Heart Like a Dog

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

Then There Was Delilah (Day 100)

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Well at long last I am pleased to say; Delilah’s story has been started.  In the top right of this page, should be a link that will take you to the beginning of Delilah’s story.

It was emotional for me to write it; and I still tear up reading it in certain places.  When I think back to the dog that came off the transport on May 26, 2007, to the dog that sleeps in front of me now, I cannot believe it is the same dog!  Realistically she is not the same dog as she has changed and grown so much.

I hope to add to her story, who knows maybe the books I publish will not be picture books at all…

My sweet girl.

Greetings from your dog (Day Ninety Seven)

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As is usually the case when I can’t really think of what to write about, I go through my pictures and try to find a couple that I really like that I can talk about. 

I found the pictures of Delilah’s first day in CT; but found when I was looking at them I became very emotional; I think her story is going to be a bit longer than what I traditionally blog about.  Isn’t it fun to look back at pictures and see the changes someone has made?  To me Delilah looks as she always had, but I found this picture of her and you can so see how much of a puppy she still was.

My sweet puppy

When you see them every day, you hardly recognize that they have changed.

The other picture I have is of Sampson smiling.  Yes dogs really do smile and one of these days I am going to get a really good picture of him smiling. 

Smiling

Sampson is such a “people” dog, he waits at the top of the stairs for one of us to come home.  If one of us is later than normal, he knows this too and he will sit patiently waiting.  (I shudder to think what he does when we are on a trip!)  When we come home, he smiles sleepily and rooo, rooo, rooos his happiness, sometimes his little paws prance up and down too; one of these days I will capture that on video and be able to share it too.  Once you are in the door, he must have your full attention, you are required to lay on the floor and reunite with him, you rub him and kiss him and he kisses you in return.  This must happen for about 5 minutes, if you cannot immediately get to him then he will lay there thumping his tail on the floor, sometimes he gets a toy and will pretend to be interested in it until you give him his attention.

Delilah on the other hand is immediately in your face, for a very brief time then she goes and gets a toy and lies on her back, wiggling this way and that until you rub her belly.

The greeting I receive from my dogs upon my arrival home, will erase any kind of crappy day I may have had, I feel loved, wanted and appreciated and I can tell you the feeling is returned 10 fold.

Saving time and money (Day Ninety Four)

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Last night at obedience class I watched as two dogs got their nails clipped; both dogs required two people to perform this task.  We are lucky that neither dog fights us during the nail clipping process.  When we first got Sampson we took him to puppy socialization class and one of the first things we learned was to touch his feet and get him use to us doing so, this would turn out to be a blessing in the long run.  With Delilah we just got lucky.

Sampson is a bit harder to clip; even those his nails are lighter colored and you should be able to see the quick (a little vein in their nail that is very sensitive and can bleed if clipped too closely.)  The sensitivity of the quick is probably the biggest reason some dogs don’t like their nails clipped.  Sampson’s quick is very close to the end of his nails especially in his back feet, so when I clip him I only do his front paws.  Delilah’s nails are black like a beetles but for some reason, she clips much easier than Sampson does.

When it is time to do nails, I gather my supplies; a nail clipper, a Q-tip, some Kwik stop styptic powder and a handful of treats!  These are the clippers I use (sort of small for my big dogs but they work)  notice how the clippers have a guard in the center of the scissors, it is important to use the guard because this will help insure you don’t clip too close.

Notice the blade guard in the center

 

I start with Delilah for two reasons 1) she knows I have treats and if I don’t start with her she will jump all over the place acting like a lunatic until she gets the treat and 2) Sampson hates it so bad that he likes to go and hide.   I start with one foot at a time and clip just the curve of the nail off.  Once the foot is finished, I reward the dog with a treat.  I repeat this with each foot.

Mama's princess on a "spa" day!

Once the princess is done, I move on to the big boy, I try to be especially gentle with him because he is very easily bled.  If the quick bleeds too much it can become a serious issue with the dog and both Chet and I have clipped Sampson good, so I always have the styptic powder (designed for dogs, cats and birds) and the Q-tip, if I clip him and he bleeds I pop the Q-tip in my mouth and dip it in the powder.  Then you push the powder into the dog’s nail and pack it; which helps stop the bleeding.  You do want to try to keep the dog off his feet at least for a little bit.

But Mama...they aren't long, I'm honest.

If you have successfully clipped the dog’s nails, you have just saved time (from taking him to the groomers or vets) and money; the bonus is you have also probably saved your dog an enormous amount of stress.

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