Heart Like a Dog

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

K-9 Kamp Update

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K-9 Kamp Kounselor Delilah here to help keep you motivated and fill you in on some of the things we’ve been doing to keep this first week of K-9 Kamp F-U-N.

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We love to take advantage of the woods right at the top of our street.  It’s a great place to have fun.  In fact, one of the first days of Kamp, Sampson and I got to chase a squirrel!

Here’s what happened.

Before I had a chance to leash The Mama up, a squirrel dashed across my path.

Without a thought for what poor Mama might do, off I went with Sampson right behind me.

The tree rat dashed into the woods and turned left, but he couldn’t get away from me, I was in hot pursuit!

The Mama meanwhile was shouting and yelling and Sampson went back to comfort her.  Meanwhile, I kept on going. The squirrel must have been scared for his life because he ran towards one of the houses that sits on the edge of the woods looking for asylum.

Ah ha!  Here’s my chance, I made the turn for the house, thinking I could pin him down there.

All of a sudden I heard the Mama, “Delilah, NO!”  I stopped for a second and thought the poor thing, she’s afraid to walk without me.  My second thought was, what a party pooper.

No worries, the are plenty of fun things I can find to do in the woods.

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Someone has stacked a bunch of logs on either side of a large tree across one of our trails.   This is a great challenge for us.  We can either jump clear over the pile or climb the logs.  This kind of exercising helps keep the muscles in our back legs toned and strong as well as helping us with balance.

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We also use other trees to climb over.

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Or to go under. (Oops, The Mama is not fast enough to snap me!)

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I decided it was time to let The Mama try rock climbing.  Rock climbing/walking is another good exercise for balance and toning. The poor Mama, it was raining that day and she slipped.  I coaxed and wheedled and even dangled an M&M in front of her, but I couldn’t get her to try again.

I’m so glad we are participating in K-9 Kamp because the Mama is severely out of shape.  I’ve tried these past three years to help her, but despite my best efforts, she still can’t make it up the hill by herself.  You try dragging 140+  of weight behind you, all the while listening to this:

“I can’t breathe.”

“AH my thighs, my thighs, they’re burning!”

And silly phrases like, “Oh my Dog I’m so tired, why can’t this field be full of poppies?”

The Mama calls it torture.

I call it weight resistance training.

Eh, some folks say TO-MAY-TOE and some say TO-MA-TOE.

How are you all doing with your K-9 Kamp challenge?  Do you need any tips or motivation?  Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to check back next week when we’ll share some fun things to do inside for those like us who are being challenged by daylight hours and weather.

This is the K-9 Kamp Blog Hop hosted by Kol’s Notes and Peggy’s Pet Place.

Of Chipmunks, Reflections and Food

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Delilah’s a lab which means she’s highly motivated by food.  One might even say obsessed based upon her dedication to us whenever food is involved.

She’s also obsessed with reflections on the ceiling.  As the sun makes its way across the sky, it shines in through various windows in our house.  All of a sudden Delilah will start jumping around, looking up at the ceiling and barking.  That’s when you know you left something out that is catching her eye.

In fact, we can’t eat at our dining room table because the light shines on the silverware creating a reflection and Delilah starts her antics.  It’s a miserable meal time for everyone.

Yesterday I noticed she has a new obsession.

Chipmunks.

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She literally sat at this door for hours, on the watch for chipmunks.  I think her obsession for chipmunks actually outweighs her obsession for food.

How do I know?

I spent most of yesterday afternoon in the kitchen making jam, while Delilah sat at the door watching chipmunks.  I actually peeled and quartered apples without having to tell her to back off.

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At one point I walked over to her and she had a big drool hanging from her mouth.

Truth be told, this obsession has me a little worried.  I can work around her food obsession, I can move things when the light reflects on them, but until we get rid of the chipmunks in our yard, there’s nothing I can do about this.

I’m wondering if anyone else has a dog with obsessions and what you do to manage that.

I will have you
Yes, I will have you
I will find a way and I will have you
Like a butterfly
A wild butterfly
I will collect you and capture you (Animotion – 1984)

Dogs Just Want to Have Fun

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Sung to the tune of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, by Cyndi Lauper.

The phone rings, in the middle of the night
It’s Jodi Chick yelling, “you know it’s K-9 Kamp, right?”
Oh Jodi dear, you know that labs like to run
But this time we’re gonna have fu-un,
Oh this time, we’re gonna have fun.
 
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Delilah here, letting you know that the Mama dropped the ball (literally and figuratively) once again for the K-9 Kamp challenge hosted by Kol’s Notes and Peggy’s Pet Place. Luckily she has me here to pull her into it, kicking and screaming if necessary.

I’m definitely up for that challenge.

Siriusly, I generally have to pull the Mama up the hills while we’re walking.  You’d think after three years of daily walks, she’d be in some kind of shape, but sadly, no.

The last time she managed to make it up the hill on her own she swallowed a bug.  Honestly, you’d have thought her life was ending.  She choked, coughed and gagged then cried, “I swallowed a bug,  a bug!  I swallowed a bug!”

Good grief Mama, it’s just a little extra protein, be glad you didn’t get charged for it.

So the Mama’s all goofing off on facebook the other day and she sees that Kol’s Notes posted a reminder about K-9 Kamp.  Then some really bad words came out of her mouth and she got all feverish on the facebook chat with Jodi Chick about K-9 Kamp.

Rumor has it the Mama asked Jodi Chick if an e-mail went out.  I’m a dog and if dogs could get embarrassed that would certainly embarrass me.  Let’s just say, that the Mama has decent organizational skills when she chooses to use them, but Jodi Chick puts her to shame.  Oh Mama, it’s a good thing Koly and Fe live so far away, Sampson and I would never live this down.

Let’s face it, the Mama totally did not do her part in the last K-9 Kamp challenge.  Oh she walked us all right, but she should have been shouting up a storm about what we were doing and trying her best to keep people motivated.  Truthfully, it’s sometimes difficult keeping the Mama motivated.  We try, we really do but short of dangling M & M’s  in front of her, not much motivates that one.

So the theme for this portion of K-9 Kamp is  “Get active with your dog, 30 minutes extra, 3 or 4 times a week.  And they’re looking for fun things to do, like play fetch, chase your dog, let your dog chase you, swim, do agility, play frisbee.

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Good thing the Mama found (yes FOUND) this Frisbee at the park, would you believe the woman didn’t own a Frisbee?  It’s a wonder I’m in any kind of shape at all.  Although dragging her around on the leash really does give me quite a bit of resistance.

Well I’ve heard it said, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”  So I’m taking over for the K-9 Kamp Challenge, and I’m going to make sure the Mama does her part to help us have a little bit of fun every single day.

It’s true Sampson is a bit older, and doesn’t care much for fetching, but I’m going to give the Mama some suggestions and hopefully get her motivated.  I happen to know there is a big old bag of M & M’s in the fridge, so I have plenty of treats to get her up and moving.  AND to keep her honest, we’re going to be reporting back at least once a week and giving YOU some ideas and fun things you can do with your dogs, even if they’re a bit older and don’t have the stamina they once had.

So are you up for this challenge?

Say yes, say yes, say yes! (Sorry, I’m a lab after-all.)

Alright then, let’s do this!!

FOLLOW-UP Friday – the Mama’s working with Lynda from Two Ears and a Tail, to be tomorrow’s co-host of the Follow-Up Friday Blog hop.  She’ll update this post if for some reason that changes.

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

 

Today we’re joining our friends Thunder, Storm and Freighter from 2 Brown Dawgs Blog along with their new co-host Ruckus the Eskie for This ‘N That Thursday!

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