Tag Archives: Dogs

Ripples 

Dogs & Other Animals, ,

Think you can’t make a difference in someone’s life? Think again. Everyone can make a difference, even dogs! This is Shelby, my registered therapy dog, sitting outside the school where we go read to the kindergarteners. You can see that she’s quite proud to be wearing her “I’m a School Visitor” badge. We visit here once a month and I think that we teach the kids that reading is fun and dogs are fun. And accepting. 

One boy is a student with special needs and each time we see him, his behavior is calmer. Last time he even sat with us and the other kids for a while. Now this may have nothing to do with Shelby but I can’t help but think she plays some small part.

I’ve taken other therapy dogs to a home for profoundly disabled children and I know for a fact that the dog calmed some of these children. Kids that aren’t normally verbal make sounds. And kids that don’t interact, pet the dog. I’ve seen the same reaction with older folks who don’t interact anymore. They will ask a question or call the dog over.

We all have a chance to make a difference in the lives of others every day. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture either. Just saying hello or sharing a smile can change the course of someone’s day. And you may never know. Your kind gesture affects someone so they are nicer to someone, and so on. Small acts can make big ripples.

If a dog can do it, so can you! 

Spring Favorites 

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Uncategorized,
Cassius and Me

One of my favorite signs of spring is…hiking! Spring is the best season for this as far as I am concerned.  It’s warm, it’s sunny. Not too cold, not too hot, limited bugs. And all the green, blooming and sprouting things are good for the soul. 

Baxter

I took our dogs who enjoy long hikes on a three mile trek at West Branch State Park. I call them The Three Amigos because they go nearly  everywhere together, Cassius, Baxter, and Shelby. 

Shelby

You can tell how much fun they had by the smiles.

Shelby and Cassius

Shelby and Cassius enjoy the view. And quite a view it is.

We saw some boats.

But the nature views are the best. The dogs seem to enjoy it too, but really their favorite place to be is anywhere that I am.  My favorite place is also any place with them. That’s why we stay home a lot. The best place to be is with family. Cassius, Baxter, and Shelby are family.

Kammie and Nikki, our other two shelties, are of course family too. They just can’t hike so far anymore so they stay home. With age, comes that right! 

Benefits of Obedience 

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life, ,

Spring has, at last, sprung here in Ohio. I finally have some pictures with flowers in them. And of course dogs. One of the benefits of teaching your dogs a few obedience commands is being able to pose them with things. 

Such as flowers. 

And book displays.

And certificates. 

Dogs who know some commands get to share more of their lives with us. They are more pleasant to be around. And more trust worthy. And having a dog who listens helps keep them safe too. A few minutes every day makes a surprising difference.  Give it a try! 

The Forty Four

Dogs & Other Animals,

Nikki may look like she is posing for the camera but really she is demanding her dinner. Feed me human. My bowl isn’t going to fill itself!

It’s hard for a tiny girl to get that full feeling. I counted Nikki ‘ s kibble one evening to see how many she actually gets. (I know, I need to get a life). Forty four. She says she is going to report me to NPS. (Nikki Protective Services)

A Tired Dog Is a Good Dog 

Dogs & Other Animals, Rescue Happenings, Thoughts On Life, ,

This is the face of Baxter. He is tired after a day with frisbeeing and a long hike. What a precious face it is. He is a high energy dog. But he is all tuckered out and peaceful. 

This is Cassius the greyhound. He is also tired out and peaceful after sharing all that activity with Baxter. Cassius is also a very high energy dog which is not typical for a greyhound. 

This is Shelby. Turns out I don’t have any pictures of Shelby sleeping because she rarely does sleep during the day. She is too busy running our home. But she does it in a calm and well behaved, if controlling, manner. 

Our dogs are generally well behaved and pleasant. At least that’s what people tell me and I tend to agree. Just like all “kids” though, you can tell when they’ve been cooped up inside with insufficient exercise. They get barkier (more than normal) and they tend to get underfoot and become pesky. 

Then we must play what we call “the indoor games”. This involves one particular toy that stands on end and daddy kicks it down the center hall of the house. Here they are waiting for the kick. Whoever gets the toy first wins. They shake it for a while and then return it to daddy for the next round. There is never any fighting and everyone knows the rules. Mostly Shelby wants to bark at the other two to tell them how to behave. Once in a while she wins too by getting the toy first. And this game involves LOTS of barking by all dogs involved and those not involved bark too. Foster girl Kammie likes to hide beside the couch and bark at the players. Things become so loud with the barking and yipping that we now wear ear plugs during the game.

The point here is that a tired dog is a good and happy dog. If our dogs were not tired, I have no doubt that they would find other ways to expend that energy. They would likely resort to chewing, snapping, endless pacing and other sorts of troublesome behavior. 

We have high energy dogs. Those are the kind we prefer. But along with choosing that type of dog, comes the responsibility of filling that need of expending the energy.  If not, you are headed for trouble. I fully believe that in the wrong home, our dogs would not be well behaved. They would be trouble. 

That is the case with most of the foster dogs we have had. We tend to specialize in fostering the troublesome ones. They turn out to be wonderful dogs once they have some structure, behavioral boundaries and lots of exercise. 

So remember, a good dog is a tired dog! 

Why?

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals,

Spring-like weather, where did you go?

I was starting to remember warmer days,

But now I feel the cold wind blow.

Oh balmy sun, how I miss your rays.

A Good Day 

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals,

It’s been a beautiful day in Northeast Ohio for mid-February. It’s 64 degrees and sunny. Quite the rarity. So we loaded up three of the dogs and headed to Towners Woods for a hike.

As you can see, a good time was had by all. That’s a walk 6 out of the last 7 days for us. 

Baxter and Shelby are quite reliable. They can hike the trails off leash. They come back when they are called. Even when they see other dogs, people,  or wildlife. And then there is Cassius the greyhound. You will notice that he is NEVER off leash in the pictures, or anywhere for that matter. He’s what we call a flight risk. We know from experience that he is not reliable off lead. Granted we have only had him for six months but given his temperament we realize that he may never be. That’s ok. We still think he’s an awesome dog.

And this is what the dogs are doing after our hike. A tired dog is a good dog! 

Kammie Update 

Just wanted to give you an update on our forever foster girl, Kammie. She is doing well! 

She waits for me to give her meds twice each day. She is so polite about it, waiting for me to load the pill shooter. It is usually meal time right afterwards so that helps. 

Kammie continues to enjoy her days. You can read her intake story into Northeast Ohio Shetland Sheepdog Rescue in one of the November posts on this blog. She loves to spend time outside with the other dogs. She lines up to go out with all the others and barks her fool head off. It’s a great thing to witness. We are glad that she has the spunk to do it. (Kammie has tumors in her bladder but you would not guess.)

She joins the conga line of beggars in the kitchen when we chop vegetables. All of our dogs, with the exception of Baxter, love vegetables so we must always toss each of them a bite. Kammie is an excellent catcher! She lines up for the evening licking of the ice cream bowls, unless it is chocolate, in which all the dogs want to know why we are so cruel. In short, Kammie is enjoying life and we are enjoying her!

Lacey of The Silvery Paws 

This is Lacey of The Silvery Paws. She was dubbed with this name by one of my daughter’s friends from high school . The name fit her well. Lacey was given to me, at my request, by my sister-in-law and friend. I have had Lacey for about 16 years now.

We always thought that Lacey wasn’t  the world’s smartest cat, although maybe we were wrong. She did have a way of always getting what she wanted . She was the one who let us know if the food bowl or the water bowl were empty. And kept letting us know until they were full.

It didn’t matter if she wasn’t the world’s smartest cat because she was the world’s nicest cat. She loved everyone. Dogs, other cats, people . Above is a photo of her when she was only a couple of years old. She was hanging out with our greyhound Merlin, who joined our clan when he ran by our house one day as a stray.

Dogs were admittedly her favorite. Here she snoozes with our dog Baxter, who was dumped in our yard as a pup. See a pattern here?

But her very favorite were the foster dogs. She seemed to sense that they needed the extra comfort and affection. And here she is sleeping under the Christmas tree with our foster dog Maizie a few years ago. Lacey dearly loved Maizie. Even more than all the others. Lacey could be found sleeping by Maizie ‘ s side no matter where she was. She would snuggle right up next to her. 

Maizie died a couple years ago. She was in renal failure when she was pulled from the shelter. So she lived her last 18 months here with us. I’m sure Lacey was grateful for this.

Lacey died this morning. She gave the good fight but after battling cancer and infection for a year and a half, her time had come. I buried her earlier today with Maizie ‘ s ashes. It seems fitting that they are together again.

 

Indoor Games

Dogs & Other Animals,

Dogs!

When it has been too cold or rainy for the dogs to go outside and play, we have what we call “The Indoor Games”. This involves a particular toy that is shaped rather like a fire hydrant but is made of a rubbery substance. The dogs love this game. Infact they love it so much that they bark loudly while waiting for the human player to position the toy and kick it through the doorway and to the other end of the house.  Baxter gets so excited waiting for the toy to be kicked that he barks and sometimes in his excitement to nudge you along will poke you on the arm or backside to make you hurry. He always does this with a big smile.

Shelby, Baxter, and Cassius, the three looking at the toy, all give chase and try to grab the toy as it flies by. If no one catches it, they all give chase to see who can be the first to catch it. There is never any animosity or growling, its big smiles all around. You can see Kammie the forever foster dog watching in the foreground. There is too much craziness for her to feel comfortable being part of the chase, but she does enjoy standing on the sidelines and being part of the game by barking at everyone else.

For the humans the noise is so loud that the game generally requires earplugs or headphones. Well worth it though to see such big smiles on everyone in the house, dogs and humans included. (The cats just think we are all insane as they look on, wondering what we could possibly be doing.)