Heart Like a Dog

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

I Know You’re a Lab

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Thank you all for the suggestions you left in the comments regarding how to handle the situation with the dogs (mostly Sampson) and the new puppy.  Besides asking for your thoughts, I reached out to a fellow blogger experienced in fostering and introducing new dogs.  I will write more about this in my Follow-Up Friday post, but I will tell you we are managing with crates and gates. 🙂

Back before Delilah joined our pack, Hubby, Sampson and I hiked together every weekend.  One of our favorite spots was the local reservoir.  You may remember I posted some beautiful foliage pictures from it back in October.

Our local reservoir.

Our local reservoir.

 

To take the dog’s minds off the puppy invading their territory, Hubby and I decided to take them to the reservoir as there are some really nice hiking trails over there.

I had Delilah on the long leash to start, as the reservoir is bordered on the front side by a very busy road.  There are also some houses along one side and I wanted to make sure we were past a trouble spot before I turned her loose.

Delilah hadn’t been down to this spot in years so she was pulling me like crazy.  Once we reached the spot where we had to cross a stream I knew it was time to let her off.

I didn't feel like starting the walk with a dip in the water.

I didn’t feel like starting the walk with a dip in the water.

 

The pond was off to our left and it was protected by some downed trees and some shrubs, I didn’t think she could manage to get in although as soon as she SAW the pond she did try.  Hubby and I kept walking though and called her to us and she came a running.

Back when it was just the three of us, I managed to snag one of my favorite pictures of Sampson.  He had run ahead of us on the trail and when we rounded the corner, there he was.

One of my favorite photos of Sampson.

Already posing.

 

We kept our eyes peeled for the rock and thought we’d stage a little reenactment.

Delilah wasn't quite as comfortable posing on the rock as Sampson was.

Delilah wasn’t quite as comfortable posing on the rock as Sampson was.

 

There was a tree that had fallen across the path, it had two branches that were about 1 1/2 to 2 feet high and about 3 to 5 feet apart.

The dogs were running ahead and my jaw dropped as Delilah cleared the tree.  Notice that Sampson jumps, landing between the two branches but Delilah doesn’t.

We hiked in about twenty minutes or so before turning around.

The dogs were having a blast, at one point they found a small puddle and got their zoomies on, so they were both muddy.

Delilah was off-leash for almost the entire walk, she ran back and was treated so often, that I ran out of treats.

I was leery about the pond on the way out, I knew she wanted in, so as soon as it came into my sight, I leashed her up.  Truthfully she probably could have stayed off-leash for a couple of minutes longer, but I wanted to err on the side of caution.

I forgot about crossing the stream though, as soon as I unclipped her….she found her way into the pond

She’s a Lab, through and through.

Home For the Holidays

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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.

 

Un-Co-Hosted Follow-Up Friday

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Welcome to Un-Co-Hosted Follow-Up Friday, the blog hop that let’s you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

 

Do you hate blog hops?  If your answer is no, then why won’t you sign up to co-host with me?

It’s not that hard, I promise.  I think I’ve actually learned enough to help you through it too!

The New Normal – Author’s Note

Well here we are a week later, there’s been lots of talk about how to prevent something like Newtown from ever happening again.

I realize a lot of people are speaking out of fear and anger and rightly so.

My personal belief is that outlawing certain weapons will not be enough to prevent a tragedy like this from occurring again.

We need some frank and honest discussions about what’s wrong in our society and take measures to fix it, starting with mental health care…society’s glorification of violence…the media’s thirst for the dirtiest little details…the adulation of athletes that are criminals…

I won’t apologize for my opinion, but I will climb down from my soapbox. 🙂

‘Ello Fred – Update

Fred has adjusted wonderfully to his new home.  His older brother Ollie is getting used to having a small, spry one in the family. He has begun chasing and playing with him and even grooms him on occasion.

And yes, my son-in-law has picked him up. 🙂

The Gift Every Dog Walker Needs For Christmas – Author’s Note

For those of you who said you were getting one of these lights, please come back and let me know what you think about them.

I did discover that they aren’t super fantastic in the fog, but then I haven’t really found ANY light that’s super fantastic in the fog. 🙂

Mental Stimulation is a Good Thing – Author’s Note

As you may have noticed Delilah loves using her brain.  You can see her trying to figure out what Ariane wants in the video I posted yesterday.  When we come home from tricks class, she is just as tired as if we’d taken a long walk.

I like to exercise my mind and body and I like to think my dogs do as well.

Can You Spare a Stamp? – Author’s Note

I just wanted to let you all know that I did indeed verify the truth of the story of Dalton Dingus before I put his address out there.

I learned my lesson from one of my WTF posts, when I didn’t have quite the whole story. 🙂

And just because I love this picture:

Yes, that's Delilah with a toy pig in her mouth. It cracks me up.

Yes, that’s Delilah with a toy pig in her mouth. It cracks me up.


 

That’s it for this edition of Follow-Up Friday


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