Heart Like a Dog

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

Please Bear With Me….Day Two Hundred, Forty Nine

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It seems lately all I do with my dogs is hike them in the woods. 

I’m sorry about that.  I had every intention of having this blog be a fun, light-hearted tribute to my dogs and the silly, sweet things they do. Granted there are days where we have the unexpected excitement, but for the most part all I do is hike the dogs in the woods.

Now to my shame, I am going to tell you why.

My dogs are very large, Sampson is about 92 pounds and Delilah is about 75.  I am a bit on the short side (5’3″ tall) and about 15 pounds heavier than I should be.  Still it is hard for one person my size to handle two dogs by myself. 

The majority of the time when I am with the dogs; I am by myself.  This is the reason I take them to the woods, I know I can let them off leash and they can run around.  For me to walk two dogs on leashes around the block is next to impossible.

But I am determined to change this!  Beginning tomorrow I plan on training with both dogs.  I will be working on their sits, stays and recalls.  Once we get those down pat; I will start on their heeling.

Before too long, I should have a lot more to share than hiking in  the woods.

So I ask you to please bear with me, I still have 116 straight days of blogging left to my challenge. 

This is a blog hop; what are you waiting for?
http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=101084

Follow-up Friday….Day Two Hundred, Forty Eight

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Here we go again, just a little follow-up to this week’s posts.

Happy Birthday Sampson: Author’s Note

Somehow the thoughts in my head ALWAYS sound better than they do when I write them down.  Within a day or two of the writing, I found this blog which seemed to sum up my feelings far better than I did.

Birthday Parties: Author’s Note

Delilah had no ill effects from eating the box of chicken wings.

Life With Delilah:  Update

Delilah had no ill effects from either the garbage she ate or the tube of Neosporin.

Memories of Neosporin

 

The Two-Legged Dog: Update:

I forgot scratching unmentionable areas of their anatomy in public.  When I remembered this, I also remembered that dogs can lick themselves in those unmentionable places.  I also gave a prayer of thanks that men do NOT take after dogs in that respect; it is difficult getting men to do things now, never mind adding THAT into the mix!

This is bad enough.

When One Door Closes: Author’s Note

If anyone knows of a place I can get clicker training, or a really good book that teaches it; please drop me a note in the comments.  I would really appreciate that.

When One Door Closes…..Day Two Hundred, Forty Seven

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When one door closes; another opens.

Saturday our training center, the place where Sampson went every week, since he was 12 weeks old; closed their doors.

For good.

It didn’t come as a complete surprise to those of us who brought our dogs there, we had watched it slowly deteriorate; to the point where many of us had stopped bringing our dogs there.

Almost a year ago, the owner sold the business to two women, who really knew nothing about dogs.  They made no effort to learn either.  They did not introduce themselves to their customers, made no effort to get to know the dogs and rarely if ever worked.  The staff was upset and discord ran rampant.

About six months ago, the gal who ran the daycare quit.  People were paying $20 per day, per dog (for the big guys) to have their dogs sit either in a crate or by the gate; waiting for someone to play with them.  Almost immediately after she quit, Sampson and Delilah stopped going.   The new owners never contacted me to see why a longtime customer suddenly quit.

In June our trainer Sara quit.  She was not replaced; they simply stopped having training classes.  They survived on the few dogs that remained in daycare and grooming.

The retail section of the center was not stocked.  They no longer carried dog food, treats, herbal remedies.

Eventually their inexperience and unwillingness to learn the business did them in.

When Sara left,  she organized some impromptu classes.  It is sort of like a secret club.  We get a text on Thursday afternoon that tells us where we are meeting.  If we can make it we go.  It’s pretty nice having class outdoors; (except for the heat and the bugs) there is plenty of room to spread out and we get to do a lot more natural walking.  Sort of like a neighborhood walk, except with lots of people. 🙂

As they say every cloud has a silver lining.

Yesterday Sara got the keys to the old training center.   Sara has been talking about opening her own training center for a very long time.  Naturally I gave her my thoughts on what I would like to see. 🙂

I’m very excited because I also get to help.  I get to give input as to what types of classes I would like and what types of products to stock.  I may even get the opportunity to help run the retail section.

Now I’m going to tell you a secret. I hope to run a clicker training class when the center opens in September.

When one door closes another door opens.

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