Heart Like a Dog

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

Carte Blanche

By

As you know, Sampson, Delilah and I have a pretty sweet area for walking.

I’ve also seen cross-country skiers and non-motorized bike riders. It’s a perfect area for these types of activities.

It also has another appeal though, one that’s not quite as nice.

The local kids like to go up there and drink, smoke pot, build bonfires, have sex, experiment with explosives, etc.

I get it. I was after all a kid once myself.

What I don’t get is why they leave evidence of their debauchery and why they have to leave things lying about that can hurt others.

I’m speaking specifically of food, broken glass and empty containers.

Really? If you’re that freaked out about what your parents will say when they found out you stole a bottle of Captain Morgan from them, then take the bottle and stick it in your neighbor’s recycling bin. Stick it in your backpack, and throw it in a public place. Hell, I really wouldn’t even mind if you left the empty bottle in the woods, just please, please don’t smash it on the rocks!

Not only can this cause harm to domestic animals but think about the wildlife. Death from swallowing glass is a horrible way for ANYONE to die.

I bring all this up to set the scene for our current story.

The lovely kids in my neighborhood broke at least 10 bottles on a ridge of rocks up in our woods. Not just dropped and broke, SMASHED.

Way more glass than I could show in the picture.

 

The falling leaves are covering the glass and this has me concerned, not just for my dogs, but for other dogs whose owners let them run rampant and for the wildlife as well.

Since the days are shorter now, it’s harder to get out into the woods after work, the days that I do, I’ve forgotten to bring something for clean up.

I got home a bit early on Thursday and hurried the dogs out for a romp. I remembered my small broom and dustpan as well as a paper bag to place the glass in.

We went up through the field and into the woods where I knew the glass was. Delilah was on the 15 foot leash and I secured her to a tree while I started sweeping and picking up the glass.

There was much more than I had remembered so after about 5 minutes or so I thought this isn’t fair to the dogs, they came up here to walk. I left the bag on the rock, unhooked Delilah and off we went.

I’ve been working Delilah really hard on her recall, so I let her off leash. Except for a brief moment when I thought I’d lost her, she did amazingly well.

We headed back to the rock so I could pick up the bag and then I realized how much more glass was there.

We’d been in the woods about 20 to 25 minutes and hadn’t run into anyone, visibility was good because of all the leaves that have fallen and I was feeling a bit cocky (or pissy, considering I was picking up someone else’s mess) I said, screw it, leave her off leash and let her have Carte Blanche.

I fully expected her to run off helter skelter.

Instead, I spent the next 10 minutes or so, picking/sweeping up glass, and yelling at Delilah to ‘Get Off The Rock!’

I’m actually considering this photo for the calendar contest (minus the bag of course.)

 

Neither one of the dogs took advantage of my lapse in judgement, in fact how you see them in the photo is exactly how they stayed. 🙂

I picked up almost a full bag of glass.

It’s hard to pick/sweep up glass when it’s covered in leaves.

 

Yesterday I called the Parks and Recreation Department and had a really nice chat with the woman who answered the phone.  I’m not really sure there’s anything they can do about the kids going up after dark, but at least my concern was heard.

Delilah really surprised me when she didn’t take advantage of her freedom opportunity, have your dog’s ever surprised you by not taking advantage of a naughty opportunity?

Dogs Helping Dogs

By

Last Saturday Delilah and I got to spend the afternoon with my friend Jo-Anne and her dog Achilles.  Achilles is (to the best of my knowledge) a White German Shepherd/Husky mix.

I’ve always found Achilles to be friendly and affectionate, in fact sometimes he freaks me out a little because he will just stare into your eyes.  I often wonder if he’s trying to tell me something.

Something like, I’m really a prince stuck in this body, kiss me and I’ll make all your dreams come true.

It’s a good thing I can’t read his mind because he’s probably really thinking, move a little closer I want to hump your leg.

Jo-Anne rescued Achilles just before we rescued Delilah, in fact Jo-Anne’s rescue of Achilles is what inspired me to rescue Delilah.

Now that I’m thinking about it,  I don’t know if I should thank her or curse her.

Anyhoo…Jo-Anne sent me an e-mail about 10 days ago asking if Delilah and I could help her with a little problem Achilles was having.  Apparently while Lily and Achilles get along just fine, Achilles is having some confusion about the proper way to react and play with other dogs.

Jo-Anne’s new trainer, Marcus asked her if she could find someone with a female dog, that was either a husky mix or a lab.

Enter Delilah.

Marcus asked us to find a neutral place that was fenced in.  I knew of a baseball field at one of the elementary schools that would be perfect.  When we got to the designated spot, there was a young man walking a German Shepherd back and forth.  I was a little anxious because Delilah can sometimes go a bit ballistic when she’s in the car and sees another dog outside.

Great first impression right?  You pull up and your dog loses her stuff.

But it didn’t happen like that.

Turns out the guy walking the dog was Marcus’ brother Thomas, walking Marcus’ dog Tye.  Marcus has been using Tye (who has some dog aggression issues) to help Achilles with his issues.

The first thing we did was take the dogs out of the car.  Marcus came over to introduce himself to Delilah and she turned her back on him and sat down.

Marcus was tickled.

He asked me if he could introduce Delilah to Achilles, I said, “Yes, as long as you don’t hurt my dog.”

Ballsy, I know.

He introduced them and after a second or so, Achilles got a little snarky and Delilah set him straight.

Listen here mister, don’t take that tone with me!

 

I told Marcus, “Don’t worry, she can handle him.”

Once all the dogs had been introduced we started some walking exercises.

Marcus wanted Achilles to get used to walking without reacting to other dogs.

Thomas and Tye, Jo-Anne and Achilles, Marcus and Delilah.

 

We realized there was a lot of glass in the parking area, so we moved the dogs onto one of the side streets.

We were probably about 5 to 6 feet apart.

 

Tye went home and Marcus had Jo-Anne have Achilles sit in the parking lot while Delilah and I walked around them.  The goal was to get Achilles to focus on Jo-Anne and not on Delilah.

Every time Achilles looked at Jo-Anne, he got a treat.

That’s right Achilles, look at your mama.

 

After this we went back to Jo-Anne’s house.  Marcus and Tye, Delilah and I sat on the patio while Jo-Anne worked Achilles in the yard.  The reasoning for this was to help Achilles learn to focus while there were distractions.

After about 15 minutes or so, Marcus said Delilah and I could leave.  He asked me if I could put Delilah in the car before I said good-bye to Jo-Anne.

When I got back to the yard he said he was going to have Jo-Anne hand me a treat for Achilles and I could give it to him when he was sitting properly.

I took the treat and then approached Jo-Anne and Achilles, with my hand out like a stop sign.  Just as I got up to him, Achilles got up, so I turned around and walked away, waited a few seconds and approached Achilles again. This time he stayed sitting.

Success!!

Marcus said Delilah was the perfect dog to work with Achilles because she is calm and exhibits the proper signals to other dogs.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she can hold her own. 🙂

I know many of you have used or trained therapy dogs, but have you ever heard of a dog working with other dogs?  What would you call that?  Would you do it with your own pup?

I Believe The Children Are Our Future – Blog The Change

By

I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.  So sang Whitney Houston in The Greatest Love of all.

Whitney was on to something.

If there is any hope at all to change the condition of animal welfare in this country, we have to educate the children.

When I was a kid we got smacked when we needed it, I rarely if ever heard of family services being called.  That began changing toward the end of my high school years.

It was definitely enforced with my own children through the school system and I know it worked, because many times in the heat of an argument if they felt threatened in any way, my children would remind me, “If you hit me, I’m calling the police.”

Trust me, my children were never beaten and the police were never called.  My point is, they were educated about child abuse and understood they had the right to be protected.

I believe it’s possible to teach children the proper way to treat animals.  I see it with my own grandchildren.  They are taught how to behave around and be respectful to my dogs.

My daughter was telling me a story about Tara Costa who was on Biggest Loser a few seasons ago.

Tara was in Atlanta for a speaking engagement.  Somewhere near the airport she saw two dogs running on the highway.  She stopped and managed to grab one, a pit bull mix.  She started driving around looking for an owner, when she came across a group of kids.  The kids said, Hey that’s Bishop and then one kid looked at her and said, Don’t give him back, they fight him.

The long and short of the story is, the dog’s owners came out to the car and Tara noticed Bishop cowering.  She made a split second decision and high-tailed it out of there.  The last I knew Bishop was recovering at a facility in New York and would be up for adoption soon.*

Shortly after I heard this story I saw a blog post on Pittieful Love Lovebug Goes to School.

I knew the two would tie together perfectly for Blog The Change.

Animal education could easily be incorporated into our nations school curriculum.

Just as we have educated children about the dangers of drugs, and abuse, we need to educate them about the proper care and treatment of animals.  When we do that, and start at a young age you will begin to see changes in society.

I think this could be accomplished very easily, by engaging rescue groups in each state to provide local schools with the following:

  • Printing up inexpensive flyers with important phone numbers in the area that provide low-cost spaying and neutering programs.
  • A toll-free hotline where people can report cases of suspected abuse or neglect.
  • Animal welfare programs in our schools where children are educated in the proper treatment of animals.

It may be hard to change adult minds, but children are little sponges, they soak up information.  We just need to make sure they get the right information and they in turn will help to bring about real change.

Big beef’s got nothing on the kids of this nation.  We can ensure our farming is humane.

Dog fighting can become history.  Granted an ugly part of history, but sadly many aspects of history are ugly.

BSL? Won’t know what hit it.  Kids know, it’s not how you look that matters, it’s what in your heart.

Granted, it may take some time, but time and money well spent if we are headed in the right direction.

We’ve seen the proof with so many issues.

I’ve contacted my state representative and have a meeting set-up to discuss this issue.

I’m ready for real change, how about you?  Will you join me?

Just imagine the possibilities.

* (Note, this story took place in June.  At the time I contacted Tara Costa, but she did not respond to my e-mail.  The details of this story are based upon what my daughter told me and what I discovered on Tara’s facebook page.)
Blog the Change


 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...