Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Laugh – December 13, 2015

Cupcake said, “Gah, S. That’s an accomplishment. I have managed to get caught in the soccer net in the field by my house TWICE! I’m like a trout in that thing! Mom takes my picture and THEN gets me untangled before I strangle to death. #takeyourtime”

I was going to say have your mom post a picture, but I visited your blog today and see that she already has. LOL

Jan K said, “Didn’t you say Sampson doesn’t like to wear clothes? It looks like he was trying to get into that vest! LOL”

He got into the vest. He actually had his head through one of the arm holes and the rest of it wrapped around him! LOL

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s mom said, “Shadow used to figure out ways to get out of the kitchen, even when we had her barricaded! She would climb up and over the baby gates. (We didn’t have puppy gates. We had the actual baby gates with the criss-cross plastic “bars”.) It was frustrating, but it was funny, too. My nickname for her back then was Houdini.”

They’re pretty clever when they want to be. LOL

She Makes

Thank you all for the great birthday wishes. She had a good day, she got a new toy and then destuffed the toy Sampson got. LOL

2 Brown Dawgs said, “Happy birthday Delilah. You made it to 10. Sometimes I worried…lol…just kidding.”

You and me both! I sometimes wondered if she would make it. LOL

PebbleSmart Doggie Doorbell

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom said, “Ducky barks her fool head off at us until we figure out what she wants (to go out or play). Shadow just sits quietly at the door until we notice, unless she REALLY has to go out – then she kind of whimpers and barks at the same time, or comes to find me wherever I am in the house.”

Neither one of mine bark to go out, but man, Delilah barks her fool head off to come in.

Genevieve said, “My little meatball doesn’t even know enough to go by the door. She just waits for me to say it’s time to go out. No sense of urgency whatsoever. I’m not complaining, by the way. This works fine for me!”

Wow, and she never wants to go out and bark at stuff?

Sue said, “I love your video demonstration of training. With two dogs with different learning curves it gives a better idea of how it might go at my house. (Rosie is also food obsessed.)

Thanks Sue! I’m glad you liked it.

Emma said, “This is one of our very favorite products of all time and we also use it to come in! Katie never learned to use it because she didn’t like the bell either, but she was fine with it if I would be the ringer. We’ve had ours for a couple years and it even works when it is -20F out! I love it because if Mom tries to ignore me ringing, I just keep ringing and she has to let me in! ”

Oh I’m so glad you love it. How does mom like you ringing the heck out of the bell? LOL Delilah is similar to Katie, she is totally not digging on the bell right now. I was chatting with Keith about Delilah’s lack of interest and he suggested putting some peanut butter on the paddle to encourage Delilah to lick it. Although I’m not sure I want her ringing the hell out of the bell. 🙂

2 Brown Dawgs said, “Do they use it if you are not standing there giving them treats? If wanting to come in (or go out is the object) why wouldn’t you reward them with that rather than food? Touch go out (or come in) rather than adding food to the equation. I hope this makes sense.”

We’ve only just started training on it, so no, they haven’t figured that part out yet. My goal is to wean them off the treats. I think the idea is to put the treat behind the paddle and the smell of the treat lures them to touch the paddle. Once they are comfortable with doing that, you work with them ringing the bell and having someone open the door. (And yes, it made perfect sense.)

Blueberry’s Human said, “God bless whoever was responsible for inventing the dog door. The invention of the dog door has probably saved countless people (including me) from going insane opening the door for their dog(s) multiple times throughout the day…Aren’t you glad at least Sampson understood what you wanted so you didn’t feel like a complete failure? 😉”

Sampson ALWAYS has my back. 😉 And I would have a doggie door IF my door wasn’t glass.

Elaine said, “When my parent’s watched Haley not too long ago, they asked how she tells me when she needs to go outside. I said, “She’ll just give you a look and tell you”. As you can imagine, that wasn’t very helpful to them, lol.”

LOL what, they can’t read her looks? 😉

Maybe It’s Me – Barks and Bytes

Well who’s the dumb ass? That should say “Capital City of DADO!” LMAO

Emma said, “Luckily, our house is located quite a distance from the capital city of DADA. We also rarely see any other dogs, let alone off leash. We did encounter one of those morons about two weeks ago and it tried to bit Bailie in the butt, but somehow the injury was narrowly avoided and this person we have never seen before and her wild dog disappeared into outer space. We love where we live…have you considered a move to our neighborhood?”

No I haven’t. Honestly, I’m thinking somewhere a little warmer…

Sue said, “I’m still laughing at your map of DADA. Luckily, we don’t live near you. Emma may be right: you might need to move! It is so rare that we meet other dogs out on our walks here that I can’t remember the last time. Unfortunately for you, I don’t think people really listen to others any more and many are missing the common sense gene .:-(”

If I EVER come into money, I plan on buying a huge piece of land (maybe 100 acres) and fence the whole thing in. Or an island, and island would be nice. 😉

Taryn said, “My Jimmy is reactive so I feel your pain. Of course, he’s not the size of a Lab so he doesn’t have as much power to pull me off my feet. But if he is really amped, he will turn on Wilson if he can’t get to the dog that got him going. That’s really awful because then I’m yelling and screaming at Jimmy as well as trying to fend off the oncoming dog. And it doesn’t happen with every encounter, just some, so it’s a Russian Roulette of dog fury!…When I see someone coming, I immediately say my black dog is not friendly and will snark. If they still allow their dog to interact, they get what they get!”

I’m sorry, that must be so difficult. Most of the times if I say they can be snarky people keep their distance, I just couldn’t believe the way she crowded us.

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s mom said, “People like that do not listen and learn; they turn into brick walls with heads to match.”

Yup and dogs are not the only issue where this happens!

Blueberry’s Human said, “I don’t expect other people accommodate me and/or Blueberry. She’s not unfriendly, but most dogs can be rude with her….  I also check behind me about every 500 feet to make sure no one is about to come up behind us – and the funny thing is, B does this too! I don’t know exactly what she is doing it for, but I know we are like two peas in a pod when it comes to watching our six!”

See, I don’t feel like it’s accommodating, I feel like it’s courteous to not assume it’s okay for you to yank up on my six. And like you, I typically do look behind me when we’re walking on the street, but in the woods, it never dawned on me, but I’ll be doing it now!

Jan K said, “It’s not you, it’s your neighborhood. Hey – do you want to buy my house? You’d be closer to your sister! :-)…My experience has been when on hikes to places where everyone thinks their dogs can run loose is that with at least 50% of the people, if you tell them your dog is not good with other dogs, they would ask which way you are going so they can go the opposite. Why would you want your dogs going anywhere near other dogs that might be an issue? That’s what I don’t get. I wonder what it’s like to live in oblivion where you think nothing bad is ever going to happen?”

It must be nice to live in oblivion! And thanks for the house offer, I actually own 3.2 acres of land in the town right next to my sister. 🙂 We just haven’t decided if we’ll build on it or not. 

Mary said, “If you are living in the midwest capital, then I am currently in the west coast capital. Everybody brings their dogs here and leaves them off leash. I never know what exactly we are going to encounter when coming and going with the dogs. Plus none of them pick up their dog shit, which really pisses me off because I’m out there with a shovel doing it so I don’t walk in it. I can’t walk down the lane that goes to the main highway because there are 2 dogs, one who is a pitbull, that bark like crazy and don’t let us pass. So no, I don’t think it’s you. It’s those DADA, and they are EVERYWHERE!”

Oh I hear you sister. It’s a damn epidemic! And I’m with you on the dog shit, how hard is it to pick it up? We have a bag dispenser AND a waste bucket just inside the park and just beyond that…dog shit. It makes me want to find out who they are and fling the shit at them.

Jan asked, “Have you thought about publishing “Jodi’s Book on Dog Walking Etiquette” and passing them out to the DADOs? Although their reading comprehension must be pretty low. Maybe a video.”

How about, “You might be a DADO”, sort of along the “Here’s your sign” theme. 🙂

Lauren Miller said, “I also had a similar situation the other day where we were hiking in the woods and a lady with a pack of dogs came up behind me. One of her dogs was incredibly sketchy. The dog came up behind me and poked me with her nose in the back of the knee, when I turned around the dog started doing a “fear bark” at me and I swear, I thought I was definitely going to get bitten.. The dog kept following me, poking me and barking. The lady didn’t do anything! We also ended up off the trail going through a bunch of brush, etc. to get away from her and she hardly even tried to call her dog off.”

It makes you wonder if they even care for their dog? How can you put your dog into that sort of risky situation?

Ann Cluck said, “There are definitely an over abundance of DADOs in this world!!”

There sure is Ann, there sure is!

That’s it for me folks, have a wonderful weekend!