I've often talked about Itzl alerting on trains. He likes trains. He gets to alert on trains often because I work near an active railroad track.
This is the way he usually looks at me, just to make sure I'm close enough:
This is his "I hear a train" alert - notice his right ear is laid back and his eyes are wider open:
That's the sign he developed for alerting me to "train". Itzl is a clever dog and learned that he could not only learn the hand signs I give him, he could create his own sign language to talk to me. He doesn't have a huge vocabulary, but he can tell me things like "friend" or "stranger" is approaching or at the door, if it's my work phone or someone else's phone sounding, if it's the noon siren and thus lunch time, and he has a range of cuss words.
Why, yes, I have a foul-signing dog. He's very, very anal-retentive and he wants everyone around him to be well-behaved - his sort of well-behaved. If you don't, he calls you bad names in his doggie sign language. I've learned to interpret his sign language, and sometimes I'm appalled by what he says, and sometimes amused.
"Bad dog" is his general, all purpose insult and bad name for people and other animals who misbehave. He turns his head away and tosses his nose up with a slight flare of his nostrils. He's probably snorting, but I can't hear it. If he's not confined to his carry pouch, he will turn around, look at the person he's insulting to see if they're watching, then turn his head away and toss that nose up.
"Bent ear" is what he calls people he thinks are too stupid to listen properly. I frequently give directions to people (part of my job is telling people where to go) and if they get it wrong - especially if they get lost and have to come back, he will look up at me, bend one ear back as he raises one eyebrow in a very Spock-like way, then bend the other ear back and slowly shake his head once, maybe twice.
I haven't been able to get a decent photo of his "yap yap" sign, the one he gives when he thinks someone is talking too much. I may have to find a way to take a video of it rather than a photo because he vibrates his lower jaw while cutting his eyes at me to see if I notice his insult.
I also haven't gotten a photo of his "stupid jerk" sign, either, because he makes it only when he's in his carry pouch. He flicks a paw at the person, jerks his head a couple of times, then sighs heavily in a "whatcha gonna do" way.
His newest and most lethal insult is his "dirty paw" one - he licks his paw slowly and deliberately, then pretends to hack up a hairball while rolling his eyes at me.
But this diary started with Itzl's sign for trains and got derailed into his insults (because I think it's funny that dogs aren't all lovey-dovey, worship the ground you walk on, they can get mad, and they can pass judgement on others, and they can be terribly insulting, and I am privileged to witness this).
This is how close the train tracks are to where I work:
The train passes by 4 times every day and the 5th time is generally on the way home from work, when we get caught by the crossing bars and have to wait for the train to pass.
I've often wondered if Itzl would like riding on the train, and have contemplated taking him on a day trip to DFW. There are several museums within walking distance of the train station. I wonder how the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame compares to the local National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame? And with museums so close, I'm sure there will be eateries.
Maybe come October, I'll have time to consider this.