Heart Like a Dog

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

I Have To Laugh….Day Two Hundred, Eighty Eight

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Delilah love food.

I mean Delilah really LOVES food.  If I rang a bell every time I fed her, she would become the classic Pavlov’s dog and salivate on command.

Take last night for instance, I was sitting on the bed eating cheese and crackers while I wrote this blog.  Sampson was stretched out next to me on the bed and Delilah was sitting on the floor beside the bed.  Every few minutes, I would take a piece of cheese and break a couple of tiny pieces off and feed it to the dogs.

The very thought of getting that tiny piece of cheese, made Delilah salivate.

I can stare her down...

Delilah becomes so crazed when food is around, that she almost can’t focus on the task at hand.    When I started clicker training, she was so obsessed with the hand holding the food that she wouldn’t even look at my other hand.  I sent a question to a blogger who does clicker training and asked what she would suggest for a dog that gets so excited with the food that she can’t focus.  The trainer suggested using food that wasn’t quite so exciting.  I didn’t have the heart to write back and tell her I was using green beans. 🙂

I’ve been working really hard with Delilah to sit while I am preparing her meals; but all bets are off once I pick the dish up to bring it over to her.

When Hubby takes the garbage out, he walks over to the sink and opens the cabinet door; Sampson walks over to the outside door because he gets to go outside.  Delilah walks over to the cabinet and looks for anything she might scarf out of the garbage.

If I really sit and think about it; I get really sad because I can only imagine what kind of life Delilah had before coming to live with us.  It breaks my heart to think that she might have gone without food for a long time or that she had to pick through garbage to eat.

So really, I have to laugh at her silly antics around food, because if I didn’t I would surely cry.

Ooops, Delilah wants her snack.  Gotta go.

 

31 Days To A Better Blog…Day Two Hundred, Eighty Seven

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Last month on the Blog Paws site Dawn Miklich asked it anyone was interested in participating in an exercise; 31 Days to a Better Blog.   This exercise is actually based on a book of the same name written by Darren Rowse, who is a professional blogger.  Check out his website here.

Of course I said yes, because really that is my goal in writing this blog.  To become a professional writer.  

The first task, is to write an elevator pitch.  You know, in 200 words or less what you would say to someone you were trying to “sell” your blog to.

I have a hard time with this.  I find it difficult to talk about myself or the things I’ve done.  I think it’s because I’m afraid of sounding arrogant.

I call it tooting my own horn and I don’t care for it at all.  So I struggled with my pitch, the truth is most things sound much better in  my head than they do when I write them down.

So here’s what I came up with.

Life with Sampson and Delilah, the 411, is about my daily life with two dogs who are as opposite in personalities as any two dogs can be. l share the challenges and joy which come from living with and loving two very different dogs and all the crazy stories that come with it. 

Whether you are looking for some light-hearted stories to make you smile, or something more serious like training tips you will find this blog has a little bit of everything. Come join me on this crazy ride called Life with Sampson and Delilah, the 411.

That’s it.  I know it’s not right, but I’m not really sure what it needs.  One of the comments was to tell a little bit about what makes Sampson and Delilah so different. 

How’s this? 

Two dogs.  One calm, well-trained, easy-going male.  One excitable, food-driven, impetuous female.  And the dog mom who loves them both like crazy.  Join me in my trials and triumphs as I balance life with Sampson and Delilah.

This is where I second guess myself, if I can’t even figure out how to make an elevator pitch, how in the world am I going to improve this blog?

Dock Diving….Day Two Hundred, Eighty Six

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Dock Diving was on the schedule at one of the local harvest fairs this weekend.  I have considered dock diving as a sport for Delilah so we decided to check it out.

I thought I was prepared to see the way people hype their dogs up for this type of event, and was pleasantly surprised to find most of the competitors we reasonably reserved.

There were some people who were trying Dock Diving for the very first time, in which case a couple of the dogs were timid in trying.  This one little gal, wasn’t having any of it.  One of the “stage hands” tried to entice her by bouncing her ball in front of her, but she wouldn’t budge.

The young lady sitting next to me had a lab mix puppy and she was checking out dock diving because she thought her puppy would like it.  When this little gal wouldn’t go in I heard my neighbor say, “Push her in.”  I cringed inside and mentally pictured the dog ending up in a shelter because he was so anxious and she couldn’t handle him.

Later during the program I was pleased to hear none of the dogs are ever pushed, shoved or in the announcer’s words, punted into the pool.

There were three entries who worked on hyping their dogs up, two of them worked their dogs like this

But the third one, was the one that almost had me running out of the stands to smack her in the head.  The worst part is she is a veterinarian.

This was her second run through and I missed capturing the first one on video, but the first time the dog was up she was actually hitting his nose with the ball.

And yes, she is screaming about 3 inches from his ear.

Needless to say, if I choose to participate in this sport with Delilah, I will not be hyping her up.

Do you think there is a chance that these dogs can become reactive in other aspects of their lives?

What is your take on dogs in a competitive sport?

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