Heart Like a Dog

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

Dogs and Children (Day One Hundred and Two)

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A number of years ago, Hubby and I went to a house party; the hosts were people we use to bowl with but didn’t see frequently; in my opinion we didn’t have a lot in common, but Hubby wanted to go, so I went.  I wasn’t having a particularly fun time, but Hubby was so we stayed; because it was a birthday party there was a keg and one of the things that really bothered me about this, was that some people had their children there.

For the most part the kids were inside the house, while the adults were outside but the host’s dog was also inside the house, and there was no adult supervision in there.  Sometime after midnight, a four-year old boy just about had his face ripped off by the dog, of course no-one actually knows what happened because they were all outside and most of them were drunk.  Seeing as I hadn’t been drinking, I offered to drive the mother and son to the hospital.  I cannot remember how many stitches that child had in his face, (I did see him a few years later and there was no scarring)  but I do remember that the dog was destroyed.

The memory of that boy and dog has haunted me for a while, which is why whenever there are children around my dogs, I am right there too.   I do not want  to place my dogs in a position where they feel threatened and feel the need to defend themselves.  I am also conscious of teaching the children who are around my dogs, to be kind to my dogs and treat them with respect.

Today my little grandson was over and Delilah had a spurt of energy and wanted to play with the ball, naturally my grandson who just turned three wants to throw the ball. I will not allow him to take the ball from Delilah, instead I sit on the floor with them and act as the intermediary;  when Delilah is ready to relinquish the ball, I hand it to my grandson and he can throw the ball.  In my opinion, this is a win-win situation, I get to spend time with my grandson and my dog, and I am teaching my grandson to respect animals.

Positive Reinforcement (Day One Hundred and One)

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Last night at obedience class I decided to try something new with Delilah; she is highly motivated by food so I filled my pocket with dried chicken and off we went.  I am very glad I did.  We had a full class with a couple of new people and dogs; and there are a number of very BIG dogs, one of the big dogs (Gunner, a Giant Schnauzer) has a tendency to “punk” the other dogs.  Simply stated this means, he will lunge at another dog while he is growling.   This scares me because he is a very big dog; and if he “punks” Delilah, she will go right back at him; generally his parents are right on top of it and rein him in, but it still worries me.  I try not to be positioned next to Gunner.

This is a Giant Schnauzer, look where his head is.

There are a couple of other dogs that tend to get aggressive on their leads and that is why they are at class, to learn how to behave around other dogs; one of these dogs is Zoe.  Zoe’s mom Marcy admits to being nervous with Zoe and her aggressiveness, so she has her on a gentle leader.  (If you are unfamiliar with a gentle leader it fits around the dogs muzzle and is designed to keep the dog from pulling, it is also supposed to make it easier for you to make corrections with your dog.)   

Last night one of the new dogs that came in was Vinnie, I thought Gunner was big but Vinnie is enormous, he is an English Mastiff and has to weigh at least 150 pounds!  I saw Vinnie coming in and I positioned me and Delilah between Chet and Sampson and Zoe and Marcy.  Vinnie didn’t seem at all aggressive but we had a huge class and moving room was tight.

An English Mastiff, now look where his head is!

While we were in a sit, Zoe punked Delilah, and this is the best part, Delilah did nothing!  Marcy was puzzled because neither one of us saw what prompted Zoe to do this, then Zoe did it again and again neither one of us saw what prompted it; but this time Delilah responded.  Since they were both on leash, it was very quickly under control.

Sara decided we were going to do weaves, so we had to put our dogs in a “sit” while we took turns walking our dog around the room and weaving in and out between the dogs.  I was a little anxious about all these dogs walking so close to Delilah and so I took one of the treats out of my pocket, held it in my hand and placed my hand down near her mouth.  Immediately she started licking at and nibbling the treat, she was so engrossed with my hand and what was inside it; that she paid not one bit of attention to any of the dogs walking around her!  Our turn to walk came, (we were last) and we passed with flying colors! 

Now Sara had us repeat the exercise with our dogs in a “down” position; Delilah’s eyes were fastened on my hand, which was in my pocket.  I would pull a treat out, she would lick and nibble, then I would wait a few seconds and pull another one out and so we managed to make it through the weaves with no incidents on our part.  For the rest of the class, Delilah’s eyes were on my pocket and nothing else, the only problem was she was so obsessed with the treat, that she kept walking around behind me to see if I had something in my other hand!

Sometimes when the class is large, some of the people make a second circle, inside the outer one and they work their dogs in there.  This is really a great exercise for the aggressive dogs because they not only have dogs in front and behind them, but dogs will be passing them on the side. After the weaves were done, Sara worked Zoe in the middle of the ring.  Chet and I happened to be in the outer ring and Sara noticed that Zoe was only tugging when she came near Sampson and Delilah.  Sara seems to think Zoe is becoming comfortable with us and our dogs, Sara thinks this is good and perhaps there will be a time when we can let Sampson, Delilah and Zoe off leash together.

Then There Was Delilah (Day 100)

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Well at long last I am pleased to say; Delilah’s story has been started.  In the top right of this page, should be a link that will take you to the beginning of Delilah’s story.

It was emotional for me to write it; and I still tear up reading it in certain places.  When I think back to the dog that came off the transport on May 26, 2007, to the dog that sleeps in front of me now, I cannot believe it is the same dog!  Realistically she is not the same dog as she has changed and grown so much.

I hope to add to her story, who knows maybe the books I publish will not be picture books at all…

My sweet girl.

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