Big Stick Physics

Tag: Sparky

Camper seating version 2 project

August 18, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Sparky isn’t being exploited, he is part of the reason the camper seats needed to be updated to version 2.

Last year, I re-imagined the seats in the camper and posted about it.  Camper seating version 1.

The design was flawed.  Seats are more comfortable when they slope down a bit.  These were horizontal.  The seat backs tilted back, but weren’t very sturdy.  In bed mode, the sleeping area was bigger than it needed to be, but there were too many steps to get to bed mode. 

I could have lived with it, but Sparky wasn’t satisfied.

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Dog shelter for my shelter dog.

March 2, 2023 /

Like normal people, Sparky is reluctant to do his nasty business if anyone is watching.  He’s not gun-shy, he’d pee on the pope in front of St. Peter’s Basilica if he needed to mark that territory.  However, It’s best to tether Sparky, and leave him for a while if he might need to poop.

Even with his Carhartt jacket, Sparky doesn’t like wet weather, so I made a dog shelter for my shelter dog.  I didn’t build a dog house, because he would be reluctant to crap inside.

From a prior experimental project, I had a bunch of 1 1/2″ Schedule 40 PVC pipe, so that seemed like good material for a structure.

  • The base pipes are filled with sand to keep it from blowing over.
  • The roof is 4 ft by 3 ft, with a 2/12 pitch.  That large because the sides are open.
  • The roof is white PVC so it stays cool in the summer.  They didn’t have polycarbonite.
  • The uprights aren’t glued in, so I can change the height if necessary. 
  • Since the uprights are detachable, it’s easy to store.
  • I painted it because I paint everything.

It doesn’t take Sparky long to wrap himself around the axle.  He is a smart dog, so perhaps he can resolve that dog puzzle.

 

Sparky and Jalad at Tanagra

February 22, 2023 /

I remember the words, but I don’t understand.

I never liked that episode of Star Trek: TNG, and now I’m living it with Sparky.  He’s a smart dog and, at 9 years old, had a lifetime of experience.  He seems to be operating in good faith and wants us to be friends.  Where ever he came from, they had routines.  I don’t know what those routines were and have different expectations.

We started training with a few basic commands.  If I look at him and talk, he comes over and sits down.  He may not understand anything, but that is 2 out of 3 of the commands we covered, so there is a good chance that he’ll get a treat.

He is about 50/50 on getting “Lay down” right and when he does, it looks awkward and unnatural, like he forgot where his legs go. 

“Crate” has been tough.  At first, he acted like it meant “go 10 feet away, and turn right”.  That worked the first couple of times we tried it, but not if we started somewhere else.  Eventually, he figured it out, but recently, he seems to think it means “run around the house and get to the patio door as fast as possible.”  I don’t now if he’s screwing with me or trying to tell me something.

When I lived in Spain, I spent time with people from all over Europe.  Most didn’t speak English, while I spoke a little German and rudimentary Spanish.  I found that conversation had to be concise and pretty basic.  Witty word play or complexity was out.  Sparky is smart and opinionated.  Sometimes, I think he’s trying to mix it up for fun or thinks that I’m offering him suggestions.  If we had 30 seconds of communication, we could clarify our signals and this would all go easier.

Sparky and the Poop War

February 22, 2023 /

Sparky and the Poop Fence

Not so much a war, but a frustrating negotiation. 

Based on reasonable advice from Monica, Sparky had a poop fence available when I first brought him home.  The idea is that the dog will realize this designated area is his dump station.  Take him there, he poops or doesn’t, but either way, he had a shot.

I’ve got a good patch with some woods, so I take Sparky for nice walks or rambles through the woods.  First walk we took, Sparky took a dump on my wood pile.  Next walk, he crapped on a stump.  For each walk, we start and end at the poop fence, but he didn’t use it.  Pete or Tim thought that was fine, we had a system.  Take him for a walk an hour after morning and evening meals, and we’re good.  Pitch the dirty business into the brambles or across the fence.

The problem is that a walk isn’t the same as a dump station.  My schedule or the weather isn’t always conducive to a long walk.   It was late in the evening and he hadn’t crapped in a while, so I took Sparky to the poop fence.  He doesn’t recognize that as a dump station, so he just wandered around.  He was eager to walk, so we did a short loop.  He wanted to go up the hill, and around the third of a mile loop to a spot he likes by the church parking lot.  I wasn’t up for that, so Sparky politely shat in the creek. 

I have to explain the poop fence to Sparky.  My plan is to leave him in the poop fence until he’s got to go.  I like the long walks, so we power through without a stop.  On the last walk, he was sniffing some stuff, then started to hunker down.  I waved him off and took him to the poop fence.  He didn’t understand, and resisted the urge.

Sparky can’t tell me when he’s got to take a shit.  You know, sometimes, you just gotta go.  His new strategy is to hunker down and commence taking a crap a couple of feet away from me.  He’s a smart dog, I appreciate his thought process.  I interrupt him and hustle him outside.  His approach is much better than shitting behind a couch or in a closet.

I’ve noticed that Sparky likes to be on a stump or  mound or anything else that is a little higher when he does his business.  Maybe I can work with that.

 

 

 

Hide the Bunny

February 21, 2023 /

Sparky is eating breakfast, otherwise, he’d be muscling in on this photo.  His stuffed bunny, George, is barely visible under the t-shirts.  Sparky doesn’t speak English, so I can only speculate.  Sparky seems to be protective of the stuffed bunny, and is concerned that if I see it, I will take it away because I never let him do what he wants. 

Sparky’s list of grievances:

  • He has to dump in the poop pen, rather than a quarter-mile away at the retention pond by the church parking lot, where he likes to shit. 
  • Meals are only twice per day, rather than all the time.
  • He doesn’t get to eat my food.
  • I spend too much time on the computer or watching TV.
  • He isn’t allowed to roll in deer shit as often as he’d like.
  • He comes over and puts his paws on my knee, yet isn’t invited on to the couch and given any treats.  How is that fair?
  • He was given a bath, which goes against everything he’s trying to do.
  • He’s not allowed to live in the culvert pipe the creek flows into.
  • My truck is too high for him to get into. 
  • I make weird sounds and flap my hands around.  Crate?  Lay down?  WTF is any of that supposed to mean?  He walked over and sat down when I looked at him, isn’t that enough?  Where are the treats?

 

Sparky has a new friend or pet, I can’t tell. 

February 21, 2023 /

Sparky and George

I’m putting together a camping kit for Sparky.  I got him a little bunny from Tractor Supply, and thought he should get acquainted before we go on a trip.  With Mr. Moose, Sparky was rough, with the chewing and the fetching.  With George, he’s protective.  In his crate, when Sparky takes a nap, he covers George up with some old t-shirts I leave in there.   When we play fetch with Mr. Moose, Sparky will drop Mr. Moose on command.  He doesn’t do that with George.  It took some convincing to get Sparky to leave George in the house when I took him out to take a dump.

The bunny is named George because the Abominable Snowman sounds like what Sparky would say if he could speak English.  The Bugs Bunny cartoon is referencing Of Mice and Men from John Steinbeck.

 

 

 

 

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