Heart Like a Dog

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

Change It Up

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I discovered something yesterday.

I had taken the day off to attend a memorial service for a beloved uncle of one of my SIL’s.  The service was about an hour’s travel time from where I live and I knew when I got back I had errands to run to get ready for today’s cookout.  I decided to walk the dogs early.

Like First Thing In The Morning Early.

I rolled out of bed after another night of tossing and turning and pulled on my hiking clothes, gathered up my equipment (treat bag, pepper blaster, poop bags, camera, cell phone and keys) and off we went.

We kept the walk at just about a half an hour, which put us back at the house right around 7:20 am.  Twenty minutes after the dog’s scheduled feeding time.  But I didn’t feed them.  Oh no.

Because they are big dogs and both deep-chested, I worry about bloat.  So I waited.  Wondering how this was going to work with the food obsessed chocolate lab?

I added warm water to their necks and set them in the microwave to warm up.  I made a pot of coffee, then I took a shower.  When I came out of the bathroom Delilah was curled up on the bed.

Sleeping.

I got dressed, and walked out of the bedroom.  Delilah followed me.  I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down to check out blogville.

Delilah curled up on the couch and went to sleep.

I got up, went into the kitchen and pulled the necks out of the microwave.

Nothing.

It wasn’t until I opened the pantry to get the Salmon Oil out that she meandered her way into the kitchen.

We played the ‘one strike, you’re out’ game (which she lost) and I put her in the crate.

By the time they actually got their breakfast is was almost an hour and a half late.  And she had not bugged me the entire time.

My thought is this, if you have an active dog and typically take her out when you get home from work, consider changing it up and trying to get her out for a quick walk in the morning.

I’m thinking by changing it up, you’ve given them something else to think about.

What about your dogs, are they scheduled?  Is there any way to incorporate some change into their routine?

Tomorrow I will share just what Delilah DID on our early morning walk.  It’s a doozy.

Bold and Beautiful

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Delilah’s obsessed with food.  She is constantly in scavenger mode.  When I’m in the kitchen she is either under my feet or sitting guard in the doorway, prepared to dive head-first under the cabinet to catch a bread crumb.

You cannot leave food on the counter or table, if you do, it’s fair game for Delilah.  After we fix our dinner plates, we have to immediately put the food away, or put it in the oven or microwave to ensure Delilah won’t snag it as soon as we finish eating.

She’s not afraid to go into the sink and grab a dirty dish, or plastic bag so she can bring it out into the living room and lick it clean.

That also holds true for the stove and no, she doesn’t care if it’s on or not.  If memory serves me, she has taken a cooking hot dog out of the pan.

Once when I was at the sink, literally three feet behind her, she took a piece of chicken out of the pan.  Yes, she’s that bold.

When I put water on the stove for pasta I always add a little oil.  Delilah loves oil.  She will lick the oily pasta water and given the opportunity will lick strait oil right from the pan.   I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into the kitchen to find water or oil flicked all over the stove and had to dump the entire pan and start over.  I finally got smart and put a lid on it.

As many times as I’ve caught her licking something out of the pan, I’ve never been able to get a picture of it.  Until recently.

Yes, my bold and beautiful dog trying to get a french fry.

Do you have a counter surfer in your house?  Have you found any creative ways to break this habit?

Go, Go, Go, Go, Go

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In yesterday’s post I mentioned Delilah had a little off-leash hike. If you’ve been reading for a while you know there are certain areas Delilah is prone to running off to.  One of these areas is in the field.

When we entered the park I unclipped her leash and gave her freedom.  I think off-leash works best for Delilah if I try to keep her focus on me, so I call her back to me quite frequently.  She was returning every time I called.

We went to the field.  There was one time where she turned and started running away from me and she didn’t respond to my call.  I turned around and said, “Sampson come.”

As soon as I knew I had his attention I started running the other way and I said, “Go, go, go, go, go, go, go” really loud as we ran away from Delilah.

Do you know that worked?

And the only reason I can think why is that I sometimes psyche the dogs into going outside by giving them a little pep talk.  I think the excitement in  my voice tells her something exciting and fun is about to happen.

Of course I don’t know this with any certainty, but it makes sense to me.

After the field we made our way up the trails and then started back down towards the rail trail.  As we approached the rail trail I leashed Delilah again, and shortly after that we ran into the couple I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

Naturally we got to talking about dogs. This couple had a Husky for 14 years.  The man said he used to walk his dog every day and was so in the habit that he continues to do so.  He also said he always walked his dog off-leash, there was an older man that he used to encounter and the man always said, dogs were meant to run free and not be leashed.

He went on to say, times have changed and people have changed.  There are so many people out there on the rail trail now walking their dogs, but they don’t want you to look at their dogs or pet their dogs and he’s not sure what happened.

I’m not really sure what happened either.  I don’t remember when it changed, but it certainly has.  I don’t ever remember our childhood dogs on leashes.  Is it because our parents didn’t walk them?  Or because there were fewer people?  Have people grown less tolerant of dogs? What do you remember about dog etiquette from when you were a child?

After we parted ways, I kept Delilah on the leash.  I felt like it was best to end our walk with her remaining successful.

And she was.

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