Walkies: Episode 2

Texas on the Porch

Having two dogs in the house, has made me extremely lazy, I will admit that. Well, I should say, having two lazy dogs in the house, as made me lazy. However, when my neighbor needed to use my computer while I was gone, I decided yesterday was as good as day as any, to take the dachshunds out on the town. So I loaded up their crate, and off we went. Let me tell you, they were NOT happy about being crated in the car, but it had to be done, if I wanted Texas to be any semblance of calm, once we arrived at our final destinations.

For Mr. Reactivity, sitting in the car, increases the likelihoods of him becoming extremely reactive, people walking around, dogs, birds, etc, will elicit an extreme reaction from him, to the point that if someone were to stick their hand in my car, they would get bitten. (If he were in there of course)

Hence the crate. I quickly discovered, that if I played music, they would quiet down, but listening to a book-on-tape, brought to mind, how much they could be missing, by not being in my lap, and the chorus of whining would resume. Needless to say, we were jamming on our way to the park. After a quick stop at a local pet store for more harnesses, (as our old ones have "mysteriously disappeared" .. Texas left the house with one on, came back a few minutes later without it. Haven't seen it since!) and another bag of dog food... and we were on our way.

Getting out of the car, took the most time, first I had to wait until they stopped whining and jumping around, then I had we practiced not lunging out of the crate as soon as the door was opened. Bubbles won, so she got out first, then we did another, longer round with Texas, until he too "got it" and sat quietly until I opened the door all the way.

Once that was accomplished, we harnessed up, watered up and prepared to start on our way.  However, the dachshunds, always on the look out for trouble, spotted some, in the form of a furry white dog, jogging with his owner.

ATTACK! DOG ALERT! INTRUDER! HE WAS LOOKING AT ME!

"Texas. Bubbles"

Huh? Wha? Treats? Cool.

I was surprised, and impressed at how quickly they redirected. All that work is worth something after all!

The park where we were, had several walking trails, most paved, but there was one that went through the woods.. perfect for my reactive dog, but to get to it, we'd have to walk around the dog park. I was mentally preparing for a fencing fighting scenario, but none came. Some of the dogs ran along side, but Texas & Bubbles ignored them.

WHY CAN'T THEY DO THIS AT HOME!?!?

We did practice sitting, as a jogger dashed by and continued on our walk. It wasn't until we were on our way back, that the ultimate trigger descended upon us, in the form of a loose dog.

Now I live in the country, so an off leash dog, isn't an huge cause for alarm in my book, I was more concerned about what Texas would do, to said dog rushing him, than I was about the dog attacking us. Turned out I was wrong to be concerned, not only did Bubbles & Texas come back to my side without even hackling, the dog in question, checked out the scene and decided that there were other things to do besides pester these little guys.

Never have I been more proud of my guys.

Seriously? A large dog rushed us, and my dogs turn to me for treats?

WHO ARE YOU GUYS AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY DOG?

Once the owners got control of their way-ward animal, we were able to walk past them, and another dog without any problem.

By this time, Bubbles was definitely winded and ready to stop. I wanted to put her up and continue with Texas, but decided to end the afternoon on a high note.

Why Yes, I think we'll do this more often!

Erin




Check out My other Blogs: Big News on Chronicles of a Puppy Walker | Life is ... going.. at Life of a College Student.

Texas Log: Not Fair

Here I am minding my own buisness, Mom and Pomps had left for some sort of music something with the Aunties and Uncles (I have like..a ton now) so I got on my twitter account, checked out my tweeps, but didn't say anything cause....I didn't have anything to say. duh.
Then I happened to stumble upon something I don't think mom meant for me to see.
It was like a ton of pictures.
Of DOGS.

LOTS and LOTS of dogs.

Apparently.....SOMEONE took SOMEONE ELSE to a PAWTY and I DIDN'T EVEN GET INVITED!
Then I saw the worst things.

PHOTOS OF OTHER DACHSHUNDS.

IS mom Cheating on us!??!

I'm just glad that it rained and thundered the whole time while they were there. Serves them right for leaving me at home.
Woof.

But I did learn a cool trick...I can hop on mom's desk from the back of couch...hehe which means if she leaves any food no there.......

hehehehehehehehehehehehe....*morphs into evil laugh.


oh.
mom said i have to say that she did take metothedogparkealiertodayandthatihadfun.
But that is NOT the point.
The point is.
I SHOULD have GONE to the PARTY!!!
So. THERE.

yea...even bubbles went this time.

checking out the pee spots

This is my "I'm-not-having-fun" face just fyi

"what long legs you have sir!" 

Randoms...March 19, 2010

I miss having four dogs.

I feel ridiculously lazy with just these three.

Bubbles and Texas probably require at MAX 30 minutes of exercise a day to be mentally satisfied, though they didn't quite a bit more…

Pompei is still young so about 20 minutes of walking, and he's out for the rest of the evening.

Over the last 6-8 months, I've been used to about two hours of hard walking, or play times just to get the house semi-calm in the evenings, and then lots of training and food toys to keep these little minds busy enough for me to relax a bit.

Yes there were some days I wished it weren't so, but for the most part I loved the work of it.

Now when my dogs are snoozing the evening away, I sometimes wonder if its because they are actually tired, or just because there is nothing else to do.

I know I know. Who cares why they are sleeping.

It's just that were constantly running nowadays, I don't feel we're getting out enough for them to be tired..though I time myself.

I am thinking about sending Pompei and/or Texas to daycare at least once a week, but have some concerns about that…1 Texas doesn't "meet and greet" really well, and two when he was with me at when I worked at doggie daycares he alternated between sleeping or "screaming at the gate"…so I don't know how well that would go over with daycare staff…

We'll see about Pompei, he could use the dog socialization and I could use the savings in gas money…


I cAnNoT wait for summer.


But in other news.

Pompei is officially legal in the shots arena.

We went to class this morning, and then wandered around that side of town for about 4 hours until our appointment time at 2:30pm. (Our vet is near my school, which is about 35 minutes away from my house) We walked around the trails on campus; (No Dogs allowed there so we were safe.) went two a couple of stores looking for house décor…Pompei were really pushing some boundaries with his sniffing today. Gotta work on that. A couple of times I literally pried his nose away from a display full of breakable items…as he wasn't budging. We got some down/stay practice in as well.

Short Shopping Blurb:
Most of my puppies have considered shopping, and extremely boring event, so I'll normally put them in a down/stay at some point in the aisle (depending on the crowd in the store) and browse at my leisure. So far no "run aways":)

Anyway after that, we got some lunch..er.. I got some lunch and went to the vets office to wait for our appt time…only about an hour and a half away. The weather was BEATIFUL, and there was a huge field next too the office, so Pompei and I got out and walked. And walked, and walked, and then sat in the sunshine, Pompei in my lap…I love this dog. For real.

We got back to the car and sat there and waited for the last 15 minutes..I think Pompei recognized where we were at this point, as he started to get antsy and wanted to leave the car. When we finally made our way into the building, his little tail went crazy in anticipation of the "love session". The receptionist comes out to "love on him" then, he'll cast loving looks and wiggles to anyone else in the lobby who succumb to his charms quickly. Then its his turn and he bounces to the scale and tries to throw himself at the vet tech, while I'm holding him in place. J

Then we move into our assigned room, where the vet tech will give him lots of hugs and kisses while the tech surreptitiously tried to take his temperature.

Any Concerns? Nope

Diarrhea cleared up? Yep!

Sneezing? Coughing? Over amounts of urination? Normal amount of water intake? Eating Good? - Nope, Nope, Nope, Noope, YESssss,

{Pompei lies in the floor facing the door, hoping for another human victim to succumb to his charms}

One question that always makes me…I don't know wonder is even though I've been there almost every three weeks they still ask if he's only Heartworm and Flea meds…somehow I was under the impression that they lasted for thirty days…

Silly Me.

Anyway the vet came in, and basically repeats the above question, and plays with Pompei…

Then its shot time!!

This time Pompei actually noticed them shots as he was uber excited to have TWO NEW PEOPLE touching him AT THE SAME TIME!

Wiggling + Shots = Puppy feeling the Pain.

So he was biting at his butt area for a few minutes after the procedure was over. Tsk tsk.

But his attention was quickly placed else were when the vet presented him with a a RAWHIDE (AH AH AAAAH sung in heavenly tones)

He was loathe to part with his new toy, as we bagged it up for the trip home.

But after a firm command from me relinquished it for a cookie.

We came home and played the afternoon away.

{Pompei being held still while his callous mother takes a photo of him}

Trained for part of our dinner, and then "worked" the other part out of our Tug-A-Jug toy..

And he's been sleeping a very tired puppy induced sleep.

Aah.

Weekend Update

This weekend we worked "overtime" taking Ben all over the place, to fundraisers, and a friends Graduation. He handled it all like a bro, not phased by screaming or yelling peoples, crowds, or the shakiness of the bleachers!

You would never know that he hadn't been doing this all his life! He's enjoying this as well!!

Today I took him to the dog bark, and he ran, and ran, and ran, and ran!!

Ben modeling an Vols Orange and tan Vest from Wilderwood Service Dogs :D

@Wilderwood Fundraiser

::He likes sitting with his legs crossed, he is at his ultimate comfort level there ;)::

10-Month-Old Corbin, is a bouviar

Ben @the Graduation Photos



::Ben and his new friend Fisher::

Ben the two of us need look no more! We've both found what we've were looking for!.....:D

Great Weekend, I'm so proud of him I could bust!!!