Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Lessons Learned…Day One Hundred, Eighty Two

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Life is about learning.  I like to think I learn something new every day.  You don’t always know where the lesson will come from, but it comes none-the-less. Sometimes it comes from the least likely source.  I learned some fairly important lessons this weekend, which I would like to share here tonight.

A dog who will ignore his kibble and refuse to eat while on vacation approaches raw food differently. He will eat raw food on someone’s deck or even on an access road at a rest area.  Lesson learned from Sampson Stone-Golden Lab.

Some things are worth burning your tongue for (like bacon grease.) Lesson learned from Delilah Stone-Chocolate Lab.

Dogs know where their beds are;  even if their parents have given up their bed for guests, they want to sleep in their bed.  Lesson learned from Gordon Kelly-Golden Retriever and J.D. Kelly-Jack Russell Terrier .

If you refuse to let a dog sleep in their bed, they will wait you out in the hall outside the bedroom door, causing you to trip when you get up in the night to use the bathroom.  Lesson learned from Gordon Kelly.

When there are dogs sleeping outside your bedroom door; your dogs will not sleep.  Lesson learned from Sampson and Delilah Stone.

A dog that runs an agility course like a champ will refuse to use a ramp outside a doggie door.  If you try to force the dog down the ramp by tugging her, you will slip on a dead mouse and slide down the ramp on your ass. Lesson learned from Delilah Stone.

Dogs that haven’t slept for three nights….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like to be pampered.

Lesson learned.

Our Mini-Vacation…Day One Hundred, Eighty One

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Saturday in New Hampshire was a pretty chill day for the dogs.  My sister and I had things to do, my brother-in-law had to work a half day, so Sampson and Delilah were left at home with Chet and my sister’s dogs.

Delilah, Gordy (in the back) Sampson, Bandit and J.D.

Chet did get the dogs outside into the nice big field so they could run around for  a little bit.  I was nervous that Delilah would take off, so anytime she went outside I made sure she had the beeping/vibrating collar on, but she really did phenomenally well.  She responded to us every time!!

I felt kind of bad that the dogs were stuck in the house, so Sunday I suggested taking them swimming.  We piled into our respective cars and headed to Moore Reservoir.  There were two couples with their dogs at the beach area, but we found a spot in between them where the dogs could swim.  Neither one of their dogs were swimming so it wasn’t a huge issue.  We had Delilah on a 30 foot leash because her vibrating collar is not waterproof, after a few minutes of really wanting to go greet one of the dogs, she settled in.

We started a game of fetch with the dogs by throwing some sticks in the water, the big swimmers were Delilah, Gordon and Bandit.  Sampson swam a bit but was really content to walk in the water.  J.D. doesn’t like to swim.

Initially we had Delilah on the leash; then I began letting the leash go and allowing her to swim with it on.  My brother-in-law advised us to be cautious with this as her leash could get caught on something along the bottom; while Chet and I were prepared to swim in order to save our baby I decided I would take her off leash.

Delilah and Gordon were the ones who played the longest.  Gordon is a greedy boy and doesn’t like to share sticks.  Whenever one of us would throw a stick,  there was always a chance that Gordon would get there first.  Delilah is the dog that never says never; she was determined to bring in the stick.

I thought after an hour of swimming, the dogs would sleep great last night, but alas they are like their mother and don’t sleep well when they aren’t in their own beds.  Delilah was up shortly after five this morning, I let her out and went back to bed but she was persistent and rousted me from bed right around seven.

All too soon our weekend was over and it was time to pack up and head home.  We stopped once for gas and once to let the dogs out for a potty break and stretch, but there were no complaints getting back in the car.  I think they were anxious to head home.

Are we there yet?

In Search of Home…Day One Hundred Eighty (Posted a day late.)

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I wrote this post yesterday afternoon:

Today I met a remarkable young man (Cameron) who in six days will be leaving to join the Air Force.  Guess what his problem is?  He has a three-year old yellow lab that will be going to the Humane Society.  He found a home for one of his dogs, but hasn’t been able to find one for Tucker, because Tucker is fear aggressive.  He was given up by his original owner because he bit her, and had been through 5 homes by the time he was 8 months old.  My personal opinion is that someone failed this dog.  Since he bit his original owner, I would say the failure was hers or the breeders.

Cameron rescued the dog the day before Tucker was scheduled to be euthanized; in six days Tucker will head off to the Humane Society and Cameron is concerned if Tucker is there for too long, all the progress Tucker has made will be undone.

Cameron worked extensively with Tucker and as far as I know, Tucker gets along with other dogs (since Cameron had two dogs, it would seem so at least to me.)  There is a concern, because he has bitten before that he should not be around children, I would also think his new owner should have experience with dogs (not a first time dog owner) and preferably experience with fear aggressive dogs. 

I am appealing to blogger world. While my readership is still small I know some of you have larger readerships and I’m hoping we can spread the word and help this young man find a home for his dog while he is serving our country.  I was also wondering if one of you or one of your readers might know of a program for members of the armed services that help them with their pets while they are serving.

 

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