Heart Like a Dog

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

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The Banana Chip Thief

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Ever since Sampson was a puppy, you could ALWAYS trust him around food. You could literally put your plate on the floor and say, “Leave it,” and he would. Unless it was steak or butter, then all bets were off. Because, well…steak and butter.

If I made a list of things Delilah has eaten, well, let’s just say you’d be here a while. I wouldn’t trust Delilah with a plate of food for all the money in the world. Yes, it’s true, we’ve worked very hard with her on her boundaries, and I could zip out of the room for a few seconds, but no longer than that.  Even then, you’d be tempting fate.

Most times, missing food usually happens when neither of the bipeds are around.  Based on the evidence at the time, we’ve always blamed Delilah. And yet, we’ve always wondered, “What if it’s not her? What if it’s Sampson? What if behind that sweet, innocent face lurks the tongue of a thief?”

“Nah!” We laugh, and shake that silly notion right out of our heads.

Until…

A few months back, Delilah and I were taking our morning walk, when Hubby, who was on his way to work, stopped and said, “The secret’s out.”

I’m probably thinking it was a good thing it was dark out, because I’m pretty sure my face had that blank look that says, “WTF are you talking about?”

Turns out Sampson figured out Hubby’s little secret.

See, Hubby has a little way of spoiling the dogs. If they’re good while he’s in the kitchen, they get some banana chips. But because most mornings Delilah and I are walking when Hubby is in the kitchen, Hubby has taken to leaving some banana chips for Delilah in the spot she usually sits in. Delilah of course, cannot wait to get back from our walk, where she runs up the stairs, bursts through the gate and gobbles up banana chips.

BUT, on the morning I’m speaking of, Hubby placed Delilah’s banana chips on her spot, and then had to go back to the bedroom for something. When he came out of the bedroom, he heard crunching, and when he looked, there was Sampson happily munching away.

On Delilah’s banana chips.

Sampson isn’t typically THAT food motivated, in fact, he’s usually sacked out in the living room waiting for me to come home and feed him breakfast. So Hubby was surprised, but didn’t think twice about it. He simply put more banana chips down, and he and Sampson went back into the living room, to catch the last of the news.

Then…Hubby heard crunching, again.

Sure enough, Sampson had once again snuck into the kitchen and eaten Delilah’s banana chips.

Shhhhh….it only LOOKS like I’m sleeping. I am the banana chip thief, and I’m always watching and waiting for the opportunity to strike.

Rather than risk more banana chips to the black hole of Sampson’s stomach, Hubby put some chips on the stairs, which are behind a gate. He placed them far enough away, so Sampson couldn’t access them. Then he stopped and told me on his way to work so I could help Delilah find them upon our return.

Of course, she blew past them, and I had to help her ‘find’ them. But we got them all.

Meanwhile, the next morning…

The next morning Sampson once again helped himself to banana chips. But this time Hubby was on to him, and he only gave him that one chance.

It’s that old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Now Delilah finds her banana chips on the stairs.

The Patience of a Dog

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In my neck of the woods, winter hung on far longer than most people wanted it to. Me, I didn’t mind the cooler weather, because I actually prefer it.

Sampson does too.

While he won’t turn down a chance to let himself ‘melt’ in the sun, most days he gets too warm, too quick.

Soaking up the sun.

Monday our temperatures were in the mid 60’s. Tuesday they moved up to the mid 70’s. Wednesday the temperature climbed into the low 90’s.

Our weather folks can’t seem to get it right. While I’d known it was going to be in the 80’s, where we live, it’s usually a titch cooler than other areas.  I had left some windows open, as well as the door to the little balcony on the front of the house. It’s nice for the dogs to get out and get some fresh air when I’m not home, plus I figured it would help keep them cooler.

I was wrong.

By the time I got home at 5 o’clock, both dogs were already panting. I quickly turned on some ceiling fans, and an oscillating fan I had. I knew they’d want walks, and even though Sampson was hesitant to do so, I coaxed him up with a promise of shortening his walk. He really only gets outside two times per day, and it’s so important that we try and keep his joints moving, so….off we went.

We’ve made friends with a neighbor up the street. Technically, she is only five houses away, but the lots are over-sized, and it’s uphill, so it generally takes us between 5 to 7 minutes to get there. I told Sampson we could turn around at “Miss Karen’s” House.

Sampson loves Miss Karen, and she loves him. He first started his friendship with her a couple of years back. She’d be outside working in her yard, and he would always ‘talk’ to her when we’d walk past, and try to get her attention.

He’s a smooth operator, because that’s how it starts out.  Just a little talking.

He talks to you, and inevitably, you WILL talk to him. Because he WILL wear you down.

Once he has you talking back to him, the tail wagging commences, and the head tilts. Before you know it, you’ve stopped to pet him. Once you’ve done that, you’ve sealed your fate. You will ALWAYS have to pet him when you see him, and he remembers where you live and he looks for you.

That’s what happened with Miss Karen.

Miss Karen is out a lot in warmer months, and not so much in the cooler months. But that doesn’t matter to Sampson, he stops each, and every time we walk past her house. (Even on those days where we stopped on the way up, he will try and stop on the way back.)

I can usually tell when the odds are good of Miss Karen being outside, because the garage door will be open. If it’s closed, I know she’s not out. But Sampson doesn’t read those signs, he still maintains that we are at Miss Karen’s house, and she should be outside. (As an aside, he’s now made friends with Miss Karen’s husband, as well as her daughter and son-in-law, who also live there.)

So he stops. And waits. Sometimes that patience pays off, and sometimes it does not.

Now you’re up to speed, and I can tell you what happened on Wednesday.

When we got to Miss Karen’s the garage doors were closed, but her car was in the drive way, and it was running. Sampson slowed down as we walked past the driveway, but I told him, “She’s not out, Buddy.”

So he walked past the driveway, past the bushes in front, and started heading towards the area of the house where we’d last seen her. He took about four steps, and laid down.

I couldn’t get him to budge.

I can will them out of the house.

He laid in the grass, staring at the front door, as if he could will her to come out.

After about five minutes, Miss Liz (Miss Karen’s daughter) came out, and naturally came right up to Sampson to show him some love. Shortly after that, Miss Liz’s husband, (Thibault)  came out, and he also came up to Sampson to share the love.  They were leaving for a walk, so after a couple of minutes, they said their goodbyes, which apparently was enough for Sampson, as he popped up and was ready to head home.

That’s when he hit the mother lode.

As we made to pass the driveway, Miss Karen and Mr. Ray got out of the car. (It’s a new car to them, and they were trying to figure a couple of things out.)

Sampson was thrilled (of course) and hurried over to greet her. I shared the story with her of how he refused to budge, and showed her the picture, as well as making sure it was okay to share it here.

She said something along the lines of “Sampson waiting for two of his favorite Q-tips.” 🙂 And we both had a good laugh.

The patience of a dog when (s)he really wants something is amazing. 

You make me laugh (or smile), the sweet, funny, loving things dogs do that make us laugh or smile.

What did your pet do this week that made you laugh or smile? What does your pet have patience for?

The Silver Lining a.k.a. The “Look” Command

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Since Sampson did a partial CCL tear on his ‘good’ leg, we’ve had a restructuring of walks.

Oh the dogs still get two walks each per day, except now they get them separately. Sampson just can’t go as far, or as long as Delilah can. And it’s not fair to Delilah to have her walks cut short, just to save me the extra time.

SO…I set my alarm for 5:00 am, (my clock is about 20 mins fast) (eventually,) I drag my ass out of bed, and give my dogs their morning walks.

Sampson’s walks are always timed. Eight or nine minutes, then turn around and head home.

Delilah’s are a bit longer, but hers are more designed by routes, and some are longer than others. Because I’m pressed for time there are certain routes I will not take on a work day. On the weekends, she basically has carte blanche.

Taking four walks a day can definitely be challenging, but I’m all about finding that silver lining.

The silver lining in this situation is, managing one dog at a time is a hell of a lot easier than dealing with two.

Walking one dog, also allows me time to work with them individually. You may recall, both of my dogs can be reactive, but for different reasons.

Remember this?

Gif courtesy of Giphy.com sourced from Reddit

(That was the day I sat down in the grass to keep myself from being pulled across the street by my dogs. Let me just say, that was not a stellar day in my dog owning book, so I set out to change that.)

FTR, Sampson is reactive because he’s excited to see and meet, new people and new dogs.  Delilah is reactive because, well, she’s Delilah. Honestly, I never quite figured out why she reacted. If I had to guess, I think she senses the energy/personality of the other dog. She knows when another dog is going to be a jerk, and she takes the lead. It’s her, kill or be killed attitude. I believe it’s how she survived before she found us.

I think that’s a digression, but I felt like I had to add it.

We rarely encounter dogs in the mornings. (That’s what dragging your ass out of bed at 4:45 am will do for you.) But in the afternoons, we’ve been known to encounter dogs, dogs, dogs, and dogs.

I’m super lucky (or cursed, depending on how you look at it,) because I have Labradors, and Labradors are highly motivated by food.

Lucky because a food motivated dog WANTS to get that treat. Cursed because a  food motivated dog WANTS to get that treat. (Caution: working with a highly excited food motivated dog can result in injuries such as scratches, unintended bites, bumps, bruises and in some instances, falling over.)

To help control her reactivity, I worked Delilah extensively with the “Look”command (which pulls her mind of the dog(s) and puts her focus on me.)

How To Teach The Look Command

Personally, I feel the look command is one of the easiest to teach.  Hold a treat in between your thumb and forefinger, make sure your dog sees the treat, then bring the treat up to just about where your nose runs into your forehead. Your dog should automatically follow the trajectory of the treat. Once your dog is doing this reliably, add your command of “Look,” “Watch,” or “Focus,”  whichever word you want to associate with this command.  **Author’s Note :  I highly recommend NOT using the thumb and forefinger for this visual command. While your dog will certainly understand, you might get some strange looks from your neighbors.

You want me to look at you, instead of at this delicious bone? You might be better served looking through the view finder, this photo is a bit blurry.

We’ve got this command down pretty well. In fact, most times we can walk past a yard dog without me having to pull out a treat. Sometimes I have to remind her with “Look,” but mostly she just ignores the other dog. And of course, she gets rewarded after, but it’s much easier to reward a calm dog, than one who is overly excited.

Typically, our dog encounters were with dogs in (or coming out of) their yards, but now, with the fair-weather-dog-walkers, we do encounter dogs walking past us. This has been more challenging, but what I discovered with my treat-motivated-Labrador is…pull a treat out, cup it in my closed fist and hold that right in front of her nose and keep walking. I am usually talking as we do this, encouraging her by telling her what a good girl she is.

I’m proud to tell you, that we have successfully walked past walking dogs.

Try to say that three times fast. (Never mind, I just did and it was easy.)

For me, “Look” is one of the most important commands I can teach my dog.  What’s a command you can’t imagine not teaching your dog?

 

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