Heart Like a Dog

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

  • Home
  • About
  • Sampson
  • Delilah
  • Contact
  • Community Page

Home For the Holidays

December 22, 2012 By Jodi

Thursday evening my youngest daughter came home.  It’s been two years since she’s been home for Christmas, hence it’s been two years since I’ve seen her.

You may recall our trip to visit her in California was cancelled due to Snowtober 2011.

As you can well imagine anticipation was coursing through my body as we shot texts back and forth to each other.

Her last text to me said, We are at the tunnel! (Which put them about a minute or so away from the house.)

My next text to her read, We are at the door!!

And we were.

Along with her husband she brought her new puppy, Beauregard.  They call him Bo, I think I’m going to call him Bodacious.

Take a look and tell me what you think.

Hey there.

Hey there.

 

We thought it best to introduce the dogs outside.  After hugs in the driveway we trudged to the back yard with the two fools Sampson and Delilah losing their minds eagerly watching from the front door.

Sampson (aka Bull #1) came out of the chute first.  He’s more interested in his sister and our son-in-law than he is in the puppy.  There was some sniffing but it seemed to go okay.

Who are you, you little runt?

Who are you, you little runt?

 

Delilah (aka Bull #2) came charging out of the gate next.  She’s more interested in the dog than the humans but we all stood around telling her to be nice and she was.

Do you have any food?  Because if you don't I could care less about you.

Do you have any food? Because if you don’t I could care less about you.

 

Since it had started raining about 10 minutes before they arrived, we moved inside.

Bodacious was so cute and very happy to finally be out of the car, he ran around all over the house scoping out toys.  There was lots of play bowing and he acted very appropriately around the two older dogs.

Delilah growled a couple of times but not in a menacing manner, more of a I’m not that kind of girl, we need to know each other first kind of way.

Sampson on the other hand turned into a dick.  He snapped at the puppy once and I pulled him aside and had him sit, and told him he was not a good boy.

I thought maybe it was better if he went into our bedroom so I put him in there for a few minutes.

I explained to my daughter and SIL that if they are petting Sampson and their dog walks up to them Sampson WILL snap at the dog and sure enough my SIL was petting Sampson and little Bodacious waddled over, I saw Sampson’s upper lip do a good impression of Elvis and I said, He’s going to snap.

Situation diffused.

Now the dogs are all running around and we are chatting when all of a sudden for no reason any of us could see, Sampson lunged at Bo again.

This time Bo retreated whimpering and Sampson went back in the bedroom.  Thankfully he didn’t appear to be hurt.   My daughter said sometimes if he moves to quickly his little legs don’t support him properly and it’s almost like he twists his ankle.

Sampson was definitely thrown off by having a puppy in the house, as he had me up twice during the night.  Once around 12:30 pm and then again at 4:00 am.

Both times Delilah got up too and scoped out the situation and both times I made them go outside and then right back to bed.

I could really use some advice here from those of you who foster frequently or have introduced other dogs to your pack.

How do I stop Sampson’s nasty behavior?

Please GOD make it go away.  I promise I'll be a good dog.

Please GOD make it go away. I promise I’ll be a good dog.

 

Like what you read? Please share on your social network.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Dogs, Sampson Tagged With: Delilah, Dog, dog training, Follow-Up Friday, Heart Like A Dog, Humor, Jodi Stone, Just Be The Dog, Labrador Retriever, Life With Sampson And Delilah, Obedience training, Pet, Pet Writing, Pets, Recreation, Sampson, sampson and delilah, W.T.F. Wednesday, Writing

Happy Birthday

November 25, 2012 By Jodi

We had a great mini-vacation these past couple days.

I did a lot of shopping with my sister, which believe it or not is very unusual for me, because I typically don’t care for shopping.  Somehow when I get together with my sister, the urge to shop overtakes me.  Go figure.

Yesterday morning we got up and headed over to the local grocery store to pick up some food for the food pantry, after unpacking it, we headed to a local herb shop.  I swear I could have spent half the day there. 🙂

We went back to the house for lunch only to find that all the dogs were stuck in the house because the guys were taking down trees. 🙁

After lunch we ran out to the local co-op.  I was in a rush to get back to the house, so I could let the dogs out to run, but we were pleasantly surprised to find them all out and running about when we got home.

Bandit, my sister’s Jack-Rat. Don’t you love those ears?

 

Gordon, my sister’s Golden Retriever.

 

Delilah, Tyson, (a Bernese Mountain/Rottweiler/Pitbull mix,) he belongs to a friend of my sister and J.D. my sister’s Jack Russell.

 

Sampson. I like sticks.

 

There are some nice logging trails in the area and I wanted to take the dogs walking, but it’s hunting season and I forgot their vests. 🙁

So we walked around the property instead.

Gordy, J.D. and Delilah on our walk.

 

The dogs have had a great time, they spent a lot of time outdoors.

Delilah did especially well, for the most part she was off leash the entire weekend.

The weekend was extra special because today is my sister’s birthday and I got to wish her happy birthday in person.

Happy Birthday Laura, I enjoyed our time together this weekend.

What did you do?  Anything special?

Like what you read? Please share on your social network.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Delilah, Dogs, Hiking, Sampson Tagged With: Delilah, Dog, dog training, Follow-Up Friday, Heart Like A Dog, Humor, Jodi Stone, Just Be The Dog, Labrador Retriever, Life With Sampson And Delilah, Obedience training, Pet, Pet Writing, Pets, Recreation, Sampson, sampson and delilah, W.T.F. Wednesday, Writing

Dogs Helping Dogs

October 25, 2012 By Jodi

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?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Like what you read? Please share on your social network.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Be The Dog, Delilah, Dog Training, Dogs, Positive Dog Training, Training Tagged With: Delilah, Dog, dog training, Follow-Up Friday, Heart Like A Dog, Humor, Jodi Stone, Just Be The Dog, Labrador Retriever, Life With Sampson And Delilah, Obedience training, Pet, Pet Writing, Pets, Recreation, Sampson, sampson and delilah, W.T.F. Wednesday, Writing

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • …
  • 130
  • Next Page »

About Jodi

jodiHi, my name is Jodi. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog! I have all kinds of fun writing about my two crazy pups, Sampson and Delilah. Find out more!

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Let’s Stay Connected!

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Heart Like A Dog

Products We Love

Heart Like a Dog reader's receive a one time 25% discount when purchasing. If you do purchase, we thank you as we receive a small commission. Use code HeartOff

Creative Commons

Creative Commons License
Heart Like A Dog by Jodi E. Stone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.heartlikeadog.com.

Recent Posts

  • Dearest Delilah
  • Happy 17th Birthday in Heaven, Sampson
  • My Darling Delilah
  • A Year Without You
  • Six Months of Missing You

Recent Comments

  • Madison on Dearest Delilah
  • Ducky & Bogie's Mom on Dearest Delilah
  • Sue on Dearest Delilah
  • Brian Frum on Dearest Delilah
  • Cat and DOG Chat With Caren on Dearest Delilah

Copyright © 2025 · Dynamik Website Builder on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in