them if for some reason, I forgot to feed him! They are characters—and they probably feel the same about us.
    Barb B

  4. Bree has a thing about “groving” across the bed or sofa when she first comes inside, or after a meal… If there’s a bone or toy there she’s got to rub it across each side of her body and roll all over it. She’s our little mutt rescue we got about the same time you got Doppler.

  5. Trooper, our rescue Lab, has some similar quirks, including the behavior in the video. We call it his “doggie happy dance” and it has us smiling every time.

  6. We lost our dear Captain Ahab a Westie in Nov to pancreatitis. Our other Westie Moby Jane formerly “Psychopup” is a changed dog ! She’s the sweetest thing now. We think she wanted to be the only dog…or maybe she’s next.

  7. I am literally an I am literally an expert on the subject of certain aspects of rescued dog behavior! Please have Doppler’s RIGHT eye closely checked out by a vet. Many of my rescues have had vision problems. When a dog needs you to be on one side, or the other, it’s because they have vision loss or problems in the other eye. If she absolutely requires you to be on the left of her eye, that’s because she can see you with that eye. If she can’t see, or see well out of her right eye, then she can’t get any information that she needs to have about what you are doing and where she is in relationship to you.

    There are many potential reasons for her grand tour. Perseverating behavior is a possibility for one. Behavior is a language all of its own. I know from experience. Watch what she does and then how she applies her behavior, and also when and why, and you will begin to acquire important clues about her past life.

    If you need any additional input, feel free to ask. If you have any doubts about my background, just check out my website(s).expert on the subject of certain aspects of rescued dogbehavior! Please have Doppler’s LEFT eye checked out by a vet.

  8. This additional post is through IE, instead of Firefox:

    We once had 5 Collie, 2 Shelties, and 2 cats, all rescues, and all at once. We currently have 5 rescue dogs – 4 Pugs, and 1 Silky Terrier. Two of the Pugs are blind in one eye. All have interesting behaviors, and identifying and understanding these behaviors really helps us to socialize them and help them when they have problems of some kind – all specific to each one.

    Pardon the mistakes in the first reply. It was caused by problems with my Firefox browser. It also left some information out, so here I am again!

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