Heart Like a Dog

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

You Make Me Smile – August 23, 2015

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You make me smile (or laugh)-the sweet, funny, loving things my dogs do on a daily basis, that brings a smile to my face or a laugh to my lips.

Sampson and Delilah, the way you stalk Ollie and his food, hoping to be able to clean out his bowl…

Labrador Retrievers

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You make me smile.

Here’s the story. One of my daughters went on vacation so she brought her cat, Ollie to stay with “Grandma.”

The challenge now becomes how to keep the litter box and Ollie’s food away from the dogs.

We put the litter box in the corner and stuck a clothes rack in front of it. (I caught Delilah trying to shove her head between the racks.)

The food went into the kitchen. We put a rug sample in front of the door and held it in place with a chair.

Sadly, the best picture is the one I missed. It was Delilah trying to climb through the bottom half of the chair to get into the kitchen.

Do you have cats and dogs? How do you keep the dogs from eating the cat’s food and um..other stuff?

8 Photos of Happiness – Barks and Bytes

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I’ve been tagged by three different people to participate in the 8 Photos of Happiness project hosted by Ariel’s Little Corner of the Internet.

Rules and explanation for participation:

  • Thank your nominator/s and link them in your post.
  • Link to the creator (Ariel’s little corner of the internet)
  • Post your 8 photos of happiness;
  • The photos can be anything that represents a moment, object, place or feeling that makes you happy.
  • Pop in a brief description of the photo, why you chose it or let the photos do the talking!
  • Spread the happiness and tag up to ten other bloggers!

Now before we get to the photos, let me give thanks and pay homage to the peeps who nominated us. Paved by Pawprints, Clowie’s Corner, and My Brown Newfies.

I spent almost an entire day going through photos. You can probably find some (if not most of them) somewhere on this blog, but I like the idea of having my favorites all in one place.  Some of them are pictures of the dogs being happy, while others have deeper meaning for me.

Chocolate Lab with eye mask

Who doesn’t love a dog in an eye mask?

This photo makes me happy because it screams to me of trust. Delilah was pretty aloof when she first came to us, and the fact she not only let me put the eye mask on her, but she kept it on while I took the photo and then stayed in the room with it on for a few minutes…it showed me we were doing something right.

Muddy Golden Lab

A muddy dog is a happy dog.

I love this photo of Sampson. There is a muddy little brook that runs along one side of the field where we walk. In his younger days, Sampson would run back and forth in the brook, submerging his face, then he would roll around in the field. Just watching him was a joy to behold. In fact, you can see a video of it on my Youtube channel HERE, if you’re interested.

Water fetch with chocolate lab

She looks so serene and peaceful in the water.

Delilah loves to swim. Besides food, I’m not sure there is anything that brings her greater joy. She’s not a big fan of fetch on land, but throw a toy into the water for her, and she dives right in. Again, and again and again.

Off leash walks

Once upon a time our walks were relaxing.

I love walking and I love walking with the dogs. This was before a million other people started walking their dogs at the park and before Delilah started taking off on me. Looking back on this I remember how much joy we all got from our walks.

What lies ahead

I don’t know dad, seems to me it’d be better to use the bridge.

Speaking of walking, before Delilah joined our pack Hubby, Sampson and I used to walk every weekend. This is one of my favorites, as Hubby and Sampson contemplate the path ahead of us. This one is also bittersweet, because it reminds me of a time when I wasn’t alone in caring for the dogs.

Ocean swimming

Sampson’s not much of a swimmer, so I held him.

This picture was taken when the entire family went to Florida for our daughter’s wedding. Hubby and I stayed the week after the wedding to enjoy some R&R. One day we rented a boat and went out in Tampa Bay. We found this little cove where the water was clear and calm and we could get out and swim. You can tell by my smile how happy I was.

the joy of a dog with a bone

You can see how happy and relaxed she is. It took a long while, but we made it!

It took a while, but Delilah really started to relax and let her fun personality shine through. In this photo she rolls around on her back with a bone in her mouth. This dog who was so aloof with people and barely wanted to be touched, is offering her belly up for a rub. Another reminder to me of how far she’s come.

Smiling Dogs

That’s a grin if I ever saw one!

Last but not least. I love when a dog smiles. Some people will tell you that dogs don’t smile. Show them this picture because there’s no mistaking that grin.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this exercise as much as I have. Now I’m supposed to nominate a bunch of others to participate as well. I hate that part of these challenges because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, SO I’m nominating all of you who haven’t done this yet!

It’s a fun thing to do and don’t you want to have all of your favorite photos in one place?

Well don’t wait, get cracking!

Heart Like a Dog

This is the Thursday Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog and 2 Brown Dawgs. Grab the badge and the linky code and join us!

Please only link up blog posts and as a courtesy to the other hoppers, please add the linky to you post and/or link back to the hosts’ blogs.



It’s Been a Three Dog House

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First things first!! Congratulations to our Omegease winners!! Dawn from NEPA Pets, Jo-Ann from Sand Spring Chesapeakes, Monika from Tails Around the Ranch, Tenacious Little Terrier and Rochelle Epstein!  You all should have e-mails from Steven from Finest for Dogs. He will help you with getting your free bottle of Omegease.  AND PLEASE, let me know how your pup is doing once you get started!

It’s Been a Three Dog House

Sunday I posted a photo of our daughter’s dog, Beau in my You Make Me Smile feature. Our daughter and Beau stayed with us this past week.   I admit I was nervous about Beau coming as the last time he was here, when he was just a puppy, the dogs hated him.

We started it out slowly. The first time Beau came over, he was outside in the yard, while Sampson and Delilah were inside. They never saw each other, in fact, I’m not sure if any of them knew the other(s) were there.

The second time Beau came over was when Delilah saw him through the glass door, but was really cool about it.

The next time Beau was over both Sampson and Delilah watched him from the little balcony. Our daughter took him out of the car, walked him up and down the street, put him back in the car and the dogs simply stayed and watched. (Which was amazing in itself, since they feel it’s their duty to let any dog on the street know that they are in fact, watching it.)

Then came the big day. We asked our daughter to meet us up at the park. Delilah and I started walking in, while Hubby and our daughter let Sampson and Beau get reacquainted.  Delilah and I slowed so our daughter and Beau could walk with us. Side by side we walked into the park.

You snort a lot. Did anyone ever tell you that?

You snort a lot. Did anyone ever tell you that?

When we got to the field, we let the dogs leashes drop and let them explore and run around. Beau was interested in Sampson and Delilah, but neither one of them was interested in Beau.

After a few minutes we headed back to the house and Beau came inside with us.

Bulldog and Rubber Chicken

Beau found the toy box and promptly fell in love with the rubber chicken.

Delilah wasn't thrilled and climbed right into Daddy's lap for comfort.

Delilah wasn’t thrilled and climbed right into Daddy’s lap for comfort.

Sampson just went downstairs to hang with Grandma.

We told our daughter, the only thing we will ask is you remove Beau from the room when we feed the dogs, because Delilah can be possessive of her food, and we weren’t really sure how she’d react with another dog close by.

Here’s how that first day went:

Beau kept approaching Sampson and Delilah, but neither of them wanted anything to do with him. After Sampson went downstairs Delilah and I went into our room, put a little music on and chilled.

Beau ventured into our room. Delilah growled and let him know, this was our safe place. I got up and escorted him out.

After a while Delilah got up and went out into the living room.

The next thing I heard was a whole lot of barking/growling/snarking, then some yelling.  Then I heard Hubby say, “Come here pretty” and he led Delilah into the room.

She wasn’t shaken up per say, but she was happy to climb on the bed with me and get some loving. When I touched her neck it was soaking wet and I was afraid to pull my hand away because I was afraid it would be blood.

I was never more happy to have a drool covered hand in my life.

I wasn’t in the room so I can only relay what was told to me. And depending upon who you speak with, will depend upon which dog was at fault.

They both however agreed upon this. Our daughter sat down to eat her food and Delilah of course was glued to her side at the table. Beau came up behind Delilah, presumably to get some food (our daughter feeds him bits from her meal) and Delilah went after him.

Whether it was because Delilah was letting him know who was top dog when it came to food or whether it was because he came up behind her (which she absolutely hates) I really don’t know. All I know is dogs snarky at each other is pretty loud and scary. Thankfully neither of them was injured. (Although my daughter did say she found what appeared to be a bite mark behind Beau’s ear a few days later. He had however just spent a month with a rambunctious little Newfoundland puppy (can you really call a Newfie ‘little”?) so I’m guessing he could have had some marks from that.)

For the most part, that is the worst of the issues. My guys never really warmed up to him even though he did keep trying. There were also a couple of times when Sampson snarled at him because he came near him, but mostly my guys did their very best to avoid him at all costs.

Our daughter moved to her own place yesterday and I’m not sure how Beau did, but I can tell you Sampson and Delilah were quite happy.

Golden Lab with Toy

There was some of this going on.

And a whole lot of squeaking of this guy going on.

And a whole lot of squeaking of this guy.

How do your dogs do when other people visit with their dogs?

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