Heart Like a Dog

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

New Horizons…Day One Hundred, Forty Four

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Yesterday Chet and I both had the day off;  my plan was to head to the park around 9:00 am, walk the dogs for about an hour and then have the rest of the day to myself.  Ah, the best laid plans.

Turns out we didn’t head to the park until around 10:00 am; when we got there we found it full of children getting ready to have an Easter Egg hunt!  The dogs were already loaded into the car, so we decided to check out a new hiking area the town recently opened up.

Since the area was new to us and the trail runs really close to the highway, we decided to keep Delilah on leash.  We pulled out the thirty foot leash and off we went.  Initially I had Delilah and having her on a thirty foot leash is kind of like fishing.  You let her have some lead, then you “reel” her in.

New Horizons

The trail starts out around a pond, the pond is fed from a stream or small river; the trail follows the course of the stream so you are always walking along side water.

We have Labrador Retrievers, they love the water!  Naturally they wanted to go in.  We scoped the river out looking for safe places for them to enter, where the current wasn’t too strong, then we let them go in.  We continued walking until we got to an area where it was too narrow to pass, so we turned around.

The beautiful gorge.

I was busy snapping this picture while Chet and the dogs headed back, when I heard a splash.  I turned around and Delilah had seen a stick or some reflection of light in the water and decided to go for a swim.  Trouble was, she took Chet with her!  He was so mad at her, I didn’t dare snap a picture.  Needless to say, it was a quiet walk out and a quiet ride home.

Guilty Dogs and Jealous Owners…Day One Hundred and Forty One

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Have you seen the video about the guilty dog and the cat treats?  I admit the video pissed me off slightly and probably for a couple of reasons.  The major one being, after the guy puts this dog through an incredible guilt trip over something that took place probably about five minutes after he left the house, he sends the dog to the “penalty box.”   More than likely from the looks of where the dog was heading, the penalty box is probably a bedroom, but it still made me mad the dog was punished well after the fact.

I tried to replicate the video with Delilah, but she would have none of it.  Instead she insisted I document her “Faux Paw” with still photos.

Delilah’s Faux Paw
 

Then to further thwart me in my attempts to garner public attention for our cause, she refused to make faces for the camera.  She insisted the faces made by the dog in the video were unflattering and that she was too pretty to present herself in that manner.  The most I could get her to agree to was a picture of her looking contritely at her alleged Faux Paw; only after I assured her that she did not look fat in the photo.

Are you sure I don't look fat?

The second reason (if I’m being completely honest and I must be) is that I am jealous.  Jealous that some things just seem to come naturally and easily to some people, while here I sit plugging away on the social media circuit trying to garner attention for my dogs and my book.  Now that’s a judgment on my part, because how do I know this guy hasn’t been trying; and has finally succeeded?

If you know me at all, this is an incredibly difficult thing for me to admit, because I generally try to be a person who 1) is supportive of other people and their successes and 2) does not judge others.  For me to admit I have a flaw such as jealousy is pretty big.  Personally, I don’t care to feel this way, but I’m not sure how to change it.

Perhaps what I need to do is to turn my thoughts internally; to look at what I term a success.  You’re reading this blog by your own choice, right? 

Shouldn’t that be considered a success on my part?

Poo Sticks…Day One Hundred and Forty

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My grandson has a book named “Pooh Sticks,”  (or something along those lines) in the story Winnie the Pooh and his friends play a game with sticks by dropping them into the brook to see which stick gets to the finish line first.

Since this blog is

1) About my dogs and

2) Poo is spelled differently than Pooh, you would be correct in assuming this blog is not about my dog(s) dropping sticks in the brook.

WARNING: THIS BLOG IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH A QUEASY STOMACH. 

I have a dog that eats poop.  

Notice the words are “whispered”.   That is because I am embarrassed, mortified and disgusted; similar to the time I had to go to the computer store and say that my computer had a virus.  (Like I actually let my computer sneak off and do something nasty.)  

The fact of the matter is that lots of dogs eat poop, whether it be their own or (GAG) some other dogs.  Yes, I know this for a fact because I have been researching solutions for this problem which is why I am sitting here with a queasy stomach writing this blog.  There is actually a name for this disgusting habit; Dog Coprophagia (go ahead, Google it, I can wait.)

Now I won’t say which dog is partaking in this really disgusting habit (Delilah) but I will tell you this is becoming a problem for me and how I interact with my dog.

1) I don’t want her to “kiss” me.

2) She licks everything, from the floor to the counter, so I now must become a cleaning fanatic (I don’t like this.)

3) Her breath smells and when she burps or farts; (just use your imagination on this one.)

From what I’ve read, opinions are mixed about why dogs do this and what can be done to prevent it.  I read that feeding them pineapple will stop the habit.  So every morning the dogs get a spoonful of pineapple mixed in with yogurt in their breakfast.  So far that hasn’t stopped her.

Delicious pineapple and yogurt to go with the green bean filler.

 

I did find a natural product, Solid Gold S.E.P. , the S.E.P. stands for “Stop Eating Poop,” naturally I ordered 2 containers, (God, I’m desperate) but besides that the only solutions I found were:

1) Teach your dog to defecate on command (seriously, WTF? I can’t get my dog to come when I call her and you want me to teach her to poop on command?)

2) Clean up after your pet immediately so there is no opportunity for munching (really, I don’t want to clean the counter continuously, why would I want to follow the frigging dog around the yard?)

3) Always take the dog out on the leash (I have a fenced in yard specifically so I don’t have to do this) and yank the leash when she makes a move for the poop.

4) Put hot sauce or something equally distasteful on the poop piles so she won’t eat them (really if I’m out in the yard looking for poop piles, I might just as well pick them up.)

I guess my only option is to go out in the yard to see what I can pick up, and I will sit here holding my breath; waiting for my Solid Gold S.E.P. to arrive.

God help me.

Who would think someone with this sweet face would have such a disgusting habit?

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