Heart Like a Dog

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

This ‘N That Thursday

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Today we’re joining our friends over at 2 Brown Dawgs Blog on This ‘N That Thursday.  As 2 Brown Dawgs says, This ‘N That Thursday is for times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post.  It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

Tuesday Night Tricks Class

You may remember last week I showed a picture of Delilah balancing a banana chip on her nose.  There is a second part to this trick, it’s having your dog catch the treat, once you’ve given the release command.

Her eyes are focused on that treat!

Her eyes are focused on that treat!

 

The way you teach this is to throw treats at your dog and tell them ‘catch.’ This is supposed to be pretty easy to teach as the reward is instantaneous.

Delilah does catch fairly well (if my toss is good) and she has managed to balance the treat on her nose 9 out of 10 times.

But she doesn’t quite understand the dynamics of the two tricks together.  If I put the chip on her nose and don’t hold another treat in front of her, instructing her to wait, she will snap at the treat almost instantly.

If I tell her to wait long enough so I can get my fingers out of harm’s way, she sits there with the treat on her nose and doesn’t understand that I want her to catch the treat.

We’ll keep working on this. 🙂

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that we were working with a hula hoop.  When I went into my camera to find the video of the treat, I realized I had a video of her and the hoop. It’s not the greatest, but you will get the general idea.

The ultimate goal would be to have her jump through the hoop at different heights.

Dogs of Blogville Calendar

Just a quick update.  I ordered the calendars last night, they will be printed after the proof is approved (which should be sometime today,) as of right now it doesn’t look like the calendars will be here in time for Christmas. 🙁

I will do my best though, I intend to get all the labels ready this weekend, so when the calendars do arrive, I can get them out the next day.

I of course will keep you posted and let you know as soon as they ship. I did go into the ordering post and took the order form out, because I cannot accept any more orders at this time.

I also have to tell you that they are simply GORGEOUS and it is all due to the amazing and extremely talented Julie Melfi.  Julie did the entire design, from adding the print to the photos, selecting the design, the arrangement and the upload (and probably a whole bunch more stuff that I have no idea of.)

This calendar could NOT have happened without Julie Melfi.

I highly recommend Julie for any of your website or graphic design needs.  She is truly amazing.

Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU JULIE MELFI.

I cannot wait for you to see the calendars, they are better than I ever dreamed they could be.

This ‘N That Thursday – 11-15-12

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Today we join our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.

“This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post.  It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!”

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

 

Apologies and Thanks:

I’m way over due for this.  First I have to apologize to Molly the Wally. Sunday, November 4th our Gone to the Dogs (Human Shaming) post was the focus of share it Sunday. If you’ve never heard of Share It Sunday, go check it out.  Every Sunday Molly the Wally showcases a post from someone else’s blog. (Her post today is James Bond related, and I have to say, totally brilliant.)

We have to thank our dear friend Mazzie (and her able assistant) from Mazzie Takes Manhattan for nominating us for Share it Sunday. While I did send Miss Mazzie a message thanking her, I should have thanked her properly in a post.

With all the excitement of the Blogville Calendar along with the work going into the book challenge, I simply fired off the required information and left it at that.  Not making excuses, it’s just the way it happened.

I was reminded of my manners by our friends at 2 Brown Dawgs who properly thanked Miss Molly the Wally.

Dear Miss Molly, I apologize profusely for not acknowledging your generosity, and do hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me and I do thank you very, very much for showcasing us on your blog. (BTW the photo your mom submitted for the calendar is adorable!)

Tricks for Treats or Treats for Tricks?

Delilah and I started a tricks class on Tuesday night.

I always have a case of the worries going into a new class, but Delilah seemed fine.  We learned four tricks: paw, high-five, wave and paws up.

The first three tricks are all deviations of paw.  The last trick, paws up is asking your dog to put their front paws on a chair. No surprise here. Delilah picked that one up quicker than you can say banana chip.

I started giving Delilah the verbal cue almost immediately with this one, since as soon as I held a treat over the chair she put her paws on it.

The instructor came by to check and said, “Wow, that’s great.”

I said that’s because she’s constantly got her paws up at home, I’m usually screaming OFF! (She likes to climb up on the couch and check to see if Hubby left any good snackies up there.)

Our instructor said sometimes by teaching the behavior it stops the unwanted behavior because they will only do it when cued.

From your lip’s to God’s ear instructor, and I do hope you have a direct line.

While we were waiting for class to start, I took this picture with my cell phone.  Delilah’s so dark that I usually find it hard to get a good picture.

I love this picture though, I think it’s very complimentary.

I see you holding that treat, why don’t you just give it to me, I’m cute.

 

Have you ever had any doubts about teaching your dog something?  How did it turn out?

 My word count is 20,089.

This ‘N That Thursday (11-8-12)

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Today we join our friends at the 2 Brown Dawgs blog for This ‘N That Thursday.

“This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post. It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!”

Courtesy of 2 Brown Dawgs Blog

 

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, but the dogs really have to go, we’re in the snow, in the snow, in the snow.

Yes, last week we had Hurricane Sandy, this week, well initially they called it a Nor’easter, but it seems to me like it’s just a snow storm.  It started just before noon yesterday and by the time I got home, it was just starting to stick to the roads.

The dogs don’t care though, they’ve been stuck inside all day and are itching to get out.  It was still snowing, but we bundled up and out the door we went.

I don’t normally bring my camera for night walks because it’s too dark and my little point and shoot doesn’t work that great in the dark, but once we got outside last night I thought, it’s not so dark, maybe I could take a few pictures.

Turns out falling snow and uncooperative dogs don’t really mix.  Throw in the coordination needed to activate the camera with a dog on a fifteen foot least attached to your arm and well, let’s just say…epic fail.

Out of the 20 or so pictures I took, these are the best.

 

 

 

I even tried to get them to pose when we got back to the house but that didn’t work out either.  🙂

Why is it my Hubby keeps telling me my cell phone camera is a better camera than my point and shoot?  I think it takes craptastic pictures.  It can’t be operator error, can it?

And for the record, we got about 3 inches of snow, which is nothing. AND it’s going to be 60 degrees this weekend.  Bye-bye snow!

NaNoWriMo

The story is developing, just not in the way I expected. Imagine my embarrassment when I realized my mystery/detective story is also going to be a love story.

Phhhht.

It is also not easy (at least for me) to get 1,667 words in each day.  Some days I struggle worse than others.

Here’s the problem I’m having and I would love if those of you who write or are taking this challenge have any thoughts.

It seems like I need to write in sequence, at least that’s how it’s working for me.  The question is, how do you keep track of things.  Do you ever write out out sequence?

Don’t forget to get your pictures in for the Dogs of Blogville Calendar.

My book stands at 11,160 words.
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