Casualties of Exercise

Murphy and I are working out our differences regarding who should be running the household. It looks like I am the favored one, today. Part of keeping my rank hinges on practicing what we learned in obedience training and going for walks every day. Sunday's walk was an adventure.

Each day's walk follows a similar variety of paths. We might go the opposite direction or change it up by walking down one street or another. One thing I noticed is, that there is one street where this dog is always trying to get through the gate to attack my dog. He never makes it through so I figured it's ok to walk down that street. Sunday, apparently the dog was in the garage. The one with the door opened wide enough for an unleashed dog to run out into the street. Right towards my dog who happened to be on a leash. He started getting viscious with my leashed dog. The owner saw it happening and did nothing to capture his dog. I was getting so frustrated and pissed. Trying to pull my dog away and this dog would not leave!

I didn't know I had it in me, but I knew I had to do something to protect my dog. I channelled my inner-momma-bear and I growled at that dog and yelled at that dog. And he listened! He actually ran away! When I think about how he could have attacked me instead, I realize, it was maybe not the smartest thing to do, but I had to do something. And still, the owner did not come out an apologize. The neighbor came out and said that was the 3rd time that week that this dog had been loose and he was going to contact the city. My adrenaline was pumping so hard the rest of the way home.

It's not You, it's Me...

The dog trainer told me what I suspected. I have a challenge on my hands. Mr Murphy is not satisfied with my leadership skills and thinks that it's his turn to be in charge. So I have to work on obedience extra hard and limit his access to certain rooms in the house. She also suggested crating him during the day. From experience, I know that this will be a tough road to go down with him. He has a strong, negative reaction to being locked in a crate. I don't know how that's going to go, but I have to trust that the trainer is right. He's sleeping like a little angel at my side right now...

The Return of "Murphy the Menace

I know this doesn't look like the face of a troublemaker, but the last few days have been an exercise in patience for me.

Thursday night, I get home from visiting with some friends. It's kind of late, so I get ready for bed, give the dog a little love and climb into bed. Wait--- I feel something wet. The dog has pee'd on the spot where I sleep. Ugghhh. Gross! This happened once, right after he arrived. I hired an obedience trainer to help train me to be the dominant one. Apparently this behavior is a challenge of alpha position. So I wash everything and go to bed, with thoughts that the next day we will do some obedience work together. I leave him outside when I get home from work. I go to let him in and he is nowhere to be found. I call him and hear his tags jangling way off in the distance. He comes slinking through the side yard completely covered in dirt. He dug his way under the gate to (?) go find some way to break into the house (?). Then he gets a bath, then a walk. Then he pees on the bed again. I called the trainer again today. I'm on the right track, but I now have to limit his access to the rest of the house for a few days while I try to break him of this new 'habit'. Oy. Remind me again why I am a dog-person?

Must be Dinnertime

Even Myriah is circling the pantry waiting for dinner time. You'd swear I didn't feed them twice a day! I love feeding time. It's those moments of the day where I get to bond with my furry friends, make sure they are ok, and administer medicine and whatnot.

You may have noticed that all my little friends are of the black & white variety. I must confess that I did not plan it that way. Each of these guys came to me through other people. Sometime, I will tell the story of them all. Right now, enjoy a picture.

Woof!

Thanks for checking out my new blog. I decided to start posting here because I felt like everytime I wanted to post to my other blog, there was some element to it that was centered around one of my pets. By the title of the blog, you can infer that I love my pets a lot and have lots of stories that amuse me to no end. You may not feel the same way. After all, I spend a lot more time with them and know all their idiosynchracies. So rather than inundate my Knitting blog with dog stories, I figured the best solution was to start another blog. So here it is. I hope you will enjoy it.