Meet Ceasar and his person, James. I love the communication between these two and James’ ability to recognize cues from Ceasar and apply them to all of his relationships. It’s not only a profound amount of self awareness but another example of the profound role pups play in our lives.
Transcript
Julie Jackson:
Hey, welcome to happy tales of happy tales,the podcast where you’ll hear stories of the way pups have touched our hearts and our lives. So for the next few minutes, let everything else go and just listen and smile. I’m your host, Julie Jackson Hey, friends, thanks for being here. Today I’m sharing a conversation I had with my friend James and his precious pup Caesar. One of the things you’ll hear in this conversation that I just love is just they’re dynamic, and how they communicate, and how James is able to take the cues that he gets from Caesar, and translate them into relationships with the people in his life. And the way that his communication with his Pup has translated into his his everyday relationships and impacted his life. That’s one of the things I love about happy tales. I love the stories of dogs doing crazy funny things.And obviously, the heartwarming stories too. And I really love it when I have the opportunity to talk to someone who’s so in tune with how their dog is so much more than a pet but really impacts their life and just a really integral part of their world. So I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Just sit back,listen and smile.
James:
Are you I usually do everything from my PC for work on my laptop, and I’m using my phone this time, so I just don’t know how to use it, I guess.
Julie Jackson:
Oh, no worries.I’m the same way. Like no worries. And hi, Caesar. Hi,buddy.
James:
I was gonna give this morning but he was already mad at me. So we decided to not do.
Julie Jackson:
I think that’s totally fair. Thank you so much for doing this
James:
problem at all. Have you been
Julie Jackson:
very good. Thank you. I so I should give the disclaimer if I look like I’m like, you know, losing my mind doing this all the sudden, the dogs just like living with cottonwood trees in the house right now. Then I’ll be sitting here and all the sudden like first floating.
James:
How many do you have?Five? Oh, wow. That’s that’s a handful.
Julie Jackson:
Yes, we we had six and then very suddenly lost our little Roscoe in November.So So I say we have five Landry.My daughter lives with us. And Molly is hers. And Molly lives here too. But it’s funny. Molly has some little chihuahua terrier mix. And Molly considers Landry’s are in her apartment.So she spends most of her time in there. She comes out to socialize with us at dinnertime.And then she’s like, let me back in my room. So
James:
like the other dogs,
Julie Jackson:
she you know,she’s funny. I think she was what most of them are rescues.But she I think she was probably weaned too early. And bless her heart. She doesn’t know how to dog and she doesn’t know how to people. Like she just is that awkward, like social skills. And so she’s really sweet. Like,she’s sweet. And she’s and she wants to play with the other dogs so badly. And then when they want to, then when they reciprocate and start playing with her she like her hackles go up and she attacks them.
James:
She didn’t get that when she was in the letter. And that’s where they learned how to play and all that kind of stuff.And she didn’t get that. So
Julie Jackson:
I think you’re right.
James:
But not know it’s true for cats. I’ve heard I think it’s true for dogs too, because we did further learn how to play by it. And they know like the strength of their, their bite and stuff. And that’s why they say you don’t want to take them away from the mother too soon.Because it’s not just the milk.It’s the you know, just learning, I guess. Yeah,
Julie Jackson:
the social skills. So that’s what we think maybe happened with her. So she does okay. I mean, she’s not,she’s not one that we have. It’s not where we actually have to separate them. You know, she can be down there with them. And they’re really all good with her. I worry sometimes because the flutes are, I don’t know,like four or five times her size. And so if you know, we’re like, why are you tangling with them? That’s, that’s not they don’t ever every now and then if she gets really aggressive with them, they’ll kind of like make sure that she understands that.Hey, we’re not okay with that.But anyway, so
James:
not for me, I had to for a while a while back the previous two dogs and they didn’t look they hated each other. They absolutely hated each other. They fought all the time. And I was like, Okay, this is never happening again.
Julie Jackson:
Well, and that’s really hard when I have a friend who rescues and she’s had that were two different times. She’s had to keep like one dog gets to be out during the day and one dog gets to be out. You know, at night and they have to alternate because, and we’ve just been really blessed that we’ve never run into that because I don’t remember a time I’ve had less than three. Like, no wildlife.Yeah. As a child we did. I didn’t have a house full of dogs but as soon as I was old enough to start rescuing on my own
James:
Okay, so the rescues?
Julie Jackson:
Yes, we well,okay. I say that we don’t ever buy dogs, but we have two sets of twins are healers right now.They’re almost 13. And they’re girls, Lily and Eleanor. And they were some friends. It was an accidental litter that some friends had. So if they didn’t find homes for him, they were going to have to surrender them.So that they were not like in a horrible situation. Roscoe our little guy he was to the Texas cattle dog rescue and then the same thing with the flutes now the boys Chuck and Barney that are the two year old Husky mixes. Same deal. Some friends of ours, it was an accidental pregnancy. And they were trying to find them homes but they couldn’t find homes for them.And it was one of those things where like the people that were interested, they didn’t feel comfortable that it was for loving reasons, you know, like they just never had anyone respond that they felt comfortable sending them with so they were about to surrender them to the Husky right? The Husky Rescue to see if the Husky if they could get them adopted out. And we had already kind of fallen in love with them, but had four at the time. And so,Ricky, who is a reasonable human being was like, No, we’re not taking to Husky puppies. And I was like, okay, but you know, I would like show pictures. And I’d be like, Look, he could be yours, you know? And he’s like,No. And then when he found out they were going to the shelter,or the rescue, even though the Husky Rescue would have been a great, you know, they’re great,obviously. But he looked in he goes, Well, I guess we’re getting two puppies. And I was like two.
James:
Oh, he was ready to get both of them.
Julie Jackson:
Yeah, well, I appreciate his heart because I felt the same way since they were siblings. He didn’t want to separate them.
James:
But you were just trying to get one of them that he ended up going for two routes. Yeah.The big prize?
Julie Jackson:
Yeah. Yeah. So Well, tell me all about Caesar.
James:
Caesar. I wanted to I lost my Maxwell the year before and or not by? Yeah, probably like a year before that. And I wasn’t sure if I was gonna get another dog. And I seen some Boston Terriers and absolutely loved them. And so I started to look for them. And I couldn’t find any breeders in the area.So I looked, I called the Boston Terrier society in North Texas.And they hooked me up with a breeder in Louisiana. And it’s somewhere between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. And so I flew there it was around Mardi Gras.And she wasn’t sure if she was going to actually sell them because she was planning on showing them. But she said give me about three weeks. And he was just like maybe six weeks old at the time. And I saw his picture and I’m like I named him Cesar before I ever gotten home. I told her that. She calls me one day I get this message. And it’s like, Hi, this is Tina. She goes Cesar wanted me to let you know he says hello and he wants to talk to you. And I knew that that meant I was gonna get him.So before I even got him my my friend Richard named him Pablo.So he, a lot of my friends called him Pablo. And they that’s where the whole publisher thing came from. But I flew there around Mardi Gras picked him up and flew home. He got to fly to the first class with all that he got to get spoiled on the plane. He didn’t have to he didn’t go under the seat the whole time. He was not. He just sat on my lap and oh, that’s just awesome. And so he’s just been an amazing boy. He’s halfway Well, we did we did. I did show him several times. He made it halfway to a champion but he got mad at me because I kept messing up the shows because what was a waiter I miss do the paperwork and like everyone else the other Daddy does it right.
Unknown:
Get it together dad.
James:
And he was already mad at me at the time because I got into a fight with his teacher in his agile class so we couldn’t go back there anymore. So Daddy,you so bear with me all the time. So
Julie Jackson:
Oh, I love the Pablo shirt picture. So great.Was that his welcome home party?
James:
No. So that so they did that was back in around 2016 I guess it was election year. And they just described my friend John Irish John. He just had them all made, or he had a couple of names. And then everybody saw them. They loved them. And so like, we had the whole group that was there. But then people that have gone on cruises where they’re like, oh,send me one. Yeah. So like,there’s like a lot of people would vote Pablo shirts and people whose public
Unknown:
that’s great. That was great.
James:
Yeah. So he’s a good boy,though. He’s all kinds of stories with them. He’s he’s he’s a paint. He’s a bit of a spoiled brat. It’s been very determined. like his personality is very strong. And he he’s very, like there’s a place in the living room where I have to sit on the floor. And when Mike has to hit the floor, otherwise we’re not playing and he hasn’t considered that plan. And he will pout until I get in that position. And once like he’ll act like I’m just like he competed and stuff. He’s got like Sarah McLachlan playing in the background. And then once I sit there, he’s hot. And he’s running around and he’s playing.It’s crazy. I might get too old for that, though. Yeah, it’s
Julie Jackson:
amazing how adept they are at training people.
James:
Yeah, very much. So.Yeah, he’s got a certain way he would eat he’s very picky about his food. And if I don’t prepare it, right, it gets sent back.
Unknown:
So how does he How does he want it prepared?
James:
So cuz well, so he’s, he can’t get used to like one thing. So if I give like, he likes grilled chicken, right, so I’ll cut up the chicken grill.He loves it. But then he gets started. He won’t eat it. And then I’ll go to something else.So just keep switching right?The look carriage for a while,which are good for him. But he just stopped eating those. He was on a raw diet. And I had to stop that because it’s just nasty. I mean, it’s good for the dog. Or for me just having it in the bowl with all the you know if it was raw, and if he didn’t eat it right away. I just I just couldn’t and just touching it was nasty. So yeah, so he eats pizza, you cook it for now. And if it’s like a chuck steak or something, I won’t, I won’t cook it like I’ll just slice that up for him and just give him a little bit at a time because it’s not like nasty like chicken isn’t slimy. But yeah, so he and he pretty much eats me he always has to have my food. So if we’re in a restaurant, like I said, on the patio order seminar, order him a piece of chicken, the same thing I’m having, he won’t eat his I’ll have to eat mine.Unless I put it on the boat don’t have it on like if I took his chicken, put it on my plate and started feeding in that.He’s totally good with it.
Unknown:
Oh, so he’s smart.
James:
Oh, yeah. It’s.
Julie Jackson:
So one thing I noticed from his pictures. I was cracking up because he would either have like this big grin on his face. Or of course, when you were showing him he looked so serious. And I thought this guy knows how to work a room.
James:
Yep. And he just did not want his dogs like run up to people. And they’re like, oh my god, it’s a new person. They fit me and he’s not like that. He’s like, I’m an amazing dog. Come over here and pet me. That’s great. When you come through your work and your dogs say they come over, they jump on you.They want to kiss you, right?Yes, he goes crazy like that.But what he what he he’ll do so stay in one place. He thinks I’m so happy to see him that I need to come over and bed and he won’t run to me. He wants me to come to him.
Julie Jackson:
Oh my goodness,as well as it should be James.
James:
Exactly, exactly. But yeah, he’s a he’s helped me through a lot of tough times. I had a dream, right before the pandemic and just around that time, things were not really good for me. He was right there by my side. He was my buddy. He made me laugh every day. You know, because he had, you know,at the time, you know, like everyone was out. Staying home and you couldn’t really go anywhere. Well, when you live alone, that’s not very fun. You know, so having him around was a was the best. So
Julie Jackson:
So have you did you grow up with dogs? Or have you always had dogs?
James:
We had we were teenagers.We didn’t have any. It’s like kids. I don’t think my mom wanted him. But there were like12 or so we had our German Shepherds and we had to do conceiva So yeah, we had those.And then when I moved out on my own I got Maggie and I had Maxwell now and I’ve seen her so
Julie Jackson:
we’ll Caesars amazing. So what do you think you’ve learned from Cesar?
James:
Well, what have I learned from you, Cesar? Well, I guess I’ve learned just about animal socializing. I think I may have over socialized him. But I think it’s good because when he’s key,he sees other dogs he because he’s still intact. A male dog will kind of take that as a threat. So sometimes I have you know, he knows how to deal with it. Like he knows when a dog is growling or being aggressive. He knows how to just be neutral and kind of keep the peace. It’s really interesting how he does it. Yeah, he’s not he doesn’t like trying to attack back he doesn’t act like he or she just stays there and just kind of acts like everything’s good. And usually the other dog just kind of backs off some kind of learning that with people you know, instead of just trying to attack them back just maybe show them that they’re not that big.
Unknown:
That’s so profound.
James:
Don’t pop up and don’t shrink, but just stand your ground. That’s what he did. He just stayed there. And he was a he never got himself fit or anything. So
Julie Jackson:
ah, it’s I love how they model things for us.
James:
Oh, yes, I’m gonna put him down because he dragged me mental
Julie Jackson:
Well, he’s like,I’ve made my parents. He’s like
James:
a famous, famous. But yeah, you’ll learn a lot from them. And you also learned, like I’ve learned, I’m add. And I don’t know if you remember that from school, but like, I like I put the add in Adderall, let me just say that. And I’m like,when I started going off, and he’ll he’ll just stare at me,it’s really interesting. He helps me to stay focused. And he helps me to, like I’ve learned just from how he reacts to me,because dogs, they’re looking for signs from us, they don’t speak our language. So they’re looking for our emotions,they’re looking for sounds or smells, just to kind of pick up on on the communication, like our body language to them. And so I’ve learned that, you know,I probably confuse him sometimes when I’m saying, Hey, you want to go for a walk? And next thing I know, I’m reading a book, and he’s like, you’re going for a walk? Sorry. But you learn that and I’m thinking, Okay, well,maybe in my relationships with people, like I might do that,and they might feel neglected,or, you know, because I haven’t really finished what I was intending to do. And I just kind of went on to something else.And having him around kind of helped me to be more aware of that. I don’t know if he’s like,dogs have a talent in that way.But for some reason, whenever I find myself going off into add,whatever you call add hold, it’s like, he’s right there staring at me. And I’m, like, stopping to stare at me until I stop
Julie Jackson:
judging you or is he just like, settle down?
James:
He would judge me regardless.
Julie Jackson:
Right? Yeah,that’s funny, because of course,we have multiple personalities,you know, they’re all so different, that there’s a lot of things that they, I think all of them are unconditional. But as far as just their the way they accept us and love us, but their personalities are always so unique. And it’s funny, because we always have we, you know, we have one personality, at least that she’ll look at, you know,you know, you’re being judged.No
James:
want to play like,constantly want to play.
Julie Jackson:
Um, you know,it’s funny, the dynamic. The boys, Chuck and Barney, they’re still young, too. But they they go hard, like, they will just play play, and then they’re exhausted. And then for you know, and then that sometimes that’ll last him the whole day.So they may go hard for like2030 minutes. And then it’s funny, because sometimes they try to play with the healers,who are the senior girls. Okay.And Lily, in particular, Lily and Eleanor, both from the same litter. But Lily, bless her heart, she’s totally blind now.And both of them have benign tumors, but Lily’s is on her belly. And it’s really large,like really big. So I know, it causes her discomfort if she likes just to sit and lay just so you know, so that it’s not putting pressure or whatever.And so sometimes we especially worried that when they start trying to play rough, and they’ll try to play with her.But it’s funny, because even like having that and being blind and everything, sometimes all of a sudden we look and she’s like jumping, you know, and she’s wanting to play with them, too.And then she’ll kind of put them in their place like, Okay, I’m done. And so for her, it may last three minutes, you know,but she’ll even sometimes, and the boys really want to play with the girls sometimes just because I think that’s their nature. And the girls will indulge them for a little bit.And then they’re like, Yeah,we’re done. We’re out of here.So
James:
we’ll see. That’s the beauty of having other dogs if they play with each other. This one Yeah, he’ll walk up to me.I’ve been doing painting in my condo, and he’ll just come up with his toys. It’s so cute.He’s got that likely why? And I’m like, I can’t put my stuff down and play with them. Because it’s just so cute. And he’ll walk up to me with his little toy all the time, just want to play. I’ll be working and he has his little bed under my desk.And so I work from home. So he’ll sleep down there. But then every now and then he’ll just start getting like really antsy to walk in the morning and then at noon, but then, while I’m on conference calls, he sees me here, I’m home. I’m talking but I’m not paying any attention to him and he doesn’t get that. Oh,
Julie Jackson:
right. I have certain a few days that I work from home and Lily now especially being blind. She’ll hear me on the phone. And when she does sometimes she’ll walk up and start barking like who are you talking to? You know,why aren’t you talking to me?You’re home and you’re talking it should be to me?
James:
Who else could that be?There’s not really there like there could be people that own versus voices.
Julie Jackson:
And there couldn’t be anyone that matters more than me. Anyway
James:
absolutely true. You know, I mean, I have two dear friends a lot of good people in my life but there’s nothing like the love of a dog. There’s just nothing like it.
Julie Jackson:
That’s so true.That’s so true. Well and you know, I thinking about you saying how you’ll be doing something he comes up with his little toy or whatever. Whatever it is you’re doing, it’ll still be there. You know? Oh, so that I love the fact that you recognize that and you’re like,let’s play. Because
James:
trust me, it’s still there. Now. I still haven’t finished.
Unknown:
It’ll be there. It’ll be there.
James:
It’s cute because you only get the dog for a very short time and then you want to love them all they can face is just like you sit here staring at me. He’s got his toy right now sitting on his little stool to get up on the bed. He’s looking at me.
Julie Jackson:
Yes. So Lily and Eleanor, they’re so consistent,so loyal. They’re laying right here at my feet right now.They’re both I mean, and they’re sat down. I would be willing to bet that Chuck and Barney right now are laying right outside that door also sacked out. But if I closed that door, then that would totally not be acceptable.And right before we started,Chuck was in the seat next to me. He was like, let’s go. You know, so yes, they, I’ve never been. I’ve missed an opportunity. Because with all the dogs I’ve had in my life,I’ve never been one to really learn how to train them. I mean,we learned manners there. It’s not okay for them to not have manners. But for the most part,I should probably qualify that.But but as far as you know,like, being really good about sit and stay and recall and all that they know basics, but they think they’re optional. And so I was kind of laugh because I’m like, you’d think that I would be really good at training dogs,but I just never learned how to do that. But I have never been owned by a dog that was not an expert people trainer.
James:
Exactly. Have you heard of the clicker training?
Julie Jackson:
I have. I have I’ve never done it. Have you done it?
James:
Yeah, that’s how I train Cesar with clicker training. And so like that’s how we learned all those tricks. And he learned like I learned he learned to stay away from the Christmas tree because it just put the skirt folks use. He just pulled it he just had a sore sometimes if he thinks he’s a cat, I think this dog he just tried to jump from his thing onto the onto the ledge of the window and went right down. I’m like,
Unknown:
failures village.
James:
Like really, Cesar. But yeah, so the clicker training really taught him like, what I did with the tree is I didn’t put the tree up. I just had to scrub down and just the stem of it. And I would walk over there with him. And then I would click as long as he didn’t cross over onto the tree skirt. And that he stayed away from it never went near and he was just a little puppy. Yeah, works. He but you have to click and treat and I think with this tricks, though,key key. You have to treat it like a penis. Treat my hand you ain’t gonna do it.
Julie Jackson:
Oh, okay. Right,right. Yeah, now they have figured out so this will have to be a whole episode in and of itself because the boys.Fortunately, we’re surrounded by dog people. But there’s a beautiful border collie on one side. And I’m not sure if she’s altered or not, because I think Chuck really has a crush on her.And there are certain times when Chuck really wants to be on her side of the fence. And he has figured out how to pop the boards out of the fence at will.
James:
Oh my god. Wow. Yeah.
Julie Jackson:
So the fence the the cross pieces are on our side. There’s nothing on that side to prevent it and the fences are old enough that you know those little nails they use we’re not floof proof and so when he’s determined he just because they’re like this, he just pops them out. And and then on the other side, it’s two boys and they like to they like to play like nasty vicious with each other. But Chuck also knows how to pop the boards out. So he’s gotten in their yard multiple times. And once they’re in the yard together, they’re best buddies like they act completely vicious when they’re when the fences between them.But once they get together, they just romp and play and there,but whenever we see them going up against the fence, we have to get him in pretty quickly because we know that if we don’t he could bust right through. And so we would treat them and then we got where sometimes we wouldn’t treat them so that we don’t always have to have the treats. And now sometimes if we’re really desperate, we just slam the cabinet in the kitchen that the treats are in. And when he hears the door slam, they come running in so there’s some things they know but
James:
yeah, he obviously my dad well we had our dogs and he thought that he could like talk to him and argue with them like that. They don’t know they have a clue what you’re saying. I mean you can’t punish a dog a dog doesn’t realize that he’s in timeout because he did something wrong your dog just knows you’re putting in a room right now.Yeah, that’s why when we come home and he’s to eat something up we know the look on his face I’m like that’s because they know the fact that when there’s a mess here and you come home they’re gonna get in trouble.It’s not that they you’re guilty I don’t think I think it just because they know that in this situation. This is what happens and so if they shore up a couch,they see you come home.
Unknown:
Yeah, like what I did.Yeah, yeah,
James:
exactly. Exactly. This one he has PTO. I think he chewed a shoe like he started to on a shoe and brought it to me He put it down and turned himself and that was the only thing he ever chewed
Unknown:
well, okay,
Julie Jackson:
I think I think there’s about to be some fluff shenanigans. There
James:
are keys he’s like,normally he’s at the park now it’s beautiful outside it looks like Well, hey,
Julie Jackson:
I’m gonna let y’all go hit the park. But I cannot tell you how much I This has been so great. And I appreciate your time so much.
James:
Yes, definitely. I enjoyed speaking with you as well and I look forward to talking to you again,
Julie Jackson:
thank you so much for being here and have a great one friends. Don’t forget to head over to Facebook and Instagram to see pictures. Head to the website for your free gift. Or if you would like to share a story, any story ideas or suggestions. And finally, if you want to receive this podcast automatically, please subscribe or like in your pod catcher. And if you like what I’m doing,please consider sharing and liking and maybe even being really wild and crazy and leaving a comment so other people can find out about it and we can share more stories.please always remember that you are as great as your dog thinks you are and smooch your pooch,have a great one y’all