Heart Like a Dog

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

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What Would You Do For Your Pet?

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I had a totally different post planned for today and then I came upon this article on Yahoo, and the title caught my eye, Experts: Don’t attempt to save swept-away pets.

You can read the article for yourself AFTER you finish this post (apparently I have to be concerned with something called bouncing.)

I’ll give you the down and dirty.  Apparently five people have died in California in the last five months trying to rescue a dog being swept away.

The article says that most dogs are better swimmers than humans and by using their fight or flight instincts will work with the currents and find their way to shore.  Of course it might be a bit farther away than where they started so microchips and collar tags are highly recommended.

We all know that certain dogs are better in the water than others.  Labradors, German Shepards and Pit Bulls are designed for swimming. Their strong bodies, heads that stay above water, thick/and or waterproof coats not to mention the four feet vs two for humans, (with some of them being webbed) give them the advantage over two footers who can experience hypothermia due to the cold ocean water.

Animals have far better stamina than most humans and are capable of keeping themselves alive in the water by remaining calm and focusing on the task at hand vs humans who tend to panic and become confused.

And what if your pet manages to stay alive, turning up two or three miles down shore and you have died, where does that leave him/her?

Logistically this all makes sense to me, but the reality of seeing your dog struggling and being swept away is far different.  I can’t imagine the guilt I’d feel standing helplessly by.   And God knows I have enough guilt I carry right now.

Delilah-1

Sampson-1

How could I let either one of those sweet faces just drift away without trying to help?  What do you think?  What would YOU do?

My Dog Likes Wood

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Friday on Talking Dogs Blog, Sue was updating us on puppy Rosie.  Sue said, “She is, by far, the easiest puppy we’ve ever had.  Zero destruction.  All joy.”

Which of course made me think back to my own little punkin, also a very easy puppy.

Sampson and Me Me and my Punkin, the first time I held him, he was three weeks old.

Which isn’t to say, he wasn’t a tiny bit destructive.

Dogs are as unique and individual as people.  Delilah enjoys agility while Sampson does not. I think this holds true in other things as well.

Delilah loves shredding paper.  Paper towels, napkins, tissues.  Sampson wouldn’t touch them if they were coated with cheese.

For chewing purposes we will leave Delilah out of that equation, as she will chew just about anything.

Our little Beagle, Roxanne loved to chew plastic, while Sampson has always favored wood.
(Siriusly, what did you think this post was about anyway?  It is a DOG blog, get your dirty little mind out of the gutter!)

Case in point, he chewed the feet of my wooden coat rack.  We tried to prevent his chewing, we gave him alternative toys, we sprayed bitter apple on it, eventually what worked was removing it from his area until he fully understood what he was allowed to chew and what he wasn’t.

Once the coat rack was removed and he still had the urge to chew wood, he had to look to other items in the kitchen to satisfy his needs.

One day I came home to discover he had chewed the footrest to the breakfast bar!  The breakfast bar that Hubby had carefully built and assembled, it was the center piece of our recently completed renovations in our very large and beautiful kitchen.

My first thought was Hubby is going to kill him.  I was worried.  I had been the one hellbent on getting a puppy and while I knew Hubby loved Sampson, I wasn’t sure that a huge fight wasn’t going to take place, with battle lines drawn, me defending Sampson and Hubby calling for stricter sanctions.

I took Sampson outside for potty and came in to await the storm about to break.

How was your day?  I cheerfully asked standing in front of the breakfast bar blocking the chewed footrest from his view.

Frivolities over it was time to face the music.

Um…I have something to show you, please don’t be mad.

WHAT?

When the words eventually finished stumbling out of my mouth, imagine my surprise when Hubby laughed and said, I didn’t like that footrest anyway!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Who could ever stay mad at that little punkin face?

Have you ever had to go to bat for your pet?  Did it turn out the way you expected?

This is Monday Mischief.  Many thanks to our friends Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog and My Brown Newfies.

Black and White Sunday

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Today we’re participating in our very first Black and White Sunday.

Black and White Sunday 4-7-13 Many thanks to our hosts, You Did What With Your Weiner, My Life in Blog Years and Dachshund Nola.

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