Heart Like a Dog

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

New Soul/Old Soul

By

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?

I Didn't Say A Word

By

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.

Free Dog

By

Yesterday I wrote about the horrendous experience I had trying to get my dogs into the park amidst a crowd of people.

After being yanked across the road, we finally managed to make it into the park and I found my walking buddy.  We headed off down the paths that would keep us away from the field.

Delilah was close to me on her 15 foot leash, while Sampson and Brady were unleashed.

You can always tell when the dogs see someone or something, their ears perk up, they stiffen for a moment and then they’re gone.

We met a new friend on our Monday night walk, Flurry a seven month old yellow lab.  His dad was at the LaCrosse field and decided to check out the trails.  The dogs were all excited to meet each other and they wanted to play and run.

Oh and hump.  Brady kept trying to hump Flurry.

My friend suggested we take the dogs down in back where there was some area to run.  I wasn’t really sure where she was heading but I followed her anyway.   Down the cliffs to the little brook.

About a quarter of a way down in the middle of the picture, you can see the flat area she was talking about.

The area was relatively flat with some room to run, but there was lots and lots of small limbs and branches littering the area.  I couldn’t in good conscience let Delilah run through there dragging a 15 foot leash.

I let her go.

She did ok.  When she started to get too far away I’d say, “Delilah No!  This way,” and she would come running.  But then she crossed the brook and headed out on the trails leading into the park with little Flurry right behind her.

I had a panic attack and I know she could tell.  Duh! She could hear it in my voice, but after a few terrifying seconds she turned around and came back.

Then we headed for home.

Today I wanted to take them for their walk on my lunch in order to avoid the LaCrosse team.  It was raining but they don’t care and I throw a hat on so off we went.

We pulled up to the park and I noticed Hail on my windshield.  Yes you read that right, HAIL.

I figured no-one would be out in the rain so I said, screw it and took off her leash.

She did pretty awesome.

I leashed at the beginning of one trail, which is where one of the houses she likes to run off to is, but as soon as we were past the danger point, I took her off again.

Of course I never let her get too far away from me.   And yes, every time she checked back whether I asked her to or not, she got a treat.

And guess who walked out to the car next to her mother, without a leash.

See Mama, I can be a good girl.

She did very good today and I’m very proud of her.

Tomorrow is yet to be.

Book update: My book has 22,025 words.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...