I had two dogs showing up yesterday, Maddy and Smokey. They are both small and fluffy and isn't is ironic that the huge kennel is the one available when only little dogs are coming.
Then Smokey got out of the car. He is not a small gray terrier - he is a big German Shepard/Lab mix. I had to laugh, he was just SO not what I was expecting. I tell his owner that since Smokey is big and Maddy is so small, I will switch the clipboards and give Smokey the huge kennel.
Then Maddy, got out the truck. She is not a small and fluffy Shitzu - she is a Great Dane.
I am really having problems with sizes lately.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Bigger Pack Rat than Me
In the course of one weekend, Bella managed to collect 4 tennis balls, 3 rope toys and one stuffed animal.
She is quite the collector.
There will be no PROCREATING at the Ranch!
"OH MY GOD! Stop that!"
When Pepper got dropped off her owner mentioned that she was 'at the end of her heat'. In my head, I am thinking, 'What are you thinking dropping a dog off that is in heat'. What I said was "I hope so, having a dog in heat will cause me a lot of trouble."
Well, I let them out to play after a quick calculation that everyone here is female or neutered. We should be just fine. Just to be sure, I stick the big male dog on one side of the play yard since Pepper is just a little thing.
Pepper is having a great time playing with Scruffy. Isn't that nice, Scruffy has found a friend to play with. This should have been a tip off, but I was just happy for Scruffy. Normally, he is a bit stand off-ish and doesn't play with the other dogs. What was really weird was that he didn't come running when I started to put the dogs away. Scruffy and Kaizon are ALWAYS the first dogs to go in.
That is when I walked around the corner of the building and shouted,"OH MY GOD! Stop that!"
Pepper and Scruffy were butt to butt. Having me running at them caused Scruffy to take off so I didn't have to deal with how does one get two dogs that are stuck together, back apart.
(I have in the past had a client call me with that same panicked question and I know that you just wait for them to deal with it)
You should have seen how fast I flipped Scruffy over to check that he really was neutered.
In all I lucked out on this one. Pepper was clearly ready to roll, but all I had for her stay was neutered males. I also was very lucky that I only had one male dog at a time. I had 3 different male dogs but their stays were such that there was never two here at the same time.
Please, people don't scare me like this. Don't bring dogs in heat to my or any kennel. Dogs in heat get you, puppies and me, fights. Just don't do it!
When Pepper got dropped off her owner mentioned that she was 'at the end of her heat'. In my head, I am thinking, 'What are you thinking dropping a dog off that is in heat'. What I said was "I hope so, having a dog in heat will cause me a lot of trouble."
Well, I let them out to play after a quick calculation that everyone here is female or neutered. We should be just fine. Just to be sure, I stick the big male dog on one side of the play yard since Pepper is just a little thing.
Pepper is having a great time playing with Scruffy. Isn't that nice, Scruffy has found a friend to play with. This should have been a tip off, but I was just happy for Scruffy. Normally, he is a bit stand off-ish and doesn't play with the other dogs. What was really weird was that he didn't come running when I started to put the dogs away. Scruffy and Kaizon are ALWAYS the first dogs to go in.
That is when I walked around the corner of the building and shouted,"OH MY GOD! Stop that!"
Pepper and Scruffy were butt to butt. Having me running at them caused Scruffy to take off so I didn't have to deal with how does one get two dogs that are stuck together, back apart.
(I have in the past had a client call me with that same panicked question and I know that you just wait for them to deal with it)
You should have seen how fast I flipped Scruffy over to check that he really was neutered.
In all I lucked out on this one. Pepper was clearly ready to roll, but all I had for her stay was neutered males. I also was very lucky that I only had one male dog at a time. I had 3 different male dogs but their stays were such that there was never two here at the same time.
Please, people don't scare me like this. Don't bring dogs in heat to my or any kennel. Dogs in heat get you, puppies and me, fights. Just don't do it!
I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...
I have just been sucked into my house remodel project. We are finally making some progress at the house. The kitchen is really starting to come together.
But after 8 months of a 'this will only take 4 to 6 weeks' project, my nerves are shot. Lately, the house is sucking up all of time, energy and my will to live.
Sorry.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
What is With the NO SHOWS this Week!
I had a real problem with no shows last year. So on each Monday, I start calling everyone on the calendar for the weekend. If I have a crazy wait list, I start calling weeks in advance to confirm everyone is still coming and to remind people to cancel ASAP since there are others waiting.
This has been working pretty well for me. My husband tells me to take down credit card numbers and so that people will call me when they need to cancel. I think most people are basically courteous enough to think to call, but I also think that, by now, most people have spent time on my waiting list and are aware that someone else is waiting.
This week it has been the 'last minute', 'absolutely desperate', 'nowhere else to go', 'will take whatever days you can give me', 'so grateful you were able to squeeze my dog in' people that never showed up. Somewhere between panic on Saturday and drop off on Sunday, Zoey's owners calmed down enough to forget that they have a dog, are moving and have no where to put her.
This was Labor Day weekend, I told Zoey's mom that I would call her the moment someone went home on Monday and that Zoey could stay until Friday morning. Someone would have to pick her up and then we would do the same thing on the next Sunday to Friday. I had a dog go home on Sunday instead of Monday and I though Zoey's parents would be thrilled. They might have been if they ever listened to the messages on their cell phone. That is until the cell phone stopped working on Monday afternoon.
Okay, so I finally erased Zoey off the calendar sometime on Tuesday. That was weird.
What's weirder, is that I had a repeat of this again this weekend.
Nikita this time, her mom calls on Friday desperate for this weekend. She only needs Saturday night to Monday. Hey, I can actually do that, I have dogs going home on Saturday evening. It is going to be a bit tight. The dogs going home are scheduled to leave at 7 to 8pm and Nikita is due to arrive between 4 and 5pm. (dog juggling, I've done it before and will do it again) Only no juggling required, no Nikita at all.
So once again a miraculous maneuver from panic to so relaxed that they can't think to call me and tell me all about it in less than 24 hours. UGH!
Maybe I will have to take credit card numbers, I just won't tell anyone I don't have a credit card machine.
This has been working pretty well for me. My husband tells me to take down credit card numbers and so that people will call me when they need to cancel. I think most people are basically courteous enough to think to call, but I also think that, by now, most people have spent time on my waiting list and are aware that someone else is waiting.
This week it has been the 'last minute', 'absolutely desperate', 'nowhere else to go', 'will take whatever days you can give me', 'so grateful you were able to squeeze my dog in' people that never showed up. Somewhere between panic on Saturday and drop off on Sunday, Zoey's owners calmed down enough to forget that they have a dog, are moving and have no where to put her.
This was Labor Day weekend, I told Zoey's mom that I would call her the moment someone went home on Monday and that Zoey could stay until Friday morning. Someone would have to pick her up and then we would do the same thing on the next Sunday to Friday. I had a dog go home on Sunday instead of Monday and I though Zoey's parents would be thrilled. They might have been if they ever listened to the messages on their cell phone. That is until the cell phone stopped working on Monday afternoon.
Okay, so I finally erased Zoey off the calendar sometime on Tuesday. That was weird.
What's weirder, is that I had a repeat of this again this weekend.
Nikita this time, her mom calls on Friday desperate for this weekend. She only needs Saturday night to Monday. Hey, I can actually do that, I have dogs going home on Saturday evening. It is going to be a bit tight. The dogs going home are scheduled to leave at 7 to 8pm and Nikita is due to arrive between 4 and 5pm. (dog juggling, I've done it before and will do it again) Only no juggling required, no Nikita at all.
So once again a miraculous maneuver from panic to so relaxed that they can't think to call me and tell me all about it in less than 24 hours. UGH!
Maybe I will have to take credit card numbers, I just won't tell anyone I don't have a credit card machine.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Meg is a Great Chaser of Balls
I only found this out after I started throwing balls to keep Boudin and Hank occupied. Only it was Meg that shot out like a bullet and got the ball before those two big dogs.
She even brings the ball back.
She even brings the ball back.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Herders and Worriers
With Cloe and Sassy, I got one of each.
Canine Mathematics:
Worrier + Herder(Runners + Players) = Barking
Lots of barking.
Whenever a Herder seeing anything running that they are not steering, it is just WRONG. Their point of view is that, "Be it sheep, kids, or other dogs, nothing should be running anywhere that I am not telling it where to go." Just think of them as canine control freaks. Cleo is a Herder and having BB, Hank, Boudin, Meg, and Amica racing around the play yard without Cloe's permission is just too much for her to take.
She is the little black dog voicing her displeasure at all this unsupervised running in the video.
Her brother, Sassy, is a Worrier. Their logic runs more toward, "With all this rough housing, someone is going to get hurt and it might be me - so it all must stop! Now!"
Canine Mathematics:
Worrier + Herder(Runners + Players) = Barking
Lots of barking.
Whenever a Herder seeing anything running that they are not steering, it is just WRONG. Their point of view is that, "Be it sheep, kids, or other dogs, nothing should be running anywhere that I am not telling it where to go." Just think of them as canine control freaks. Cleo is a Herder and having BB, Hank, Boudin, Meg, and Amica racing around the play yard without Cloe's permission is just too much for her to take.
She is the little black dog voicing her displeasure at all this unsupervised running in the video.
Her brother, Sassy, is a Worrier. Their logic runs more toward, "With all this rough housing, someone is going to get hurt and it might be me - so it all must stop! Now!"
More Problems with Names
Chloe and Meg, the Dachshunds, arrived for a very long stay. Their owner explained to me that they were really named Nutmeg and Clover, but the names had become Meg and Chloe.
I was thinking about this conversation while trying to stop myself from mixing up Chloe and Cleo.
To me, nutmeg is brown and clover is black, but I am calling the black one, Meg and the brown one, Chloe. I am going to have to check with their mom when she comes to claim them.
Mangling Names Again this Weekend!
In my own defense, I have a genetic predisposition to mess up names. I got it from my mother who has called me by my sister's name since she left home for college - I was 10 at the time.
So, I had Sassy and Cleo come back for a stay. For their first stay, I got Cleo wrong from the start and kept calling her Chloe. By the end of their stay, I finally had her name right. Already at the kennel when they arrived this time was a Chloe. I don't think I got either name right on the first try.
So, I had Sassy and Cleo come back for a stay. For their first stay, I got Cleo wrong from the start and kept calling her Chloe. By the end of their stay, I finally had her name right. Already at the kennel when they arrived this time was a Chloe. I don't think I got either name right on the first try.
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