Did you ever wake up in a great mood and then have something miniscule happen that turned everything sour?
If you have labs you know they’re sloppy drinkers. Delilah is the worst. She sticks her face in the water, and raises it dripping from the bowl and then she walks away, taking the water with her.
Yesterday morning in the midst of my daily rituals I got a pant leg soaked with water.
Thank goodness it wasn’t oil
The combination of cold/wet startled me, I looked at Delilah and said through gritted teeth, “Delilah!”
Such a miniscule occurrence that got me thinking of personal struggles and the seemingly small incidents which wear us down.
I think in most relationships (and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) we weather the big stuff. We somehow manage the financial struggles, the differences of opinions, the illnesses, yet it is the small things that truly wear us down. The underwear that doesn’t quite make it to the hamper, the toothpaste in the sink.
I can manage to remain calm when Delilah runs off on a walk or won’t perform a trick as quickly as I’d like, but dribble water on my pants and I lose my mind.
This was the train of thought I had in the morning.
By evening it had evolved into the whole nature vs nurture theory. If we’d gotten Delilah at eight weeks old like we did Sampson would she still be a vacuum when she ate, would she come when she was called, would she not slobber at the water bowl?
Then I sat down to write the post and I couldn’t put it all together. I sat on the couch with my laptop, I checked my e-mail, I checked facebook, still the post remained unwritten.
I looked over at the dogs, Sampson wanted to play, he put his paw on Delilah’s head and it was so cute, it reminded me of a father, patting a child’s head.
I grabbed the camera and missed it!
So I sat there watching the dogs play and snapping pictures.
I love watching the two of them play, one of them has the toy and the other one tries to get it away. They both have their mouths on the toy. It reminded me of the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp.
Some privacy would be nice.
Then Delilah put her paw over Sampson’s eyes.
Don’t look at the flash Sampson.
That was my post for the day.
And then Delilah and I went to tricks class.
I readily admit, we did not practice our tricks at all last week, with the exception being to show Hubby what we’d learned when we got home.
Come on, I mean it was Thanksgiving and a long weekend to boot.
So we went back to class, a bit rusty, yet Delilah still did great with her roll over.
We were shown how to teach three new tricks this week, Spin, Bow and Say Your Prayers.
Delilah got spin almost immediately, of course it helped that besides the banana chips I had some stinky white fish in my pocket.
Bow was hard and our instructor Ariane told us three different ways to train/lure it. The easiest way is to catch your dog doing the behavior and reward for it. I’ve been saying “Good Bow” to Delilah every time I catch her at it, but it’s never been treated. (I’ve got to start stashing treats all over the place so I can treat her when she does it.)
Ariane came over to help me and she almost had her into a bow once, but it just wasn’t a trick Delilah learned easily.
When it came time to teach Say Your Prayers, Ariane asked if she could use Delilah and I finally confessed to her that I wrote a blog and asked if I could take pictures. 🙂 She said, Sure!
First Ariane lured Delilah onto a chair using her Paws Up command.
Paws Up, where’s the treat?
Then she lured her into a Shame on You, which is simply placing her head flat on the floor (in this case the chair.)
I’ll climb through this space if you’ll give me the treat.
Because Delilah is a bigger dog, Ariane stuck her hand through the back of the chair and lured Delilah in that manner. For smaller dogs, you could just place your hand (with the treat in it) on the chair.
By the end of class, she was doing a decent imitation of Say Your Prayers.
And that my friends is the evolution of a blog post.
Has your post ever evolved in an unexpected way? How do you conquer writer’s block?
If you’re chronicling life, posts do tend to morph 😉 Delilah sounds to be doing great on the trick front – she might have come to you late and have a few iffy habits but we’re impressed that she can learn so well.
I’m feeling like that too these days. Drafts that morph and morph and get tossed. I also get the toothpaste in the sink. Or in my case, the toothpaste gargling spit that ends up on the mirror. Grrr.
Lots of times something just happens and I change my whole blog subject, I just kind of go along with whatever happens. As for water bowls, I have my long furry floppy ears that always hang in the bowl so I leave a nice trail of water everywhere…mom has just decided to deal with it 😉
I have so many posts that I have written saved in drafts. I get in a mood and just write and write, then by the time I am ready to set the posts I am in a totally different mood and the post just doesn’t seem to work anymore, so I put a different spin on it. Sometimes this goes on for days, some make it to the publishing phase and many do not. It’s not very good time management for me at all.
I don’t think getting Delilah at 8 weeks would have changed any of the behaviors you listed with the exception of her recall. Dogs either are messy drinkers, or they aren’t and eat fast or they don’t. I don’t think there is much you can do about it.
The pictures of them playing are very cute. 🙂
I have some saved drafts that just don’t get published. Really, since my posts are pretty “light” – I don’t often have writer’s block. Plus, having a foster puppy really gives me a lot of material! 🙂
Love the trick class!
OMG, do I ever get the toothpaste in the sink thing! And leaving shoes and other things in the middle of the bedroom floor for me to trip over (and I usually do!).
And like 2 Brown Dawgs said, a dog is either a sloppy drinker/food vacuum or not. And size doesn’t matter, either…my little Corgi mix is just as sloppy/fast as her Golden Retriever sisters. But eating fast doesn’t bother my Goldens — I use the slow-feed bowls with them so they can’t eat as fast. My little Corgi mix pup is another story but I won’t go into detail except to say that I now use a Kong Wobbler for her food. I don’t know who has more fun — her playing with it to get the food out or me watching her!
Wow she got to be the class demonstrator! I’m sure she’s a good student. I love the picture of them both playing together. My two don’t play together, I always wished they would but I have to settle for living together in harmony as the best it will get. Sometimes Kelly grooms Brooks. But they almost never play.
PS I couldn’t even tell you the date of my last blog post without looking it up. I either don’t have time, don’t have the inspiration; or I have both but nothing to write with/on or access to my iPod, Kindle, or laptop and by the time I get it, I lose track of my inspiration. So, my blog posts are few and far between at times, as they have been the last few months.
What a cutie she is! Those are cute tricks. There has been no morphing on my blog, hence no posts. The less I write, the harder it gets. I need to get on a program 🙂
BTW, Cali is a messy drinker too . . .our floor is always wet!
Those play pictures are so cute!! love the one where she’s shielding Sampson’s eyes!! 🙂 When Cosmo comes over we take turns of the toy/bone – as in the moment one leaves it the other swoops in 🙂
I hope you’re having a fun day,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
Since I only blog once or twice a week, I mostly mind-write till I have a chance to get it down and ready to go.
Tricks class looks like SUCH a blast.
It’s funny, Junebug is a Beagle, with those hound jowls, but she doesn’t really drip water after drinking. But it’s not something we ever tried to train her in.
Howie, however, despite his fox-like face, drips water like nobody’s business. And I can certainly understand your frustration with suddenly wet pants. What gets me more, though, are the unexpected small wet spots on the carpet from whatever direction he wandered after drinking, that come right up through the sock to one small point on my foot.
Hey Sampson, Hey Delilah, Jetty here. Hi Miss Linda.
We loved how organically the post came together. Delilah looked so shiny in her photos, fetching!
When Mom and I get stuck… we let the morning constitutional shake us out of our funk… Mom lets her mind wander as she watches us, observes her surroundings and enjoys the “little things”. Usually, something will pop into her head or we will do something that triggers a kernel of an idea…