Shame!

Hello everyone! (All 5 of you that is)

The last couple days I have been obsessed with checking the website http://dog-shaming.com/. I find it highly amusing, and I like seeing the evidence that my dog is not the only naughty one out there. As I was browsing yesterday, I thought to myself “Man, I need to get one of Dalton up there. Too bad he’s been so good lately.” It was a non-daycare day, so when I got home, the first thing I did was put down my pile of stuff, grab the leash, and take Dalton outside to go potty. I am rarely coherent this soon after work, so I didn’t notice that anything was amiss.

What did I find when I came inside? Well, I found this:

This is the photo that I sent in to dog shaming. I walked in the door, and noticed that our rug was MIA, until I looked over by the kitchen. There was fluff and the rubber backing, and little particles of stuffing everywhere. It was actually sort of surprising. Generally Dalton isn’t destructive, and the things he has chewed have been either a strange texture (he favors rubbery things) or they’ve been left on the couch, because anything on the couch is apparently fair game.

Anyway, hopefully I don’t have the opportunity to submit many more photos to dog shaming. I have a feeling I will be a frequent visitor to the site though. You can’t tell me, as a dog owner (if you are one) that you don’t giggle a little when you scroll through. And if you didn’t giggle, perhaps you shouldn’t be such a weirdo cat person….

The best ice cream in the world.

This is my story about how the heat wave ruined my life:

 It’s hot as hell out, all over the damn world. I am not much of a cold weather person; generally I say that if it’s going to snow pretty, fluffy snowflakes, they should be warm and snugly like a blanket or something. But right now, I could really go for some freezing rain, or snow or whatever, as long as it’s cold. All we have is a dinky swamp cooler, and it does basically nothing to cool our house. It will however humidify it, so it’s like were vacationing in Florida, except without the beach and old people.

 Anyway, lately when we take Dalton to the dog park on our non-daycare days, we bring a spray bottle or cold water, and soak him so he stays cool while running around. Except that none of the dogs are running around, they just hang out and sniff butts the whole time. Not that I blame them, they are covered in fur and run at a hotter temperature naturally than humans, so I wouldn’t necessarily want to do anything but chill out either.

Yesterday Dalton and I went to the park, hung out for 2 hours, and then came home (mostly because I was hungry.) Dalton ran a little at the park, but he didn’t get a good play sesh in, so he came ready to annoy us. We threw him (not literally, although I considered it) out on the porch, brought out our books and read some until it cooled off enough to walk him. We walked a couple blocks, avenues blocks, which was probably equivalent to 4 normal blocks, but it was enough to put a damper on his punk attitude. It helped, but I can’t stay up till 11pm every night to walk the dog. That’s way past my old lady bedtime.

I don’t know how I am going to survive. I am so used to our wonderful dog (due to daycare and dog park play time.) I can’t go back to our pre-daycare dog. Having Dalton tired from daycare/ the dog park is like tasting the best ice cream in the world, it’s so good, not too sweet, and all the flavors are perfectly balanced. Having Dalton not tired is the equivalent of being told you are lactose intolerant, and you get the runs every time you try to eat the delicious ice cream. Sure, you get the ice cream, but the aftermath is not what you want, it’s the opposite of what you want. Nobody wants the runs, ever.

And with that, I will end my story about how the heat wave ruined my life.

Happy Thursday Y'all!

It is possible

This is what doggy daycare does for us!

Too tired to eat? 

Even when tired, he is always up for bothering us.

Desert Dog daycare.

Have I mentioned how much I love doggy daycare? Yesterday I brought Dalton home from Desert Dog Daycare, and he didn’t move all night. Usually when we give him dinner he will get excited and come wandering over, but he didn’t even lift his head. And if you know anything about Siberian Huskies, they will do basically anything for food, so this is a whole new level of tired. (though we are hoping he’s back to eating normally today.)

 It’s such a great feeling to know that Dalton is getting to play and be a dog (plus 9 to socialization!) He’s less anxious during the rest of the week, and he’s only home alone 3 days instead of five. So far the benefits are endless, and the only concern is that he is too tired, which may not actually be a concern.  

 Photos to come!

Our Savior.

Last week when we were house sitting for Nate’s sister, we had the opportunity to put Dalton in doggy daycare with her two dogs while we were at work. Not only did we come home to 3 tired dogs, but when they got a little energy later in the evening they would bother each other instead of us! After we discovered that we could actually tire out our dog by putting him in DD, we thought that we could look into it a couple days a week for our sake and his.

After a little searching and looking over reviews we found an amazing place, Desert dog Daycare. I printed off the application (yes, you have to fill out an application) and being the spazz that I am, went into way more detail than was necessary. They ask you questions like: “has your dog ever been possessive over food, toys or water?” “How does your dog get along with other sizes of dogs?” “Does your dog have an aversion to any other breeds of dog?” “Has your dog ever bitten anyone?” Now I know why they ask these questions, and I know that Dalton is a good dog and has never had any problems besides resource guarding, but for some reason all those questions made me nervous and I found myself justifying things that didn’t need to be justified. For instance, on the question that asked whether or not Dalton got along with small dogs, the answer should have been “Yes” but I went into this big long thing about how he liked small dogs, but played better with bigger dogs because he liked to roll around and bite and paw, and he probably would do great but maybe he’d do even better with dogs his own size…… and on, and on.

Then there is the interview. You get a “trial” day where you bring in your dog, they take them in the large playroom and have you wait in the lobby/viewing room. The reason for this is so they can observe your dog without you, since dogs act totally different when their owner is not present. And if there are any problems you can take the dog home and cry because you have an inferior animal. Thankfully, the level headed Nate went to the interview instead of me. I probably would have cried like he was my kid, and it was his first day of school. After about 10 minutes, the lovely woman told Nate that Dalton was doing great, and he could stay the rest of the day.

It was a thrilling moment when we found out our dog had “passed” and would be allowed into doggy daycare. The heavens opened up, the sun shone a little brighter, and whatever religious deity you believe in, gave a big thumbs up! This would mean that for 2 days out of every 7, we wouldn’t have to try and run our dog to death. And if it worked like we hoped it would, it would be easier to tire him out on the days between going to doggy daycare. I am not a religious person, but if there was a way to pray to the god (anyone ever notice that god is dog backwards? Just sayin…) of doggy daycare I would thank him or her every day for the generous thoughtful gift of daycare, and ask him to continue blessing us with a dog that we could stand to be around and not want to strangle.

Yesterday was Daltons first official day in doggy daycare. When I picked him up they told me how great he did, how he liked to play with smaller dogs (go figure), how he got in the pool (water is not his favorite thing), and how friendly and good he was. I was so proud, if I had a gold star I would have put one on his forehead.