I Never Thought I Would Grieve Over Dog Poop...

But I did.  I was cleaning up the backyard, when I noticed a pattern in the leaf piles where the dogs do their business.  Three of the leaf piles weren't being used and these three used to be busy spots for Fiona and Zappa (Back Dogs). And there were piles that had never been used now getting some attention.



There has been a definite shift since Brut has been gone almost a year.

I have leaf piles on the outer perimeter of the yard and Brut and Silver used the back part of the yard, while Zappa and Fiona took on the ones closer to the house.  Now the Back Dog Trio, Silver, Zappa and Fiona are all taking to the back of the yard ever since our last snowfall.

And I took it pretty hard.  It was another confirmation that Brut was really gone.

Since Brut died last year at the beginning of the summer nothing much changed.  We were all in shock, but as time has past, the Back Dogs, have been finding their place without their leader and it looks like they have come to terms with their new life as three.

Another sign of the times for the 24 Paws of Love.

The Secret of the Leaf Piles

 I found the secret with my dogs about their bathroom habits a couple of years ago and it still amazes me every time I go to clean up the yard. 

After having a litter of puppies and finally being down to two, Zappa and Fiona, plus Brut and Silver, I was just grateful they were going outside that I didn't care much where they did it. I also wasn't making any special trips in the middle of a snowstorm at odd hours of the night to teach them to use a particular area of the back of the yard and so I was left with a mine field to clean up. 

I was stumped at how to retrain the dogs to use certain areas of the yard.  Especially the older dogs.  I didn't see much success with them.  When the puppies were a year old, I was raking leaves and we had a burn ban because it was so dry, so I left the piles to sit until I could take care of them.  When I went out to clean up the yard the next day, low and behold, they were using the leaf piles.  A light bulb went off.  So I arranged the piles at their favorite spots and they continued to use them.  The first year was about an 80% success rate and by the second year is was more like 90%.  Now I would say I can count on knowing where to walk in our yard.  I couldn't figure out how in the world I could retrain them and they did it for me!  It still blows my mind when I do my yard duty that I didn't have to do anything, they did it on their own.  I don't have to do anything but rake the leaves from the fall into the same piles.  Fantastic!!

I have no idea if this would work for other dogs or not, heck, I still don't know how it worked for my dogs, but the whole thing has been a life saver and it even works in the winter.  That is just so cool!!  It is equally great that we have a yard full of trees, which means endless leaves , and a forest floor, so there is no lawn or grass to kill.  Somebody up there was listening, because this was one thing I could never do on my own!  Isn't it simply amazing how things just work themselves out?