Heart Like a Dog

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

Practice Makes Perfect…Day One Hundred, Fifty

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Delilah has quite a bit more energy than Sampson; let’s face it Chet and I have a pretty mellow lifestyle and Sampson has adapted to it very well.  Since Sampson has been on the Prednisone and antibiotic, he has had even less energy.  The Prednisone has some side effects such as lethargy, and  increased thirst along with (naturally)  increased urination.  I know Sampson is not feeling himself, so I want to be careful on our walks that he doesn’t become over exerted.  This can become challenging considering Delilah’s energy level has not diminished in the least.

I think one of the reasons Delilah has become lax on her recalls is because I have become lax in her training, I got her so she came back to me all the time and then I stopped calling her back to me.  Now if she sees a squirrel or something else interesting she ignores me.   The real key to training a dog is consistency.  So we worked on calling the dogs back to us while we were walking.

After about 15 minutes of walking on the trails, we decided a little training was in order.  We thought maybe we could give Delilah some additional exercise combined with training.

When I went to the store today I decided instead of roast beef, I would get a pound of ground beef.  The dogs eat raw food, so why not use the raw beef, considering it is about $4 less per pound.

We went to the field and Chet stayed on one end with what was left of the roast beef, while the dogs and I walked  to the other end of the field.   Chet called Delilah and she took off running; Sampson stayed with me at first which was good because I didn’t really want him running.  Once Delilah had reached Chet and he had rewarded her with some roast beef, I called her to me and rewarded her with the ground beef.

Chet and I continued in this manner about four times each; just before we called it quits, I had the dogs in front of me and I was feeding them the ground beef when Chet called for Delilah and she turned and ran back to him, totally ignoring me and the beef in my hands.  This was exactly what I wanted, I want her to want to come back to us more than she wants to chase a squirrel or explore a new trail.

Practicing being perfect.

Peek-A-Boo….Day One Hundred, Forty Nine

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I had a commitment tonight so I couldn’t walk the dogs after work.  Instead I rushed home at lunch and I met a neighbor and we walked the dogs together.

Sally has a chocolate lab named Brady.  She has only had him since December; you may have heard me mention Brady before.  Brady looks so much like Delilah, Sally actually mistook Delilah for Brady. 🙂

We hiked the dogs through the trails for about 35 minutes; I was a little worried about Sampson since the Prednisone he is taking is making him really thirsty and tired and  I didn’t want the walk to be too stressful for him.

Sally and I are new friends, so while we walk; we talk.  Sally reminded me today of a game you can play with your dogs to help in training them off leash.  The game is a favorite game from your childhood…Hide and Go Seek; except you aren’t counting to ten, you aren’t running to base and you aren’t calling “Olly Olly Oxen Free.”  What you are doing is waiting for an opportunity when your dog wanders off or isn’t paying attention to you; then you hide behind a tree and watch what happens.

What should happen is your dog should begin looking for you, hopefully you will be hiding in a place where you can see your dog to see how he/she is reacting.  Your dog may panic a little bit when they can’t see you, which is really what your goal is; to have your dog a little nervous so they pay more attention to what you are doing and less attention to other things that may be distracting in your walk.  However if your dog is totally losing it; you will want to step out from your hiding place and let them know where you are.  If you really want to, you could shout out “Olly Olly Oxen Free.”

Brady and Sampson had the height advantage here.

He's so handsome.

Walking a Fine Line…Day One Hundred, Forty Eight

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The neighbor’s dog (Gunner) escaped from their house yesterday.  It was actually fairly fascinating because my neighbor was out there calling the dog and he was running through the neighborhood totally ignoring her.

While the dog was running through the neighborhood, two ladies were walking their little pit bull.  It’s a nice little dog, and friendly as far as I can tell.  About two weeks ago, I pulled into the yard and opened the car door and Sampson bolted out and charged down to the street to greet the two ladies and their little dog.  I apologized because I didn’t even see them;  if I had I would never have opened the door because I know how Sampson is.

Flash forward to yesterday and the two ladies and their little dog.  The ladies walk the dog on a gentle leader, which as you know is not my favorite type of dog ‘collar’.  I guess the woman was nervous about her dog and Gunner because she kept yanking up on her dog’s leash.  Chet was out there and he kept telling her to relax but she wouldn’t.  Apparently what she did do was to take the end of her leash and smack at Gunner with it while she repeated, “Go home Gunner.”

I’m not really sure what I would do in a situation like that, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be smacking at somebody else’s dog; especially if the dog wasn’t aggressive.  To my way of thinking, this would be a situation where a dog would bite in defense; but then of course it would be the dog’s fault; (at least according to the legal system.)

When I was a child we had a German Sheppard that was a bit aggressive, particularly with strangers.  One day the dog got out of the house and he bit the paperboy on his shoulder.  The paperboy, was a really tall boy and he was riding a bike; a 10 speed. My father’s argument (that saved the dog) was the paperboy had to have kicked at the dog because otherwise the dog would have bit him on his leg.  I don’t think that argument would ever fly in today’s society.  In today’s society we are too quick to blame the dog instead of the owner or the ‘victim’ that messed up.

What that means for us as dog owners is we need to find a way to control our dogs and give them boundaries and limits, while still allowing them the freedoms that make them happy.  It is at times, a fine line we walk but the love and devotion we receive more than makes up for any balancing act we perform.

Look at that sweet face; I WOULD walk a fine line for him!

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