Heart Like a Dog

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

Meet and Greet…(Day One Hundred and Twenty)

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What do you want your pet to do when you are walking or hiking and meet another person that does not have a dog?

What I want is for my dog to ignore that person unless they express an interest in meeting my dog.  The last thing I want (which happened to Chet on Sunday) is for my dog to go charging happily towards someone and jump at them.  Good thing Chet is a big guy, cause that chocolate lab could have really knocked him down and hurt him.

That being said, I would like to share two experiences that recently happened when we encountered “dogless” people.  The area we walk our dogs is owned by the town and has a small town garage on premises; as we were leaving the park we noticed that a man was at the garage removing some stored items.  Since we saw him well in advance, we called the dogs to us and leashed them.  Then we started to walk past;  Delilah got a little bit antsy, so Chet said walk on the other side of me, which we did.  I am here to tell you that if I could have picked my dog up and danced with her that is exactly what I would have done.  She was spot on perfect!  She walked slightly ahead of me, tail and head held high and never looked once at that man!  I wanted to buy her a filet mignon!   Exactly what I expect from her.

The other experience happened today; we met an older man on the trail, I saw him first so I called the dogs to me and made them sit as he approached.  I put one finger through each of their collars and told them to stay.  After the man had passed us, he stopped to inquire about the dogs, after a minute or so I let the dogs free and they ran on ahead completely ignoring him.  Of course, Sampson had to run back to the man and get a pat, but he did it very cautiously and respectfully; I couldn’t have asked for more.

If I could talk to the animals…(Day One Hundred and Seventeen)

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Vernon had a Health Fair today.  I started out at the table for the Vernon Trails system and had a lovely discussion with the Scott and a lovely older woman.  I expressed my desire for dog friendly trails where my sweeties could run off leash. 🙂

 I was excited to attend the fair as there were a number of workshops I wanted to participate in.  One of these workshops was “Creating a Bridge Between People and Animal” by Deborah Ravenwood.  If you haven’t guessed it; the workshop was about communicating with your animals.  By taking this workshop I discovered that a lot of the communication is really just speaking to your pet and trying to envision communicating your message.

When I got home I had a few chores to take care of before I could leave to take the dogs on their walk.  One of the tasks was cutting up and packaging the dogs raw meat for the week, naturally I had two very interested onlookers.  Sampson is very good (of course) and usually lies somewhere in the kitchen or right outside, Delilah on the other hand likes to be right at my heels; licking the floors and cabinets and waiting for me to drop something.  I decided I would try my new-found communications skills.

I walked Delilah over to the edge of the kitchen and said, “Delilah, I promise if you sit here until I am finished, I will let you lick the spoon.”  Then I walked back to the task at hand.  Five minutes later, she was STILL sitting there!  I was finished and so I let her lick the spoon. OMG!

I tried this again while I was doing dishes.  I brought her to the same spot and said, “Delilah if you sit here until I am done with the dishes, I will give you a cookie.”  She sat for a minute and then moved over into the spot that Sampson usually occupies, but she sat until I was done.  (Except for a quick relapse when I opened the cabinet to throw out the garbage, she rose and I said, “AICK” and she sat back down.)

Delilah sitting and waiting for her cookie.

She sat until I was done and then I gave her three green beans!  Of course when I left the kitchen she went in and licked the floor, cabinets and oven.

Delilah Stone…Role Model (Day One Hundred and Sixteen)

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Today after agility class I was chatting with Ann (who does all  the intakes for  Labs 4 Rescue organization).  Ann is very complimentary about Delilah and what a good dog she is.  Today Ann said, “Delilah would be a good role model for any rescue organization.”  I take that on behalf of Delilah and our entire family as one of the highest compliments I could ever receive about Delilah.

I am all for encouraging people to rescue animals, but as I was discussing with Ann, rescuing is not always easy.  When you look at Delilah and see the amazing dog she has become, you are looking many hours of blood, sweat and tears (mostly my tears!) 🙂

You don’t always get their history, the dog may have behavioral issues that are very steeply set in their past life.   Some dogs will be able to put their pasts behind them and move on, while others may always carry their issues with them.  The best we can do is to try to work around those issues so the dog “wins.”  For instance, if you have a counter surfer (someone who likes to take food off the counter) you may never break them of this habit, the trick is to not leave anything out on the counter that the great Kahuna can reach.  When you leave something reachable out on the counter; you are setting your dog up to fail. 

When we are running agility, even if we haven’t done as well as I think we can, I need to end my run with a task that Delilah performs well.  Then I reward her.  She ends her session on a positive note and feels like she has won.

Delilah on the See Saw

 Delilah isn’t the only one who has won, we have a wonderful dog that would be an awesome role model for any rescue group.

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