Heart Like a Dog

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

Enjoying the Good Days

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Since Sampson did his partial CCL tear, he rarely gets out for a stroll in the side yard. Before he did his first tear, the dogs used to go out the side door, and dash down the stairs so they could race up the fence line. But since his last tear, we started letting him out the other door, and guiding him to a flat area, where there are limited steps.

Last weekend Sunday was a nice day, and I was zipping around the house cleaning, and the D-Dog wanted to go out, so I left the door open while I popped in to start a load of laundry.

When I came out, Delilah was inside, but Sampson was nowhere to be found.

Drat! The door was still open, so I walked outside, to find Sampson taking a casual stroll around the side yard.

It made me smile to know he felt well enough to do the stairs.

Of course, going down the stairs isn’t the same as going up!

No Dogs On the Bed – Throw Back Thursday

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It’s hard to believe, but when this little pumpkin first came home, Hubby said, “No dogs on the bed. He has a crate, he can sleep in there.”

From the minute I snuggled him, he and I set out to break that rule. What can I say? We like to dance to our own drum.

Sampson Stone, three weeks old.

Three-week-old Sampson Stone. Can you stand the cuteness?

While I think crate training is an amazing tool to help teach dogs the house rules, I hated having him in the crate at night. When he first came home and didn’t know where he was supposed to pee, he HAD to be in the crate when we weren’t there to supervise. I worked full-time, and was gone from the house 8 hours a day, and so it seemed cruel to put him in the crate for 6 or 7 hours at night.

Like a ball and a blank can replace a nice, warm Mama. What the actual woof?

I started staying up late. I’d fall asleep on the couch and then I’d wake up at 12:00 or 1:00 and put him in the crate.

Then I coaxed Hubby into letting him snuggle with me in the mornings after Hubby got up to get ready for work.

Thankfully, Hubby started work super early, so he left the house around 5:00 – 5:30. This meant he got up at 3:30.

Now I had Sampson’s overnight time in the crate down to about 3 1/2 hours.

This went on for about a year. Then, as it happened, our daughter was getting married in Florida, and of course, we all went.

When we drive long trips, we like to start late at night, early in the morning. As I recall, we left about 1:00 am.  Sampson was all cuddled up in the back seat snoozing and then the cutest thing happened.

3:30 rolled around, and just like clock work, my little puppy crept his way to the front and laid his head on my arm that was resting on the armrest. He knew it was cuddle time.

We had rented a house for our daughter’s wedding, because we were there for the week before and the week after, and had a lot of last minute items to attend to.

Since we weren’t in OUR bed, I convinced Hubby to let Sampson sleep in the bed WITH us.

Now it’s a lonely night for me, when Sampson chooses to sleep somewhere else.

I will take as much of this as I can get.

T

 

It’s All Fun and Games, Until Someone Loses Their Hearing

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Sampson is going to be thirteen in July, and I’m pretty sure he’s losing some of his hearing. It’s not at a horrible stage, just sometimes in the woods he’ll wander off trail, and I’ll call him, but he doesn’t respond, so I’ll have to go tap him on his shoulder to get his attention. It could also be he has SELECTIVE hearing, but I can’t tell one way or the other.

I’m trying really hard not to be sad about it, and instead find the humor in the silly things he does.

A lot of times when I head out the door for his morning walk, I walk out the door without his leash, and I have to go back inside to get it.

So on Thursday he stepped out the door, and I was right behind him. The birds were making the most beautiful music and I said, “Isn’t that beautiful” as I headed around the back of the house towards the gate.

I got to the gate, and turned to snap his leash on him, but he wasn’t there.

So I headed back towards the door only to find him standing in front of it, staring into the house.

Apparently he didn’t hear me head around the corner, and thought I’d gone back into the house. When I got close enough, I clapped my hands and called his name, and turned right towards me, all smiles and tail wags.

I just couldn’t help but smile as we headed out the gate for our walk.

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