Heart Like a Dog

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

Would You Pay?

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I think I’ve mentioned this before, but much of my thinking about what to blog about is done on our walks.

Not only do I depend upon the dogs to provide me entertainment and material, I often times am thinking of something one of you wrote about, whether it be in a post or a comment.  If I’m not doing that, I’m daydreaming.

Here is my latest daydream, it’s for a dog park that is completely fenced in, so all dogs can be off-leash.

There would be a nice field, for fetching or playing games and a great big pond for swimming.  There would also be wooded trails and picnic tables so a person or family could go and make a day of it.

There would always be someone on duty during hours of operation and you would check in at a little gate and get a wrist band for yourself and your dog would get a matching band that would attach to the collar.  This would be designed along the lines of the bracelets used on maternity wards to prevent someone other than you leaving with your dog.

The park would offer classes, such as rally, agility, nosework, obedience, etc.

It would look something like this:

The blue circle indicates the pond, while the dark green circle is the playing/training field.  The smaller squares of green are trees, while the brown squares would be the walking trails.  The two gray lines in the front indicate the path in to the park and the large gray building to the right of the path is the guard shack.  The red lines are picnic tables.

Of course this is just a quick sketch meant to give you a general idea.  I forgot to add a large indoor ring that could be used to hold matches or indoor training when the weather is poor.

The park would definitely be a member’s only park.  There would be specific rules and regulations and all dogs would need to be friendly and you would need to sign something saying you agreed to the rules.

Here’s the question, if something like this were available in your area would you pay to belong?  How much would something like this be worth to a dog owner?

Would a park like this generate enough money to pay for the taxes and any upkeep as well as the security and trainers, or would it need to supplement by offering classes to the general public and reduced classes to members?

Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.

Here Has Many Meanings

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We’ve had a humid streak in the northeast for the last few months.  It’s actually been so bad that I’ve had to keep the dog’s walks to about 30 minutes.  Much more than that and we are all just about ready to drop.  Even on those mornings when we’ve been able to get out early, the humidity really does us in.

Friday night we got some big thunder storms which thankfully drove the humidity away.

Hubby and I take turns sleeping in on the weekends.  Unless Hubby has to work on Saturdays, that is his day to sleep in, while mine is Sunday.  I love sleeping in on Sundays.

Yesterday was no exception.  I’m not sure if it was the cooler, fresh air pouring in through the open windows or the Xanax I took just before bed, but I slept pretty darn good; only pulling my lazy butt out of bed just before nine.

It was so nice yesterday morning I couldn’t wait to get out with the dogs in the cool morning air.

As I’ve noted before, I’m calling the dogs back to me quite frequently.

What I found out yesterday is the Here command can be used for more than one purpose.

Delilah loves to roll in things, especially when she’s in the soccer field.

Usually it’s a clump of fresh-cut grass, but you never know with Delilah.  I’ve caught her rolling in worse.

I can tell she’s on the scent of something and I try to distract her, but some days it’s just inevitable that Delilah will roll in something.

Yesterday was one of those days.

She was just too quick for me.  Maybe it was the after effects of the Xanax but before I knew it there Delilah was rolling around on the ground.

Here, I said reaching into my treat bag.

She immediately stopped what she was doing, jumped up and ran over to me. 🙂

Focusing on just one command has been beneficial to the dogs but it has also been really good for me.  It is far easier to remember one command rather than here, come, leave-it, wait, sit, down.

Well you get the point. 🙂

Traveling In The Wrong Pack

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Most of the people who follow this blog and train dogs, work with the positive reinforcement method.  I train this way because I want my dogs and I to have a bond and I believe that is achievable through positive reinforcement training.

A couple of years ago I stopped at a tag sale a couple of streets away. I was very impressed with a woman and her dogs, they stayed calmly in the yard and followed her around.  I told her how I was struggling with Delilah.

The woman went in the house and brought out a postcard stating she was a dog trainer along with all of her contact information.  She asked if I would like to walk with her sometime.  I told her I would love that.

I waited a day or so (I didn’t want to seem TOO eager) and contacted her via facebook.  She asked if I wanted to walk and I said yes.  I then gave her my schedule for the week.

I never heard from her again.

In retrospect, this was a blessing in disguise.

This is the same woman I mentioned in my Passive-Aggressive post.

The same woman who deliberately left her dogs for seven to ten anxious, panicked filled moments, while she taught them a lesson about traveling with the wrong pack.

The same woman who thinks dogs have the capability of being passive-aggressive.

The same woman who lets her dogs roam all over the woods with no regard for anyone else or their dogs.

The same woman who has no identification of any kind on her dog.

As I stood there in the woods last Saturday listening to these two women talk about the archaic methods they use to train their dogs, I took a moment to say a prayer of thanks that I don’t travel in her pack.

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