Heart Like a Dog

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

We're At 50%

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Yesterday I posted about Hubby and Sampson’s close encounter with the tree branch after our Friday night walk.   BTTB (Before the tree branch) I had intended on posting about a really good recall Delilah had.

I knew Hubby was heading our way so I was trying to keep the dogs busy on the trail to give him the time to reach us.  We had just reached the top of one of the trails and I was planning on doubling back through, when I heard Tia (the GSD) and her moms approaching.

I tried to hustle the dogs along before they reached us, but Tia had spotted Sampson and came running at him to greet him.  Delilah and I had stopped and turned and when Tia saw Delilah she came running at her.  She wasn’t being aggressive in the least, but given Delilah’s past experience of being a bit leash reactive, I didn’t want her to feel she was trapped.  So I dropped the leash.

After a few seconds of greeting, Tia ran back to one of her moms.  Without panicking I sang out, “Delilah come on, here!”  She came running back to me and I rewarded her with treats, praise and pets.  I was so very proud of her!

The very next night we were cresting the top of the trail where the other entrance to the park is, and Brady and one of his moms were just getting ready to head in with their friend Kodak.  I dropped the leash so Delilah could run over and greet them and she ran right past them and out into Tia’s yard.

Luckily for me, one of Tia’s moms stepped on the leash which stopped her progress.  Tia was in the yard having a rousing game of fetch with her other mom and I’m glad Delilah didn’t approach her in her own yard.  You never know what the outcome will be.

So right now, her recall is at 50%.  When her recall gets to be about 95%, I will consider taking her off leash.  In the meantime I’ve just finished reading “Bonding With Your Dog” by Victoria Schade and am practicing some of her methods.

I also started a new command with her, which I intend on blogging about one day this week.

Sunday isn’t over yet, but I’m calling it a good one!  I hope you had a great weekend and I hope you rock your week. 🙂

Holy Smack Down Batman!

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When we got to the park last night the LaCrosse team was there. 🙁

Lately someone has been opening the gate to the park so most of the cars drive right in.  It was kind of overcast and pretty windy and at one point in our walk I said, “We’re going to get some weather tonight.”  Of course neither one of the dogs answered me because….well they’re dogs and they can’t talk.

While we were walking Hubby called and said he was on his way home, he said he’d meet us at the park.  I figured he’d be getting there pretty close to the time we were leaving and I was right.

Hubby drives a Jeep Wrangler, it’s his baby.  He’s had it lifted, he puts accessories on it, he loves it. He has a soft top and soft doors so the hard ones can come off in the summer and he can remove the soft doors when the weather is nice and he takes the top down.  It is a boy’s toy.  Did I mention he loves it?

I figured when Hubby came to the park he would drive the jeep right in and I was right, since the gate is rarely open and he likes driving his jeep in the woods. He thinks it’s cool. Go figure.  He was driving up the main path as we were walking down.

Sampson and Delilah were excited to see him but we were on our way out, so I asked them to sit so Hubby could pass (they did of course.)  Hubby said, “You can go ahead, I’ll go slow.”

So Sampson, Delilah and I started out of the park with Hubby driving behind us. Sampson kept running back to the jeep wanting to go with Daddy, but the jeep following us was freaking Delilah out.  She kept turning around and looking and after about 30 seconds of this I said to Hubby, “Go ahead, she doesn’t care to have you behind us.”

After we had exited the park Hubby asked Sampson if he would like to ride home with Daddy.  I’d like to say Sampson jumped at the chance but truthfully the jeep is so high that neither one of us can hike our fat butts into it.  Daddy had to help him up.

Delilah of course, went with me.

Hubby has this thing about parking behind me.  I could speculate about the reasoning, why men like to be behind women, but then I don’t really think this would be a dog blog. 🙂

So Hubby sat in the road while I drove around him.

Sometimes I have premonitions.  Scoff if you’d like but it’s true.  It is usually just a strange or random thought and I never realize it’s a premonition until after, and it’s usually fairly quickly after.

In this case, I drove by the jeep on the passenger side and noticed Sampson sitting there, with no seat belt and no doors.  I thought to myself, “I don’t like the idea of him in the jeep with no doors on it.”  This (in retrospect) was the premonition.

It’s a very quick trip from the park to our house with about seven houses on each side of the street.  From the park down the hill our house is on the left.  Since we are in America and not in Europe, I was driving on the right-hand side of the road.

Just as I got ready to pull into our driveway, I heard a very loud, whooshing sound.  I turned around just as this really large branch fell from the very top of a tree, missing the jeep by inches.

It may not look it, but it’s a VERY large branch.

I’m almost 100% certain that my eyes were wide and my mouth was open and I was doing a fairly good impression of a tree frog trapped by a snake.

We pulled into our driveway and Hubby and I got out of our vehicles in a bit of shock.  Hubby said the tree branch did in fact hit the top of the jeep and scared my punkin so, that he actually climbed onto Hubby’s lap.  (OMD I just got a case of the giggles thinking of  big ole Sampson squishing himself between Hubby’s tummy and the steering wheel.)  Hubby lifted up his shirt and had a huge scratch where Sampson scrabbled over him.  My poor, poor punkin was so scared.

Thankfully he seemed fine when he got out of the jeep.

We put the dogs in the house and went over to help the neighbor.  She’s an older woman suffering from MS and she uses a walker.  She was actually out there picking up the smaller pieces and putting them on her walker and chuffing them up the driveway.

So whaddaya say?  Was that a premonition or not?

I say it’s the Saturday morning blog hop hosted by our friends at Two Little Cavaliers, Confessions of the Plume, and Life With Dogs.

You can link up at any of the above hosts.  Enjoy your Saturday!

Exercising Challenges

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It’s been incredibly hot and humid in the northeast the last three or four days which makes exercising the dogs pretty challenging.  I haven’t been able to find any areas of water they can swim in and Sampson is not a big swimmer anyway, so we stuck to our walks.

I generally keep their walks short in this type of weather, anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes,because I worry about heat stroke. If I have the time in the morning before the heat of the day catches up, I like to take advantage of it.  Such was the case the past couple of days.

Yesterday I decided to take the dogs down to the back part of the woods.  This is an area I generally don’t go to for a number of reasons 1) the scare I had back there last year, 2) the path has very easy access to a much larger park so there are generally more people and dogs down there and 3) the path down and back is very steep.

It was only about 9:15 am, but it was already warm and very humid.  There is a lovely little brook (when we have our fair share of rain) down there and it gives the dogs a little drink and a place to cool off.  Plus there is less sun busting through the trees which it makes the hiking somewhat comfortable.

As Kristine indicated last week, The Leaves Are Back In Town which means when you are walking your dog off-leash it’s not as easy to see approaching people or dogs.

The nice thing about this area is there are a number of options for walking, one of which is a lovely wash, that is fairly wide (in terms of hiking trails) with quite a good view of the trail ahead.

Very good visibility.

We walked for about 10 to 12 minutes up the wash, then I turned around and headed back.  I knew this would be the toughest part due to the steepness of the climb.

Luckily there are lots of stones, both small and large embedded in the ground, as well as some areas where tree roots are exposed.  I use these stones and roots as a way to secure myself to keep from slipping and falling.

Almost like stairs.

When we are heading down these steep areas, I usually say, “Easy Delilah, Easy” and she actually does very little pulling and waits very patiently for me.

On the way back up however I have been heard to say, “Pull Delilah Pull.” 🙂

Delilah is spectacular on the hills.  She is also great on the giant rocks, sometimes I actually think she is part Mountain Goat as I have literally seen her go straight up the face of a rock.

We’d been out about 35 minutes by the time we reached the top of the cliff, and yes I’m calling that a cliff, so shut it.

I swear the picture doesn’t do it justice!

By the time we got back to the car it had been about 45 minutes, that coupled with the fact that they were sniffing and exploring a new area, helped tire them out.  After a quick cool off in the pool, they each found a comfy spot and settled in for a well deserved snooze.

Whoo, that was a tough one!

 

You can say that again!

Delilah did rally a little bit later to play a couple of rounds of fetch to help us make a showing in K-9 Kamp, but for the most part they had a pretty mellow, relaxing day. 🙂

Do you modify your dog’s exercise when it’s hot and/or humid?  If so, what types of things do you do?

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