One Day These Dogs are Going to Scare Me to Death

A normal Sunday starts with me heading out to the dogs around 7:30am. Weekdays, it is around 6:45am but, for the weekends I try to give my neighbors a bit of a break.

Today, I was out early because someone needed to drop off at 7 am. Out in the cold and the dark, I open the door, flip on the lights and just hit the first kennel. Unlatch, open, pull the door, let small and fluffy Mona out into the cold and dark. I turn and finally LOOK at the rest of the dogs.

YIKES! Diesel is down and twitching! Oh My Lord!!!!

"Diesel! Diesel!! Diesel!!! Diesel!!!

By now I have gotten into his run and have my hands on him. He leaps up and looks as equally freaked out as I do.

"Geez, dog, you almost stopped my heart just then!"
"Hey Lady, I was in the middle of a dream, you will stop my heart waking me up like that!"

Really, I could live happily ever after with less of these little aerobic workouts for my heart. Oh, and just after all this happened. My early drop-off called, they decided to have breakfast before they came over.

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks...

Yet, they have no problem picking up bad habits.

Tessie like to jump, up and down, up and down, all day long (I will assume all night long, as well). She has passed this hobby onto at least 3 other dogs. Luckily, none of them show her tenacity of doing it non-stop.

She also likes to empty her water dish as soon as she has had enough to drink. She has painted the far wall of my kennel with dirty water spots. She passed this one onto a Cocker Spaniel whose name I can't remember. I do remember thinking that I hoped he saved this trick for my kennel and didn't "Try this at home."

Sunny, a miniature Lassie dog, likes to stand on his crate and bark. Every other little dogs that shows up with a crate when Sunny is here, joins him on the roof top.

Shane, a really big yellow lab, likes to sing. We call his howling, 'doggy opera'. He tends to get the whole group going with it. His preferred position is butt in the kennel, head half out. I bet the acoustics of the kennel sound perfect to him. One weekend, his passed on his gift of song to a Shitzu the smallest, fluffiest coyote you ever heard. The owners were greatly amused by this. All I could think was, "Gee, I hope your neighbors find it just as funny."

But this month, the bad habit being passed on and on is peeing on thy neighbor. I used to only have this problem with Flip and Gunny. Now, Booker, Smokey and as of yesterday, Diesel, has taken this up. At least Diesel is still acting the gentleman. He only pees on his neighbor's outside run and he has been hitting the empty run next to him rather than peeing on the girls.

BB's Back!

Haven't seen her for ages.

Hee,hee, BB's got back, too.
I think since her cousin dogs went home, she is getting all the snacks.

I have noticed some of my regulars have 'thickened up' once they got out of the puppy years. Booker, Diesel and BB are starting to pick up some pounds. All these dogs are what I call "furless wonders". Their coats are so short it is more like velvet than fur and are no good for hiding extra weight. Very much like skinny jeans on humans, every pound is on display.

Personally, no one is getting me near any kind of mirror that lets me see my rear!

Everyone is having fun, including me!

Since the girls that were not getting along went home, things have been running pretty smoothly. I have the big guys on one side of the play yard and the little bits on my side.

Maki hasn't completely gotten over being the "little" dog in the pile when playing with Cai, but Diesel is completely unfazed by the size difference. He is just happy whenever a dog will keep playing with him.

I tried and tried to get the money shot of them leaping up at each other, but no luck.

I even got Pug to come out and play with Tiger. Pug had been acting like she was old and pitiful for the first 3 days. Now, I think she was just being wise and staying away from all the craziness over the weekend. She is practically a puppy again, playing with Tiger. Missed the pictures, of course.

A Perfect Storm of Dogs

Really, I can't come up with a worse combination of dogs than the one I have now. If you have any desire to lose your hearing, feel free to stop by, the barking is nothing less than spectacular.

I have Tessie and until yesterday I had Jinx. Neither of these dogs comes with an OFF switch. Jinx barks all the time and when Tessie is not barking, she is jumping straight up and down. Which of course, just makes all the other dogs bark.

Tessie's barking has been a problem from day one. The only time she stops barking at the dogs that are playing is when I throw a toy for her. She doesn't bring them back so I try to load up and keep throwing them. Her constant barking at dogs that are wrestling is like a circle of people yelling, "Fight! Fight!", it just isn't going to lead to anything good.

But Tessie comes here all the time and frankly me and most of the dogs are just plain used to her.

Well this weekend, between Tessie's leaping and Jinx's yipping was Keisha, barking right along with them. Then the Glitter Twins showed up, Jasmine and Jake. Two yellow labs that no one wants to play with because just one of them is too much playing. Tessie's constant motion has the puppies in a frenzy and Keisha is revving up right along with them.

If you watch the Dog Whisperer, he always talks about the 'energy' level of the dogs. Let's just say that this much barking and jumping, the energy level in the kennel is at 11. And high energy in dogs is, frankly, unstable. So I have a full kennel of fur covered nitro...one wrong touch and this place is going to blow.

When I first let the dogs out into the play yard, the energy is at its highest and worst. Sometimes they shoot out of their gate like madmen. Diesel had a problem with this. He has calmed down since, but at first I would let him out, lock him on the far side of the play yard and let him run it off for 5 or 10 minutes before letting him in with the other dogs. If I just let him out into a crowd he would being playing but at such an intensity that to the other dogs, it would be an attack.

So, the trick to defusing this situation is first, who can play with who, and second, in what order can you let them out.

I have all these nutty dogs and some of them are of the extra large variety. I have to say that I am mostly focused on Cai, the Irish Wolfhound and on Maki, the Mastidor (Mastif-Labrador). Maki is clearly not used to being the SMALL dog in the pile. Maki was really getting picked on fir a while. Keisha on one side, Cai on the other, when Jinx darts in a bites her on the ankle. Now, Maki doesn't even see Jinx, who is the size of a pound of butter. He thinks Keisha did it and growls at her. "Break it up, break it up, everyone back in their own rooms". First things first, Jinx is not coming out anymore.

I was thinking that the puppies, who are a perfect match for Maki might also do well with Cai. Everything just might work out. Nope.

Let out Cai, let Bella out but not Jinx, let out Keisha, get the tennis racket to defend myself, let out the puppies and Maki, let out Tessie last as she HAS to go in everyone kennel if she is let out sooner.

I am so worried about the big and bouncy, that I total missed the girls working themselves into a tizzy. Of all the dogs, it was Keisha and Tessie that went at it. Looked bad, sounded worse, no marks on either of them.

Okay lets try again.

Let out Cai, let Bella out but not Jinx, get the tennis racket to defend myself, let out Jake and leave Jasmine in the kennel obsessing over Tessie, let out Maki and try to keep her off me, let out Tessie last. Stuff them all on the other side while trying to keep Jake and Maki off me.

Latch the divider gate for the play yard and let out Keisha and Jasmine.

Spend playtime throwing balls to get Tessie to stop barking and fencing with a tennis racket to defend my personal space from Keisha and Jasmine.

I just keep asking myself...so, when are they all going home?

Happy to Come! Happy to Go! That is what we like to see at the Ranch!

I love that dogs run down to the kennel, dragging their owners the whole long way.

I love to see how excited they are to see their owner's again, no matter how short the stay was.

Today, I am just going to be so happy to see them all go home. Just as happy as I was to see them all arrive. They have been a fun and happy group, a bit barky, but that is just to be expected. It is just that the level of physical abuse heaped on me has passed 'beyond the call of duty' and into the realm of 'cruel and unusual punishment'. Ugh.

I explained about Maki and her fist of steel. I can't keep this dog off me to save my own life. Not for lack of trying, mind you. I can't get out of petting her. So I try to keep her paws off me as best I can. Unfortunately, she leans into me when I pet her. Maki has a unique ability to shove my kneecaps off the front of my legs. Ouch.

Then there is Blue. He tries to sneak in a petting or two when I am working on Maki. Blue is a bit mouthy - he tends to put his teeth on my hands. That is a no-no in my book. So he has been getting the Dog Whisperer - tisshhh and a touch. This is actually working on him.

Midori, Midori, Midori...speed and stealth are her weapons. She can nail me with a flying leap of love and be gone before I have ever even see her. What is really unfortunate is that she has an uncanny knack for landing her leap directly on my bruise. Double Ouch!

Diesel usually only hits me on his way out of his kennel. I try to let other dogs out first so he will focus his "shot out of the gate" energy on someone who can take it. It doesn't always work.

The others, Whiskey and Sadie, have not come in direct contact with me all weekend.

Getting the Right Dog to Arrive Makes All the Difference

I was having a lousy week.

The dogs aren't playing together well. When everything jives around here, this job is a joy. When the dogs aren't having a good time, I clench up about it.

Diesel has been here awhile now and was honestly getting bored. When Khiya arrived the other day, I thought I had a good play team. Not so much. Khiya acts all excited to play with Diesel, but her enthusiasm fades in under a minute. Diesel is still suffering from his inability to read the body language of other dogs. (I was wondering if it was because he must have been taken away from his litter early.) The growls, the showing of teeth, even snapping doesn't register with him as anything more than, "Let's play MORE!"

Really, he is that oblivious.

So I had my hands full, with keeping these two apart and still try to get them to get some exercise.

Then came Dusty. He is new, small, skittish and is to be no where near either Khiya or Diesel.

Ugh!

And today came Smokey and saved my week. Smokey might be freaked out by people but dogs love him. Diesel just keeps trying to mount him and Smokey just stands there and takes it. Smokey is also big enough that there is no fear of Diesel smooshing him. Diesel was attempting to mount a Boston Terrier over the weekend, but that is another post. When Smokey breaks free of Diesel's affection, then Khiya joins the group for a lap around the play yard. Dusty is being happily ignored by the big dogs and is settling into the Ranch just fine.

And I have big sigh of relief.

No, Really I am Just Fine All By Myself

You don't have to include me in your playtime, my feelings will not be hurt. The rest of me will be hurt if you don't take this wrestling match to somewhere other than between my knees.


The only one missing from these shots is Max. He is a small and white Westie. Picture the mix, one tiny white blur mixed with three large caramel colored dogs. I can't believe I missed that photo.

Lacks Impusle Control

Diesel should come with that as a warning label. He was fine here a couple of weeks ago when he had a equally young, dumb and energetic dog, Terry, to play with. On one hand, they did look like they were killing each other. On the other hand, they did thoroughly wear each other out.

I don't always luck out and get a matched set like that. Diesel came again this week and I had no one for him to wrestle with; little dogs and old dogs.

Not only does Diesel not take 'NO!' for an answer to "Play with me!", he doesn't even realize that the other dogs don't want to play with him. When Pug, the pug, was threatening to take a chunk out of him, Diesel still thought it was great fun.

Well, at least, he has a good time - no matter what.