Functional Dog

Bailey has just returned from a week and a half getaway vacation on The Farm. She's always a completely different dog mentally when I pick her up. She's relaxed and in the frame of mind conducive to being a normal member of society. I can take her places and do things with her and she has a normal threshold.

So, tonight when we got home from work I was a good student and we worked on separation stuff. I kept her under threshold and reinforced frequently. We even practiced crating while I worked Buzz. Basically, my dog was great.

And sometimes she came out of her crate to engage in play with me.

Buzz says that allergies are the devil. Poor Buzzer. I've unintentionally fed him three new things in the last two days. Apparently he's allergic to one or both or all of them.

Then they practiced being good dogs together on the bed.

Just My Dog

Tonight I'm feeling quite nostalgic about my old guy. I usually call him my perfect dog and brag about how easy he is to live with.

If you ignore the fact that he will steal any available food (from the counter, a table... your hand).

He is staring at the food on the table, willing his tether to malfunction.

If you pretend like he doesn't have a farting problem (even when he eats foods he's not allergic to, and takes his enzyme/probiotic supplement regularly).

If you pretend he's ever had a reliable recall in his life! (I mean, he's always been reliable in not coming, so that's still reliable, right? I usually just tell people he's deaf, which he is, but that has no bearing on his lack of recall. He is better about keeping me in sight now that he's gone deaf though.)

That is Beck's nose. Holy hell do I still miss that Grey.

Seriously though, he is the dog I compare all others to. 

He has a delightful demeanor.

He shares incredibly well.

He adapts to major changes (like moving to the middle of the ghetto) with ease.

And lets not forget that even at 14 years young, he still has a sense of adventure!

He's really just an awesome dog. In that inexplicably awesome kind of way.

I'm thankful he came into my life as a flea ridden, worm infested puppy from a stereotypical backyard breeder. He's got some nice genetics in his ancestry that made him the dog he is, and that is a very good boy.

In the Last 24 Hours

1) I emailed Ruca's new owners for an update. The last one I got was great but it's been a couple of months now and I miss her. I hope she's still doing wonderfully!

2) I hung out with most of my bestest friends last night and ended up bring both dogs along because there was the promise of water-play. Everything was going fine until Bailey was doing a water retrieve three legged, with a barely audible whine but OHMYGOD there is a BUMPER TO BE GOTTEN. So I passed Buzz off to a friend and checked her over. I felt all over her leg and she didn't make a peep. This is the leg she was scheduled to have surgery on last Thursday. The vet thought I was doing it for cosmetic reasons.

3) I gave Buzz a bath, blew him out, and trimmed him. He appreciates the fact that I'm mostly just concerned about hair removal and don't spend hours making him look presentable anymore. I really only use a clippers with a 7F and a straight scissors now. If I can't get it done with those tools, it's not going to get done. He still thinks grooming in general is a waste of time. And then I let him play in Lake Phalen. He probably thinks he smells better now.

4) While hanging out with said bestest friends, we made grilled cheese, on the grill.

photo courtesy of Sara R

5) I have decided that the best use of my morning will be to do nothing. I have a long list of what I should do (clean my bedroom, clean the bathroom, clean the stairs, do laundry, dust, vacuum, clean out the car, etc) but instead I've been sitting in bed with the dogs and just enjoying the quiet morning.