One day, when my two oldest daughters were in 7th grade, Lynn asked if she could wear eye liner to school.
“Absolutely not,” I replied adamantly putting that silly notion to rest.
The next morning as I was driving them to school, I looked over at Lynn and she had eye liner on.
I blew a gasket.
“I thought I told you you couldn’t wear eye liner?” I asked angrily.
Lisa, her twin, and always the peace maker piped up from the back seat, “She was going to bring the eye liner to school and put it on in the bathroom Mom, I told her to just wear it and see what happened.”
Right then and there I realized, despite your desire to keep your children from doing something you don’t think they should, they are living growing beings and need to experience and learn in their own time. I also decided I’d much rather have an honest, trusting relationship with my daughters, than have them sneaking around behind my back.
It would seem, the same holds true for your relationship with your dogs.
I was reminded of this story yesterday, after the dogs and I came back from our afternoon walk.
I’m sorry for what you are about to read. I tried to stop her, I really did.
I put Sampson and Delilah in the back yard while I went about digging out some wood so I could stock the fire before I went back to work.
Neither one of the dogs had pooped on our walk (you can’t blame there, there really isn’t anywhere to go, unless it’s the street). I should have kept that thought in the forefront of my mind, but I didn’t and went about the business of digging out the wood.
I threw a few pieces onto the tarp and as I turned around, Sampson came bounding down the hill, doing his impression of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
You know the part where Clarice kisses Rudolph and Rudolph flies through the air yelling, “She thinks I’m cute”? Sampson does something similar. Except he does it after he takes a dump. He’s all happy, like a great weight has been dropped, and he bounds joyfully. Hubby and I always say, “I pooped, I pooped.”
So here comes Sampson bounding down the hill, I glance over at him then up to the deck where Delilah was just 5 seconds ago, only she’s not there.
My ‘mother intuition’ screams, turn around. I do and there she is, up on the hill cleaning up after Sampson.
Hubby and I have been working hard at cleaning up after the dogs so there is nothing in the yard for her clean up. I also am working her hard on our walks with the “leave it” command where she gets rewarded for not eating the disgusting stuff.
BUT it seems like the harder I try to keep her away from it, the sneakier she gets about trying to eat it.
SO, The moral (if there is a moral) of this story is this:
Dogs, much like teenagers, are sneaky little shits.
They are sneaky little shits, I liked the story about your daughters and Lisa’s thought, that was great!. So have you ever tried forbid or another poop deterent?
Yeah they are! LOL!
Oh no! That is quite funny. I’ve never had a dog poop eater although they do enjoy eating possum poo from under the tree… It makes their breath nasty.
I don’t have kids yet but I’ll keep that moral in mind for the dogs and my future teenagers!
Brilliant moral. Mity had the same problem and from watching him closely it seemed to be he thought he had to clean it up. When he was a puppy and poo’d inside (on paper) it was cleaned up straight away. On a walk, he poos we pick it up straight away. We thought that because it wasn’t picked up straight away he thought he had to do it. So we started calling him away once he had pooped but then going inside with him and leaving it until one of us could sneak out unseen and clean it up. It’s not fully broken the habit but he is a lot better. Not sure if this would work with Delilah?!
Nice one. Have a terrific Tuesday.
Best wishes Molly
Ha! “Sneaky little shits…” I see what you did there. And yes, we are. Sometimes you can’t argue with delicious.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Bahahahahahaha!!! “you can’t argue with delicious” – that is the most delightful comment ever!
Especially when they are in their “dog teenage years” like Bailie. Bailie ate everything when she first came to us…being from the litter of 14, that happens. The first couple weeks she ate some poo on walks before Mom could stop her, and once she pooped in the house and started eating it. Luckily, we were able to break her of the habit and she no longer eats poo…with the exception of goose poo which is real good and tough to resist. I think if you can catch and teach them when they are super young you may have a chance but later on, it is pretty tough to train out of a dog.
Haha!
Woofs from Earl, Ethel and I at Earl’s World!
Or they sneak eating shit….lol. (Well at least teens don’t literally do that!)
Lol! Gross!
I was just thinking of this other day as I deal with my first teenager. Between Bobby ad Leroy I don’t know if I’m going to make it! They are both a pain in my arse!
I’m so glad these guys aren’t shit eaters, Well, bunny and deer, but that hardly counts. We call those smart pills. But yes, dogs are just like teenagers in more ways than one.
Oh! My! God! I cannot stop laughing!!!! I have this vision in my head of Sampson flying through the air as you sing at the top of your lungs “Look Mom I Pooped! I pooped!” And, Delilah? Well, Delilah is a girl. A sneaky little teenaged girl. 🙂 🙂
POOP….. PoopING and … the Clean up AFTERWARDS…. We love Pooping… butt we leave the Clean up Strictly to MOM… who seems obsessed with POOPS… we consider our poops to be little Pressies that we leave fur her… She is EASY to please.
Bwwwah!!! I am DYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I’m not sure which made me laugh harder – Sampson’s glee over unloading or Delilah’s haste to clean it up.
Wait, so last night, I was thinking about dogs that eat poop, and of course, Delilah came to mind and so to the tune of Frere Jacques – I made up this little ditty just for you and Delilah:
Please stop eating, please stop eating,
all that poop, all that poop
It’s really bad for your liver
Even though it must taste so good you shiver,
De-li-lah…De-li-lah
By the way, did you ever receive that cartoon I sent to your email? My goodness, I really am obsessed with dog poop, aren’t I?
I tried not to laugh at your pain–but this story is really funny! Thanks for sharing it and giving me a bright moment in this gross, cold day.
Ha ha, so true! And neither one is apologetic about it either! 🙂
Oh no, Luke sometimes does that after he poops too….now I know what will be going through my head from here on!
Oh. my. heavens. The D-Dog strikes again! As I read the story I got so wrapped up in the delightful image of Sampson bounding (I could vividly see it in my mind) with such a joie de vivre that D-Dog’s following act caught me completely off guard. Apologies for laughing about it since I know you’re working so hard to keep all that crap away from her. Yup, dogs are like teens. May you get through it mentally in tact. <3
They are aren’t they. I’ve caught Maggie doing the same thing…