Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – August 16, 2015

Lauren Miller (ZoePhee) said, “That’s awesome she’s doing well! My dogs make me smile when they come racing back to me!”

There is nothing better than to have your dog return to you!  It makes all the struggles so worth it.

Jan K said, “That is great! I do let Sheba off leash some, and do the same thing, calling her back frequently. We always smile when they behave well, don’t we?”

I think to have a good recall you really need to call them back constantly, so they don’t think they are just getting called to go back on leash. And yes, I have to smile when they are so well behaved.

Hailey and Zaphod said, “I love it when I can have Phod off leash. Unfortunately Hailey can’t be trusted.”

I don’t think I’ll ever trust Delilah off leash, which makes me sad. She could have so much fun if she could just be trusted. I SO feel your pain.

Emma said, “We can’t be off leash, but we do go off leash at the dog park. ”

You have some really nice dog parks out your way. Our dog parks are typically smaller, fenced in areas, with no hiking trails for off leash walking.

Jan said, “I liked the posts of yesteryear when she led you on some hilarious misadventures. Funny for us, not for you.”

Oh trust there are still adventures, don’t count us out yet. 🙂

Dodge Dog

Lauren Miller said, “I actually did pretty much what you were talking about (pulling a jill on the hill) on Sunday and I’m so sore!”

I’m sorry to hear that and do hope you are feeling better. I had a bad fall one New Year’s Eve where I had the wind knocked out of me and was pretty sure I dislocated my shoulder. (Thankfully I didn’t.) Be careful, it’s a jungle out there. 

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s mom said, “I trip over my own feet, so I don’t need any help from wet leaves and dirt.”

LOL I trip over my feet, over roots and small stumps and there are occasions when I hit a small rock just right and almost go rock skiing.

Pamela said, “But you made so many, so happy–Sampson, Delilah, the bugs, us. Surely that makes it all worth it.”

Oh yes, I mean come on Pamela, I have to try and make you shoot milk out of your nose at least once a week. 😉

Blueberry’s Human said, ” You know, I really want a yellow lab some day, but you have me rethinking that dream…”

Don’t give up your dream!! Labs are amazing, they are so much fun and SO lovable.

Jan said, “There was a time when I really envied your having a woods to walk your dog….I forget why…”

Come on Jan, I promise, you come to CT and we’ll have a great adventure. 🙂

The Umbridge Pen – Barks and Bytes

You guys are the absolute best. Your comments on this post were really amazing. Sadly I really try to keep Friday’s posts under 1500 words, so I could only highlight some. If you have time, go back and read them because they are all awesome!

Genevieve said, “Dogs in hot cars, kids in hot cars – WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???”

I wish I knew. I can’t even fathom it.

Sheena said, “I called the police just the other day on some fool at Walmart who had done the same thing.”

Did they come? Cause’ last year I called and waited over 40 minutes. I was tempted to call them back and say, never mind, I shot the window out and got the dog. I bet they’d move their asses then.

Taryn said, “What you need to do is make a sticker out of your image, one of those really hard to remove kind (I’ve seen them made to indicate someone is illegally parked) and place it right in the driving view.”

That’s a great idea. I was also thinking of just printing off that picture and sticking it on their windshield. WTF is wrong with people?

Sue said, ” Well, and a couple of times I’ve drawn a crowd in the parking lot and we all shamed them when they come out. “I was only gone 10 minutes.” There are dog lovers and then there are people who claim to be but are only people who have dogs…”

I’m too afraid to hang around. I might just get arrested for taking a swing at the stupid ass.

Jen Gabbard said, “I really have no idea why people continue to do it.. I mean we’ve even had numerous stories about police officers doing the same thing recently. I just don’t get it. How much more obvious can we make it?”

I wish I had the answer.

Monika said, “It is just incomprehensible on a number of fronts-first why are you taking a dog shopping???? Second, why are you leaving your so-called treasured friend in the car with windows barely cracked? Even when windows are down, the temperatures inside cars are broiling. A recent NFL player posted a video of him in a car for less than 15 minutes showing what can happen in just a few minutes. ”

And we all know how much value people put on our athletes, and yet they still leave their pets in the car. 

Rama’s Mama said, “As someone who leaves dogs in my van a lot (dog shows, etc), I am always thankful for people keeping an eye on my vehicle. While I do always leave the a/c running and check it often, I recently heard of a device that monitors the temperature inside your vehicle and sounds an alarm if your a/c fails and the temperature rises above a safe point. I will be ordering one!”

Thank you for weighing in on this. I’ve been to dog shows myself where dogs have been left in cars with the a/c running and I have no problem with that, as long as the car is cool, I won’t say a word.   I didn’t know that made devices like that, but it makes sense to me and sounds like it might be worth checking out. 

Blueberry’s Human said, “I would like to see a law enacted where people that want to adopt a dog first must prove they a) know how to properly work a Flexi-lead if they plan on using one; b) will sit in a hot car for 15 minutes to understand just how uncomfortable and dangerous it can get; c) will prove they know how to use a poop bag by walking a loaner dog; d) will prove that once they have the poop bag full, they are able to walk around with it until a proper receptacle to dispose of it is located.  I can probably get even more specific because I have a lot of pet peeves with dog owners, but I think those are the top 4.”

Have you thrown your hat into the ring for the Presidency yet? I can really get behind you especially if you run on that format. 🙂

Chelsea Price said, “However, in certain circumstances, I’ve truly considered breaking the window. That’s one of those things that I would smile proudly in my mugshot for if I got arrested…”

Oh yeah, that would be a smiling for mugshot for sure. Do you think it’s allowable to show your middle finger as well?

Jan K said, “Delilah does the best PSA’s! ”

Thank you and thank you for sharing her photo. I had been thinking of that saying for a while and needed a photo that would get the point across. 

Jan said, “What I totally can’t understand is that every summer there are stories about police dogs being left in cars to roast to death. I hope they are all fired and have to reimburse for the dog.”

I hope they are prosecuted for assaulting an officer! How can you work with a dog for 8 to 10 hours a day and then leave it in the car?

That’s it for me my friends, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – August 9, 2015

You want to hear the funniest part of this? Nobody put him in the room. He was free to leave, but he was so miffed, he went in there by himself and pouted.

Sue said, “Oh, poor Beau! My three howl. Sound like a pack of coyotes in the house. Lucy used to pout when we took she and Tucker to the boarding kennel. Tucker was thrilled and excited. Lucy was not pleased. It would take her a day to get over herself when we picked them up and brought them home.”

For the most part mine do not complain when we leave, UNLESS I am leaving Sampson home and taking Delilah. Then he stands at the door and barks like a little bitch. 😉

Jan K said, “Our crew always gets treats when we leave, so they’re pretty good about it! Luke sits in the door and watches us leave though, and he’s always there when we get home as well. I wonder if he stays there the whole time, or if he knows when it’s the normal time we get home?”

Mine get treats too. Then Delilah goes into ‘her room’ and sleeps, while Sampson usually goes downstairs. But sometimes Delilah sits in front of the sliding door and keeps watch for us to come home.

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s mom said, “Aw, poor Beau. At least he doesn’t tear up the place like some dogs do.”

That is a good thing, I’ve heard of some dogs with some powerful separation anxiety. It’s heartbreaking.

Jan said, “I have long suspected that they threw large doggie orgies, but I have no proof.”

BWA HA HA, that’s an interesting thought. Do you think it’s only those progressive California dogs, or do you suppose they all do it? 😉

Kim-Life at Golden Pines said, “I don’t know what our dogs do when we’re gone, aside from getting onto the couch, chew the toilet paper, shred anything they can grab off the counter or table, and use the remote to shop on eBay… ;-)!!”

Dear Lord, I’m so grateful Delilah hasn’t learned to online shop. I can only imagine how busy the dog treat makers would be. LOL

Blueberry’s Human said, “Does he realize how stinking cute he is even in his poutiness? (I don’t think that’s a real word, is it?)”

It’s a word on this blog. Siriusly. 😉

It’s Been a Three Dog House

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s mom said, “Doggie scuffles can be loud and scary…The scuffles between Shadow and Ducky have decreased substantially; but when we’re not going to be home, Ducky stays in her crate and the puppy gate is put in the bedroom doorway.

I think the noise was the worst of it. And we made sure he was gated off in her room if we were all gone, (which wasn’t very often).

Earl Lover said, “Our fellow agility friends have told us they’d be more than happy to have Earl and Ethel if we’re ever away. Earl and Ethel get on well with their dogs at training, but we’d had to do a trial night beforehand, just for my peace of mind!”

Oh yes! I would definitely want at least one trial run to see how it worked out, otherwise I’d be worrying the entire time I was gone!

Emma said, “We learned from early on to have friends over, but we always meet outside first and have a walk around the block if not longer. ”

Yes, well running a bed and breakfast like you do, I imagine you know all kinds of ways to get dogs comfortable with each other.

Sue said, “When my mom was alive we had a similar experience. Our four dogs were only slightly interested in the newcomer. Her dog was very interested in my dogs AND he thought he was the King… that didn’t go over well when he tried to tell Lucy that. All four of my dogs wanted to let him know Lucy was in charge here. Thankfully no blood was shed, but we could never allow them to be together at all after that. The dummy was a Lhasa Apso and a real asshat.”

Oh my, I can only imagine how stressful it was for you! Don’t you love that word, asshat? It’s one of my favorites…I like ass clown too. 🙂

Jan said, “My dogs totally ignore any visiting dog as in they give them a thorough sniffing and then they all go into another room. My guess is that they gossip and start rumors about the visitor.”

What do you think they gossip about, manners, fashion sense?

Taryn said, “Jimmy cannot be trusted whatsoever. Just when you think he will be OK, he SNARKS! I don’t know why he is such a jerk since he has been well-socialized his entire life, but he is, so he requires careful management.”

Sampson can be snarky too. Most of Sampson’s snarkiness is when someone is petting him and the other dog comes up. It doesn’t matter if the dog belongs to have person, at that moment that person is giving Sampson his most valuable resource, attention. Yup, he resource guards people. Jerk.

2 Brown Dawgs said, “I think it is hard to introduce a visiting dog to a home where two dogs have been living alone for so long.”

You are so right. Did you have many issues when you introduced Freighter? (Although your dogs certainly weren’t as old at the time as mine are now.

8 Photos of Happiness – Barks and Bytes

If you haven’t done Ariel’s challenge yet, I really encourage you to do it! Think of all the memories you will remember and then share them in one place.

Cupcake says, “I’ve never been swimming, but I think Mom and I would be a lot like the picture of you and Sampson. “Hold me, Mom!””

That’s exactly what he was doing in this picture!

Emma said, “Great happy photos. Isn’t going through photos just the hardest thing? We have the so well organized, but we can never find what we are looking for.”

It is! I am so NOT organized with my photos, in fact as I was going through them I noted how many duplicates I have.  I literally looked through thousands of photos and that was only pictures from my old laptop, not my new one which easily has close to 4,000.

Monika said, “Such charming photos that definitely show off happiness. This is such a great exercise because you can focus on the simple things in life and realize exactly how much those make us smile and be happy. :-)”

Exactly. It is a really wonderful exercise and a great way to share some happiness.

Well folks, that’s it for me. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – August 2, 2015

Jan K asked, “LOL….how does she do that? It has to be running with wild abandon that causes the drool to wrap around their noses!”

I think it’s because she shakes her head. Oh, and of course, she’s always drooling on a walk. LOL

Emma said, “My sisters and I don’t normally drool, although Bailie will if forced to wait for food but it just runs out of her mouth and onto the ground like a faucet!”

Ugh, yes, sometimes Delilah’s drops, like on my feet or on my leg. It’s so gross!

Glennis said, “A real slobber chops! She must shake her head a lot to spread it around so.”

Yes! I wonder why she can’t shake her head when she’s not drooling? 🙂

Elaine said, “I think Delilah has mastered the drool slinging technique, lol! Does she ever get the foamy mouth phenomenon?

Only rarely and usually if she’s running a lot. 

Blueberry’s Human  shared, “It makes me smile (and also, gag a little) when I am sitting there eating something I plan on sharing with Blueberry and she sits there drooling and the box fan is on high and it blows her string of saliva onto my leg. Magical moments, I treasure them.

Oh my, you made me laugh. One of my magical moments is when they sneeze in my face. That is also treasurable. 🙂

That’s Just How We Roll

Lauren Miller said, “You sound like me! I really love my late night walks because no one is outside and my dogs are better on the leash, too!…If you notice any more scooting, you might want to have her anal glands checked.”

Yes, the lack of distractions definitely makes for a better walk. Ah yes, anal glands. 🙂 She does have a tendency to need hers expressed, but it was a done a couple of weeks ago, in this instance I’m pretty sure it was a dingleberry. 😉

Taryn said, “Well, at least it doesn’t sound like Delilah left a big skid mark across the driveway. Those are really hard to remove with a poop bag 😉”

LOL no, definitely no skid marks!

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom said, “Ouch! Scraping her bum across the driveway?? That had to have hurt! Poor D-Dog! Hope she finally got rid of it, whatever “it” was!!”

Oh she sure did. She sat right down in the road and bit whatever it was off. LOL

Mary asked, “It’s never boring in your world, is it? LOL”

Nope. Come, sit, stay. You will be entertained. 🙂

Blueberry’s Human said, “I’ve kinda missed talking about poop like this. Thanks for satisfying my “fix”. 😉”

Oh hey, you know it’s always real here. And really, poop makes the best posts!

Caren Gittleman said, “When you live with a Sheltie, it isn’t a matter of being “old” (but we are lol), or “having our hearing aids turned off” (which thankfully, we don’t have, YET)…it’s just that Shelties bark at leaves, pebbles, imaginary creatures, (you get the idea). If I went to the window ALL of the time, I’d never get anything done! Well, he isn’t THAT bad…but……….he sees the same dogs here every day and goes ballistic each and every time one takes a poop within his range. :-)”

LOL my dogs bark at imaginary things too and I don’t check every single time, BUT if they had their faces smushed to the screen at 6:00 AM, I would definitely be checking. 😉

Jan asked, “Did you know those are called dingleberries?”

I did not. Thank you Jan, I can always count on you. 

Jan K said,”Video of that is the only thing that could be more fun than reading it!! I can picture the camera panning between the smushed-face dog barking away, Delilah, and you, all set to – the music of Deliverance?…I think Delilah is messing with you and that dog…there was nothing stuck back there….she just knew you needed some blog material! LOL”

I actually changed the ring of the timer now, it’s a little ding, ding, ding. LOL I’m glad you enjoyed the read and I bet video would have been funny.

Jen Gabbard said, “I would laugh my ass off If I saw that scene, especially as Deliverance starts to play. I’m wondering now if Laika’s poop problems are due to grass, I swear she gets more dingleberries than any dog I’ve even known. And of course when she gets them she acts like it’s such a shock and the scariest thing ever, so she scoots around like a mad woman.”

Oh don’t you LOVE when they look back there like, WTF? It cracks me up.

The Devil On My Shoulder

Jan K said, “I’d love to know what that woman was thinking as she realized that you weren’t going to turn around this time!”

Oh me too. I was tempted to say (quite loudly) “No, no, Sampson, I will feed you breakfast when you get home, you don’t need that little dog.” But thankfully the little devil didn’t win that one. 😉

Monika said, “Sometimes I want to take those retractable leashes and wrap them around the owner’s neck and then beat them with their phones! ”

Holy smack. I’m with you on that one. About a (or so) ago, we had a labrador mix on a retractable leash. They must have dropped the leash and yes, the retractable leash ‘chased’ the dog and it was missing for a few days. They finally found him deep in the woods, that retractable leash had somehow got stuck on a tree. He was dehydrated and pretty bitten up by insects, but he was found. I had all I could do not to comment on that post about the leash. LOL

Jenna, Mark “Husky-Crazed” Drady said, “I know what you mean about reactive dogs. I have them too. And yes, I “prefer” to walk them each seprately, but theres just not always time for that. So I know how you feel!”

It’s just a lot of time when you have multiple dogs. If I was only doing it once per day, per dog, then it wouldn’t be too bad, but they both expect two walks per day. And don’t even try to leave one of them home. 🙂

Well that’s it for me peeps, have a great weekend and be sure to come back next week to find out the winners of our Omegease giveaway!