Heart Like a Dog

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

B-O-L-O-G-N-A

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Just about a week ago I posted about a new command I’m working with Delilah on.  I am calling it check in and all it means is come to me and I will give you  a treat.

I’ve been trying to carry some really tasty treats such as duck and venison.  Yesterday I had some left-over beef bologna in the fridge so I grabbed a few pieces for our walk.

Pay Dirt!

We happened to run into our friend with her dog Brady and Brady’s friend Kodak.  Right about in the center of the woods Sampson, Brady and Kodak darted off after something real or perceived (I’m not sure which.)  Since Delilah was on the 15 foot leash I was hesitant to let her run through the trees dragging the leash.  I decided to take a chance and let her off-leash.  I called her to me and unclipped her.

Nothing happened.

I said, “Go ahead, run.”  She stayed right with us.

Not wanting to spend my whole Sunday looking for her, I only kept her off leash for about a minute or so, then I clipped her back on and continued our walk.

It was (IMO) successful and I want to keep her training positive.

Today we had another successful walk, I did drop the leash (accidentally) a couple of times and instead of panicking, I sang “Check in!”

Boom!  She came right to the bologna me.

She also did something else today that she doesn’t usually do.

Our field has had some trouble with teenagers/young adults making campfires.  From the debris we’ve found at the field they are gathering around the fire, drinking alcohol and baking potatoes.

As she is almost always about 15 feet in front of me, she spotted and snagged the potato well before I did.  Of course she picked it up.

I said, drop it, leave it.

She dropped the potato and continued into the woods without missing a beat.

Good Dog Gone Mad

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Since the beginning of March every weekend Hubby and I have been working at our old house getting it ready for new tenants.  Fingers crossed they move in next month. 🙂

I try to keep my time over there to one day per weekend, usually Saturday.  Most Saturdays once I am up and have had a cup of coffee, I’m heading over to the other house.  Every three or four Saturdays I have to pick up dog food which makes for a crazy day.

Since my Saturdays are so jam-packed, that means all the household chores I typically spread out over two days, get done (or not) on Sundays.

To say this schedule is wearing on our household is an understatement.

And Sampson let me know exactly how mad he was yesterday, and in no uncertain terms.

Sampson is good dog. Besides his long walks in the woods, he likes nothing better than hanging out with his peeps.  In fact, if Hubby is outside in the front yard working on his jeep or working in the garage, Sampson can be found hanging out in the driveway.

I must watch for people. I love people.

He’s also very smart.  Last week he was hanging outside at dinner time.  I stepped out the door and he looked at me.  I said, “It’s time for dinner.”  He followed me into the house.

Yesterday he was a good dog gone mad.

It was my day to run for dog food.  I was on the road by 8:30.  I drove 35 minutes to get dog food, then headed home stopping at Trader Joe’s on my way back to pick up groceries for the next three weeks.  I got back to our place about 10:20, unloaded the dog and people food and turned around to head out to the other house.

As is my habit, I give the dogs their garlic tablets as I walk out. I pretend they are treats and the dogs humor me.

I tossed Jaw’s Delilah’s at her and handed Sampson his.  He turned his head.

I moved the garlic tablet under his nose and he turned his head again.

I pushed the tablet into his mouth and he spit it out at me.  Three times.

I gave Delilah her second one and offered the other tablet to Sampson again.  Again he turned his head.

I threw the tablets in the trash and left.

I plan on wrapping it up at the other house next Saturday morning.

AFTER I walk the dogs.

So I Shot This Video….

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I know this is a dog blog, but I shot this video and I’ve been trying to figure out a time to share it. It seems I’ve had a lot to write about in the almost two weeks since I shot the video.

I was going to link it up to the Tasty Tuesday blog hop and then I figured well……it wasn’t actually tasteFUL.

Let me set the scene.

I had gone home on my lunch to get a quick walk in with the dogs.  As I was backing out of the driveway I happened to see the neighbor’s cat just a couple of houses up.  The cat appeared to be playing with something.   At first I thought it was a leaf, but I quickly realized it was not.  I thought it might be a mouse.

I’ve never seen a cat CATCH a mouse before, so I was intrigued.  I turned around and started inching my way up the street.

This disturbed the cat, and caused him to stop and regard me suspiciously.  I got as close as as could without scaring the cat off.  Even still, the cat would stop every so often and stare at me.

I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and sat there with it trained on the cat, at this point I still had no idea what the cat was chasing, until it ran directly at my driver’s door and I realized it was a chipmunk.

The little bobble at the end is when I turned around and said, “Oh shit, where’d they go?”  I was afraid they were under the car and I would run over them as I left.  As it turned out, they weren’t.

And yes, the cat did catch the chipmunk.

Sorry for the blurry photo, the camera in my cell phone is supposed to be better than my point and shoot, but I don’t agree.

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