Heart Like a Dog

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

What's Going On?

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Last week I wrote a post, Expect the Unexpected.  I asked if your dogs wore collars in the house and what you thought about it.

Opinions vary as to whether a dog should wear their collar in the house.  There is definitely a choking/strangling hazard especially if you have more than one dog and they interact with each other.

But there is also a very real risk that a dog can either escape or accidentally get out of their house or yard.

Last Tuesday Hubby walked out the door and left his keys inside.  We’d had some really nice weather and our bedroom windows were open so I happened to hear him outside our room asking the dogs ‘where mommy was?’  Like they could have told him. 🙂

Well he asked me to let him in and I did, then I went about my business of getting ready for work.  The dogs decided they wanted to go out so I opened the door and left it open a crack so they could come back in without disturbing me.

I was just about finished when I wondered…where are the dogs?

I went to the door and Sampson was just lying there waiting, but Delilah was nowhere about.  I stepped out on the deck and called her, looking up into the backyard but I didn’t see or hear her.  Something made me look to my right and the gate was open.

My heart just about stopped.  I immediately looked over into the neighbor’s yard and sure enough there she was foraging for nuts and anything edible.

I figured it was breakfast time so I wouldn’t have a problem getting her back, I called “Delilah, Delilah breakfast!”   She looked up at me and walked around behind the house.

I ran to the front and called her again and she ignored me.

I ran into the house and grabbed the bowl of food and ran back out to the front.

“Delilah, breakfast!”

She looked up and ran toot sweet to me.

Luckily for me she didn’t wander too far, but if she’d gotten farther than the neighbor’s house, I could have had a serious problem.

Strangely enough, Pamela at Something Wagging had a post The Year of Living Dangerously – What’s The Real Risk? where she mentioned her husband had left the back door open at lunch and her Golden Retriever, Honey had gotten out into the back yard.  Thankfully that is where she stayed.

The next day I read My Dog Ran Away Last Night t by Lauren at Life With Desmond.  Somehow Desmond became an escape artist and managed to get outside their stockade fence.  After a frantic sprint around the block, Lauren managed to safely retrieve Desmond from the neighbor’s yard.  You have to read it to believe it.

As if that wasn’t enough the very next day Kim at Life At Golden Pines had a post Out Of Sync And Unusual.  Kim came home from work on Friday to find her dogs upset.  Upon closer investigation Kim discovered three screens had been removed from windows she’d left open for the dogs to enjoy the nice weather.  Apparently someone had tried to break in.

Delilah’s little adventure combined with these three other stories reinforces my decision to make sure my dogs have name tags on them at all times.

Delilah and her identification 'necklace.'

It also makes me wonder, what in the world is going on?

Have you heard or experienced anything weird going on with the dogs in your world?

Where'd It Go?

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This morning I decided to sit down and finish my taxes.

Delilah was bored, I could tell because she had her squeaky football in her mouth and wanted to play fetch.

Hubby threw the ball a couple of times, then she brought it to me in the den.  I threw it down the hall a couple of times and then she decided she wanted to go out on the balcony.

After a minute or so I checked on her and found her staring down the driveway.

Just staring.

I looked out to see what had her attention and saw her ball, rolling down the driveway.

If you look very closely, you can see a little red dot where the driveway meets the road.

Yup, that's it.

I couldn’t help myself, I had to laugh.  She was so stinkin cute,  just standing there staring.

I ran down the driveway in my pajamas.  I do just about anything to get out of preparing my taxes. 🙂

Too Much Socialization?

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We socialized Sampson from the time he was 8 weeks old.  He went to puppy play group, beginner and intermediate obedience classes and then on to daycare twice a week.

We also socialized him with people and truth be told I can’t figure out if he loves other dogs or people more.   When he sees or hears another dog he must get to it.  But once he’s greeted the other dog, he hangs out with their person.

Today during our walk I heard a small dog, and it made me nervous, because I’ve seen a woman who walks two small dogs (I think they are Papillons) and she doesn’t pay attention.  My dogs wouldn’t intentionally hurt a small dog but as you know they are quite large and very enthusiastic. 🙂  I’m always afraid they’ll squish one during the greeting.

I don’t run with my nose to the ground so I usually see something well before the dogs.  Oh I can still miss things, but usually I see or hear it before they do.

Once I heard the small dog bark, I called Sampson over and clipped his leash on.  That’s when Sampson heard the small dog’s bark and tried to head in the direction from whence it came.

Two fools straining at the ends of their leashes.

Are your dogs like this?  Do you think there is such a thing as too much socialization?

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