The New Boss Isn't Going to Like That...

No, no, no, you can't take it from that angle!

Ever have one of those days when because you are (tired, stressed, busy, etc.), you start playing "boss" with your dogs.  Yeah, me too.  Those times when your dogs normal, everyday behaviors suddenly seem so obscure and unreasonable because you are so (tired, stressed, busy, etc.) and you begin an instant overhaul of these seemingly out of control behaviors.

Been there.  Done that.

 That's not right either!

Like this morning, after staying up late catching up on blogs, Blaze woke me by scratching my face because Daddy started walks early this morning.  It was bad enough having claws scraping down my cheek in a dead sleep, but the fact that the dogs were in a manic stage of excitement with walk time happening meant I wasn't getting back to sleep ever again.

So there I was in the midst of this pre-walk madness, after being awoken by the grace of Blaze's paw, and have I mentioned that mornings are my worst time of the day?  Suddenly the reasonable doesn't look so reasonable any more.  What are normal and justifiable dog behaviors suddenly make no sense at all.  Like the low man on the totem pole asking for the supervisor's position.  And my thoughts start going like this:  WHAT?!?  You want to go outside??  When I'm sitting down??  Are you crazy!  What do you think this is, the country club?? 

 Why are you doing it like that??

In no time my thoughts escalate into that of a new manager with a whole new set of rules who took over for the old boss that everyone loved for years.

You can't do that!   That's not following the rules!  I don't care that you used to be able to do that before, you can't do it now!  Who gave you permission to bark like that!  You are all getting written up!  No, you don't get treats for your howling sessions!  Do I look like charity??  From now on choir practice is after hours.  I'm in charge now, the old rules don't apply anymore!

When I finally began to wake up, I was able to fire the new boss and resume my old position.  WHEW!!  (Always good when the original manager comes back and realizes her mistake for leaving in the first place.  :)

Ahhh...so much better.  Glad you're back!

Yeah, some days it is like that when I'm too (tired, stressed, busy, etc).  Thank goodness it all stays in my head.  BOL!!

Ever have those, "I'm taking over moments??"   

Barking Fairly

My dogs are equal opportunist.  They do not judge nor play favorites.  They treat everyone the same.  Anyone who passes by or comes to our house is barked at equally.  No special treatment here.  How's that for playing fair?  

Trash Talking Daddy

I am entering my 3rd month of walking the 24 Paws of Love every other day.  We have notice as the snow has been melting that the trash has been growing.  I was talking to the dogs while we were walking and we all agreed we had to do something about it.

So today, Brut and I decided to start cleaning up as we walked together.  Of all the dogs Brut is the one who has to stop the most because he has to mark everything he can.  Most of the time he would do his marking while I was picking up trash.  Everything from paper cups, empty pop bottles, beer cans etc.  It went really well.  Although Brut wondered why I was going off our path in a different direction to pick up something, until he realized he had a fresh place to mark.  We filled our one and only bag in the first half of our walk.  So I decided Zappa would have to pick up where his dad left off.  After my testing out trash collecting with Brut, I was beginning to learn this is going to take a lot of practice.  Since I was the one who was picking up everything and training the dogs isn't my forte.

Zappa and I followed the same path that his dad took and when I walk him, he sweeps back and forth from left to right, throwing in a zip to the left and then to the right.  Which is really a good way to pick up trash, you can cover more ground.  It was obvious where Brut and I left off on our trash collection and it took Zappa by surprise when I went off our path to pick up a paper plate.  He didn't say anything but just enjoyed the detour for some extra sniffing. 

We even walked across the street so Zappa could see the horses that live on the corner.  The horses just looked at Zappa and Zappa looked at them, without barking.  I have a strong feeling that the horses knew what we were doing and it made them happy to know someone was finally cleaning up the neighborhood.

Picking up trash is hard work.  Halfway through Zappa decided he needed to take a break and a good back scratch.  Right then and there.  He just rolled over on his back and wiggled his little heart out but then it was back to business.  We had a neighborhood to clean up!

Zappa and I had a few tug of wars with each other.  He wanting to go sniffing one way, while I needed to go the other way to pick up another water bottle.  We got tangled a few times around trees and around each other, but all and all we got as much as we could into our bag.  Zappa felt good because he got a longer walk out of it and I was happy to have picked up two bags of trash for the day.

I decided I had a good start on our trash collection and that I would break it up between the rest of the dogs on our other walking days.  I will have Silver and Fiona do trash duty the next time we walk and Blaze and Chance will do it the time after them.  So that I and the 24 Paws of Love will be able to pick up our path three times a week.

On a more serious note, I'm wondering how long is it going to take to train the dogs to pick up the trash instead of me doing it?  I guess I will find out soon enough!!  :) 

Zappa...SPEAK!

Zappa is the loudest and mouthiest dog of all the dogs and is never afraid to use his voice for what he wants.  His whiny, sharp bark could shatter eardrums.  He is vocal and persistent when he feels the need to come in or out and drives me crazy all day long.  He barks throwing his head to and fro demanding my attention with his sassy voice and attitude.  The only exception is when we ask him to "SPEAK"...then he is amazingly speechless.

It is snack/TV time at the 24 Paws of Love and Zappa is asked to SPEAK for his treat.