Heart Like a Dog

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

Follow-Up Friday

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For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby! :-)

Dogs Think Like – Author’s Note/Update

If you thought that post was funny, I’m glad.  I was trying to inject some humor into my situation with my dog. 🙂

I was dead serious about the green bean though.  She is that focused.

She is responding very well to the one strike you’re out rule.  I give her the opportunity to sit at the edge of the kitchen as I begin food preparation.  If she raises her butt off the floor, she goes into the crate.  I put her food down and only when she is being calm will I release her from the crate.  I’m even getting her to the point where I can open the door and she must wait until I give her the release.

She has actually sat two times for the entire food preparation and I think that is PROGRESS!!

I must share that she does not sit quietly in the crate, she does whine a bit, but I am ok with that.

For all your suggestions and tips, I thank you!!

Bold And Beautiful – Author’s Note

I should have noted I tried to set her up once by putting a number of soda cans with pennies in them on a cookie sheet and putting a treat behind the sheet.  Somehow she managed to get the treat and only knock one can over so that back-fired on me.

Kari from Hound Girl had a suggestion that I really liked.  You know the plastic mats you get for your rolling chairs?  The ones that let you roll on carpet?  You get those and set them upside down on the counter, which will hurt their little paws without shocking them.

Me likey.  Thank you Kari!

W.T.F. Wednesday – Author’s Note

Well judging by the comments, W.T.F. Wednesday was a big hit.  I’m glad you all enjoyed it.  I will certainly be on the lookout for the animal stories that make me say, WTF?

Thank you so much for all the pawsome comments!  And if any of you find something that makes you think, “W.T.F” then please feel free to use it if you’d like.

Can I Bring My Dog – Update

I was happy that you all agreed with my decision.  It helped me feel better about making it, knowing that you all thought I was being reasonable.

My cousin and her boyfriend are perfectly fine with my decision.  She did send me a picture of Riley letting me know he wasn’t as big as I imagined.  🙂 In the picture he is laying on his side in the sun, just like my Sam Man likes to do.   He looks like a really nice guy, but I still stand by my decision.

For some reason my computer and phone aren’t communicating so I can’t post his picture. 🙁

That’s it for us, hope you have a pawsome week!  Enjoy the weekend.

 

Can I Bring My Dog?

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We’re having a cookout on Saturday.  It’s actually our Easter dinner.  You may recall I was in Florida on Easter, so I decided our family gathering would be a cookout.

I got a text last night from my cousin who asked, “Can my boyfriend bring his dog?  He’s a good dog as cool as Sampson, you will love him.  You will want to blog about him.”

My immediate response was yes!  Of course, all dogs are welcome at my house.

Then I started to think of the logistics of it.

  • People will be coming and going. Some people can only make it early in the afternoon and some can’t make it til later.  I figure this will go down in two waves.  The early crew and the late crew.
  • Hubby and I will be busy, he will be cooking and I will be monitoring the food to make sure Delilah does not eat it.
  • We will not be able to watch the dogs or monitor their meeting as closely as we would like.
  • My friend’s dog is a 120 pound Bull Mastiff…..I picture him like this:

Photo courtesy of http://dogbreedinformations.com

  • Sampson can get snarky with male dogs, especially those that are bigger than he is.
  • Little children will be running about.

I started to get a feeling.  Not one I could put my finger on, just a feeling way down in the pit of my stomach.  I thought back to the party I was at where I was the only one sober enough to drive the hysterical mother and her sobbing son to the emergency room so he could get his ear sewn back on after being bitten by a dog.

I sent my cousin a text: “I’ve been thinking about the dogs.  I hope you understand, Sampson can get snarky with other dogs especially males that are bigger than he is.  I’m concerned that Hubby and I won’t be able to keep an eye on him like we would want to and with the little ones around it makes me a bit nervous.  Could we wait on this?  Hubby and I can have you, H and his dog over when it is just us and we can see how Sampson does.  Sorry to be such a nervous Nellie…..if the grand kids weren’t going to be there it would be entirely different.  I will tell you a story on Saturday that is weighing heavy on my heart and guiding me with this decision.”

She understood of course.  If she didn’t she wouldn’t be one of my oldest and dearest friends.  And I don’t mean I wouldn’t speak to her, what I mean is she knows me and she knows my heart and my love for animals and she knows I wouldn’t make this decision lightly.

She said her boyfriend won’t come without his dog, which makes me sad but I understand.

Just as I have to do what I feel is right for my dog so he succeeds, her boyfriend feels he must do what is right for his dog.

What do you think?  In a situation such as I just described, would you have someone bring their dog if your dog(s) had never met them before?

W.T.F. Wednesday

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Warning, you are about to enter……the Potty Mouth Zone.

If you know me, you should know I am prone to swearing.

Honestly, sometimes the ‘F’ word comes out of my mouth more often than not.  My husband was in the military, he’s finally (after 22 years of marriage) toned it down some, but in the beginning it wouldn’t be out of the norm for him to say, “Pass the f***ing” salt.  It was one of his bad habits that I picked up. 🙁

Oh I try, I really do but to me, the ‘F’ word can really make a statement much more powerful.

One of my favorite examples is Custer’s last stand. When you compare these two sayings, I think it’s very clear which one is more powerful.

Custer, “Where did all those Indians come from?”

OR

Custer, “Where did all those f***ing Indians come from?”

You get my point?

Sometimes I like to use the military terminology, “Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot” but most of the time “What the f***” is what comes out.  Of course if I’m texting, it’s WTF.

Basically I decided to take a play on Wordless Wednesday and change it to WTF Wednesday.  It may be a weekly post or it may just be an occasional one, I’m not sure yet.  But what inspired it was some news stories regarding animals I’ve seen in the last week.

Mitt Romney

Usually I don’t watch the news, I find it too disturbing, which is probably why I missed the Mitt Romney story when he ran for office in 2008.  If you haven’t heard about it (were you under the same rock as me?) you can read the whole article here.  The gist of it is, he put his dog in a crate and strapped it to the roof of his car and drove for 12 hours.

From what I can gather, he did this quite often and both he and his wife swear that the dog liked it.  Except for the time the dog was sick and messed all over the car.  According to Mrs. Romney it was because the dog got into some turkey on the counter and the dog had the ‘runs,’ and had absolutely nothing to do with cars and tractor-trailer trucks flying by them on the highway, while he was strapped in a crate to the luggage rack, and the  luggage rode comfortably inside the car.

The incident took place about 30 years ago, and I realize it was a different time and animals were treated differently but Mitt, WTF?  Really?

Then as if I wasn’t mad enough his response when asked if he’d do it again was, “Certainly not with the attention it’s received.”

Ok, so what you’re saying is if people didn’t know and react negatively, you’d do it again?

Again Mitt, WTF?

Then I started thinking (tongue in cheek) maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad trait to have in a president.  If terrorist were to say….take his wife or one of his children hostage and they let’s say…..shit their pants, well he certainly wouldn’t bend.

He would simply say, they liked being held hostage.  He could take all the emotion out of the situation.

Man Pulls Horse Behind Truck

Yes it happened in CT about 20 minutes from where I live.  I saw it on my facebook news feed and was totally disgusted.  After reading the article I could follow the old guy’s reasoning but still old guy, WTF?

You don’t drag ANY living thing behind a f***ing truck!!

That’s it for my WTF Wednesday.  What did you think?  Siriously, if you hate it, I won’t do it again.

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