Heart Like a Dog

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

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The Nose Knew

April 3, 2012 By Jodi

Sampson is a dog that knows when he’s tired.  Once he’s reached his limit and had enough, he puts himself to bed.   Most nights this time is between 8:00 and 9:00.   He just gets up from wherever he is and goes into the bedroom.

As I’m sure most of you do, just before we head off to bed we let the dogs out for (hopefully) the last opportunity of the night.  When they come back inside Sampson goes right back to bed.

Delilah may or may not go to bed, she may do a last check of the house to make sure no-one has left any food out that might tempt a mouse.  She’s good like that.

I grab a handful of carrots and head into the bedroom.  Delilah will jump up and lay against my pillows effectively blocking me from getting into bed.  I carefully lift her up and slide my body underneath hers so I can hold her and love her.

Then Hubby comes to bed and Delilah jumps off and sits beside me.  I use the carrots to lure Sampson up the bed to take his place between us.  Once I have given out all the carrots, Delilah jumps up and settles herself at the bottom of the bed.  Then some more cuddling and loving usually takes place.  The light goes out and if all goes according to plan, we all go to sleep.

Last night for whatever reason Bob was creating a ruckus outside our bedroom door and the dogs jumped off no less than three times.  When they finally settled, Delilah was about half-way up the bed and Sampson was sitting next to the bed looking at me.

I scooched over and said, “Come on big boy.”

He jumped up on the bed and took my spot, leaving me curled in the fetal position on about 6 inches of mattress, which is how I spent most of the night.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I’m just setting the story up for this morning.

Having spent the night either stretched out across my pillows or curled in the fetal position, it was understandable why I wanted to lie in this morning and hit the snooze button a couple of times.

Unfortunately for me as soon as Hubby finished in the kitchen and there was no more chance of getting any food, Delilah came back to bed and promptly started licking the sheet.

“Knock it off,” I told her.

She buried her head under the blanket and licked the sheet.

I got up, covered the sheet and stomped into the closet.

When I came out with my work clothes she was licking the sheet again.

WTF?

I turned on the light and whipped the blanket off.

“Ewww, GROSS!”

It’s not what it looks like.

At first I thought she’d brought some poop into the house to enjoy it on the bed, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be chocolate.

The only thing I can think of is I had a handful of chocolate chips last night and maybe I dropped one and body heat from sleeping melted it to the sheets.

I didn’t notice it, but the “Nose” did.

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Filed Under: bad dog, Delilah, Humor, Ultimate Blog Challenge, Writing Tagged With: Delilah, Dog, dog training, Humor, Jodi Stone, Labrador Retriever, Obedience training, Pet, Pet Writing, Pets, Recreation, Sampson, sampson and delilah, Ultimate Blog Challenge, Writing

Monday Mischief

April 2, 2012 By Jodi

Miss Delilah hates having a bath.   When it’s bath time you have to coax her into the tub.  You can’t force her.  Hubby tried lifting her four years ago and ended up out of work for a week, barely able to move.

Since that time, I’ll occasionally throw treats in the tub and let her climb in and out.  I’ve also let her start ‘cleaning’ the tub after I’ve defrosted and repackaged chicken necks for their raw food.

For Christmas my youngest daughter sent me some homemade hand scrub, it is made with olive oil and sugar.  I like to use in on my feet when I’m treating myself to my weekly ‘spa treatment.’

A few weeks ago I caught Delilah in the tub and I had to laugh, she was licking up the oil/sugar mixture.  This isn’t surprising in itself if it wasn’t for the fact that the tub in question is almost as tall as Delilah.

Last week I finally got her on video climbing into the tub.  After I showed it to Hubby he said if we are going to let her do that, we might want to consider stairs so she doesn’t scratch the outside of the tub.

After watching her climb in, I decided it is not something I will continue to allow her to do.  There is oil residue in there and she could very easily hurt herself.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy watching her figuring out how to climb into the tub.

This is the Monday Mischief Blog Hop brought to you by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Luna a Dog’s Life and My Brown Newfies.  Thanks Alfie, Snoopy, Luna and Brown Newfies!!

You can get your linky code at any of the above listed blogs.

What are you waiting for, go see what mischief this Monday has brought. 🙂

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Filed Under: bad dog, Delilah, Dog Toys/Treats, Monday Mischief Blog Hop Tagged With: Delilah, Dog, dog training, Jodi Stone, Labrador Retriever, Obedience training, Pet, Pet Writing, Pets, Recreation, Sampson, sampson and delilah, Writing

I Didn't Say A Word

April 1, 2012 By Jodi

I use the ‘with me’ command instead of ‘heel’ because I think ‘heel’ is a confusing command.  At least it confuses me. 

When we are in training class and are told to ‘heel’ our dog, my understanding is I want my dog to come and stand at the side of my leg.

When we start moving and I want my dog to stay with me, I think it’s confusing to say ‘heel,’ because I’ve just asked her to stand at my side using the same command.

 So I started using ‘with me’ for that command.  Delilah seems to understand it and is easily corrected with an “ACK, ut oh, or ut unh.”

I share this with you because Delilah had a another successful walk yesterday!

It was my Saturday for dog food so I ran errands all morning, met my friend Mindy for lunch and then came home to take our walk in the afternoon.

I let Delilah off-leash as soon as she exited the car and let her walk in.  I leashed her near the top of the trail, where she used to run off and kept her with me for a couple of minutes, but let her go again as soon as we passed the danger point.

The next time we approached I called her to me and said, “With me.”  I kept her focused on the treats in my hand and she stayed right with me.

When we left the park she walked out off-leash.  Of course there also weren’t any other dogs or distractions to lead her astray.

Flash forward to today.  Hubby joined us on our walk.  I think I am more anxious when Hubby is there because I want to prove to him that positive reinforcement works.

She went into the park off-leash, she did run off to chase a squirrel but came right back, we walked the trails a couple of times and then took the dogs to the field to let them run. 

This was the true test because you may remember the day that she ran off from me at the field and got herself stuck. 

Hubby walked away from us then called Sampson and Delilah and in this manner we ran them back and forth a couple of times.  I then decided to have them sit and walk away from them towards Hubby with the intent of calling them to me. 

I got about half-way to Hubby and I heard Delilah tearing after me.    I brought her back and sat her down and tried again, but again she came tearing back to me.  I said to Hubby, while I want her to obey me, how can I be mad at her for wanting to be with me?  

I know it’s important for her to listen to me but I think my focus right now needs to be on her returns, at least outside.  I can work on her stays in the house.

Once the dogs were in the car I asked Hubby how he thought she did and he said, “She walked out to the car without the leash, so that’s pretty good. ”

As we pulled into the driveway I said, “She will have to go on leash to the house or she will run to the neighbor’s yard.”

Hubby said, “I don’t think she will.”  At my raised eyebrows he said, “I’ll assume responsibility for her.”

He opened the door and she ran right to the neighbor’s yard.

I didn’t say a word.

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Filed Under: Delilah, Hiking, Positive Dog Training Tagged With: Dog, dog training, Jodi Stone, Labrador Retriever, Obedience training, Pet, Pet Writing, Pets, Recreation, Sampson, sampson and delilah, Writing

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About Jodi

jodiHi, my name is Jodi. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog! I have all kinds of fun writing about my two crazy pups, Sampson and Delilah. Find out more!

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