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! :-)

Adventures In Daycare – Update

Well the ambulance came and took the poor drunk visitor away.  Sara says he just came in, said he needed an ambulance and  he liked dogs better than he liked humans. Who would have thought?  LOL

She had to put two dogs in the very back because they were being very protective about Sara and Dianne.  Tater who I believe is a pit bull mix and one crazy chocolate lab who was trying to go over the counter. :-0

Sara said when he reached in his jacket for the bottle she almost wet herself at first, good thing for Kegel exercises. 🙂

Paws To The Rescue – Author’s Note

I have to admit I was a bit nervous about puppies, since the rescue really stresses using bleach to help prevent the spread of Parvo. I mixed up three bottles full of a bleach solution and as soon as the puppies left, I threw all the towels in one crate and dumped two bottles of bleach in with them.

I probably should have waited until we got home when I could have taken the crate out of the car and sat it in the driveway. Instead we had to drive the 55 minutes home with the windows down to keep from asphyxiating ourselves. Good thing it was a nice day. 😉

Lesson learned.

Sharing Knowledge – Author’s Note

Let’s face it, we dog people are passionate about our fur babies.  We all have ideas on the right way to train a dog and the right way to feed a dog.  None of us likes to hear anything we consider as criticism regarding our babies.

I know first hand, Christine who used to own First Command (before it became The Mellow Mutt) once said to me that I might like to consider putting Sampson on low-calorie kibble.  I was never a big fan of hers nor she mine and therefore when she told me that I looked her dead in the eye and said, “I don’t want to.”

As it turns out, I did put him on a low-calorie kibble, and then moved him to raw.  We like raw, but not everyone does nor is it inexpensive and in this economy, sometimes we need to make hard decisions.

The Murphy situation is a tough one, and I think if I ever get the opportunity to speak with one of her parents I will, in the meantime the best we all can do is try to educate people.

Talk about it, you never know who might be listening!

Book update: My book has 19,477 words.

Dog Training….Delilah Style

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After last week’s fiasco where Delilah took off on me I vowed to find another way and I promised to share that with you.  Well here goes!

Many of you, so very many of you rallied to my support and offered suggestions and ideas for working with her.  There were so many awesome suggestions that I couldn’t pick just one….or two…or three.   Here’s what I came up with.

I really think Delilah is a very smart girl and as such I need to keep her interested.  I need to vary her walks and keep them interesting to her, so interesting that she can’t possibly leave me, because she might miss something.

In other words, our walks are going to be like going to Disney World….for dogs.

I put her on a 15 foot leash so she isn’t too far away from me.

I’m sure all of you positive dog trainers know the name for this game, but I’m calling it, “Oh you caught me.”

I play it this way, I wait until I have a loose leash (this can be a while because she is almost always at the end of her leash) and I place a few pieces of whatever is in my treat bag on a flat rock.  Most times she turns around and catches me in the act and I say, “Oh you caught me,” or “My you are quicker than I am.”

Sometimes I have to wait a minute and pretend that I’m just placing it, because she isn’t really paying attention. 🙂

Currently I have some ‘diet’ Blackwood chicken kibble and some beef jerky from Trader Joe’s in my treat bag.  I have to be sure and place the treats on a flat rock that doesn’t have moss, sticks, or rocks on it or for sure that crazy girl would inhale it all.

Sometimes I can’t get her to leave my side.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

I’ve been playing the “You caught me game” since last Saturday and decided yesterday to incorporate some other ideas into our walk.

First I had her sit while Sampson and I walked away from her.  My goal was to recall her to me, but as I walked out of her sight she came running to me.  I was actually excited by this, but since she didn’t ‘stay’ I brought her back and re-sat her and then walked away again and this time she did awesome.

I also played a little game of Kibble Catch with her.

I think the best thing would be for Delilah to have a job, and will be looking for some kind of training or class that she and I can participate in together, to help cement our bond.  I also intend on Thursday obedience class to be our thing, Hubby and Sampson will need to find something else to do.

I intend to get a harness for her and a doggie backpack, one day she can wear a harness, one day she can walk on long leash, one day she will wear a pack.  The key for Delilah is to not get too comfortable with any given thing.

When I first put her on the 30 foot leash, she became a model walker.  She rarely left the trails and stayed very close to me.  Once she became comfortable, she started exploring farther and farther away, and eventually started running off.

Oh and Dr. McConnell’s dvd came the other day, I hope to check that out this weekend. 🙂

Changing the topic really quickly, Mel Freer of No Dog About It Blog is a strong warrior fighting a battle against puppy mills.  Mel lives in Minnesota and you may or may not be aware but a bill is prepping for a house vote and Mel needs your support.  If you live in Minnesota, please visit Mel’s blog and follow the link to sign the petition.

If you don’t live in Minnesota, please visit Mel’s blog and re-post it on facebook, tweet it, stumble it, or consider adding a link to your blog.

Together we really can make a difference!!

Book update: My book has 19,083 words.

Sharing Knowledge

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A couple of months ago I wrote a post about a dog named Murphy.

To date I haven’t seen Murphy or either one of her parents at obedience class.

This morning though, I stopped by The Mellow Mutt to drop off a crate I had borrowed from Sara, for our Paws To The Rescue run, and there behind the gate sat poor Murphy, panting.

Yes, Murphy was panting just sitting there. I think she’s gotten even bigger since the last time I saw her.

Sue said, “It makes me sad to look at her.”  I agree.

Then Sue said, “She’s also got some disposition issues.”

No doubt she does.

I’m carrying a few extra pounds myself and I know how cranky and unhappy I feel.

Once upon a time I had a philosophy about Sampson, that it was ok if he was a little over-weight as long as he was happy.

Naturally that attitude has changed.

Why you ask?

Besides the obvious health reasons of less stress on his heart and less stress on his bones, it’s really the change I’ve seen in him.

Since Sampson’s lost weight, I’ve seen how much happier he really is.  How he enjoys the simple things, like running as fast as his legs will carry him up the hill to the field, or play bowing before jumping up and wrestling with Delilah on the bed.

The last time I discussed Murphy’s weight with her, Murphy’s mom (K) said, “How can you deny your dog treats, when they look at you and you know they want a treat?”

I explained that Sampson and Delilah get treats, they just get a low-calorie treat like carrots.  Heck, I will reward my dog for a good down, with a pea.

Oh. Yes. I.  Would.

Somewhere in all of my rambling blog posts I wrote how I would love to take people’s dogs home with me, feed them a good quality food, work them for three weeks and then have the person join us for the last week so they could 1) see the improvement in their dog(s) 2) learn how to train their dogs.

But that was back when I thought I wanted to be a dog trainer. 🙂

Still I have one really well-behaved and one reasonably (most of the time) behaved dog, they have both lost a lot of weight in the last two years, look and feel great.  We are constantly getting compliments regarding Delilah’s coat.

Why wouldn’t someone want their dog to look and feel great?

Our vet has said we have given Sampson and Delilah a couple of extra years to their lives, which makes me extremely happy.

So how do I impart this knowledge to someone with an over-weight dog, who is probably rushing full speed down the road to bad health? Who probably doesn’t want to hear it?

And how, pray tell does their vet not say something to them about this poor dog’s weight?

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