Heart Like a Dog

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

W.T.F./WOO HOO Wednesday

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My W.T.F. Wednesday is pretty light in terms of quantity but the W.T.F. content  is strong.

In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m a little behind in news and slightly scattered about writing topics down to save for W.T.F. posts.  Which is why a BIG W.T.F. should have gone out last week to the  Maryland Court of Appeals for ruling that all pit bull type breeds are “inherently dangerous.”

Yes, you read that right.  America’s dog is labeled inherently dangerous by a panel of people suffering from HUMAS (Head Up My Ass Syndrome.)  That’s like saying all 52-year-old red heads write dog blogs.

What?

Exactly.

So hey Maryland COA, siriusly, W.T.F. is wrong with you?

Punish the deed, not the breed.  Don’t think your setting any precedents here, dog lovers united will not tolerate this.  Take your head out of your ass and look around you.  Go talk to someone who rescues pit bulls, check out the Humane Society.  Some of the sweetest dogs on the planet are….yes pit bulls.

I’d tell you to open your eyes but with your head so far up your ass you’d only see your stomach anyway.

Turning from the stupidity of the Maryland Court of appeals, I found some Woo Hoo news about animals today!

The County of Frederick, Maryland is defying the Maryland COA and refuses to “Profile pit bulls into extinction.”  Instead they will address issues of aggression on an individual level.

See, not everyone with the authority to make decisions in Maryland has their head up their ass.

And yes, there are already animal activists asking the Governor to overturn the ruling.

In the ‘I’m proud to live in CT’ news, we had three great pieces of legislation pass the house last night!

H. B. No. 5409 “To facilitate the reimbursement to consumers for veterinary bills incurred for the care of sick dogs or cats adopted from pet shops, to clarify certain pet shop penalty statutes and to prohibit pet shops from selling dogs and cats obtained from substandard domestic animal mills. ”

CT pet stores are you reading this?  You can’t get your animals from mills anymore!!

H. B. No. 5446 “To allow pounds to complete and retain vouchers for the purpose of payments to veterinarians for the sterilization and vaccination of certain dogs and cats and to require initial training and continuing education for animal control officers.”

I’m not 100% sure I understand what this means, but I’m hoping it means when someone adopts an animal from the shelter or pound they will need to pay the spay/neuter/vaccination fee up front and the pound will follow-up to ensure the animal is altered and vaccinated.

I do know it will give animals control officers the information they need which should help make their jobs easier.

H.B. No. 5289 “To classify a second or subsequent offense of cruelty to an animal as a felony punishable by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars or imprisonment of not more than five years, or both. ”

While I’d like to see this type of punishment levied on first time offenders, I can settle for this.  I would like to see (as Jan suggested) an animal abuser registry similar to the ones for sex offenders.

I found out last Saturday that the Labs 4 Rescue group keeps their own registry and I imagine they are not the only ones.

Did you come across anything this week that made you shake your head and say “W.T.F.”  or did you see more of the jump for joy and scream Woo Hoo news?

Off-Roading

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Lately when I go to walk the dogs on Monday or Wednesday, I head over to the second entrance to avoid the commotion of the LaCrosse team arriving at our regular entrance.  Last night I was bit later than normal and thought maybe most of the people had already arrived.  I was wrong.

I turned around and headed over to the other entrance.  This takes about 5 minutes since we need to go down one hill and up another.  As I pulled up to the second entrance I realized there was already a car there and the person inside had a dog.

The woman was fussing about in her car doing what I don’t know, but her music was blaring and I could see a small Cocker Spaniel type dog sitting on her lap. I waited a minute or so and got frustrated with her just sitting there, so I said too bad; we’re going to back to our entrance and we’ll deal with LaCrosse!

I basically wasted about 15 minutes trying to figure out the best way to get to our trails.

There was one young boy getting dropped off as we entered the park, I could see him focused on the dogs and walking cautiously.  I kept both Sampson and Delilah on leash and guided them off the main path.  As we got to the top of the hill I saw their friend Brady and his mom entering from their side.  I said, “Go get Brady.”  And Sampson took off.  Delilah of course was forced to wait and go at my pace.

We started down one of our paths and ran into my next door neighbor of all things, with her two small boys and her dog Gunner.  I still can’t figure out what kind of dog Gunner is.  His face reminds me of an Akita, but he is not large and he is all black.  I call him… Sirius Black.

They were all sitting on the top of a large rock and while we live next door to each other, the dogs have never met.  My neighbor says that Gunner is friendly and the only time she’s ever seen him act aggressively is protecting the children.  While I thought the woods were a fairly neutral place to introduce the dogs, I preferred to do it while Hubby was around.

My friend said, “What do all these people see in these woods?”

I laughed and responded with ,“Probably the same thing we do.”

So my walking friend said, “We’ll have to go to my place.”

Turns out she just had a survey completed and she owns a LOT of land behind her house, which is wooded, has a creek and lots of boulders!  So we went off-road. 😉

Naturally we discussed all the things she could do with that extra land she has, most of which included places for the dogs to run without running into a lot of other people.

We ended up with a longer than planned walk, but the excitement and change of scenery helped tire the dogs out.

It's Been A Great Monday!

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Last Thursday Delilah and I did a drop-in agility class.

I was  a little disappointed with our performance.  Truthfully it has been a while since we did agility on a regular basis, which may be why Delilah seemed like she was too intent on the treats instead of on me. She would dart off course and snarf around to see if the dog before her had left anything.

I’ve been thinking I’d like to try different activities with Delilah to find something that really motivates her and that might help us get more in sync.

I heard of this new dog sport called Treibball, it is sort of like soccer for dogs.  I was checking their website out to see if there was a facility near us and as luck would have it, there is one about 20 minutes away.  I called last Friday and left a message requesting a phone call to get a few questions answered.

This morning I had a phone call from the person in charge of Pet Education and Therapy, we spoke for over half an hour.  I started off with asking if they accepted titres and they do!!

I then went on to explain the issues I’ve been having with Delilah and the training we have already completed and how I am looking for a new sport to help us develop a deep bond.

We talked about Treibball but after hearing that Delilah doesn’t really care much for fetching a ball, Audrey thought that Nosework might be a better fit for her.  Unfortunately there are no Nosework classes currently scheduled but Audrey suggested I sign up for the newsletter which will notify me when the class is scheduled.

I told Audrey how food motivated Delilah is and she recommended we start with an Intermediate Training class which is a positive reinforcement class designed to help wean the dogs off the treats.

Audrey says she loves working with labs because most owners are amazed when she can get their dog to run down the center of the room and not eat the treats.  I laughed at that because it will be certainly a day to be circled on the calendar when Delilah passes up a treat!

The kicker is that since I don’t vaccinate for Kennel Cough she doesn’t recommend we take the class offered at the Doggie Daycare, so we need to wait for the next Intermediate Class offered at the other facility, which isn’t until July 10th.

I’m really OK with waiting because Delilah’s annual check up is scheduled for June 6th, which gives me plenty of time to get the titre results and vaccinate if needed.

Positive things are happening at Casa de Stone, I’m quite excited for Delilah to learn Nosework and hope we can get good enough to bring Nosework to the Mellow Mutt.

How was your Monday?  Anything exciting to share?

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