Charles loves Louise. If she sniffs something, he sniffs it. If she pees on it, he has to pee on it. He follows her so closely sometimes that it bothers me, because he fits perfectly under her torso which freaks her out, and because he doesn’t move when she is peeing, which grosses me out.
Something very interesting must have come down the center of the road last night and since the dogs’ smellers are 25X more powerful than mine, they know what it is, but I sure don’t. Sofie is usually my street sniffer and mostly it is right in the center. Sometimes I have to pull her to the side so she doesn’t get run over by a car. The only thing I can think of is that it must be the foxes who walk down the center ridge (I don’t know why) and maybe they pee as they go.
With 3 dogs, it is very easy to run out of hands or feel like you are on a medieval rack when everyone wants to move along (in different directions usually) and you need to stop and pick something up (after getting a bag out of the pouch, unfolding it, and bending down… you get the picture) My answer is a CHAIN GANG (but a happy one not a bunch of prisoners). Since Mr. Charles wants to keep going and nothing stops him, I loop him onto Sofie’s lead. Then Sofie holds him back (since he is a little afraid of her) and I loop her onto Louise, who in most cases will stay when I tell her to. Louise is the heaviest and strongest of the 3 so I can keep control down the line.
Sniff and pee – Pee and sniff – What kind of mischief did you get into today?
DogDaz remembers and salutes the victims and survivors of the September 11th Terror Attack
I visited Ground Zero at the World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial while it was under construction. I am standing by the giant man-made waterfall with the names of the victims around the outside. It is very humbling and very eerie. Let the world practice peace and make war no more. – Lorian
I discovered this place where I can get nice dog and cat toys at a good discount. I actually went in to get some new drinking glasses, because too many have broken and I needed new ones (but I digress).
Knowing my charges as I do, Louise got a stuffing-less Squeaky Skunk, Sofie got a flat bat looking thing that crinkles, and Mr. Charles got a rope and ball. They were so excited and each played with their respective gifts for about 10 minutes. Then, we went outside for a while.
When we returned to the living room, Charles started doing what he does best – toy hoarding. First, he stole Sofie’s crinkle thing – she was distracted so she didn’t put up a fuss. Then he moved onto Louise’s skunk (which appears to be his new favorite). Louise was a bit unhappy, so she went over to her pillow and moped until I rescued skunk and gave it back to her.
The other dogs’ toys are always more fun. Charles ends up sitting on a pile of everyone’s toys so only he has them.
I don’t really need a weather app on my phone to tell me a thunderstorm is coming. Here at DogDaz Storm Center, we have 2 main thunder warning systems – Louise and Sofie.
In the middle of the night last Monday, some how, Louise managed to unlock her kennel, by herself, and come upstairs and start breathing on my while I slept. Then Sofie, who rarely comes on my bed, pushed me away from my pillows and hunkered down in my spot. It sounded like a freight train coming through the house and the flash and clap were immediate. Amazingly, 15 minutes later an EF2 tornado touched down on the other shore of the Chesapeake Bay on Kent Island (I’m the Western Shore and that is called the Eastern Shore). It started as a waterspout and took full tornado strength (125 mph winds) quickly. Thankfully, though there was a lot of property damage, only 1 person was slightly hurt.
Who needs all those meteorologists when you have 2 dogs that can tell you at least 2 hours before something major happens that something is going to happen? Do you really need to know more than that? Get to cover!!!!
Lucky for me, Charlies seems fine through the storms and the cats don’t show me much anxiety. These 2 big babies take enough attention for the whole Zoo.
Foot note: They are both huddled under my desk as I type this because yet another storm is passing through. This is summer on the Chesapeake Bay. Oh, my!
DogDaz friend, Jeanne Bellis, is doing outstanding work taking hard to place dogs and helping them socialize and reintegrate to new homes. Here is Part 3 of the Socializing Waylon series. Waylon, a catahoula-cattledog mix, was in a bind. His owner, a US Marine, was being deployed overseas and Waylon, a dog aggressive, fearful mess, had only one hope – Bellis Boot Camp. Follow Jeanne as she socializes Waylon with her pack. It’s amazing what patience, smarts, good training and love can do. This is the final episode of Waylon’s journey to socialization. Now he is ready for adoption. Let’s find him a new family to love.
We hope you enjoyed this little series. Do you find the “DogDaz Zoo: Loving Fearful Dogs” posts of interest? Would you like me to do more of them? Let me know in the comments. I am also glad to have guest posts on the topic. – Lorian, the Zoo Keeper
DogDaz friend, Jeanne Bellis, is doing outstanding work taking hard to place dogs and helping them socialize and reintegrate to new homes. Here is Part 2 of the Socializing Waylon series. Waylon, a catahoula-cattledog mix, was in a bind. His owner, a US Marine, was being deployed overseas and Waylon, a dog aggressive, fearful mess, had only one hope – Bellis Boot Camp. Follow Jeanne as she socializes Waylon with her pack. It’s amazing what patience, smarts, good training and love can do. This is part 2 of the series as Waylon learns how to make friends with other dogs.
At DogDaz Zoo, I try to control the amount of food that any animal eats in a day based on their size and energy level. I parse out all kibble in the morning into containers and then give a portion at each feeding, making sure that there is some left over for evening in-house play. The dogs have several toys to chose from (1) a large feeding cube (mostly used by Sofie), (2) a medium feed ball (which was too big for Charles, too little for Lulu, and Sofie doesn’t like it). So I got, (3) a little feed ball (for Charles, who can’t figure it out), (4) a big rope jug (that Louise LOVES), and (5) a spinner (currently only Sofie’s survived because Louise ate hers – bottom is rubber).
Everyone waits, impatiently, in the evening for play time. I used to wait until 8 PM or so to do this, but now they have started demanding play time earlier and earlier. Sometimes, I give in and they have playtime only 30 minutes after dinner. What’s the difference, it’s all their food anyway.
Charles gets a special treat in a puzzle bowl with some kibble, because he is either too lazy for the feed ball, or just doesn’t want to lower himself to work for it. He loves a teeny tiny Busy Bone (r) and will gobble it up as soon as he finds one under the kibble.
We have lots of food fun at the Zoo. What kind of mischief did you get into today?
DogDaz Zoo 