Heart Like a Dog

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

Laprador Retrievers

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There are certain spots on our walks where the dogs like to run off to investigate.  These areas are usually deep in the center of the woods, if I had to guess I would say it is where the deer sleep at night.  Either that or it’s the deer’s toilet, either way it’s worth investigating to Sampson and Delilah.

Since Sandy the Hurricane came through here last week there are even more limbs and branches down.   If the branch is on the smaller side, I or Hubby attempt to move it off trail.  Even so, there are still a number of areas where trees block the path.

If the dogs are close by me in these spots, I will usually approach and say, “Jump.”  I think it’s helpful to Delilah to understand the term in an area other than the agility ring.  (I could be wrong, but please…just humor me.)

Saturday Delilah decided to run off to investigate, she hopped over a bunch of branches that had to be about 3 1/2 feet high/wide.  I looked at Hubby and said, did you see that?  Her athleticism never ceases to amaze me.

Hubby said, she makes it look so easy too.

Saturday night Delilah did something that reminded me of an incident that took place at our other house.  That house has a lovely bay window.  I always dreamed of lining that window with pillows or cushions to make it a nice cozy reading area.  But I never did.

Delilah lived with us in that house for five months, before we moved to our current house.  She always gets super excited when we come home from work.

On this particular day I was already home and was sitting on the couch when Hubby pulled in.  Delilah ran, jumped and with one movement sat in the bay window like a cat would.

Did I have my camera ready?

Of course not.

But I did have it ready on Saturday.

 

What do you mean, I don’t fit? I’m a Laprador Retriever.

 

This is how dogs differ from people.  Dogs see something they want and they go for it, we see something we want and then we think of all the things that could prevent us from accomplishing our goal.

Dogs don’t have an understanding of can’t, they just do.  Some day I hope I have a heart like a dog.

Has your dog ever done anything that you never thought they would/could?  Please share in the comments.  Remember I may not be responding, but I’m reading them!!

My book count is at 6,863 words.

Ode To Fall

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I’ve mentioned before that fall is my favorite time of year.

I love the beauty that comes with the changing of the leaves.

I welcome the cooler air, which allows for cozy sweaters, cuddles by the fire and hot toddies.

I’m grateful the bugs seem to go into hiding.

There is one thing that comes with fall, that I’m less than thrilled with.

It gets dark too early, which means the wood walks that I love taking with Sampson and Delilah only happen on the weekends, or on the rare day I can steal a longer lunch.

Which means our weekend walks are something to be treasured.

I’ve been working Delilah really hard on her recall, she’s gotten so a good part of our walk in the woods is off-leash.  Granted there are certain areas that I simply can’t take the chance of her wandering somewhere she shouldn’t, so I call her to me and she stays on leash.

I can live with this.  I like the fact that she gets some off-leash time to really run, which should help her keep her weight down.

There are many times during our walk, when Delilah is off-leash, but still right next to me.

Yesterday the four of us headed up to the woods.  I let Delilah off-leash right away, only clipping her when we approached those danger zones.

At one point I realized that Sampson was on one side of me and Delilah was on the other.  I turned to ask Hubby if he could take a picture.

Would you mind taking our picture?

 

But he was already on it. 🙂

This my friends, is my ideal walk.

Do you have an ideal walk?  Do you love it when a plan comes together? 🙂

My current word count is 5,078.

A Brut Moment Challenge Starring Delilah

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I saw this challenge on the No Dog About It Blog Thursday, at the time Thursday’s post was already up and Friday’s post was planned.

I mean the whole point of the Follow-Up Friday blog hop is to have a follow-up, what kind of host would I be if I didn’t?

I noticed yesterday that a couple of other bloggers did the challenge and I thought, oh good there’s still time for me.  I wandered over to 24 Paws of Love and realized the blog hop would end before today’s post.

Seeing my fellow blogger’s sharing their stories, made me a little misty and even though I mentioned it in a couple of comments, I thought it was worth sharing with everyone.

The challenge was such:

Tell us in a post what was the most monumental moment that you and your dog shared, that changed the course of your lives together.  How ever big or small, what happened that brought an understanding between you and your dog and brought your relationship closer than it was before.  What is that one story in your mind that stands out and you repeat over and over to anyone that will listen?  Tell us all about it!!

This is Delilah’s Brut Moment.

Delilah’s been with our family for 5 1/2 years.

In Delilah’s Story which you can find directly under my header, under the drop down labeled the Cast of Characters, I wrote about Delilah’s first day with us.  She was frustrating that day, but she was also strong and vulnerable.

It was a rough first day, noticed the red-rimmed eyes.

 

The moment I watched her struggle to stay sitting up and not fall asleep was the moment I vowed, that I would not be another human that failed her.   I was determined to help her, yet I didn’t feel like we were bonded.

The moment I feel in love with her.

 

Early this spring when I had the most frustrating walk with her, (you can read about it here) I felt defeated.  I remember saying to Hubby, I don’t feel like I matter to her, it’s as if we aren’t bonded.  Sadly he agreed with me.

I love her, don’t get me wrong and I know she loves me, but I still didn’t feel like we were bonded.  Maybe it was me, I couldn’t tell you for sure.

I remember the moment it all changed for me, I was so proud of her, I could have burst.  It made me feel SO good that if I were Harry Potter I could have produced a Patronous. (Which by the way, I hope it would be a dog or a wolf.)

After I let myself wallow in my sorrow for a few days, I set out to find a way to bond with her.  I read, “Bonding With Your Dog” by Victoria Schade, which gave me some great insight. (Thank you Pamela!)

I have been wanting Delilah to try a nosework class, the training group that was offering it requires you take an intermediate dog and handler class first.  Since it was all positive based training, I thought what the hell, it never hurts to try different trainers.

I’d been doing positive based training on my own for some time, but I was super excited to find a positive training class.  I am one of those who learn better by seeing.

I had mentioned to the instructor Jackie, that Delilah sometimes reacted to other dogs.  Jackie suggested I really watch Delilah to determine what exactly she was reacting to.  She also suggested I begin using the LOOK command.

Using this command really helped Delilah focus on me.  As soon as I saw her tense up as if she was set to react, I would say LOOK and she would whip her head back around and refocus on me.

I think it was during the fourth (out of six) class, Jackie was working the class on the leave it command and was testing us, on how well we could redirect our dogs.

Jackie was going to come around and drop some treats on the floor near us, our goal was to redirect our dog to ignore, or leave the treats.

The class was small and people really had lots of space to spread out with their dogs, if you have a reactive dog, you can appreciate how important this really is.  As it turned out we ended up being the last pair tested.

I had Delilah’s attention as Jackie started around the room, I kept her attention with a treat up near my nose and i talked to her the entire time.

That’s right, focus on me.  You’re doing great.  What a good girl you are. We can do this. Were all phrases that came out of my mouth as one by one my classmates were put through the test.

I could hear Jackie making her way around the room and then it was our turn, Jackie approached us from the right side.

Now here’s the thing about Delilah and distractions, you can bounce a ball in front of her face all day long and she won’t even flinch, but drop a treat and all bets are off.

Delilah’s head turned slightly at Jackie’s approach but I was spot on, LOOK, she whipped her head back to me, LEAVE IT I said as a handful of pupperoni’s hit the floor.

There we were, her sitting and me standing, eyes locked.  We were a team.

To me, that was our bonding moment.

Did you have a bonding moment with your dog, one that stood out like no other?  Please share in the comments, I might not be responding to you, but I sure am reading them!

The word count for my NaNoWriMo book writing challenge is just over 3.600 words.

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