Heart Like a Dog

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

It Takes A Blogville To Raise A Delilah

By

Sampson and Delilah go to daycare twice a week for half days.   They don’t do a lot at daycare, they like to lie around and sleep (much like they do at home) and occasionally they get up and play with the other dogs or interact with Sara or her mom, Sue.

Hubby and I know this, which is why we dropped them to half days.  I feel that even though they lie around much of the day they are stimulated more by the comings and goings at The Mellow Mutt then they would be by sleeping their day away on our couch.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this here, but Delilah has issues with dogs behind fences.  In the case of daycare it is dogs in crates or dogs on the other side of certain gates.

The Mellow Mutt is set up as such:

(I hope you can get the idea from this ‘drawing’.)

The drawing is not to scale, so along the right wall of where it says “fenced area” there are crates.  These are mostly used for the grooming dogs but sometimes someone needs a time out or certain dogs just like to sleep there.

When I drop Delilah off I have to make certain there are no dogs in the fenced area or in a crate with the door shut, if there are she will charge up to the crated dog, and bark like a lunatic, baring her teeth and snarling.  To say this is disturbing to me is an understatement.  To manage this I just make sure that she remains on leash and is guided through to where she needs to be.

Lately she has continued this behavior at the gate. Which brings us up to Friday.

When I picked them up on Friday a man was coming in with his big yellow lab, Tyson.  Dianne (one of the groomers) had to hold Delilah back as Tyson went through the fence, once he was through she was fine.  Sara clipped her on leash and handed her out to me.  I keep her on a fairly short leash in the retail area because she likes to shoplift shop.

Typically I’ll stand there chatting for a few minutes before I leave, which is what I did on Friday.

While I was standing there, Tyson came up to the gate and Delilah charged him.  I was so caught off-guard that I reacted poorly.  I yanked her and I pushed her down and told her NO! ( I’m not proud of this, but if I’m to help her overcome her issues I need to be honest with myself and with you on how I handled this.)  We left almost immediately after.

Yesterday while working the Labs 4 Rescue adoption event, I had the opportunity to really sit down with Sara and discuss Delilah.  I found out that when Delilah went at Tyson on Friday, she actually bit him through the gate.  Sara said he had a puncture in his lip and two teeth scratches on his face.

I feel horrible.  I offered to pay for any vet bill but Sara says the owner was ok with it.  Really?  (I wouldn’t be, but that is a topic for a different post.)

I told Sara that I don’t think me pushing Delilah down is the proper way to deal with this issue and I don’t believe it helps Delilah with whatever is bothering/scaring her about the fence/gate.

Since Delilah is like the biggest Alpha female I’ve ever heard/seen, Sara thinks she is disciplining the other dogs at the gate.  Sara thinks that Delilah thinks she owns the place and it is her responsibility to monitor it.

We decided it’s in Delilah’s best interest to not go to daycare for a week or so and see if that doesn’t help alleviate the issue.  I’m not really sure a break will work but I’m willing to give it a shot.

I’m anxious to hear what you think about this?  Have you heard of dogs with this issue?  Have you heard of any solutions that work?

I have no problem keeping Delilah permanently out of daycare, but I know Sampson enjoys going and once again it would be Sampson who misses out on something he enjoys because I just can’t get a handle on Delilah.

Whadda ya say, Blogville?  How would you help this dog?

Which Would Scare You?

By

As I’ve mentioned previously, the local LaCrosse team has commandeered our field, which makes getting into the park on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays a bit difficult.  The way I’ve been managing this is by trying to get home on my lunch hour on Mondays and Wednesdays in order to get our walk in.

On Saturdays I just wait until later in the day.

My friend has it easy, as her entrance is not anywhere near the field.  Today it dawned on me, all I have to do is use the alternate entrance.

DUH!  WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE?

I made a very crude drawing of our walking area and the two entrances.  You may laugh if you’d like, I’m well aware that I am not an artist. 🙂

I told you it was crude.

The brown dots represent trees but there are probably a lot more.  There are a couple of other trails as well, but for simplicity sake (and my poor drawing abilities) I kept it to a minimum.

We arrived at the entrance the same time as a man on foot.  I asked him if he’d mind if I let the dogs out.  He didn’t.  He was a thin man, glasses and a golf cap.  He kind of reminded me of a geek.  We sort of walked into the woods together, chatting a bit.

Just after we entered the woods Sampson saw someone and took off.  A few seconds later a jogger ran past.  He was big and beefy.  I apologized for Sampson and he said, “He’s a nice dog.”

Now which man would make you nervous if you were a woman walking alone?

Yup, it was the nerdy guy that freaked me out.  He was heading down the orange trail so I stayed on the yellow. We did a quick cut through and went to the orange trail in the opposite direction.

I usually carry my camera in my back pocket but I switched it out and put my pepper blaster back there.   When we eventually found our way to the orange trail, Delilah’s leash snagged a really large stick.  I picked it up and used it as a walking stick.

Luckily for us we did not run into either guy again, but we did have a scary dog encounter.

It took place up near the entrance we had used.  I was planning on walking the dogs down the orange trail for a bit.  Sampson was up near the entrance while Delilah and I had started on our way.  I called Sampson but he didn’t respond.  I looked and saw him still and stiff.

I started walking toward him and that’s when I noticed Tia the German Shepherd.  We have walked with Tia before but it was a long time ago and Tia has grown into quite the big girl.

Sampson was tall and stiff  and while Tia wasn’t in a full poised to spring position, she wasn’t standing tall either.  I called to Sampson over and over again, but he wouldn’t turn his head.  Meanwhile Tia’s mom was calling Tia with no response either.

I saw Tia’s lip raise in a slight snarl.  I had Delilah on leash and didn’t know what to do.  I couldn’t approach Sampson with Delilah because I know she would have dove right into the middle of it, but I had no-one to hold her either.

Thankfully Tia’s mom got in there and diffused the situation enough so Sampson turned and started back towards me, then Tia feeling brave since Sampson’s back was toward her, ran closer to Sampson to get a good sniff in.

At that point I realized there was not going to be a dog fight and so Delilah and I approached and Delilah rushed right up to Tia who ran towards her mom with her hair all up on her back.

Later as we were leaving the woods I saw Tia’s other mom walking in, baby on her hip and Tia on leash.  I stopped my dogs and put Sampson’s leash on and waited until they had chosen the path leading away from us, then we left the way we’d come in.

Yes there was a bit of excitement but it really was easier than trying to get thru the LaCrosse people to get to the woods.

And I’m happy because I have my lunches free again. 🙂

And truthfully, the two dogs staring each other down scared me way more than the geeky man.

To Boldly Go Where No Dog Has Gone Before

By

Yesterday I shared a little bit about an early morning walk I took with the dogs on Friday.

I had sent my friend a text asking if she and Brady were around for a walk, but hadn’t had a response back.  I figured we would just head her way and see if we ran into them.

On our way, we ran into one of her neighbors, Mark and his dog Bruno.  Since he was heading the same way we were, we walked together, chatting a little as we went.

The best way to describe our walking trails is like this:

My road ends in a cul-de-sac, if you went straight you would head up a hiking path to the field, just before the field the path heads up the hill to the right and if you went straight out that path you would enter another cul-de-sac.  My friend’s house is the second house on the right hand side.  The first house belongs to M & M who have Tia, the German Shepherd.

Just as we got to the top of the trail, near my friend’s house Bruno and Delilah started to play.  I made the mistake of dropping the leash.

As soon as I dropped the leash she stuck her nose to the ground and she headed out of the woods and into my friend’s neighborhood.  I snagged Sampson and said, “Go, Go, Go, Go, Go, Go” and started running back the way we came.

Delilah kept going.

I quickly realized she wasn’t responding, so Sampson and I turned around and headed out to get her.

Meanwhile Mark and Bruno were walking home and I could see Mark trying to get Delilah’s attention, but she ignored him.  She had wandered into M & M’s yard and their garage door was open.

Yup, Friday morning at 7:00 o’clock, Delilah walked right into M & M’s garage.

I was horrified.

Mark meanwhile had started walking down the driveway and was almost to the garage.  I got to the end of the driveway and started down myself, Delilah decided she was done in the garage and stepped off to the side thinking she could head over to Brady’s house, Sampson  meanwhile saw the open garage and decided to investigate like Delilah had.

Luckily for me as Delilah dodged out of the garage, Mark stepped on her leash and handed her back to me.  Sampson returned when called and we headed back into the woods to finish our walk.

Whew!

I will not be dropping her leash again anytime soon.  I swear to God, if she falls down a friggin rabbit hole, I’ll hold onto that leash and follow her down.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...