Have a meeting at 6:30, so I am trying to sneak up stairs and feed the cats before the dogs know that I am gone. Good thing that I keep a curtain over their kennels so they can not see me putting on my robe and slippers and tip toeing out. Maybe today they will sleep until 7? Stranger things have happened.
Sofie when she first came to us, trying to sleep with Lulu.
I wonder sometimes what the dogs think when they run past you on the stairs. I know that to be the pack leader I am not suppose to allow them to do that, but sometimes I forget. If I was a dog I would run down the stairs because I would be really really excited to go outside and dig up the back yard and bark at passers by and… So I think that is why Sofie blows by me on the stairs more than the fact that she wants to leave me in her dust. Louise stays behind because she is afraid I might not like her. That works. Now how do I get Sofie to think I will not like her (just kidding)? I am failing at the dog leader thing. I have this ‘calm’ energy that Cesar talks about, but I guess it is too calm. I wish I could be mean and rotten. Would that do it? ‘No, don’t you dare run when I tell you to walk!’ I wish there was some secret to the dog training success but everything I read, watch, all the classes I have attended, in the end – Sofie doesn’t listen. Hummm, maybe I should call Victoria Sidwell? Or will she just tell me to build a exercise system in the yard. A tired dog IS a happy dog – but is it an obedient one? Just another dogdaz afternoon. ❤
Louise is always checking what might be coming from behind. ❤
Constance: “Look Noel, a bird.” Noel: “Really, where?”
Squash – Fall 2007
So you know that we must be out of our mind for considering adding to our herd, especially the week before xmas. But there are so many animals out there now that are so in need of homes. We just can’t seem to stop taking care of these lovely creatures who give us back 110% of everything they have. Ok, so maybe it will be interesting to add a little 8 lb dog to the pack. Is it really a dog anyway, if it is smaller than the cats? It is always a concern when you change the dynamic. In the last year we have had 4 animals leave us for the great pasture in the sky. Each one leaves a hole in our hearts that we fill back up with a new spirit. Nothing actually ever fills the hole that Squash left, but that is a whole other story. But, V really wants something little to cuddle with and has talked about a pocket dog for quite a while. We will see. Maybe next week our numbers will be up to 6. Another dogdaz evening. ❤
Cold morning in the mid-Atlantic. Lulu’s coat is not very thick. She does not even like to sit on the kitchen floor. Maybe I should look into one of those coats they make for gray hounds. Sofie on the other hand loves the outside and won’t come in from the cold. 2 dogs. 2 personalities. Another dogdaz morning. ❤
Lulu has her holiday collar on. It is a really nice one made out of ribbon. Red and white with a green ricrack pattern. Black dogs look really good in red. Sofie will get her holiday collar this year. I buy them at a crafts fair from this collar and leash making lady and then give them to my mother-in-law to give me for xmas. There is really nothing I have needed for years, so it is so much easier just to buy a few little things like this and have people give them to me. My neighbor has an assortment of collars and leashes for everyday of the year, ah, but they don’t have children so they can spare the expense. My dogs mostly wear the same collars every day, the ones with their names and my phone number on them. That way when they are wondering about unsupervised (which has only happened once) they could be returned easily. I picked that up from the horse farm when a big hurricane was coming. They painted the barn’s number on the side of the horses in case the fences went down. That makes a ton of sense to me and also I don’t have to keep moving the dog tags to different collars. Just another dogdaz morning. ❤
Noel watching Noel
Long day. Got the waving Santa and the lighted goose with babies out front and on timers. Now we look holiday-ish. Dogs weren’t much help. They sat at the front door behind the glass and created dog art while I toiled in the cold.
Sofie tried to eat the vacuum when I cleaned the house today. I don’t really understand why dogs attack vacuums, but it is really noisy machine. Maybe they see it as a huge scary monster. I am trying to make sure not to encourage the biting of the hose behavior. That would not end well for the vacuum (my Dyson Animal that does not pick up much animal hair) or for Sofie (because I would kill her).
She is doing pretty good today coming in from outside because I have been bribing her with cooked chicken. When I call her, she gets chicken. Louise really is loving this training since she already comes on command and just reaps the rewards. Let’s see how long this will keep up for the little one. All the animals are following me around like the pied piper because I have chicken in my pocket. Works for me if it gets them to pay attention.
This will be Sofie’s first Xmas (Lulu’s second) with us. I have a permanent eye hook in the wall to tether the tree (put it in years ago for the kittens, cats and also the blind dog) just in case someone wants to climb it. I am worried about the lower ornaments this year but we will have to be vigilant. Haven’t even gotten to the tree place yet, so maybe I can buy a few more days of no worry. I was trying to talk the family out of having a tree, but not winning that one.
I do actually love all the lights and stuff, it is just such a run to the finish line. Well, just another dogdaz ❤
So, if you have 2 dogs and one has, like these incredible chewing jaws, and the other is just a slow gnawing thing, and you give them 2 rawhide bones, what do you think will happen?
You really realize how important it is for your dog to listen to you when it is pouring down rain and you want to go to bed. A few months ago they would go out in the back, do their business, and come right back to the door and go nite nite. And, Lulu still does that. But Sofie gets lost somewhere under the pines, or in a hole, and meanders all over the place, never to return. It is useless to call her name because she could not care less. So, on go the crocks, out comes the umbrella, and the bag of cooked chicken, and into the elements, and the raging mud rivers, in the back yard, to try and get the silly dog in. Oh my! One would think that I would know better then to let her out on a night like this verses take her out on a lead. Will I ever learn?
