Gus-Gus the Very Clean Little Dog

When we lived in Kansas City, we adopted a terrier mix named Gus-Gus. He is a mutt in the truest sense of the word. He could have been named Skeeter, or Squirt, or Scrappy. He had been living with Bill’s sister and her family, and it wasn’t working out. We didn’t want to see him go to a shelter, so to Kansas City he came. At the time, we were living in an apartment. He took him in when he was about 4 months old. He weighed 9 pounds at the time. Now he weighs 19 pounds.

 I have to give the dog a lot of credit. He wasn’t an excessive barker and he picked up on potty training quickly. In other words, he didn’t get us in trouble at our apartment complex. Although our two cats were perplexed by his existence because they had most likely never seen a dog before, he was ambivalent toward them, which pleased us.

Gus is now about six years old. He’s been a great dog for us. He adjusted well when we took in his doggie “brothers,” Murphy and Karl. He goes with the flow. He even lived with Bill in Denver for about 7 or 8 months. He does fine in an apartment. He does well in a house with a yard. He was a good only dog, and he’s fine with being one of three as well.

He does have his quirks. For one, he is not fond of children. Also, despite being a scrappy looking little dog, he is very clean. He will do just about anything to NOT get dirty. 

I started taking him to obedience classes at K9 Playhouse in Waterloo when he was a little over a year old. He did well, except for a few odd issues. When we had to walk in a circle, he would zig zag around, avoiding particular areas in the grass. When he was called to come, he never ran to me in a straight line. It was in a curvilinear trajectory. After observing this for a while, I realized that his cleanliness was leading him to avoid areas of grass where other dogs had urinated. 

After obedience class, we decided to enroll Gus-Gus in agility. This is where dogs do obstacles on a course. If Gus had any promise at all, it was very much compromised by his inability to walk or run where another dog had urinated. Keep in mind that I was completely unaware of where these trouble zones were. They were invisible to the naked eye and only identifiable to his nose.

After the last session, our instructor mentioned that all of the dogs in the course could move to the next level of agility, except for Gus. His cleanliness had been his downfall. We dropped out of agility with our pride only somewhat intact. I don’t like to fail at such things. 

He behaves similarly in our backyard. If we throw a toy and it lands on a spot he considers “dirty,” the game is over. Sometimes I worry that he will run out of places to step in the backyard. After all, we do have three dogs. Sooner or later, will one of them have urinated at least once on every spot in the yard? If so, Gus will be very limited in movement. We’ll have to move.