Heart Like a Dog

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

Puppy Steps

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Delilah and I started our Intermediate Dog Handler Class this past Tuesday.

Never having been there before and not sure of what to expect we arrived a few minutes early.  It worked out great since Delilah didn’t get a chance to tinkle before we left the house.

The class is held at the Community Center, which appears to be a recycled school.  Our class was in what I would consider to be a gym.  The instructions said, drive around back and enter through the double gray doors.

I scoped out the situation and timed our entry so we weren’t walking in with any other dogs.  I never know if Delilah will react or not. 🙁  I choose a spot away from the door and settled down on the inner wall.

If you’ve been following this blog for any period of time you will know one of my many pet peeves is clueless dog people.  Sure enough, safely settled on the far side of the room, in bops an older woman with her King Charles Cavalier Spaniel through the interior doors.

I’m almost certain I heard the words, this isn’t good come out of my mouth.

Thankfully the instructor was right on top of the situation and quickly moved the woman to the other side of the room.

We began by working on wait, using both the hand signal and the verbal cue which we combined with front.   The front command was the release of the wait, and we were told to give the command, hold a treat out in front of us and then pull it into our belly button.  This brought the dog to a sit position right in front of you.

It worked like a charm.  Delilah was amazing working on this command.

Once we had worked on those two commands for a bit, the instructor said we’re going to learn the leave it command.

I think I’ll use your dog, she said as she looked at me.

I know I snickered.

She started with a treat in her hand and placed her hand on the floor, “Leave it” she told Delilah.

Delilah licked the instructor’s hand.

“Ignore the licking” she said, as Delilah began to paw at her hands, “Ignore the pawing” she said.

Delilah rolled over onto her side showing her tummy and pawed with one paw.

The instructor turned her head and said, “Don’t smile or laugh when they do this.”

Finally Delilah sat up and looked the instructor in the eyes.

“Yes!” She was treated from the opposite hand.

Apparently when using the leave it command you are never to give the dog the treat you are asking them to leave.

Good to know.

The whole process took a good minute if not more.  I didn’t have my camera because it was the first night and I wasn’t sure how the instructor would feel about pictures. (But I’ll be sure to ask next week.)

She worked Delilah a couple of times like this and then took her out into the middle of the room and dropped a bunch of treats, “Leave it.”

Delilah almost went for them, but then changed her mind and instead looked up at the instructor.

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it!

Once I started working her, it took her a minute or so but once she figured it out, she was staring me straight in the eyes  and her look said, I get it. 

When she looks at me like that, I feel like we are a team working towards a common goal.

She worked great the entire class and was perfectly fine until we left and the lady I parked next to came out with her dog.  She lost her mind and started barking and snarling.

I wonder if they have a class for guarding?

I’ll leave you with a picture I took tonight when we were working on our wait/front command in the field.  I’m not brave enough to take her off leash but every time I gave her that front command on our walk, she came back to me!

Puppy steps. 🙂

She is 15 feet away from me here.

W.T.F. Wednesday

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Joseph and Margaret Trueman were newlyweds when they left Ireland for America at the turn of the 20th century.

Carefully transported in her trunk, Margaret brought the family bible.  If you turn the delicate gold-edged pages to the section separating the old testament from the new testament, you will find the meticulously recorded births of all five of her sons, as well as the death of the one who did not survive.

Margaret Trueman was my great-grandmother, I found her bible when I was cleaning out my grandmother’s basement.  The cover has seen better days, but the words transcribed inside still remain to this day.

Many has been the day when I carefully turn the pages of that old bible, running my hands along the soft, silky pages and thinking of her and the life she left behind in Ireland.

I wonder, what dreams compelled her to leave the only home she knew and travel to another country far away from home and kin.  I wonder if  America helped her fulfill those dreams.

She died when I was very small and sadly I have no memory of her.

My whole life I’ve dreamed of going to Ireland, to the family farm for visits with cousins so far removed we can’t even determine how we are related.  Settled in at the old kitchen table, over cups of tea, with cream made fresh on the farm, we will get to know each other, to share our lives and dreams.

Today I dream of a world, where pets aren’t yanked out of loving arms and condemned to die, just because of the way they look.

Hey Belfast City Council, today’s WTF Wednesday is all yours.

Lennox the dog ‘humanely put to sleep’ – Belfast, Ireland

I don’t know about you, but I call bullshit.

There is nothing humane about what the Belfast City Council did to Lennox or his family.

If you live in the ‘dog’ world, you more than likely know about Lennox, deemed a ‘dangerous breed’ by the Belfast City Council, he was removed from his family and sentenced to die.

For the last two years, Lennox remained isolated from his family, alone but certainly not forgotten.  For two years his family fought valiantly for his return but they were denied every step of the way.

Despite the fact that well-known dog trainers offered to take Lennox and bring him to the United States, the city council refused.

Victoria Stillwell flew to Ireland prepared to take Lennox on a moment’s notice, still the council refused.

No, the Nazi’s of the dog world had spoken.

This morning the sad news was released that Lennox was put to sleep.

Truthfully I’m not surprised and I’ll tell you why.

My belief is that Lennox has been gone for quite some time.  What other explanation is there for not allowing anyone to see the dog in two years, why would they refuse to allow the family to have the body of the dog?  Why did the council vehemently refuse any and all offers to re-home the dog?

Because the dog was already gone.

Whether he died from their negligence or whether they just went ahead and euthanized him before all efforts in court were exhausted, I truly believe they COULD NOT produce the dog.

Run Fast, Run Free Lennox

Sadly Ireland does not stand alone in their ignorance.  Many cities in this country have Breed Specific Legislation and it’s wrong.  A dog should never be judged on looks alone.

When will we learn to punish the deed and not the breed?

I have a dream that one day we all will be judged by what’s in our hearts, not by how we look.

Run Fast, Run Free Lennox, you may be gone but those you left behind will continue to fight.

My Vet's In A Sling!

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If you’re a long time reader of this blog you may remember that last year poor Sampson had an allergic reaction to something in our yard.  If you didn’t know about it, but want to check it out you can read about it here.

This past weekend I noticed Sampson had a couple of scabs on his head. 🙁

Seeing as I haven’t gotten my vet’s cell phone number yet….I text my friend Jen (My Brown Newfies) first thing Sunday morning and asked her the proper dose of Benadryl for a dog Sampson’s size.   She may yet regret giving me that number…:-)

I started Sampson on the Benadryl immediately and called the vet first thing yesterday morning.  Unfortunately they were all booked up and couldn’t fit me in until NEXT Tuesday!

I took the appointment and asked to leave a message for my vet.

A few minutes later the office called back saying they had a cancellation and could I come in for an 11:00 am appointment. It was 10:30 am.  There was no way I could make it home to get Sampson and down to their office in that amount of time.

They said they’d keep trying.

I relayed the story to Hubby when he called at lunch time, we decided to keep Sampson on the Benadryl unless the vet told us differently.

Around 3:00 pm the vet’s office called to tell me after speaking with our vet, arrangements had been made to see Sampson this morning at 10:00.

I let Hubby know this when he came home from work, as I said it I looked over at him and said, What are you smirking about?

He said, I like how you had them bend to your will.

I laughed.  It might seem that way, but that’s not what happened.

This morning I left poor broken-hearted Delilah with Grandma, while Sampson and I took a trip to the vet.

Someone is going to come in and pet me, right Mom?

I was taking Sampson’s picture when our vet came in.  Her vet tech said,  oh I forgot to tell you about Dr. Soutter’s condition.

I whipped my head around.

My vet’s in a sling!

Dr. Soutter is suffering from a shoulder injury, which is how it happened we got an appointment today.  She was scheduled to be in surgery today.

After examining my sweet boy Dr. Soutter determined he is having another allergic reaction.  Luckily for us we caught it before it became infected.  Thankfully they didn’t have to shave his head this year.

Tonight he started a short-term dose of steroids and Dr. Soutter wants him to remain on the Benadryl for a bit.

When I went back looking for last year’s blog post I noticed I had mentioned I needed to find a hat for him to wear in the spring/summer so as not to expose his head to whatever it is that he is allergic too.

I still haven’t done that.

I also noticed how horrible my writing was at that point!

My goal for writing a daily blog was to improve my writing skills.

Based upon what I looked at today, I think I’ve succeeded.

Have you ever gone back and looked at earlier posts to critique yourself?

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