Heart Like a Dog

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

Embrace Who She Is

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I made a promise to myself when I started this blog that I would always be honest, which is why there were two very emotional and raw posts last week.

I was extremely disappointed in Delilah last Monday and in my abilities to train her.

In two short months, on May 26th we will celebrate the five-year anniversary of Delilah’s “Gotcha Day.”  Which means I’ve been working with her for a very long time, as I am not one of those people who get  a dog and think by some miracle they will know exactly what is expected of them without any training.

We went through all the training classes with Sampson and he did marvelously, I figured we had this in the bag.  I quickly realized Delilah would need formal training.

We enrolled in classes.  Sara reminded me last week when she yelled at me to quit writing bad stuff about Delilah on the blog, of our first class.  Our classes were stubborn meets stubborner and I don’t know which of us was which.  That first class I had to practically lay on Delilah to get her into a down.  I’ve since (thanks to all of you) revised my training philosophy and will never again lay on her to get her into a down.

My walking friend also made me realize that she hasn’t been working off-leash for very long at all, just over a year.  It was only January of last year when we started walking the trails.

Saturday I went to pick up dog food and spoke with Sandy our raw food mentor.  Somehow we started talking about Delilah and I was explaining how excited Delilah is around food and how she jumps backwards all the way to the place where she gets fed, never once taking her eyes off her food bowl.

Sandy just stood there, nodding her head up and down with a huge smile on her face.

“What?” I asked, “Why are you standing there smiling?”

“Embrace who she is, someday she won’t be able to do that” was her response.

I get that, I really do.  I already see the white in Sampson’s face and it makes my heart hurt.   But I want the best of both worlds, I want a dog that can run around and have fun but listens to me when I need or want them to.

Is that even possible?

Too Much Socialization?

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We socialized Sampson from the time he was 8 weeks old.  He went to puppy play group, beginner and intermediate obedience classes and then on to daycare twice a week.

We also socialized him with people and truth be told I can’t figure out if he loves other dogs or people more.   When he sees or hears another dog he must get to it.  But once he’s greeted the other dog, he hangs out with their person.

Today during our walk I heard a small dog, and it made me nervous, because I’ve seen a woman who walks two small dogs (I think they are Papillons) and she doesn’t pay attention.  My dogs wouldn’t intentionally hurt a small dog but as you know they are quite large and very enthusiastic. 🙂  I’m always afraid they’ll squish one during the greeting.

I don’t run with my nose to the ground so I usually see something well before the dogs.  Oh I can still miss things, but usually I see or hear it before they do.

Once I heard the small dog bark, I called Sampson over and clipped his leash on.  That’s when Sampson heard the small dog’s bark and tried to head in the direction from whence it came.

Two fools straining at the ends of their leashes.

Are your dogs like this?  Do you think there is such a thing as too much socialization?

Adventures In Daycare

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I’ve mentioned before that Sampson and Delilah go to half a day of daycare twice a week.  Yesterday I turned down the street and was greeted by this sight.

Do they teach them to park this way?

My very first thought was, “God I hope it wasn’t my dogs” which was interrupted by the second thought of “Sara would have called me.”

I walked in with wide eyes and I think my mouth might have been open in shock but I can’t say with any certainty. :-0  Sara immediately burst out laughing and said to Diane (groomer) “Did you see her face?”

Naturally all the dogs are gathered at the gates, since the lobby is filled with two police officers and an old drunk guy and now me.  I notice the partially drunk bottle of alcohol sitting on the counter and put two and two together.

And (I love starting a sentence with ‘and’) then Sara says rather quickly, “Would you like your dogs?”

I nodded my head and remembered with dread that I’d forgotten Sampson’s leash at home.

I looked at Sara and tried to be nonchalant when I said, “I’ll have to take them separately, since I forgot Sampson’s leash this morning.”

I hear the female officer say to the male officer, “After we’re done with this, I’ll be in there.  You can call me if you need me.” And I think to myself, if I’m ever some drunk old gal on a bicycle, I hope I get this officer. 🙂

So Sara clipped Delilah and I brought her out to the car and about a half a minute later Sara came out with Sampson, using one of the small slip leashes they use for tying the dogs into the tub.

Sara tells me the story of how the drunk guy rides in on a bicycle, parks it against the building, walks in and says, “I need an ambulance.”

It’s a nice way to end your work week, don’t you think?  Not sure how it ended, but I’ll follow it up next Friday.

What are you doing??   This is the Saturday morning blog hop hosted by Two Little Cavaliers, Life With Dogs and Confessions of the Plume.

Hop on.

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