Nimbo the Dog

We got our dog Nimbo as a puppy in November 2006, right after we moved into our house in Girdwood.  We're not sure exactly what Nimbo is, but we believe he's half newfoundland and half border collie.  "Nimbo" comes from the cloud formation "nimbostratus", the cloud type that produces precipitation.

Nimbo is full of character, and full of fur.  He frequently gets mats in his coat, but on the plus side he's fine in 0F temperatures and loves the snow.  Whenever we go outside in new snowfall, he rolls around like crazy on his back and makes doggy angels.  Alaska's ideal for him because he does overheat when it's above 60F.  He's in great shape and loves hard, steep hikes.  However, he has a limp when getting up after laying around for a while.

Nimbo has always had a very sweet and outgoing personality.  He loves greeting strangers, and still occasionally gets too excited and jumps on people.  The neighbors call him "smiley dog".  Unfortunately, a few people misinterpret his playfulness for aggression.  I think these people just don't know how to read dogs, and don't know that a wagging tail means a happy dog.  What really drives Nimbo crazy is when people just go by and ignore him.  He wants attention!

Nimbo certainly has some faults.  One fault is that he occasionally tries to herd cars, and will be successful at it if the car slows down enough.  But he usually realizes that they're bigger than him and eventually gives way.  However, he's pretty good around moose and bears, barking and standing ground but not necessarily provoking.  He once possibly saved my life when I stumbled upon a black bear in the backyard.  Another fault, as I mentioned before, is that he can be a bit too friendly.  His biggest fault is his lack of recall.  He'll come back just fine most times.  The big exception is when a hike or ski is just about done, he's off-leash, and we're approaching the car/house: then he'll keep away from us at all costs!  It's amazing how he knows that an adventure is coming to an end.  We don't know how he ended up like this, as we've always rewarded him for coming to us, and often release him as a reward.  I think it's just that he's super-smart and sees keep-away as a fun game.

Nimbo knows some basic tricks, though it's been tough to train him as he's not very motivated by food.  Tricks he'll do every time (treat or not) include sitting, shaking hands, and laying down.  He's also pretty good at staying and at sitting pretty.  Heeling is a bit tougher for him, but he doesn't pull the leash at all when walking.  Occasionally, we'll get lucky and he'll roll over, but generally he just lays down when you say "roll over" and maybe rolls over a quarter of the way.  One valuable trick of sorts is that he is a very private pooper.  In other words, he never just poops in the middle of the road, but rather deep in the bushes/woods.  If the neighbors ever blame Nimbo for pooping in the lawn, we know they're lying!  One downside of his pooping habits is that he needs to exercise to poop; we can't just let him out for a minute to go to the bathroom, but need to take him on a walk to "loosen things up".

We're anxious to see how Nimbo interacts with Zola.  We have no fear of aggression while he's awake.  However, we need to watch closely when Nimbo's asleep.  This is because Nimbo's a heavy sleeper, and when woken up/surprised, he jumps up suddenly and might growl.  We need to start startling him more when sleeping, and rewarding him when he doesn't act surprised.