Heart Like a Dog

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

The truth about long leashes….day One Hundred and Twenty Three

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A couple of years ago we took the dogs with us on vacation to North Carolina.  The drive is really long with two dogs but mine are pretty good, they do take up a lot of room and the little Hyundai Tuscon is challenging to pack but we managed by using a car carrier on top.

Delilah lying in the car. I love the way the sun is shining on her.

We bought 30 foot leashes so we could take the dogs down to the beach,  and give them a little freedom while still maintaining some semblance of control.    The thing to remember about dogs and 30 foot leashes is not to give them the entire leash all at the same time.  I found that out on our first evening at the beach.  Here’s what happened.  We got down to the beach right before dusk, when all the seagulls were out trying to see what the tide had deposited on the shore.  Chet had Sampson and I had Delilah; Delilah saw the seagulls and Delilah took off after those seagulls.  Delilah can run through a 30 foot leash pretty fast and I quickly found out what it feels like to be running behind a 100 pound dog at full throttle on the end of a 30 foot leash.  I also found out that when you scream, “Stop, help, stop” on a beach in North Carolina, you are pretty much on your own.   Even my husband, son-in-law and his sister just stood there.  Eventually she stopped and I reined her in, so these pictures are of the dogs after the incident.

Delilah in the ocean.

 

Sampson in the ocean.

Just keep in mind should you decide to try a longer leash for training, that you should slowly give the dog the distance of the leash,  just don’t clip it on and let them go!

Pictures pictures everywhere and not a one to post! (Day Ninety Two)

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Are you organized with your pictures?  If you are like me you have pictures everywhere!  Not only do I have three huge photo boxes full of pictures, I also have them saved on discs all over the place!  I have folders and folders on my computer with pictures, the problem is that some of this pictures are duplicates, triplicates and whatever comes next.  So here I sit still looking for the picture that I really wanted to post!

I just spent the last half hour looking through pictures, trying to think of what this blog should be about today and I haven’t come up with a topic.  So I fall back to posting a few of my favorite pictures.

Sampson drinking from a water bottle.

Chet was so mad that I taught Sampson to drink from my water bottle, because he thought for some reason that a dog shouldn’t do that.  I figured if he drinks from the bottle, I never have to worry about having a bowl with me.  And yes, that is Chet in the picture giving Sampson a drink, apparently he changed his mind. 🙂  Sampson likes drinking from the bottle so much, that most times when we are pouring his water he drinks from the bottle.

What's going to come out?

This picture was in North Carolina when we stayed at Steve’s parents house, Chet wanted to fish and since Sampson loves spending time with his Dad, he sat beside him and watched.  A man walked by while we were on the beach and that is the first and only time that Sampson ever growled at a person; he looked like a mean man too!

Now what did you go and do that for?

Sampson has never been one for fetching, he will chase and retrieve a ball a couple of times and then he lies on it as if to say, “try throwing it now.”  It’s just not his thing, but we decided we would try with the frisbee on the beach anyway.  Look at his expression…as if he’s saying, well you threw it now go get it.

Not the pictures I was looking for, but they still bring back good memories.

Life's a Beach…(Day Eighty Six)

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My son-in-law”s parents have a beautiful home on the outer banks of North Carolina, until they retired there a few years ago they rented it out.  Each of their kids got one week free of charge at the house, once the kids were married we became part of the family and we got a week too.  We took advantage of that one year, and then they retired. 🙁

That vacation was really nice, we took Sampson with us (this was pre-Delilah) and he had such a grand time, I thought I would share some pictures of that time.

There is a beautiful porch along the front of the house and I would sit out there in the morning drinking my coffee and reading a book, or just enjoying the day.  Sampson would stay out there with me, and he was so good he would never leave the porch, even when people walked by.

Halt.....who goes there?

 

Each of the homes in the development comes with its own golf cart.  You use the cart to tool about the neighborhood or to drive down to the beach.  The first ride we took Sampson on, I sat in the back seat with him.  Then we thought let’s see if he will hang out on the back.  (I hope Steve‘s parents don’t see this!)

Driver, where's my driver?

Chet is not a big beach person, but we did get him to go a couple of times, sometimes he went fishing, sometimes we just walked on the beach and sometimes Sampson and I went in the water.  In this picture I turned around and a huge wave was coming in, I pushed him off and said, “Swim Sampson, Swim!”

Swim Sampson, Swim!!

Sampson likes the beach almost as much as he likes hiking.  I hope we can get him back there!

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