Wordless Wednesday

Bodily Functions and other fun and games

Anything I did wouldn't be as bad as Lee, so you love me more!

I am away for 36 hours for work and here is what has happened according to the calls I have gotten.

Hailey did not destroy anything yesterday. She could take the baby gate before I got out of the house so I just trapped her in the basement. However, Zaphod had what appears to be 2 accidents in his crate (poor guy), so the Man had to clean that up.

Both pups did a great job with the horses. Hailey would sit and not bark as long as the horses kept their heads on their side of the fence. When they came over, that scared her. Zaphod will sniff the face of a horse and try and get them to play.

Zaphod had a great play at the beach with one of the neighbour's dogs. We live in a great dog friendly neighbourhood. This is great!

Hailey showed Zaphod the deer across the road and he did run away and took a longer time to come back. So we know if he sees deer he will run. 

The house had a very rough night. Hailey threw up. Cinder threw up.  The man didn't really sleep. 

Today they are calling for severe thunderstorms so the man, who is tired and very cranky, will stay home with them. This will be a temporary solution until the thundershirt comes and we find some sort of steel (not wire) cage for her. 

I hope they have a good day cause I don't want to get home this evening to cranky people:)

Rough Plan

Well after the shock of a hole in the wall, we have forgiven our Bug for her bad behaviour. We appreciate how stressed she must have been to do this. We also are glad she didn't chew the electrical wires.

This is what we are going to try.

Putting Zaphod in the crate in the guest room. Putting Hailey in her sweater (the thunder shirt has been ordered) in the guest room with a baby gate across the door. It is our hope that being in her favourite room with a gate will help. When given a choice, Lee loves to sleep on the guest bed (this is something that started at the old house a few months ago). We also hope that by having the gate and not closing the door will reduce destruction.

Thankfully there are no thunderstorms in the forecast today. There are tomorrow (and I will be out of town until 7ish tomorrow night).

Here is the door at phase one of the repair. Likely won't have time to finish it until the weekend, but looks much better

Wish us luck!

Wits End

It is not often that I am left speechless or unable to find the humour in a situation, but Hailey has managed to do both. Last evening we attended a wedding. When I returned home, I opened the door and saw this.

I actually turned around and walked out. After a second I came back in. I just couldn't believe it and I couldn't find Hailey. (Turns out she had gotten herself under the gate to the cats food and gotten stuck. Turns out while she was down there she dug the litter to hell, but that really is the least of our problems, back to the hole).

Words do not describe how angry the people of the house are. While part of me is trying to imagine how terrified of whatever she must have been to do this, I just can't find sympathy for her. We just don't know what to do with her. This is the worst thing she has ever done. I think regular readers of this blog will know that we try really hard to give her the best life possible. We have tolerated her "Hailey-ness" more than others may have. However she has crossed a line and we don't know what to do to help her. We can't afford to replace a wall every time we go out. We had thought her anxiety was getting better, but clearly it has not. We are going to try and crate her, although I fear she will just destroy them again. We are also going to explore medication for her. 

So today instead of having a house warming party (which we have cancelled), we are going to learn to fix drywall. We hope that one of the paint cans left in the house is the right colour. 

The problem with recall

We have figured out Miss Bug's issue with recall. When it is just fun and games for a cookie and she knows she will get to keep running and playing, she is a superstar 90% of the time. The problem becomes when she knows it is time to go inside. This is when she takes off. So now, we will have to trick her to come in. We will have to act like it is still play time and when she comes over we will have to grab her and put her on her leash. Let's see if this works!

(FYI she does come back but not before she has visited the neighbours or gotten into other trouble).

More about Zaphod

Nightly visit to the lake

Well Phod (pronounced Fod) as I call him, has been a pack member for 4 short days and it sort of feels like he has always been with us. Overall he is an easy dog.  Here are some things we have learned about him this week.

It is hard to get a good picture of him because he is always moving!

He loves to play. He loves fetch (LOVES it) and wrestling and defacing toys. He plays a lot, which makes us think he is closer to one than 2 as he still acts like a puppy.

He knows a few commands: sit, drop it, come, no.

Given how he responds better to the Man, we assume he had a male owner.

He pretty much ignores the cats now (they are hissing less), however to be sure, we keep him in a crate when we are out.

He is a dainty eater. He eats slowly and takes his time. All our other dogs have eaten like they are starving!

He is a drinker! The water dish is always empty and I am keeping the toilet seat down so I don't get a wet bum!

His recall rocks. Not that we would leave him outside alone or have him off leash on the road, but it is much easier to have him off leash during "bathroom breaks" and to have Miss Bug on leash than to try and have the 2 on leash. He has never tried to leave the property and if he gets close and you call him he immediately comes back.

How does Lee feel about him? She is at that stage which we have seen before, when you bring a second dog in, "the you tire me out and I am grumpy so I don't like you phase, however, I do want to play with you when I want to so you aren't so bad". I can see a nice relationship developing between the 2 of them.

Let's get ready to rumble!