A week of chaos

I feel like this week has just been chaotic. Part of the problem is that since our return from vacation, we haven't had a whole day at home. I had to work on Saturday. Sunday we had a Harry Potter party plus had to watch the Super Bowl:) I have had a crazy work week, with a dentist appointment, and several other personal appointments, that of course just all fell on the same week.

On top of this, we have had the 3 dogs. For the most part they have been ok, except maybe Tuesday.

Tuesday would be the only day I would have described as bad.

The day started at 5:20 am when Hailey started throwing up. Not sure why. Emma pooped on the floor.
Then the dogs were really good until 8:30 pm when the Man got home from being out. He wasn't home for 5 minutes, when Hailey decided to jump on the bed and pee and Emma pooped on the floor. It wasn't our favourite dog owner day!

We move forward and I am enjoying most of today off. I have one more crazy work day tomorrow and then the weekend and I have a great schedule next week!

Looking forward to catching up with everyone today!

Summer is coming!

On Sunday, we went back to the lake for the first time since the fall. We have avoided it over the winter due to the ice. Finally the ice is gone and even though it feels way to cold for me. Phod had a great time swimming.

Checking it out

Lake how I missed you

After the lake (which my 2 got wet, Emma did not), this was what happened in the house:

50 ways to drive the lady insane - by Lee and Phod

Lee finally relaxing that day

Tired out Phod

The other day we drove our lady crazy. After refusing to settle all day and asking to go out every 30 minutes even with a walk and play, Phod ran away. This was very bad. The Lady was still upset and desperately trying to finish a project, but we thought her being insane was way more fun. So Lee scratched at the door repeatedly. For like 1.5 hours. The Lady took her out a couple times and she just wanted to play.

When the Lady finally finished her work, she feed us and took us out so we would "let her cook dinner in peace." We didn't let her do that. We kept bugging her and finally she snapped and realized she needed a time out. So she unjustly took us outside, in the dark, it must have been the middle of the night [Editor's note - it was 7 pm, it is just dark at that time] and put us on our tie outs. She left us out there forever [Editor's note - it was about 10 minutes]! We thought she would never come and get us, so I guess she got even.

In the end, we think it was worth the pain. Driving her insane was fun!

I am slowly going crazy, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, switch

I don't know what has gotten into the canine pack members but they are driving me coco bananas! I was tempted to just open the door and let them be free this morning.

Here was our yesterday:

Man was home all day with the dogs, while I was at work. There was a thunderstorm in the morning and Lee was having a panic attack so the man put her in her thunder shirt and felt it helped. We have chosen to stop the anti-anxiety meds because we didn't think they were helping and she has started having pee accidents, making us wonder if this is a side effect of this drug. We are waiting to connect with our vet.

While he was home he took them out for a long walk, he played with them outside, basically they got lots of love, attention and exercise.

We made the plan to meet in the city for dinner and a Friday night trip to Costco (it is less busy then). This saved me an hour of extra driving now that we live out in the middle of no where. This trip meant the dogs, who had lots of exercise were alone for about 3 hours.

I got home first. The man did a last errand on his way home. He had safely secured them in the basement. I came in, I put my stuff down, I let them out of the basement (and by basement this is our family room) and Miss Bug went into a frenzy. She was out of control jumping, shaking and carrying on. She scratched the heck out of my arm and butt. Not to be left out, my usually calm dog Phod was jumping (not in the same state) and carrying on. It was very hard to get them down. I admit to being the crazy woman screeching at them to get them down (it is hard to deal with both of them). What seemed like an eternity, I got them out for a pee. I then did the house inspection the only real damage was they got into the cats room and ate the food and made a mess in the litter (and by they I mean Lee as she had litter all over her face). The rest of the evening went by without much action.

Around 3:30 am we were woken to a thud sound. Turns out it was just Phod curling up next to the door. The Man got up to use the bathroom with the plan of taking the dogs out after. Miss Bug slipped by him, ran downstairs and peed on the floor. This is the second night in a row this has happened. It is very unusual that we are up in the night but for 2 nights in a row, one of us has been up and both times Miss Bug has used this as an excuse to go pee in the basement. She has never had accidents like this before.

At 7 am, the wrestling match on the bed occurred. The Man took them out again and tried to lock them out of the room. This led to the pitiful scratching at the door. I got up and let them back in. While I did not go back to sleep I refused to get up and for the next hour or so dealt with wrestling, demands for belly rubs and pitiful looks.

Finally around 9, I got up, fed them  breakfast and I took them out. It was fine until Lee, who was on leash as always, decided she needed Phod to chase her so she did zoomies around and around, while I held on for dear life. Phod got hog tied and screamed, I had to fight to get him untied and it was nearly impossible for me to get them to stop this game. Finally, Lee by the collar (and Phod pouncing her) I dragged them into the house where they have been pacing around.

I don't know if it is the blue moon, the change in weather or what, but the pair of them are driving me crazy!

Let's hope they settle down today.

And yet I still wanted her

We are taking a little break from singing today:) Tomorrow the cats have a great song waiting!

The other day when I went to get a piece of paper to make a note and I came across the notes I took when I spoke to Hailey's foster mom Kelly, 15 or so months ago.

They say things like:
unfocused, ADHD, easier now, had to put on harness, food driven and motivated, lots of energy, pack dog, tornado, handful, bold, confident, in your face.

And yet, I decided to adopt this dog. Clearly I am the crazy one!

First picture I ever took of Lee!

My house at 2 am

I had to do this crazy thing and get up around 2 to do a Skype consult with my client on the other side of the world. Normally we meet in the evening there time (our morning, but due to some special circumstances it was important to talk in the middle of their day, our night. To cause the least amount of disruption to my sleeping hubby I did the call in the living room and not my office. This is what I expected would happen:

This is more like what did happen.

Sorry for the stock photo but I wasn't up to new pictures at 2 am.

They were all so busy and loud. Apparently it sounded like I was eating. I had to keep muting my side of the conversation. I couldn't believe it.

Now that it is a reasonable time to get up they are all sleeping like angels. AHHHHH!

It may be a long day today, but at least when I went back to sleep so did all of them!

Fingers crossed

Today could be day 6 without destruction. If this happens it will be a monumental day in our house.
After my analysis of my dogs behaviour comments from all of you (thanks), we have been trying to get our girl more running time. This was easy on the weekend, but not as easy on a workday.

Yesterday, was a dog walker day, and the one day this week, Lee was alone all day. I was very nervous that she may be destructive. In the morning before I left for work, I went out into the backyard and did everything I could think of to get her to run and play. I threw the ball, but it was me who ended up playing fetch alone. Lee looked at me for a few minutes, standing in the rain, running after her ball, turned around and went back inside. She doesn't love the rain, and would much rather spend her time inside.

What are the odds that she will spend her day laying quietly and being good?  Fingers crossed!

Lee, chil-axing on a rainy day. 

Wish I had my camera

We went to the dog park yesterday and I decided to leave my phone at home. I regret this because I would have had a great video of Lee playing with her new best friend Axel. Axel, is a little Shit Tzu, who is the same colouring as our Loki was. He looked a lot like Loki, so watching them play made me think about what it may have been like if Loki and Hailey had met and played.

Axel and Lee ran and wrestled until both wanted to go home. It was so much fun to watch. And most importantly Lee was tired after.

I will be sure to bring my phone next time, if not I may miss something!

Feline Friday - Please play with me

A little background. Bagheera is one of our cats. Baggy (aka Gheera, Baggy-Pants), has always been an independent fellow who like attention when he wanted it and liked who he liked. He spent approximately 8 years hating us for bring our first dog Loki into the house, and lived a self-imposed exile in the basement. I tried to point out that he started it with Loki, by attacking him when he was a pup, but Baggy won't listen. I do know that my darlin' Lo loved to chase the cats, and he and Gemi made a great hunting team who tormented both Baggy and Nin for 5 years. 

When Lo died, Baggy started to mellow (Gemi hunted less without her partner) and Lee has always been scared of Gheera. 

While Hailey is cautious around Gheera, she does try to make friends with him.

The other day, she brought him her ball.

Baggy then yelled at her and Lee was scared. She wanted her ball back if Baggy wasn't going to play with her, but was to afraid of him to get it. (After the picture I gave it back).

It is clear in our pack, Baggy is the alpha-animal! 

"Want to play?"
"No and bugger off!"

Analyzing my dogs destruction

Since Hailey’s destruction is driving me batty, I have decided to put on my behaviour analyst hat and try and figure out what the function of this behaviour is and what we might be able to do about it. 

Possible causes/function of the behaviour (from my internet search):

1 Separation Anxiety: Upon further research into this, we don’t know if it is true separation anxiety because when we leave, we don’t hear any barking etc immediately. All the research I have read suggests the behaviour should occur as soon as we leave. The neighbours have never complained about obsessive barking (and they would complain!)

2  General Anxiety: It may occur because of anxiety caused by things like storms. We do not have storms that often, so occasionally it may be due to this, but not always.

    Lack of exercise: We are averaging at least 1.5 hours per day and sometimes more. On Caesar they only suggested 2 hours per day for a much bigger, part wolf dog.

4Curiosity Propelled Chewing – Occurs mostly in juvenile dogs (which she is) as they explore their environment.

We think it is curiosity propelled chewing. (It does happen sometimes when we are home)

To help prevent this we:

• Provide her with things to chew on – she is left with treats, including a Kong, as well as access to many of her babies.
• Exercise, exercise, exercise!
• We tried crate training, but this did cause separation anxiety and worst destruction, so we are not sure we should try that again.
• Clean the environment to keep anything she may want to chew (but she is smart and tries to find new things!)
• Pray she outgrows it – well, we will, but we don’t want to have our house eaten first!

What scares me is that some of the research suggests that some dogs never out grow this! Especially sporting breeds (which is likely in her mix). If anyone has suggestions for us, please, please share!

Speechless - I can't believe you did that!

The background:

First, last evening the man and I went out to get the groceries and do other errands. One of the errands was pet food. While visiting Global Pet for the first time we decided to purchase Lee her first antler. She loved it and spent like 3 hours chewing it.

Lee and the antler

During the chew-fest, because my legs were (and still are) very achy from all the walking I had a hot bath. While bathing, I left the bedroom door open. The man was sitting downstairs in the living room watching TV. When I came out of the bath, Lee was sitting chewing peacefully. While I was putting my pjs on, she got up on the bed and dug it apart. I assume she did this to bury her new treat and thought nothing of it (she usually does this while I am getting ready for bed). When I was ready, she and I both left the bedroom and came downstairs. I closed the door.

Fast forward a few hours: We go upstairs to bed. The man pulls back the covers to remake the bed Lee dug apart. The bed is soaked. On closer examination it is clear that she peed on the bed and by covering it with the duvet, pee is everywhere. We stood their speechless. In the 13 months we have had Lee as part of our pack, she has only had a handful of accidents, most when we were not here. The fact that she peed on the bed while we were home, is so unexpected.

We changed the sheets, started the washer and went to bed slightly worried that something is wrong with her. We will watch her. Maybe like a kid with a new toy, she was just so excited about her antler she forgot to go to the bathroom.

At least she always gives me something to blog about!

Evil Swiffer

When you use the vacuum, Hailey may run and hide. When you use the broom, she takes her things out of the pile. When you use the Swiffer thingy . . . . . .

Wordless Wednesday

I got a new drug

The scene: Lady is sitting in her not  hotel room n as she is away for a few days working. The Man and Lee are at home. It is getting late on a Sunday evening and the Man calls the Lady.

Man: "You know that gross raw hide Lee keeps bring in from the yard. It is like a drug to her. After chewing it, she ran around, she ripped the sock off my foot, she was humping Ninny, she has beaten up giraffe . . . Hailey stop it, stop eating the couch, get a baby!" This is followed by the sounds of barking and other crazy noises and it is difficult to continue the conversation with the yelling. 

Who knew that if you buried raw hide in the backyard for a couple weeks and dug it out, it was like a doggy drug. The Man did not capture video of this for the Lady, he said it was challenging as his socks were being pulled off.

The Lady may be glad to be far away . . . at least she won't have to clean up the mess!  

I dub thee Hyper-rella

It has been determined this week that Hailey (while a lovely name we like) is not an appropriate name for our girl. She has fall fever (which I didn't know existed) and has been hyper all week. Besides being destruco-dog, she has just been hyper.  She even tried to hump her man in a moment of craziness. So we are calling her Hyper-rella.

To help with this, we upped her exercise (and as I sit here writing this with my aching legs). We have lots of training sessions throughout the day (she is doing great with her tricks). My husband has taken her to the dog park (this is the final frontier for me and my grief, I can go with someone but can't go alone since Gemi's death, it is too stress provoking). At the park she is out of control and not listening (although it does tire her out a little). She is so hyper at the park she doesn't even play, she just runs crazy. 

This was my first week back to work full time since Gemi's death. Fortunately I got to work from home most of it. Next week I am going to be out a little more, let's hope this Hyper-rella phase is over by then.

I don't do that now

Since becoming an only puppy Lee has developed some interesting quirks, she is afraid to go outside at night. Before she would go out if Gemi went or not. Earlier last week when I would suggest it, she would run and hide.. I had to physically drag her outside and stay out with her.  Now she will go onto the deck, but still wants you to go out with her.


Thankfully the days are long! I hope this habit goes away before the winter comes:)