Heart Like a Dog

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

Antlers…Day Three Hundred, Fifty Two

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Ever since I read about Shiva and her antler over on Rescued Insanity, I’ve been itching to get one for Sampson and Delilah.  Okay, mostly Delilah because she LOVES to chew things up.

Sara knew how much I wanted to try them so when she placed her first orders for the retail area of The Mellow Mutt, she ordered antlers.

The Retail Area at the Mellow Mutt

One Friday on our way home from daycare, each of the dogs got an antler.  Antler’s in mouth, they rushed out to the car and laid down for the entire ride home, not moving until I stopped the car.  Normally when I stop the car, the dogs wait in the back until I open the hatch, and give them the release word.

I do this mostly to keep Delilah from darting out of the car and running into the neighbor’s yard, to scarf around for any crumbs the birds might have left on the ground.

This particular Friday though, I barely opened the hatch before Delilah jumped out of the car and tail wagging, head held high made a beeline for the door and directly into her crate where she noshed and gnashed on the antler.

Seriously, she made so much noise I had to look in on her.  What I saw scared the living daylights out of me.  She was chomping away and it looked like she was trying to SWALLOW the antler.  I knew I had to take it away.

Not always being the brightest of dog owners I did have the sense to grab a treat I could exchange for the antler.

“Hi pretty, want to give Mama the antler in exchange for this tasty biscuit?” I cooed.

She fell for it.  I gave her the biscuit and took the antler away.  She figured it out as soon as the biscuit was gone and followed me into the kitchen where I placed the antler in a plastic baggie.  As I did this I noticed the antler was tinged with pink.  Yes, much like her Sister from another mother Shiva , she chewed so enthusiastically she made her gums bleed.  I told Hubby I will have to find out how long you let the dog chew the antler.

So tell me. Do you give your dogs antlers?  Do you have an aggressive chewer?  Has a dog ever SWALLOWED an antler?  Is that even possible, what would happen if they did would they need surgery?  I can’t imagine passing an antler!

This is one of the antlers, it is about four or five inches tall.

Patience My Sweet….Day Three Hundred, Fifty One

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I always thought I was a pretty patient person, that is until I met Delilah.

Delilah has the type of personality that could make Mother Theresa cuss.  Out loud.  In front of God himself.

Delilah (in a nut shell) has no patience.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.

She wants what she wants when she wants it and woe to those who try to stop her. My dog trainer will tell you she takes after her mother.  Don’t believe everything you hear. 🙂

This particular shall we call it trait  of Delilah’s makes training with her very difficult.  She gives new meaning to the term, stubborn little female lab.

I started working with her on the ‘Heel’ command.  Delilah in front of me, Sampson lying patiently on the floor waiting his turn.

“Delilah heel!” I stick my left hand with a treat in it around my back and coax her to walk behind me and sit at my left side.  We did this four times.

“Sampson heel!”  Delilah jumped in and rushed between him and me and ran around behind my back.

I did this three times, then I gave up.

Where did my patience go?

Delilah is so excited by the mere thought of food, that she can work herself into a frenzy.

I feed them twice a day, at 7:00 am and at 7:00 pm.   Delilah reminds me anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour before meal time.  I can’t feed them a minute sooner, because if I did she would start reminding me even earlier.

As soon as I begin making my way to the kitchen she turns into a whirling dervish.  A spinning, jumping, dancing on your foot dog.  Oh and verbal, very, very verbal.

Breakfast: A task which should take me about a minute or two at the most, takes a minimum of five, because she keeps getting up, I look at her and she sits back down, or I finally think she’s got it and she changes position because somehow she thinks her vantage point is better here instead of there.

I have a saying “It all ends in the kitchen unless your end is on the floor.”  I say this at least twice a day.

I look at her and she barks at me, “Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, I’m hungry.”

I look at her over my glasses, with one eyebrow arched, hands on hips.  The barking stops, for a moment.

I make a move toward her food dish in hand, and it begins all over again.

Normally we eat dinner a tad bit on the late side, I usually finish eating and immediately get up to get their dinner.   Last night for some reason dinner was ready early, so we finished about 6:35 pm.  Dinner for the dogs was still a long way off.

We sat and watched some TV.  Delilah tried to climb in my lap.  “Off.”

She sat beside the sofa and whined in my ear.  Out of the side of my mouth I said to Hubby, “I’m trying to ignore her so she will stop.”

She didn’t.

Finally she gave up and went into her crate behind the couch, plunked herself down and sighed, “Hmmmmpfh.”

She sighed about three more times before I said to Hubby, “I’m going to feed them now so I CAN HEAR the last ten minutes of this show.”

I think there are lessons to be learned for/from everyone.  I think Delilah and I were brought together so we could each learn patience.

Food Guarding….Day Three Hundred, Fifty

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I’ve had a couple of instances where the dogs have snapped at the cat as they all clamor around my legs at feeding time.   I found the best way to diffuse the situation is to feed Bob first.  Then Bob is out of the way and there are no issues.

Saturday I made a run for raw food, so I had a bathtub full of chicken necks.  After letting them defrost for a few hours I went in to separate them into individual baggies, naturally Delilah had to come with me, just in case I missed the baggie and dropped a neck on the floor, or I turned my back for a minute so she had an opportunity to lap the chicken water. 🙂

After about 20 minutes Sampson decided to check out the bathroom, when he tried to pass Delilah she snapped at him.  I didn’t hear her growl, she just turned her head and snapped at him.

I wasn’t in the least way prepared for this so I handled it all wrong. 🙁  I shouted “Hey!”  Then I said, “GET OUT.”  Both dogs tried to leave the bathroom, but eventually I sorted them out and got Delilah outside and Sampson in, and I shut the door and left her out there.

I sat there wishing I had a clear glass door so Delilah could sit outside it and watch Sampson and me in bathroom sorting chicken necks with me slipping him the occasional neck.  Which wouldn’t be the right way, since she wouldn’t understand why he was getting the necks and she wasn’t.

I’m really at a loss at the best way to handle the situation.  Normally Delilah does not guard her food, I can reach down and take her dish away if I need to.  I have in fact taken something from her mouth with no issues, so it’s not a typical food guarding issue.

So how about it?  How do you handle this?  Do you have a dog that guards a particular food, or any food at all?  If so, how do you manage the situation?

 

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