I received a Notice of Complaint today. It came from the law firm of Dewey, Barkum, and Howe and notifies me that a complaint of animal neglect and criminal deprivation has been lodged against me. The plaintiffs in this action are identified as “The House Dogs”.
I suspect this has something to do with the recent cookie conundrum.
Julian was neutered on Friday.
Blondie Bear; in her sweet, misguided way, says he was nuttered: which is still correct if you think about it.
That first afternoon he was pretty sore and walked around stiff-legged on the back end.
He had a good nap that afternoon and was feeling better that evening. But he started licking at his incision. This has to be discouraged because keeping the incision wet promotes bacterial growth, which quickly becomes an infection. Since he’s due to transport out next Friday we really do not want that.
Shiloh is a good kid and I liked her right off. So when HairyFace decided to start house-training her after being here only a couple of weeks, I gave my approval. As long as he teaches her that inside play is NOT the same as outside play. She likes to sprint and tussle with Julian and Josephine out in the yard. That won’t fly in MY house! But Hairy knows that.
She was eager to get started and often hung out by the back door hoping to be invited inside.
As usual he started house-training by bringing her in and straight into a wire crate.
Blondie Bear has been feeling poorly for the past few months: she has the itchies real bad. She’s gone to see Dr. Sandra a couple of times. Dr. Sandra gave HairyFace some medicine for Blondie: that helped the itchies but made her sleepy. Now that the problem is clearing up and Blondie isn’t spending all her time either scratching or sleeping, she is getting to be her spunky self again. And that means she can be trouble for me sometimes.
Josie Bean has taken it in her mind that if she gets me up anywhere between 2:00 am and 4:00 am and goes outside that I should give her a stick-treat. We are in the habit of giving stick-treats to good dogs who go outside after they get up so they are “safe” to let run loose in the house. But that is after We the People get up, not whenever they decide they need a snack. She’s trying to con me: and it’s not the first time.
Peoples love doors.
They have doors EVERYWHERE. But doors get in the way of us doggers. Most of the time, we cannot open these doors and must “request” assistance from the Peoples if we are to pass through. So we learn signals to alert the Peoples of our need.
I bark. Just once. Loud and sharp. Blondie Bear scratches on the metal part of the door. We teach these signals to our paduan learner foster dogs, they choose which they prefer. Or … come up with something of their own. Many start out with sitting on the porch staring at the door, willing it to open.
That doesn’t work.
One of the things I do as part of House Dog training with our foster dogs is to teach them to control their food frenzy. The first step is done in the Kibble Treasury.
If the dog gets grabby or goes bucket diving, they get evicted and I’ll dish up kibble behind a closed door for a couple of days. If they can reign in those urges, they get a sample. When they master this, they get a special job to do.
Sometimes he gets dual inspectors:
We feed foster dogs in their crate at first. As they learn to control themselves (so they won’t be shoving the others out of their bowls) they get to eat on a blanket outside of their crate, and eventually on their blanket around the dining table with Cochise, Blondie, and (now) Josephine.
They also learn to get chewies as a group activity. Any growlies or grabbies and it’s back to their “room”.
Food training also includes lessons about NOT standing up to cruise the kitchen counters or the dining room table. Four on the floor, sit on your blanket at the table and wait to be served, and no grabbing anyone else’s food if they are slower than you. When they master those lessons, they get their gold star in food etiquette.
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On Sunday I noticed Cochise shaking his head and scratching at his ears. I checked him out and found some gunk inside, which I removed with Q-tips. I made a note to stop into Tractor Supply and get some ear mite medication, just in case.
This morning I checked him again and found both ears swollen and hot. I decided to put a call in to Doctor Sandra and make an appointment: I assumed he’d scratched at his ears enough to cause an infection.
Before I could do that, during the morning poop patrol, I found what I believe to be the true source of his discomfort: a yellow jacket nest in the play yard.
Marie and I discourage the dogs from begging when we all gather to eat a meal. We do that by not hand feeding them scraps from the table. They get their kibbles in their bowls set on their blankets arranged around the table. If we share some of what we’re eating, we put their portion in their bowls.
Today I was engaging in a working lunch at my desk: a warmed up piece of left-over pizza from the weekend. Josie the big-eyed beagle thought that smelled pretty good. All the dogs like “pizza bones”.
Well … just ONCE won’t hurt, right?
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Marie and I are a foster home for dogs. We often develop attachments to our charges (the dogs) and have to fight back tears as we send them off to new homes. Some are harder than others, but we’ve learned to deal with that. Well, mostly.
Josephine was especially hard, in part because she is still so timid. She’s come a long ways from the terrified creature we took out of the shelter so she could find some peace and so we could work on her fear of people.
She had a health issue too, which we addressed with our veterinarian. When her treatment was complete and she had settled down to where she could meet new people, we began soliciting for a forever home for her.
