Heart Like a Dog

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

The Dogs Got Out….I'm So Done

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Relax, it’s not my dogs.

I saw this on a friend’s facebook page.  In the comments she said she was thinking about adopting one of her dogs out.

Seems her two dogs are jumping the 6 foot fence to get to the Boxer next door, and this is ticking off the neighbors.

I went to her page and left a comment, oh and of course  I threw in a shameless promotion of this blog, by posting a link and asking her if she read it.

Later in the evening we had a facebook chat and I found out, the dogs don’t jump the fence when someone is outside with them.  Hmmm this means you would always have to be outside with your dogs, which in my opinion is counter-productive to having a fenced in yard.

She said she was the primary care-giver seeing she was home during the day, and she was frustrated.  It had been a bad day.  I told her I could relate to that and posted a link to my Defeated and Lost post.

I suggested tethering the dogs when she wasn’t able to be outside with them.  I also told her I would throw the problem out to my readers and see if any of you had any suggestions.

Last night when I signed on we chatted again.  She had spoken with her husband and they were going to invest in an electric fence.  Her husband has installed and used electric fences before.

I totally forgot about how we solved our problems last winter with Delilah going over our fence.

In the winter of 2010/2011 New England got smacked with gobs and gobs of snow.

We have a five-foot fence in our yard.  We got so much snow you could literally step over it in some spots.  We have a chocolate lab who did precisely that.

I tried tying her out, but stupidly gave her too much room and she went over the fence on her leash!

Hubby went out to Home Depot and bought some deer fencing and some sturdy sticks, then he used zip ties to secure the deer fencing along the top of our fence.  Basically he made our 5 foot fence about 7 1/2 feet high.

It looks like this:

Our ghetto fence.

Our ghetto fence.

I know it looks ghetto, but we are set far back from the road, it is only the back yard that is fenced in and it keeps my dogs safe.

I said I’d throw it out to you, so here it is.  Have you have an issue with your dogs going over your fence?  If so, how did you handle it?   How would you work with your dog to stop them from going over the fence?

Reflections

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I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Delilah has an obsession with….light reflections.

It started Christmas of 2010 when one of my daughter’s friends stopped by.  He was showing off his watch/cell phone (I think that’s pretty James Bond) and he happened to have a laser, which is when she got hooked.

Immediately after that she spent her waking time staring at the ceiling.  She just couldn’t relax, she was constantly looking around, waiting and watching for the next flicker on the ceiling.  This made me extremely sad because she was constantly on alert, no real relaxing for that girl. 🙁 (Just like her Mama I might add.)

If you walk through a room and the sun catches your watch…..up she jumps, barking at the reflection.

We had to stop eating at the dining room table because the light reflecting off the silverware drove her to the brink of insanity.  It seemed like every minute she jumped up and barked.  Hubby was constantly yelling at her, while I tried to reassure her, finally it was just easier to crate her while we ate.

I thought her obsession had diminished, because I hadn’t noticed it of late.  But then Thursday I picked something up from the table and the sunlight hit it causing a reflection to wiggle enticingly on the ceiling and she was up and at it again. 🙁

Does your dog chase reflections, or flickers of light?  What would you do if (s)he did?

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome. 🙂

New Soul/Old Soul

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Do you believe in reincarnation?

I’m not sure whether I do or not.  Although when I’m sad or feeling sorry for myself, I have speculated if I was reincarnated, I must have been someone BAD in my other life.  Like Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan.

But I digress.

My sister has a theory regarding children…..they are either old souls or new souls.

A new soul is one of those children that are into everything! Everything they see goes into their mouths, you will need locks on your cabinets, you will need to cover your electrical outlets.  They will be the daredevils in sports, willing to try any and everything.

An example of a new soul is my granddaughter.  If you put something down, she is right there to pick it up, you need to have your eye on her constantly or she will get into trouble.

On the other hand an old soul is just the opposite.  These are the children who seem to take everything in stride.   They seem to already know what life is about and how to fit in.

An example of an old soul is my niece, she never put things in her mouth and she never crawled, she went straight to walking.   She likes 40’s Jazz music, and classic looks.  Not much shakes her up.

I’ve expanded my sister’s theory to include animals.  If I were to evaluate Sampson and Delilah based upon the old soul/new soul scale, I would have to say Sampson is an old soul and Delilah is a new soul.

Sampson is laid back, easy-going and not much shakes him up.

Delilah on the other hand is into everything!  Nothing is off-limits as to what goes into her mouth.  No, I do take that back, I’m eternally grateful that she has never (knock on wood) chewed a shoe, but that’s about the only thing.

It does not have to be food related either, her favorite things to rip apart are dryer sheets, plastic bags (food residue or no,) and tissues/paper towels/napkins.  This doesn’t mean that she won’t chew something else, just given her choice she would prefer to choose from those objects listed above.

Which explains her Modus operandi this morning.

Excuse the dirty rug, as you can see it is a high traffic area that needs cleaning.

Do you buy into the old soul/new soul theory?  If so, have you noticed any of old soul/new soul traits?

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