Heart Like a Dog

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

My Dog is a Dick

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Before Sampson tore his ACL I use to love to walk the dogs.  Once a day we’d head up to the park at the top of the street and I’d wander the woods, letting the cares of the day fall like leaves on a windy day.

Delilah would be on her 15 foot leash, and Sampson would either be on a long leash or I would un-clip him and he would lope along beside me, sniffing whatever his nose caught.  Occasionally we would encounter other people and their dogs, but mostly it was a quiet reflective time for me, and a joyous time for the dogs.

That all changed when Sampson tore his ACL.  Now the bulk of our walks are taken in the neighborhood, usually first thing in the morning and sometime in mid-afternoon.

That quiet reflective time is gone for me.  I am constantly on high alert for DADO’s, dogs in e-fences, joggers, kids catching school buses, etc.  I’m not complaining about these folks (well maybe about the DADO’s and the e-fence dogs just a tiny bit) I mean, they have as much right as I do to be out in public.  If my dogs were better trained, (and yes, I am working on it) then my walks would be more enjoyable.

Delilah has gotten pretty good.  When it’s just her and we approach a house with a dog, she looks to me for treats.

When I’m walking Sampson by himself, I can usually get him past almost anything if I use my treats.

But when I’m walking both dogs, it’s a lot more challenging.  Not only do I have one dog who thinks every treat I pull out of the bag is for her, I have dogs that like to sniff in different directions.  It doesn’t matter which order I hold the leashes in my hand, five to ten times per walk, my hand looks like this.

Wow, that doesn't look comfortable. That's because it's NOT!

Wow, that doesn’t look comfortable. That’s because it’s NOT!

Yes, I know I could walk the dogs individually, and I intend on doing that when I have days off or weekends when I have extra time, but during the week, I just have to walk them together.

I always let the dogs choose which way we go, most of the time they head down the hill, but there are times when they turn right out of the driveway and head up the hill.  And there are times when they head up the hill when I can tell they are hell bent for the field.  Now since that last encounter with the off-leash dog I’ve been careful about visiting the field/woods.  For instance I won’t go up there on a weekend when the weather is nice. 

But Tuesday when they headed up the hill in the morning, I thought what the heck.  

The path in is only a wee bit scary at 6:15 in the morning.

The path in is only a wee bit scary at 6:15 in the morning.

Here’s what I discovered Tuesday morning, besides being reminded of how beautiful and peaceful the woods can be.

Sampson, my sweet, darling boy can be, well how shall I phrase this?  Sampson can be a bit of a dick when he gets in his favorite spot.

By this I mean, he has to stop and sniff every single thing when he’s on his leash.  I really think it was a calculation on his part.  I mean, I could barely get him into the field he was sniffing so much.  Finally I decided to try an experiment.  

I check the area carefully to make sure there was no-one else about and I unclipped his leash.  Guess what that little stinker did?

Yup. That's him, moving briskly along.

Yup. That’s him, moving briskly along.

He moved right along, like he was manipulating me to take him off leash.  

What do you think?  Do you think dogs know how to use manipulation?  How do your pets get you to do what they want?

Don’t forget the Dumb Ass Dog Owners blog hop is still open.  Mary and I would love it if you would share your story and link up to the hop.

Heart Like a Dog

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dogs and Heart Like a Dog. The Barks and Bytes hop is for anything at all and all bloggers are welcome. You don’t have to be a dog blog to join. For new blog hoppers, a blog hop is list of links that is shared on multiple blogs. In order to be fair to all participants we ask you to please use the linky list. If your blog does not support a linky list, please link back to your hosts.

It’s NOT Okay

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Heads up, rant ahead.  

Sometimes I feel all I do is bitch about other dog owners.  I’ve come to the conclusion that the people in my neighborhood are the most clueless dog people I know.  

Like for real, there’s the people across the street whose three bull dogs live on their deck.  They are always out on that deck, when I walk Sampson and Delilah at 6:00 AM they are out.  When I walk them at 2:00 PM they are out.  When I walk at 6:00 PM they are out.  When I say the dogs live on the deck, I kid you not.  Once a week the guy goes out and shovels the shit off his deck.

Then there’s the people in the house behind them. I hear their dog yipping sometimes at 11:00 at night.  I’ve walked by that house and they have a crate under their deck.  The yard is not fenced, nor do I see a sign for an E-fence, I have no idea whether they put the dog in the crate at night or not.

Then of course there are the people who ‘walk’ their dogs.  Friday morning I’m walking up my street in the dark and see a person in a reflective vest at the street crossing.  I see this person start heading away from the area I’m walking and think, whew, I’m off the hook.  

Nope, they turn around and I see something very small, very fast with red flashing lights on it.  It’s 6:25 in the morning and my sleep deprived brain says, “Is that a remote car?  WTF is someone doing with a remote car this early in the morning?”  Then I realize it’s a very small dog on a flexi-leash.  

I pull the dogs off the road into someone’s driveway and start feeding them treats, as this person continues to walk down the middle of the street with the dog zigging and zagging from one side of the road to the other.   As she gets closer I say, “Could you move to the other side of the street!”  Meanwhile my dogs start straining to see the other dog, and the other dog starts barking so naturally  Delilah lunges.  

I think to myself, how can one person be so clueless?

Then Saturday I decide to take my dogs up to the field.  Sampson wanted to sniff out one of the trails we haven’t been on since his injury, and I indulged him.  As we headed back up the trail into the field I noticed people there with at least one dog playing frisbee.  I circumvented the field and walked through the trails.

As we hit the trail leading out I debated heading back towards the field or taking a different path.  I had a decent view of the field and approached cautiously.  There were people there with dogs and the dogs were off-leash, but they were heading away from the way I was, so I kept going.

Just as we got to our turn, here comes a dog.  I have my two and I’m trying to get them away, but this dog keeps coming.  I shout, “Get your dog, Get your dog, Get your fucking dog!”

This guy comes running, “He’s friendly, it’s okay.  Relax, it’s okay. He’s friendly.”

“Mine might not be,” I said.

Then as his dog continues at my dogs, I dropped the leash,

The dogs all sniff each other, “See, it’s okay,” he says.

“It’s not okay” I said calling Sampson and Delilah and walking away, fuming all the way home.

I'm not trying to criticize you, but you do get a bit hysterical at times.

I’m not trying to criticize you, but you do get a bit hysterical at times.

Maybe I should just stop walking my dogs.

Or maybe I should move somewhere and buy a large piece of land where I can walk my dogs without encountering anyone.

Rant over.

Walk it Off #Dog Walking Week

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October 1st thru the 7th is National Walk Your Dog week.  In honor of this our friends at My GBGV Life and Cascadian Nomads are hosting a blog hop.

Walking is good!

Walking is good!

Here at Heart Like a Dog not only are walks an important part of Sampson’s recovery from ACL surgery, we also LOVE walking.

Sampson and Delilah are considered ‘senior’ dogs because they are both over 7 years old.  We started walking about four years ago to help Sampson and Delilah lose weight. Before Sampson tore his ACL we walked once a day, typically in the evenings and our walks were usually between 25 and 35 minutes.  On the weekends when time was less restrictive we would often times walk up to an hour.

When I sat with the physical therapist to discuss Sampson’s recovery I told the PT that I typically walked the dogs and if I noticed they were getting tired I turned around.  She explained to me it’s better not to let them or their muscles get tired.  While it’s perfectly okay for them to walk an hour a day, it should be broken up into smaller walks.

Since Sampson’s surgery we’ve been doing two walks per day.  This actually works out to between 45 to 50 minutes during the week and an hour or better on the weekends.  The dogs are super happy about this.

While I typically let the dogs choose our walking route, once we are on our way I map out the route in my head.  When time allows we just walk, but during the week when we are walking before I have to leave for work, I set the timer on my phone for 10 minutes.  When the timer goes off (usually when I’m in the middle of picking up a poop) we turn around and head home.  In the evenings I have a bit more time so I don’t use the timer.

I wanna be first, no I wanna be!

I wanna be first, no I wanna be!

You’ve heard the saying, “A tired dog is a good dog.”  Well I’m a firm believer that tiring out the mind as well as the body is beneficial.

So here are our tips to help make for an interesting walk.

  • Bring different treats and work your dog on obedience.  We practice “with me” (similar to heel), “leave it”, “look” and “up”.  I use up when a car is coming. This means lets get up on the grass and out of the road.  Delilah is pretty good at this and will get on the grass and sit.  I don’t require Sampson to sit because I suspect he’s not always comfortable sitting.
  • If you can, vary the times of day that you go out  This is great especially if you are stuck taking the same route every day.  A change of time means a change of scents.   To free up some time in the evenings, I come home whenever possible and walk the dogs on my lunch.  Even if we go the same route we did in the morning, the smells are different at 2:00 pm.
  • If at all possible try and get your dog somewhere so they can have a little off-leash time, fenced in baseball fields are perfect for this.  You can let your dog run willy-nilly and work on their recall as well.
  • When time permits try and get your dog out onto the trails or into the woods.  There are SO many scents to explore out there and even 20 minutes will tucker them right out.  I try and get Sampson and Delilah up to our woods at least twice a week.  Just for variation.
Do you see what I see? No but sniff this.

Do you see what I see? No but I smell something.

Remember your dog’s age, physical capabilities and weather are all things to take into consideration.  When we first started walking we might have walked for 20 to 25 minutes but we didn’t cover a lot of distance.  So if your dog (or you) are out of shape, start off slowly.

With diet and exercise Sampson and Delilah lost about 30 pounds EACH.  If we can do it, so can you!

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