Heart Like a Dog

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

The Art of a Dog Fart

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Am I right in saying all dogs fart?

What do you do when your dog farts?

If you’re like me, you either cover your nose or you laugh.

Most dogs I know of have those quiet but (mostly) deadly farts.  The kind that stinks up on you and takes you by surprise, because there is no notice.

Not Delilah.

Delilah farts like a human.

I was sitting on the couch, eating a snack.  Sampson and Delilah were sitting in front of me, patiently waiting for me to drop or give them something.

All of a sudden there was a loud noise, like someone blew a raspberry.  I looked at Delilah, my eyes wide and she, ever so casually, turned and looked at her butt.

I busted out laughing and Hubby said, what did she do?

I couldn’t talk, I was laughing too hard.

Seen about town.

We’ve had some decent snow here in the northeast.  When I went over to watch my grandchildren last Saturday I took a picture of the snowman my sweet little grandson made.

IMG_3812 Good thing I took it on my way in, it had fallen over by the time I left.

They live in an area where the front yard gets a lot of sun, and it was quite warm last Saturday (which is probably why Frosty bit the dust.)

Back where I live, our front yards don’t get a lot of sun.  As I drove past my neighbor’s house, this sea serpent/dragon caught my eye.

IMG_3814 Sea serpent or dragon?

I thought it was super cool that my neighbor and her grandsons built it around the telephone pole and they colored the snow too.

IMG_3815 A close-up of its head.

When I walked up to take the picture I commented to my neighbor how very cool it was and she drew my attention to the Husky Dog they’d also made.

IMG_3817 Besides the fact it’s a dog, I love their attention to detail.

IMG_3816 Okay, from this angle it looks like a llama to me.

Today I’m joining our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog
Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

Because sometimes you have a little of this and a little of that, but neither one is enough for a full post. 🙂  Many thanks to 2 Brown Dawgs blog for letting us tag along.

Siriously, have you ever HEARD a dog fart?

If I Could Turn Back Time

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January is train your dog month over at Something Wagging This Way Comes, Pamela has turned this into a blog hop so we can share tricks and tips on how we’re training our dogs.

In one of my recent comments I told Pamela I was training my dogs to do nothing, an idea I got from Kirsten at Peaceful Dog. 🙂

IMG_3190

We’re making great progress.

All kidding aside, how do you find the time to train your dog(s)?  Sometimes I feel like I barely have time to sleep, never mind train my dogs. (I need a timeturner, I really do.)

Yes, it’s true I do try to keep Delilah in a class at least one day a week, and trust me it’s as much for me as it is for her, but what about training at home?

Many times it doesn’t seem like I even have five minutes to set aside for training, which is why we work on our foundation skills.  As Kristine says, “Foundation training.  It never gets old.”

Yup, even though we aren’t learning anything new, we’re reinforcing what we already know.

IMG_3861 Sits are perfect to work on while we wait for dinner.

IMG_3007 Delilah who struggles with her Downs, practices them in the bathroom in the mornings.

Noticed how relaxed Sampson is....Delilah will never do that.

Down stays are also practiced during our evening meal.

Leave It’s are reinforced when we drop something and Waits are practiced at exits and entrances.

While technically we’re not learning anything new, we are working on and reinforcing the commands we already know.

For me, Sits, Waits and Leave It’s are very important commands for your dog to know and know well.  Any one of them could save your dog’s life in an emergency.

Since Delilah is not always 100% on her recall, if I can stop her from running off by having her sit, I win and maybe save her life in the process.

How do you find the time to train your dog?  What foundation commands do you feel are necessary?

(We are working on a training skill for this challenge, more on that later this month.)

Kefir Madness

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During Sunday’s post when I wrote about the dog’s diet, I mentioned I would share about their night-time treats.

Every night around 9 PM I make myself a snack, it seemed only fair since I was eating, that the dogs should get a treat too.

Delilah took to 9 PM treat time, like a Labrador takes to food, (or large bodies of water.) Needless to say, it’s not possible for you to forget snack time.

Over the years the treats have evolved.  What started out as raw hide, changed to twisted pork hide and after watching in horror as Delilah lodged a large piece of pork hide in her mouth, I decided we needed to find a kinder treat.

Since we were trying to help the dogs lose weight, I switched to a lower calorie treat.  On occasion I will stuff a Kong with pineapple and yogurt, but lately my go to treat has been the stuffed white bones.

IMG_3763 Once upon a time these bones were stuffed with processed cheese or peanut butter.

Now they are washed out every morning and I frost one end with pumpkin and stick it in the freezer.  When I get home from work, I fill the rest of the bone and freeze it until snack time.

Most nights the bones are filled with either applesauce or yogurt, but as I mentioned in my Sunday post the place where we buy our raw food has a nutritionist, she prefers something called Kefir. (Sounds like reefer.)

IMG_3762 This is like a pre-made smoothy.  It’s filled with probiotics and all of the healthy nutrients that come in yogurt, it’s a low fat, low calorie treat that you can feel good about giving to your dog.

Of course, you can always make yourself a treat as well.

I love things that I can make that I can also share with my dogs, is there any particular food that you make that you share with your furry ones?

This is the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop,



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