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

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How To Train Your Human – The Stare Down

February 24, 2019 By Jodi

Hey guys, Sampson Stone here again, with more tips on how to train your Human. You may recall last week when I told you how I’m working with my Momma to get more treats.  If you missed it, you can read about it here.

Golden Lab

Some dogs get normal people for moms. Apparently I’m not one of them.

At the end of the post, I asked if anyone had any tips for training their human, and my brother-from-another-mother, Merlin (and his Human, Meagan) left this comment.

“If someone is sitting somewhere where you want to lay, you just stare at them. They ask you what do you want. You stare at them some more until they eventually move over and let you have their seat. If you must, kick them a bit to make them make more room for you.”

The stare down is an important training tool in training your humans, and as Meagan and Merlin pointed out, the stare down works in a number of situations. It can also be used on someone who NOT YOUR Human.

Such as the time Mom and Dad were having a Super Bowl Party and one of their guests sat on my couch.

Side note: I don’t know why they call it a Super Bowl, I looked in those bowls and there was nothing super about them or anything in them.

Anyhowl, this person Ray had the nerve to sit right down on my couch and in my spot too! I stood right in front of him staring him down. He wouldn’t budge. That’s when I had to take matters into my paws and squeeze up on the couch next to him.

Honestly, some humans can be so dense.

The second part of Meagan and Merlin’s comment was this, “This method works well in other areas, such as: wanting to go outside, breakfast/dinner time etc. Extra points for making a point of staring at what you want and then back at the human.””

My Momma keeps our food in the frigerator, she takes it out a couple of hours before she’s going to feed us. Sometimes she puts it on top of the frigerator to come up to room temperature.

If she lets it sit too long, I have to remind her about it, which is when I stare up at the food, then at Momma, then back at the food until she learns the trick.

My look says, “Hey Red, you see that food on top of the fridge? We aren’t at Hogwarts. It won’t levitate itself down to me. You do know you’ll have to reach up and get it, right? I mean, like now.”

Silly fool, Momma laughs and says things like, “I’m busy…I just have to finish washing this dish…I’m cooking my supper too…Jesus Buddy, give me a break, I’m moving as fast as I can.”

How do you use the stare down in your house?

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Filed Under: You Make Me Laugh Tagged With: Humor, Life With Sampson And Delilah, Sampson

Pee Pads, Not Just for Peeing

February 10, 2019 By Jodi

We’ve been having a problem with someone peeing in the house.

It started the week of Christmas. I was on vacation that week and our walking schedule was off. We walked later in the morning and earlier in the afternoons to take advantage of walking in daylight.

The morning walks were around 6:30, while the afternoon walks would start around 3:00 pm and finish around 4:00 pm, then dinner was at 7:00 pm. Delilah as you know, being pure Lab, gets super excited for food. In fact, she jumps like a jumping bean when I bring her her food.

At some point during the evening feeding time, or directly there after, one of us would notice a big puddle on the floor. I say puddle, because it wasn’t like she dribbled a little, it was like she emptied her bladder. One night, she actually squatted in front of me and peed.

WTF?

We started trying to be super conscious of letting her out BEFORE we fed her and it seemed to get better.

But then the last couple of weeks, every night when I got home, there’d be a puddle somewhere.

It’s not like she was peeing in the same spot because she was marking something. It was more like she was sleeping soundly, got up, realized she had to pee and made a beeline for the door, but couldn’t quite make it.

Sort of like a toddler when they are being potty-trained.

Delilah, like many spayed females, has a problem with urine leakage, so she takes a low dose of Estrogen to help strengthen those weak pelvic muscles. This has worked wonderfully for her for the past couple of years.

After about the 5th day in a row of a puddle on my rug, as well as countless loads of laundry washing urine drenched towels, I called the vet.

The vet wanted to do a urine culture to make sure Delilah didn’t have a urinary tract infection.

Since it was mid-week, I couldn’t get a sample to the vet until last Saturday. I really wasn’t concerned because Delilah had a huge problem with UTI’s a couple years back and at that time her symptoms were frequent squatting and she wasn’t doing that.

Using my PNS (Pee Ninja Skills) I obtained a sample last Saturday and dropped it off. Dr. Soutter called mid-morning and said under the microscope it looked good, but there were a few white cells in there and she wanted to culture it.

Dr. Soutter called on Monday to say the culture had grown something, so she put Delilah on the antibiotic that kicked her infection to the curb the last time she had one.

Since then, I’ve had her on the antibiotic as well as a low dose of Gabapentin (to help dull that urgency to go) and knock wood, we haven’t had any incidents in the house, BUT we are being hyper-vigilant AND Hubby has been able to get home an hour earlier than someone usually does, so I’m not really sure IF we’ve gotten to the root of the problem.

Monday I will stop the Gabapentin since she will have been on the antibiotic for almost a full week.

I know, none of this is smiling material, right? What’s the point of the post, Jodi?

Well….the biggest problem we’ve had is trying to determine WHERE Delilah would have her accident, SO I started leaving pee pads in random spots in the house.

Apparently, SOMEONE thinks pee pads are comfortable to lay on.

I had no sooner laid that down, then he laid down on top of it. Of course, that made laugh. Dude it’s not a mat!

What did your pet do to make you laugh or smile this week?

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Filed Under: You Make Me Laugh Tagged With: Delilah, Health, Life With Sampson And Delilah, Sampson, You Make Me Laugh

Christmas 2018

December 23, 2018 By Jodi

My current computer has all my photos from the last five years, but photos from before that time are housed on an external hard drive and various CD’s.

There are a couple of gifts I’m working on for Christmas this year, that require photos. So I spent a good hour yesterday morning looking through CD’s and I came across this little gem.

This was taken the first year she lived with us. She absolutely hated wearing the hat and the only way we could get a photo was if Hubby held her.

Sampson on the other hand, tolerated the hat, but it was a little too big for him.

Sampson’s first Christmas…card. Or rather my poor attempt at it.

Seeing these two photos really brought a smile to my face. My dogs can make me smile whether it’s in real life or in photos.

What did your pet do to make you smile this week?

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Filed Under: You Make Me Smile Tagged With: Life With Sampson And Delilah, You Make Me Smile

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About Jodi

jodiHi, my name is Jodi. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog! I have all kinds of fun writing about my two crazy pups, Sampson and Delilah. Find out more!

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