The Sanctuary Acres dogs (minus Nikki) posing for a photo during their walk.
It was a beautiful 46 degree December day. I estimate the average temperature for this time of year would usually be about 30 degrees.
Tag Archives: Dogs
Post Christmas Hike
Can you believe this photo was taken yesterday, December 26th? It was 66 degrees in northeastern Ohio, the day after Christmas.
So of course, we took this fine opportunity to go hiking with dogs. This most of the pack, sans Nikki. She is 12 and no longer up to going on walks. Zekie, Shelby, Cassius, and Baxter thought hiking was a grand idea.
Zekie, my reactive dog, even did very well. He was fine with the other people we encountered. We only met one other dog whose owners had him on the side of the trail. I told Zekie that he was being a good dog, and to keep going with the “on by” command. He looked at the other dog a few times but did not bark or react until the other dog, who appeared to also be reactive, barked. But after Zekie barked in response a couple times, he continued walking at my command. It was a proud moment for me!
Good boy, Zekie, good boy!
Christmas Gone to the Dogs!
Merry Christmas dear Readers.
Our dogs had an enjoyable day as well. The Sheltie girls got treats. Nikki’s are soft for her old teeth. Shelby got chews. Zekie got a nylabone chew toy.
Cassius got a new coat of his very own! No more hand me downs from previous greyhounds.
And Santa brought Baxter two frisbees!
Cassius tried to make off with one of the frisbees.
Cassius, Baxter, and Shelby even got to join in for Christmas at grandma’s!
I hope all of you got to spend the holiday with your loved ones as well.
Visiting With Friends
The pups did good work visiting at the nursing home last evening. Here Nikki holds court with her admirers. Really she just doesn’t like to be on the floor because she’s afraid she’ll get stepped on. She’s laying on my coat so she won’t scratch the table. If I put her between two people like this, they can both Pet her.
Cassius also did some fine work relaxing the residents, and himself. He gets the hang of it a little more with each visit. He goes up to some people on his own now without me leading him every step of the way. He certainly enjoys our visits. He can’t wait to get in the car.
Shelby is my old pro. I can give her voice commands and hands on where to go and who to visit. Here she is visiting with a new resident. She makes me proud.
Taking the dogs visiting was what I did on my birthday. It was a fine end to an enjoyable day.
Training and Walking
I have heard it said that racing greyhounds can’t or don’t sit. They are even exempt from the sit during Therapy Dog testing. Our retired racers have always learned to sit, some better than others. So I have started working on teaching Cassius the sit command. I put him into the position and praise like crazy. We will have to wait and see if he catches on like the others have.
In my renewed effort to walk dogs regularly, we have been walking this week. I always take Zekie because he has so much to learn to be a “normal” dog. He is doing excellent on his sits, downs, and stays. It will soon be time to work on these commands with distractions at a distance. But when it’s just us, he does great.
See how well Zekie holds his sit-stay. I couldn’t keep Cassius in a sit, but he did do a stand-stay. I’ll take it for now. He at least stays still enough for a picture.
Cassius was confused as to why were not going inside though. He thought since there was a door, that we should enter and see what there was to see. Zeke kept his sit but seemed puzzled as to what Cassius was doing. So was I, Zekie, so was I.
All these shenanigans were apparently very exhausting. Of course Cassius is originally from a racetrack in Florida so the cold may have played a part in wearing him out too. Cassius came home and felt the need to take a nap. A tired dog is a good dog. Good boy, Cassius.
New Adventures
I am enjoying my first week of retirement. This morning I decided to take Zeke and Shelby for a walk down the road and back for some exercise and some training. We walked down to the township park which is about 3/4 of a mile away. On the way we stopped occasionally to practice sits, downs, and stays. The picture above was taken while practicing stays in front of the local church. They had this pretty garland up for Christmas and I thought it made for the perfect photo opportunity while we were working on holding a sit. The pups did very well, especially considering that the recycling truck was emptying dumpsters just a few houses away. Shelby was not a fan of the grinding and banging but she did hold her stay.
We live in a small, rural community and apparently people are active in the morning. I never knew this because I was at work. On our way home a lady opened her front door to greet us as we passed by on the street. When she first saw Shelby, she thought her dog got out because she has a sheltie too. Once she realized it wasn’t her dog, she opened the door anyway to introduce herself and say hello. We talked for several minutes and I’m sure we will talk again as we had lots to say.
The dogs and I walked a short distance farther and another lady driving by in a van stopped to say hello and introduce herself. She said she knew where we lived and that I had visited another nearby homebound neighbor with two of the shelties before. We visited for a couple minutes then went on our separate ways. I learned that she also lives nearby.
What a lovely morning getting to meet two neighbors that I had never encountered before. I think that I am going to like this different life outside of the work environment. It is foreign to me but that just means it is a new adventure.
This is Zeke shortly after we returned from our walk and training. When the lady stopped in the van, he wasn’t sure if this was ok or if he should protect me. I told him it was alright and as the lady and I talked, Zeke relaxed. He was a good boy. This was a relief because he can sometimes be reactive to people or dogs that he does not know. But his response this time was just right. All the activity and decision making apparently wore him out. He needed a nap, so crashed on the living room couch with his head on the pillow.
I can’t wait to see what adventures tomorrow brings!
Zekie’s New Adventures
Zekie’s life just got immeasurably better. I am retired officially as of today. Zekie suffers from severe separation anxiety that we have never been successful in treating. We tried training, behavioral therapy, holistic medicine, prescription drugs. None of them have made a difference. We have only been able to contain him, and that has not been without extreme challenges.
Now Zekie won’t have to deal with me leaving every morning and being gone all day. At least not unless I get a job sometime down the road. Any time that I go away should only be for relatively brief periods of time. I can also be here to work on more extensive training with him and see if I can get control of some of his other behaviors.
He is an extremely smart dog. This has not always been to his or our benefit. Yesterday I went out to the pasture to bring the dogs back inside. Zeke grabbed the frisbee and was taking it to the house. I asked him, what are you doing? He stopped and looked at me. I told him, leave that outside. He put the frisbee down. I told him, go put that back in the pasture. And so he did. He picked the frisbee up, ran out and put the frisbee down inside the pasture fence, then followed me back to the house.
If a dog is that smart, there must be some way that I can communicate to him that we will always come back, that he is not being abandoned. It is just up to me to be smart enough to figure it out. But while we are working on obedience training and emotional health for Zekie, I get the pleasure and joy of hanging out with him and the other animals everyday.
Life is good. Peace be with you.
The Three Amigos
Since it gets dark so early now, we never made it for a walk today. So, we took the three boys out to the pasture to play and expend some energy. This helps keep them out of trouble and provides entertainment for them and us.
The girls, Nikki and Shelby, wanted to stay inside.
The boys got to frisbee and play with the jolly ball. Zekie wanted to know if I wanted his frisbee. As you can see, frisbees have a short life here. We keep this one for Zekie because he thinks the goal is to disassemble them. He has become a good catcher though.
Baxter takes things very seriously and would never, ever hurt a frisbee. He will let the other dog have it rather than rip his prized frisbee.
Cassius will often catch the frisbee, but his favorite is to chase and chew his jolly ball.
So, although there was no walk, a fun time was had by all.
Etsy Site Coming Soon!
I will be retiring from my job of 32+ years at the end of the month. What does this mean for my immediate future? I will soon be opening an Etsy site as well as spending more time on the blog!
I intend to focus the blog a little more on the country lifestyle. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty about dogs. But since my life won’t be tied up with a full time job, at least for a bit, I should have more time to spend on home based endeavors.
The Etsy site will have arts and crafts as pictured, for sale. I also plan to have gourmet dog biscuits available. Other items are still in the planning stage. Perhaps bandanas that slip over dog collars.
I will keep you apprised as the site gets closer to going live. This next chapter in my life promises to be full of change.
I can tell you, Zekie has been waiting and waiting for me to stay home with him. If every dog has his day, Zekie’s is coming soon!
Reminiscing About Foster Dogs
I was in the process of organizing old photos today and came across some of a few of the dogs, but by no means all, that we have fostered over the years for Northeast Ohio Shetland Sheepdog Rescue. I thought you would like to see them too.
More pictures of foster dogs will be shared in a future post. They all went on to wonderful homes.
Sanctuary Acres 