What do you call a cow jumping over a barbed wire fence? UTTER DESTRUCTION!

First of all, I apologize that I have not written or posted pictures in a while. As soon as I am home tomorrow, I will do what I can to get things rolling again.
Now, here's why I haven't written:

I have been house/dog sitting for just about 2 weeks. They are both lovely well behaved dogs, but one of them has severe separation anxiety. I have done everything possible to try to calm, and relax this dog, which is not a  small feat. He was walked several times a day, given bones, locked in an area of the house where he could do the least damage, he wore a thunder shirt constantly, I have been giving him beneadryl, and an herbal relaxing supplement. He's also been wearing a pheromone collar that is supposed to help with anxiety.

The first day or so, he was alright. His owner (the son of the people who own the home) had been gone a few days, and the rest of the family had just left, that was Thursday the 14 th. By Wednesday of the next week, he had escaped the enclosed area that he was to be kept in, and went into the office. This is what I found:

By Friday, he had yet again, gotten past the barriers and into the front room. While there, he decided the custom front door, made in Napa valley, would be a good snack. not to mention the rug in front of the door.This is what I found:

Generally he does fine as long as I am there, and will hang out and relax, but Saturday morning, I woke up to this:

This is the second time the garage door (above) has been ruined by this dog. I knew that he had anxiety, and that this would be a rough one for him since his poppa was gone for about 2 and a half weeks. However, I did not anticipate just how bad. 

There was another door, but for some reason the photo is MIA.

Thankfully, the homeowners are sweet, wonderful people, and knew what they might come home to. Looks like their son, will be doing a lot of repairs the next coming weeks! Wish me luck for the last 24 hours of house sitting!

Skateboard

I have decided that if you are going to have a husky, you should also have a skateboard. Nate has a few of them, and we use them to exercise Dalton at least once a week. Lately we’ve been using a skate without the wheels and trucks for Dalton to practice pulling. I will post pictures later, but Nate, as always came up with the idea. He glued an old rug to the bottom to minimize noise, put and eye bolt at the top for the string which we attach to his harness. Right now we have a small weight on the back to keep it from bouncing all over the place, and on a straighter path. Plus, if it helps tire him out a bit more, I won’t complain.

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!

Shower Time

A few weeks ago, while Nate was out I figured I should probably get in the shower because I was smelly (that’s probably the reason Nate was gone…). I was sort of worried that Dalton would get into trouble while I was in there, so every couple minutes, I would call him and make him come get a scratch on the head. I figured, if I kept distracting him, he couldn’t screw shit up too bad. Anyway, he sort of became interested in the water, and where it was coming from. He would stick his face in the curtain, get splashed, and then remove his head again. He did this a few times when I would call him in, and at one point he ended up just sitting next to the tub with his face as far in the shower as his brontosaurus neck would allow.

 Turns out, I have created a monster. At first it was funny how curious he was about the magic waterfall, but now, within 5 minutes of being in the shower, here comes long neck, sticking his face in and biting at the water, and consequently anything under the water. Bad news bears. He also thinks it’s pretty cool to get into the tub after we’ve showered and lick the walls. Is licking mildew bad for dogs? I am going to assume it is, so it looks like we’ll be cleaning our tub and shower more often!

Yay! Magic Waterfall!

Mmmmmm Mildew and soap.

Lake Day!

The past few weekends we have gone up East Canyon to get out of the 90+ degree weather. Because it’s like, 1 degree cooler up there… Anyway, we go up to the lake, hang out in the relaxation station, and drink adult beverages. The first time we went up, Dalton was so excited to see our friends out in the lake that he jumped in the water, and swiftly realized that there was no ground underneath him. He swam great, but there was a look of confusion on his face that told me he did not intend to swim. This week he would only go in enough to cool off, and spent most of the day wandering and trying to find a nice shady spot to hang out in.

This last weekend, we finally remembered to bring up our camera! YAY! Here are some pictures of our little trip!

(Pease ignore my pasty skin, and weird hairdo. There are no mirrors at the lake, so how could I know it looked so funny?)

Thanks Jord and Ry for letting him ride up in a car with AC!



Contemplating whether or not to get in the water.....

Family portrait!

Yuki, Daltons girlfriend.

My favorite guy (besides Nate, that is)

Flip Flop

Thus far, Dalton had been fabulously well behaved (since we’ve had him in daycare). We haven’t had anything completely destroyed, and we've been able to have a lot of trust in him.

At night we have been letting him have the run of the house since he’s been so good. We’ve left our remote out, (which is brave on our part, see 2 hours) shoes, jackets, and then there are the kitchen chairs, tables couches etc. All has gone un-touched.

Until last night.

Nate rarely wears flip flops, but we went up to the lake last Sunday, so they were sitting in the living room in what I like to call the “shoe pile”. Its where all the shoes we normally wear live once we get home. I walked out into the living room this morning, and Dalton had chewed up one of the flip flops. The weirdest part about it is that he had a reindeer antler, an esophagus and several toys just lying on the floor. He’s honestly never chewed shoes, so we didn’t think that it would be an issue.

This is what I found this morning.

No remorse.

Sorry, it's a bit hard to see

Notice all the toy options? Still thought the flip flop was a good snack.

Looks like we'll be putting our shoes away at night!

Our Kennel set up.

We realized fairly quickly that Dalton was not a huge fan of his kennel. It’s sized correctly for his weight/height, but he always looks so cramped in there. Not only that, but he just can’t relax in the kennel. We tried our darndest to make it a happy place, somewhere he wanted to be, but it just didn’t work. This is where my brilliant boyfriend comes in. We had borrowed a doggy “play pen” from our neighbor who didn’t use it much. Generally we would use it to contain him in one room or another, or we would take it to friend’s houses so we could keep him contained there. Eventually though, our neighbor needed it back, so we invested and bought our own. Here is the one we have. It’s Top Paw, wire and about 36” high.  

Since D is not a fan of the kennel, but we didn’t quite trust him to have the whole house, Nate devised a genius plan to hook the play pen to the kennel, and section off part of the living room for Dalton. We have about 12 feet between the kennel and the west facing window in our living room, so we spread out the play pen in such a way that it stands up on its own, loops behind a chair (for support), and sits right underneath the window, holding it in place. It’s fairly escape proof, but  if he wanted to he could easily jump over the gate and have free rein of the house. BUT were pretty sure Dalton hasn’t realized how high he can jump, nor has he really had the opportunity to figure it out. Were crossing our fingers that it stays that way!!

 Anyhow, this is how we set the room up. Unless he starts tearing into the molding or walls, or develops a taste for the radiator, were pretty safe as far as chewing. He always has a bone, toy, kong or all three to occupy his time, and it has worked very well for us so far.

Facing West

Facing East, Attached to the kennel

Luckily our windows are the perfect height to wedge it right underneath.



This is facing south, without the play pen set up.



I wouldn’t recommend something like this if your dog has a propensity to jump, or try chew things just outside the wires. The yellow chair (seen in the first photo) has been safe as of yet, but if he wanted to, I think he could really tear into it. We like this set up, because it gives him a bit more freedom, but he is still confined enough that he can’t get in too much trouble.

The play pen is also great for other things too. As I said, we’ll take it to our friend’s homes and use it to corral him and any other dogs, sometimes we have even used it outside when our friend’s yard isn’t completely fenced. This particular style attaches great to the wire Top Paw kennel that we have. It also comes with stakes so you can use it outside. We haven’t tried that yet, but I imagine that you would still need to watch as I doubt the stakes are super sturdy.

We’ve really loved the play pen, and all the different uses. It’s pricey, but it will last us years, and so far has been totally worth the cost. If your pup is struggling with the kennel too, and I really think that some dogs just aren’t cut out for it, this is a great option. (if you have a safe space where your pup can’t get into anything nearby.) I will reiterate that you should have quite a bit of trust in your dog before doing a set up like this. If your dog is high anxiety, or tends to get really restless and try to escape, it wouldn’t be the best option.