Anyone who has ever trained a dog knows that dogs don't always learn what we think we are teaching:
My dogs spend a lot of time under the bird feeders I fill year round. They compete for fallen seed with the mourning doves, the juncos and each other. The feeders attract a lot of birds and unfortunately a few of them fly into windows when the light fools them into thinking the glass is sky. When I see or hear a collision I try to revive the dazed bird by cupping it in my warm hands until it recovers.
Not long ago, my border collie, Keeper, and I heard a bird smack against a window and drop onto our front porch. I was indoors. Keeper was under the feeders just below the porch. She decided to investigate at the same time I was heading out the door to see what I could do for the poor bird. When I opened the door, I saw Keeper standing over a little house finch, lowering her open mouth toward the stunned bird like a candle snuffer about to put out a flame. A fraction of a second before the finch was snuffed I squawked that EHH! sound that every dog knows means DON'T YOU DARE! A startled Keeper backed away and I was able to rescue the finch.
I was quite proud of myself for simultaneously saving the bird and teaching Keeper to leave such poor creatures alone. Until the next time a bird hit the window... Keeper was on it like a shot. The unfortunate bird was half down her throat before I was half out the door.
What Keeper learned - and has since taught two of our other dogs - was not to stay away from stricken birds but to beat me to them.
Dogs have a way of keeping you humble. CG
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sorry for the long absence...
To anyone who took an interest in this blog when it first appeared 4 months ago, my apologies. Responsibilities rained down on me this wet summer and I ended up with little time or energy to write. There is now a summer's worth of blogging to make up for. I hope you will help me out by sending your own stories or comments. Thanks for your patience. CG
Sunday, May 24, 2009
WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME
Originally the title of this post was going to be "Gardening with Puppies". It has been made clear to me, however, that you really shouldn't even bother to try.
The first bit of gardening I attempted this spring with Suki on hand was some simple weeding. Turns out nothing about weeding is simple with Suki on hand. As soon as I knelt down next to the perennials and started pulling weeds, Suki vaulted into the flower bed and planted herself squarely between me and the weeds. At first all I could see was the back of her head as she peered closely at what my hand was doing. Then I noticed that her feet were standing on the plant I was trying to weed around. It was at this point I discovered that she had no idea what "No, no, go away!" means.
Next I discovered that Suki really enjoys helping dig the holes that newly purchased shrubs will go into. That may sound genuinely helpful. Unfortunately, she enjoys digging the holes both before and after the shrub has been planted. I planted two lilacs and two blueberry bushes one afternoon and the next morning had to put the dirt back around the exposed roots of all four plants. I spent part of the morning putting temporary fences around each shrub to keep her from "helping" again.
There is one useful thing I have to give her credit for. Every now and then when she grabs the hose I am dragging across the yard, she accidentally pulls it the same direction I am going in.
There are other ways in which dogs make gardening challenging. You can't use slug bait, for instance. After my little dog Eubie followed me around snuffling up bait as soon as I put down, I figured I'd better check the label. In tiny, easily overlooked print there was a warning that the bait was highly attractive and highly toxic to dogs! Who would market something for use in your yard that was both enticing and poisonous? Cruella DeVille?
But, hey, if gardening with dogs around can be a little frustrating, it can be sweet sometimes, too. You can do things like make your puppy run in circles, snapping at a stream of water shooting from a garden hose. You can chose to laugh when she runs off with your gardening gloves for the forty seventh time. Or you can stop weeding at the end of the day and watch the red light of the low evening sun make a halo of her hair.
And the next morning refill the holes she made when she wasn't wearing her halo.
The first bit of gardening I attempted this spring with Suki on hand was some simple weeding. Turns out nothing about weeding is simple with Suki on hand. As soon as I knelt down next to the perennials and started pulling weeds, Suki vaulted into the flower bed and planted herself squarely between me and the weeds. At first all I could see was the back of her head as she peered closely at what my hand was doing. Then I noticed that her feet were standing on the plant I was trying to weed around. It was at this point I discovered that she had no idea what "No, no, go away!" means.
Next I discovered that Suki really enjoys helping dig the holes that newly purchased shrubs will go into. That may sound genuinely helpful. Unfortunately, she enjoys digging the holes both before and after the shrub has been planted. I planted two lilacs and two blueberry bushes one afternoon and the next morning had to put the dirt back around the exposed roots of all four plants. I spent part of the morning putting temporary fences around each shrub to keep her from "helping" again.
There is one useful thing I have to give her credit for. Every now and then when she grabs the hose I am dragging across the yard, she accidentally pulls it the same direction I am going in.
There are other ways in which dogs make gardening challenging. You can't use slug bait, for instance. After my little dog Eubie followed me around snuffling up bait as soon as I put down, I figured I'd better check the label. In tiny, easily overlooked print there was a warning that the bait was highly attractive and highly toxic to dogs! Who would market something for use in your yard that was both enticing and poisonous? Cruella DeVille?
But, hey, if gardening with dogs around can be a little frustrating, it can be sweet sometimes, too. You can do things like make your puppy run in circles, snapping at a stream of water shooting from a garden hose. You can chose to laugh when she runs off with your gardening gloves for the forty seventh time. Or you can stop weeding at the end of the day and watch the red light of the low evening sun make a halo of her hair.
And the next morning refill the holes she made when she wasn't wearing her halo.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
How to Make a Dog Vomit
You gotta love the internet. You can google "how to make a dog vomit" and instantly access dozens of references on how to get your dog to hurl. This is handy when you have been invited by friends to bring your puppy and join them for dinner at their home. It works particularly well when a laptop already lies open and connected on their kitchen table. Let me demonstrate:
My husband Charlie and I were invited for dinner by our friends Lynne and Bill. They had been charmed by our puppy, Suki, the day after she came to live with us, so she was invited to dinner, too. While Bill prepared vegetarian chili, Charlie and I enjoyed hors d'oeuvres and Lynne plied Suki with oodles of doggie biscuits. When our dinner was nearly ready - Suki had had hers before we left home - Charlie took Suki outside to do whatever she might need to do. Within a minute or two he was shouting for me to come quick.
Because it was dark out, he wasn't certain, but he thought Suki had wolfed down a dead mouse. He was pretty sure he had seen a mouse's tail disappearing into her mouth. Puppies hoover up everything, so a dead mouse was no surprise. But it became a concern when Bill suggested that it might have been a mouse poisoned by bait used in their basement.
To be on the safe side, we agreed that we'd best make the puppy throw up. I vaguely remembered something to do with hydrogen peroxide and suggested Lynne google "how to make a dog vomit". Bingo. One to two teaspoons hydrogen peroxide by mouth. Wait five minutes. Stand back.
After Lynne found an old bottle of hydrogen peroxide there was a brief debate about whether the dose should be upped because the stuff didn't have much fizz left and whether or not the relative fizziness mattered. Anyway, as I squirted two teaspoons into Suki I was grateful that the five minute interval meant she wasn't likely to connect effect to cause.
Outside we all went to await the outcome. Which, after five minutes, was nothing. Back inside we went to consult the computer for plan B. Of course, while Lynne was at the laptop, Suki, in the dining room, started to heave. As I tried to get her outside, Lynne said not to worry, so the four of us stood by, murmuring encouragingly, as Suki brought up every biscuit, the whole of her dinner and, at last, a damp leaf whose long stem could easily pass in the dark for the tail of a poisoned mouse. Suki looked not at all comforted by the rarity of four adult human beings hovering around telling her what a very very good girl she was for losing her cookies all over the dining room floor.
Bill's chili, by the way, was fabulous.
My husband Charlie and I were invited for dinner by our friends Lynne and Bill. They had been charmed by our puppy, Suki, the day after she came to live with us, so she was invited to dinner, too. While Bill prepared vegetarian chili, Charlie and I enjoyed hors d'oeuvres and Lynne plied Suki with oodles of doggie biscuits. When our dinner was nearly ready - Suki had had hers before we left home - Charlie took Suki outside to do whatever she might need to do. Within a minute or two he was shouting for me to come quick.
Because it was dark out, he wasn't certain, but he thought Suki had wolfed down a dead mouse. He was pretty sure he had seen a mouse's tail disappearing into her mouth. Puppies hoover up everything, so a dead mouse was no surprise. But it became a concern when Bill suggested that it might have been a mouse poisoned by bait used in their basement.
To be on the safe side, we agreed that we'd best make the puppy throw up. I vaguely remembered something to do with hydrogen peroxide and suggested Lynne google "how to make a dog vomit". Bingo. One to two teaspoons hydrogen peroxide by mouth. Wait five minutes. Stand back.
After Lynne found an old bottle of hydrogen peroxide there was a brief debate about whether the dose should be upped because the stuff didn't have much fizz left and whether or not the relative fizziness mattered. Anyway, as I squirted two teaspoons into Suki I was grateful that the five minute interval meant she wasn't likely to connect effect to cause.
Outside we all went to await the outcome. Which, after five minutes, was nothing. Back inside we went to consult the computer for plan B. Of course, while Lynne was at the laptop, Suki, in the dining room, started to heave. As I tried to get her outside, Lynne said not to worry, so the four of us stood by, murmuring encouragingly, as Suki brought up every biscuit, the whole of her dinner and, at last, a damp leaf whose long stem could easily pass in the dark for the tail of a poisoned mouse. Suki looked not at all comforted by the rarity of four adult human beings hovering around telling her what a very very good girl she was for losing her cookies all over the dining room floor.
Bill's chili, by the way, was fabulous.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Where Puppies Come From
Sometimes puppies just happen to you. They can be surprises like the sheltie mix puppy my dad snuck under my mother's radar when I was ten. They can abruptly bewitch you like a collie/husky puppy did to me one day when I walked into a pet shop just to buy cat toys. (He turned out to be the best $5.00 investment I ever made.) They can take advantage of your hospitable heart by dropping one by one - all thirteen of them - onto the kitchen floor of a Brooklyn apartment because you were - ok, I was - foolish enough to take in their woebegone, stray and very pregnant mother. Sometimes they are found after a search of shelters when you are lonely in a strange city. Sometimes they happen because you don't listen to the wee voice that tells you that the pup you've driven four hours to get is not quite right and you bring him home anyway. And sometimes they happen to you because you work part time at a border collie rescue and your boss knows before you do that this is the puppy you didn't know you were looking for...
...which is how I come to have Suki.
Suki is ostensibly an Aussie; about 16 weeks old when this photo was taken. She showed up just about the time we began preparing to launch The Home-to-Home Blog so her puppyhood is going to be shanghaied as material for blog posts. Poor girl...
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Welcome to the new Home-to-Home Blog
Home-to-Home has created this new forum for sharing some stories, insights & advice about pet ownership and adoption. Our bloggers are all long time pet owners and adopters with countless stories to illustrate the many joys and frustrations of lives lived with animals. We invite readers of the Home-to-Home Blog to submit comments, questions and stories of their own in response to our posts. Because there is always more to learn about life with the four-legged, we hope to create a helpful and engaging dialog between our bloggers and readers. So, please drop in - and join in - often. We're looking forward to hearing from you all. CG
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