Heart Like a Dog

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

I’m Drowning in Clutter

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I don’t know about you, but lately it seems like I just can’t keep up with everything.  It’s true, I’m drowning in clutter.

By far the biggest culprit for me is paper, I’m one of the few folks who could care less if the post office stops delivering on Saturday.  Bonus!!  One less day of useless crap that I don’t know what to do with.  That being said, there are other things that just seem to pile up.

Take the leashes, collars and harnesses.

Since Sampson has still not been cleared for stairs or unleashed supervision, there is only one door in our house that he can use.  It’s our French door, which we typically don’t use.  Since Sampson is a GINORMOUS puller, he’s on  a harness, but he also needs to wear his collar with his tags on it.  The harness we use has a special leash, which I use when we do our twice daily walks.  IF we are only going outside to potty, I use his daily leash and clip it to his collar.

When Delilah comes with us in the morning, I also put her on harness.  I’m pulled in two directions as it is, and the harnesses help minimize the pulling.  Delilah’s harness does not have a special leash, just her every day leash.

The French door that we use to exit the house sits right near the pool table.  When we walk in and I remove harnesses and leashes, they get tossed into a big pile on the pool table.  While it’s nice to have everything in one spot, it seemed like every time I reached for a leash, I was grabbing the wrong one, or digging it out of a jumbled pile.

I said something to Hubby and he said, “I was thinking of that, we could nail some hooks to the wall and use them to organize the leashes.”

As soon as I heard, “Nail,” I stopped listening.  I have a thing about putting holes in my walls.  I know it’s super weird, but the reality is, I’ve hardly hung anything on my walls that required a new nail hole, in the entire 7 years I’ve lived here.  At our old house, Sampson was trained to ring a bell to go outside and potty and that was nailed to the door frame,  but in our new house, I refused to put a nail or screw in my beautiful woodwork.  The bell sits forlornly on the bookshelf next to the door, sadly collecting dust.

So there I sat on Sunday contemplating exactly how I could organize all our dog walking supplies, without making a hole in my wall!

Here’s what I came up with .

Much better than a jumbled mess on the table!

Much better than a jumbled mess on the table!

This container was sitting in a pile designated for a tag sale.  It’s an old photograph organizer that I bought from one of those scrap book home parties.  I pulled some of the dividers out and made it so it has four compartments.  It holds, Sampson’s harness and special leash as well as Delilah’s harness and every day leash.

The container is sitting on the stool, along with Sampson’s every day leash, and the stool is sitting right next to the door.  Since Sampson’s harness and leash are black it’s easy to tell them apart from Delilah’s.  It has made the pool table so much cleaner and while it hasn’t cut down on the other, every day clutter, at least there is one area that looks fresh and organized.

Do you have a problem keeping leashes organized?  How do you organize all your dog walking equipment?

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You’re a piece of work, has anyone ever told you that before Mama?

Solvit’s Telescoping Pet Ramp

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One of the hardest issues we’ve had with Sampson’s ACL injury and subsequent surgery has been getting him in and out of the car.  Before he fully tore his ACL we did purchase a set of steps to assist him in getting on the bed, but since he can’t be on the bed, I’ve tried using the stairs for the car.

For some reason Sampson does not care for the steps at all.  He uses them but he usually tries to skip one of the two steps, which has resulted with him falling a couple of times, and that really freaks me out.  I certainly don’t want him damaging the mechanism in his leg.

So I was super excited when I was contacted by the wonderful folks at Solvit.  My contact thought after reading my blog, that I might like to try a ramp for Sampson.  I talked it over with Hubby, and went back and forth with the rep and we finally decided on the Deluxe Telescoping Pet Ramp. She was even kind enough to send me a video on how to train Sampson to use the ramp.

Solvit Telescoping Pet Ramp

At first when I looked at the ramp I got a little nervous, while the ramp extends from 39″ up to 72″, I couldn’t see how to lock the ramp in place, but that’s the beauty of the telescoping feature.  When you set the ramp up and extend it to your preferred length, the telescoping feature along with gravity, keeps the ramp from retracting.  There are two little feet on one end that sit on the ground/floor.  The ramp portion the pet walks on feels similar to sandpaper, so it provides traction and prevents slipping.  When not in use, there is a snap to keep the ramp from opening up, and it has a handle on one side to make for easy carrying.

We set the ramp on the floor and left it there for a couple of days.  Occasionally asking the dogs to walk across it.

Solvit-Ramp-Telescoping Pet Ramp

Then the grandkids came over and I had to pick it up, because they kept trying to walk on it and it is not for people or children, only pets!

Sampson walked across it just fine when it was flat on the floor, but the first time I tried to use it, I had the ramp pitched too steeply and he wouldn’t even attempt it.  I discovered that you can adjust the pitch of the ramp by extending it a little bit longer.

My dogs have both taken agility classes and I was pretty sure we wouldn’t have much of a problem, but we wanted to make sure we did it correctly so we started out small.

Pet Ramps- Solvit Telescoping Pet Ramp

We set the ramp up in the room Sampson and I are sleeping in.  Our mattress is no more than 6 inches off the floor.  The first couple of times Sampson walked OVER the ramp or off to the side, but with a few treats, he quickly learned to go up and down the ramp.

So we moved it into the living room to try it on the couch, which is considerably higher than the mattress.  He tried once again going over the ramp, but a little patience, coaxing and cookies and he was off.

Telescoping Pet Ramps by Solvit

I think he was super happy just to be up on his couch again.

After going on and off the couch a couple of times, we moved the ramp out to the car.

Solvit Telescoping Ramps to help pets get in cars

And then brought Sampson out.

Pet Ramps by Solvit-Telescoping pet ramps

Let’s see how he did with the ramp.  (The volume may be a tiny bit loud, fair warning.)

If the video does not play, click here.

As you can see, after an initial hesitation Sampson walked the ramp like it was his job.  It was so easy to train Sampson on the Solvit Telescoping Pet Ramp.  All told it took us no more than 20 minutes from the time we started using the slight incline of the mattress until he was walking in and out of the car.

I think a good part of that is the quality and sturdiness of the ramp as well as the non-slip surface.

When it’s just Sampson and I in the car, I slide the ramp on the floor of the front passenger seat, I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m fairly certain if I’m driving the ramp will fit between the front and back seats.  If Hubby’s driving, he likes to put the seat all the way back to give himself plenty of leg room, so the ramp won’t fit back there.  I think we will more than likely have to strap it onto the roof rack, but I think that would be the case with any ramp we used.

All told, I’m so very pleased with the Solvit Telescoping Pet Ramp, I no longer have to worry about Sampson slipping or trying to jump when getting in and out of the car.

Disclaimer:  I was given a Solvit Telescoping Pet Ramp in exchange for an honest review of a product.  I have received no other compensation for this review.  Heart Like a Dog only shares products and information we feel are relevant to our readers and would never share or endorse a product we wouldn’t use ourselves.

Chloe is Not Coming

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What’s the first thing you learned in basic obedience class?  Not the first thing you taught your dog (which was probably sit) but the first thing you learned?

If I remember correctly, it’s not to repeat your command.  I ask my dog to sit, if (s)he does not sit, I use a treat and lure the dog into a sit.  When I am walking Delilah and call her to me, I reward her when she comes, if she does not come I say, “Too bad” and I put the treat away.  I wait a few seconds and I try again, usually the next time she’s very quick to respond.

For a long time Delilah and I went to a drop in obedience class and there was this couple that had a pair of labs and they about drove me to drink.   Okay truth here.  It doesn’t take much to drive me to drink, but that’s entirely NOT the point.   The point is these people would say, “Sit, sit, sit, sit” and then “Stay, stay, stay, stay” until it took all my energy not to swing my leash and whap them upside their head with the clip.

When I’m out cruising the neighborhood with the dogs, I naturally notice the houses with dogs.  There’s one house we pass that has a German Shepherd dog and the dog barks incessantly.  She hears us from about two to three houses away and she barks until we are at least two three houses beyond her.

Do you want to come and play with me?

Do you want to come and play with me?

Now don’t get me wrong, my dogs bark when other dogs walk past, but not to that degree.  AND if my dogs are barking like lunatics, I go and check the situation out and typically call them away from it.  Unless of course it’s something that requires my attention.

So this dog is barking her fool head off as we walk past and the owner comes outside and I hear, “Chloe come, Chloe come, Chloe come, Chloe come, Chloe come, Chloe come.”

I wanted to scream, “Chloe is not coming. Walk over to your dog and get her.”

In the truth is stranger than fiction category, yesterday when we were walking past that house the woman stopped me to compliment me on how beautiful the dogs are.  As we stood chatting for a few minutes she informed me that Chloe always alerts her when dogs are walking by and that she can’t walk Chloe because Chloe loses her mind when she sees another dog.  Of course, “she only wants to play.”  But I wonder if she actually had the opportunity, if she would even know how.

How do you explain proper socialization to people?  Or the importance of exposing your dog to many situations to help them become a well-rounded dog?

How do you handle situations like this?

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