Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Clueless – Author’s Note:

Most of you commented that you wouldn’t have a problem walking with me, that made me feel better.  The reason you’d walk with me is because you all understand the importance of having a well-behaved dog.

I like my dogs to be ambassador’s of the dog world and not a reason for people to ban them.  I believe you all feel the same way about your dogs.  Unfortunately most of the dog people I’ve encountered in my little corner of the world apparently think they are entitled to let their dogs run willy-nilly.

Besides you are my friends, at least until you meet me in person. 🙂

Would You Pay? – Author’s Note

Oh my dog ya’ll, did you think I was trying to raise funds for a dog park?

I don’t have the time or energy for that!

I was thinking of what my idea of a perfect dog park would be, and I thought I’d pay to have something that I wanted.  I just thought I’d throw it out to you.

Although I did take Julie’s advice and submitted the idea to the Beneful Dream park.  What the heck, I didn’t have anything to lose. 🙂

WTF/Whoo Hoo Wednesday – Author’s Note

In my WTF/Whoo Hoo Wednesday post, Al commented on the picture of Sampson and Delilah.

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If ever a picture depicted the two different personalities of Delilah and Sampson, that one does.”

I’ve said it before, these dogs are polar opposites, they are literally like night and day in every way, except for two.

They are both very loving and both very, very easy to love.

That about wraps up my week, how was yours?  Anything exciting planned for the weekend?

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Please feel free to grab the badge and join me in recapping or wrapping up your week.   It doesn’t matter if you do it every week or just once in  a while.

This week’s posts have been largely focused on training.  If you have a dog you understand some part of your life will always include training.

I’d like anyone who’s struggling with a challenging dog to know that there is hope.

Don’t give up, check out new trainers, new sports, new groups.  Find something that works for both you and your dog.

Practice Makes Perfect –  Update:

On yesterday’s walk I took Delilah off-leash again.  As soon as I took her off, I called her back.  Anytime she got too far ahead of me, I called her back.  Most of the time she kept coming back to me on her own, or kept looking back at me, as if she wanted my approval.

I gave it to her, along with lots of treats.

Again I kept her off-leash time to a limit, then back on leash she went.

It is the small successes that add up.

Passive Aggressive – Author’s Note

I think I could write another full post on this particular topic.  There is so much I want to say, about the way people around me train and take care of their dogs.  Look for me to come back to this topic at a future date.

WTF/Whoo Hoo Wednesday – Update

Pamela was kind enough to point out that I missed a great big Whoo Hoo.  And that would be to the eight strangers who banded together to get the GDS, Misty down from the mountain.

That was my bad.  I was trying to shorten my post and get it published in a timely fashion.  And truthfully, sometimes the WTF really brings me down.

My friend at 2 Brown Dawgs blog mentioned in the comments that she read the entire thread regarding Misty’s rescue.

I didn’t.

Apparently the dog’s plight was posted on the message board and a group of people got together and went in and rescued Misty.

Then her owner came forward.

Which once again is a topic for an entire post, but only after I read the entire thread. 🙂

That’s it for me, hope you have a great weekend!

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Please feel free to grab the badge and join me in recapping or wrapping up your week.   It doesn’t matter if you do it every week or just once in  a while.

Drifting – Author’s Note:

This week I was back at work and found I did much less drifting.  I was more focused on getting done what needed to get done.

I caught up on the blogs in my google reader, managed to get most blog posts up in a timely manner.

Walking the dogs wasn’t too bad.  Monday I gave them a quick walk after work.  Tuesday was training class so I left Sampson’s walk up to Hubby.  Wednesday was too hot to walk during the day so Hubby and I had a quick walk around the block at dusk.   Last night we ran into our walking friend and her dog and ended up going to check out her house, where the dogs got some swimming in.

This time my friend was able to show Delilah how to get into the pool.  Her first couple of returns were a little panicked as she tried to find a way out, but by her third time in, she knew right where to go.

Here is a little video I took of her fetching a toy.

I’m not sure if you can see in the video but she opens her feet so wide, it almost looks like a duck’s foot.

Here Here! – Author’s Note:

When Delilah and I were at training class on Tuesday, our instructor commented on how well she was doing.

Yes she really is.

I really have hope.

Did You Ever Have One Of Those Days – Author’s Note:

When you are having a day like I was, it is sometimes hard to spin it and find the positive, but somehow you need to.  So here is how I spun that.

Work – The little rush to clean the office resulted in me finally getting the majority of my desk cleaned off.  I finished it up yesterday morning.  I switched my phone and calculator and found that I like it much better.  The phone cord is no longer interfering with my mouse which is causing me much less stress.

The Screen – The best thing is that Delilah did not hurt herself in her frenzy to get the cat and the bonus is I get a new screen out of the deal.  The best part is Hubby recently learned to repair screens and the cost will be minimal.

It’s all about the positive here at Stone Manor.

How was your week?

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Please feel free to grab the badge and join me in recapping or wrapping up your week.   It doesn’t matter if you do it every week or just once in  a while.

I find myself a little light on the Follow-Up Friday post today.  Do you think that means I’m actually becoming a better blogger and covering everything I need to in the initial posts.

NAH, me either!  I think I just got lucky this week. 🙂

Happy Birthday My Love – Author’s Note

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes for Sampson.  He had a pretty decent day.  I took him for a long walk Monday morning and I made sure to put some watermelon in his Kong for his night-time treat.

For some reason my posts never come out quite as good on the blog as they sound in my head. 😦  I actually downloaded a recording app for my phone so when I think of something I can immediately record it.

The post in my head was WAY better than the post I actually wrote, but unfortunately I didn’t use the recording app so it’s lost forever.  Or at least until the next time I think of it.

I do have one question for you, does anyone else get sad on their pet’s birthday?  For some reason the older he gets the sadder I am on this special day.

How Do You Train Two Dogs? – Author’s Note

Most of you already figured out it’s best to separate the dogs, I just don’t know why I didn’t think of it!

So how was your week?  Did you accomplish everything you set out to?  I know I didn’t. 😦

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Please feel free to grab the badge and join me in recapping or wrapping up your week.   It doesn’t matter if you do it every week or just once in  a while.

Another Post About Poop – Update

Delilah’s little peeper hasn’t shown itself again.  All subsequent poops have been normal.  I guess it was me, just being…..well me.

Tasty Tuesday – Author’s Note

Sampson and Delilah get a snack every single night.  A long time ago it used to be a rawhide twist.

I’ve heard some people say it’s bad and others say it isn’t.  I don’t really know, what I do know is that using the rawhide was

1) Expensive and

2) Well let’s just say you wouldn’t want to be around Delilah as she’s trying to swallow a 4 inch x 4 inch strip of rawhide.  Once she got it stuck and if she hadn’t been smart enough to use her paw to dislodge it….I was just getting ready to reach in there and remove it.

I decided switching to stuffed Kongs was a little more work on my part, but better for them in the long run.  I can stuff it with whatever I want and both dogs enjoy it.

Since they get one every night, I like to try to think of new and different things to add to the Kongs, or different ways to change it up.  Hence the occasional white bone.

W.T.F./Whoo Hoo Wednesday – Author’s Note

I’m completely outraged at this story, I can’t believe people can be so disrespectful and hurtful to others.  I do hope United checks into this and I do hope they take the appropriate action.

There are too many choices and too many media outlets for disgruntled customers to express their displeasure.  I think if I ran a company in this day and age my focus would be on customer service.

Training Tidbits – Author’s Note

I do agree with those of you who pointed out that you don’t always want to use treats with your dogs.  I totally get that and I hope at some point to begin weaning Delilah off the treats.   When you are beginning to train/teach/shape a behavior you tend to reward for every small success, but as your dog gets better and quicker at responding you begin to treat less.

As for Jersey’s dad, well I have no idea what his training methods with her are.  I have no idea if he has been training her for a long time or has just decided to take part in her training recently.

It’s really not fair for me to judge him without knowing all the facts, but it did provide my inner bitch with some amusement and thought it would be nice to share.

While I will be weaning Delilah off the treats, I may never wean her from treats on a recall.  Honestly if giving her a treat when she comes back to me keeps her coming back, then I will treat her each and every time.  😉

Lastly before I wrap this up I want to let you know I’m very behind in responding to your comments.  I do like to respond to as many as possible but you also may have noticed I’ve changed the scheduling of my blog posts.

I’m still working on getting into the rhythm of the new schedule so I ask you to please bear with me.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Follow-Up Friday

You may have noticed a new badge on my side-bar.  Since I really lack creativity in the designing department I struggled with this, but finally decided on a simple theme for Follow-Up Friday.  Please feel free to grab the badge and join me in recapping or wrapping up your week.   It doesn’t matter if you do it every week or just once in  a while.

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

2012 Goals – Check Point – Author’s Note

You were so kind in your comments and I really appreciate that, I am however extremely critical of myself and while I reviewed these goals I realized I have a tremendous amount of work left to do in the last half of the year.

I think Bob Harper might be out of the question as no amount of tweeting, or facebooking has even garnered a I’m sorry I don’t follow fans from him.

Really, who needs someone like that following them?  I can concede defeat on this goal and I shall do it gracefully, without adding Bob Harper to WTF Wednesday. 🙂

For the rest of the goals, I really need to step up my game.

Bloggers Unite For Dog Rescue – Author’s Note

Rescue is near and dear to my heart as you all know.  My dear sweet sometimes trying Delilah came to me via rescue.  This was not the BTC that I had planned, but I do so want to shine the light on these sweet dogs who through no fault of their own end up in shelters.  If I can help save one dog, that would be incredible.

Monday Mischief – Update

This mischief was totally my fault.  I could leave a plate of food on the floor and tell Sampson to leave it, but that is not the case with Delilah.  I need to make sure anything that might even resemble food to her, is put away. 🙂

The Correct Way – Author’s Note

Most of you knew the correct way to hold a leash.  Why were you holding out on me? 🙂

Julie said, I think I need you to take a picture . . I’m a visual person.  I’m with you in that boat Julie.  So here it is.

The loop of the leash goes around your thumb like so.

Begin gathering the leash.

A gathered (accordion) leash gives you better control.

As of the writing of this post I am still sitting in my pajamas (don’t you love vacations) so I cannot show you how the other arm helps control your dog.  I promise to get a picture of that later. 🙂

W.T.F./Whoo Hoo Wednesday – Author’s Note

Unless the Arizona officer was like Jim Belushi’s character in K-9, I’m fairly certain he didn’t deliberately leave the dog in the car.  I still however question his ability to remain calm and cool in stressful situations.

As for the Whoo Hoo portion, well I think Officer W serves as a wonderful example of what we as dog owners SHOULD expect from our law enforcement.

Thoughts From A Walk – Author’s Note

I can’t say with any certainty that is what the dogs are thinking, but you can be sure my thoughts are accurate.

That’s it for me, I’m off to walk the dogs.  It is currently raining and cool so I’m hoping there will be no bugs and no sweat on this walk. 😉

Any takers and thoughts on the Follow-Up Friday badge?  I’m open to any suggestions from you very creative types.

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

If you like this idea of wrapping posts up on your blog, please feel free to use Follow-Up Friday.  I plan on working on a badge that you will be able to use should you choose to participate. (Thanks for the idea, 2BrownDawgs!)

Mock 10 With My Hair On Fire – Author’s Note

Some of you noted I have quite a bit of Springsteen on my playlist, what can I say, I’m a Jersey Girl at heart. 😉

Siriusly, Springsteen’s music really helped me through a hard time and I find myself still turning to the songs that made me feel so good when things were so bad.  So many of his songs still resonate with me.

My Vet’s In A Sling – Update

I think we caught this allergy really early, I noticed Sampson doesn’t seem to be breaking out with any new hives.  The few that are there appear to be drying up.

He finished his third full day of two per day Prednisone today, tomorrow he starts one per day.  I did cut him back on the Benadryl because something seemed to be making him a little uncomfortable.  I noticed he was really clingy on Wednesday night.  Since his last Prednisone was this morning I may just give him two Benadryl tonight and see how that goes.

BTW when we were are the vet’s I mentioned my little cell phone post and she said that’s exactly WHY she doesn’t give her number out.  LOL

WTF Wednesday – Author’s Note

I was heartened to hear Victoria Stillwell is calling for an investigation into the Belfast City Council’s actions.  Whether Lennox was actually euthanized on Wednesday or if he had already passed their actions were cruel and callous, bordering on pure maliciousness.

The stories I am hearing just make me want to cry.  I cannot believe people can treat animals and other human beings so cruelly.

If I were a citizen of Belfast and Ireland in general I would be calling for terminations of positions and I would be letting people know in no uncertain terms exactly what I thought of them.

Lennox may be gone, but he will never be forgotten, as cruel and horrific as this is, I pray it’s an enlightenment for many as to just how unfair and unjust BSL.

Puppy Steps – Author’s Note

Our homework for this week (besides working on the commands we worked on in class) was to start learning the take command.  I saw my opportunity when I walked in the door tonight and Delilah brought me her stuffed toy.

I said, take and held out the treat.  She dropped the toy like she was supposed to but once she knew I had treats, she wouldn’t touch the toy again!

Any thoughts on how to work through that? LOL

That’s it for me, I hope you have a great weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Why My Vet Shouldn’t Give Me Her Cell Phone Number – Author’s Note

This was a really fun post to write, even funnier because well…..I could actually see it happening.  Like I said, I like to have direct access to people who are important to me, but sometimes I can be a little obsessive.

I know you’re shocked.  It’s ok.  Sometimes it takes me by surprise too.

What’s Right For Your Dog? – Author’s Note

I firmly believe that all dogs, like all children and husbands, (Ok Big Al!) and all wives are different.  Dogs have unique and individual personalities just like people do.

Not everyone likes step-aerobics, right? So why should all dogs like agility?

Don’t feel guilty about how much exercise your dog is getting.  Just enjoy your dog and enjoy doing things with him/her.

WTF Wednesday – Author’s note

I signed the petition and shared it here and on my facebook page.  I wrote to every e-mail on that list as well as to the two Senators from Indiana.

The last time I checked they were 443 votes away from meeting their goal of 20,000 signatures.  I googled the event to try to find out if any action had been taken to stop the event.

I found more than one site that was dedicated to eradicating this horrific event.  Apparently opposition was very close to stopping this event last year.

Won’t you please do your part by sharing and signing?

As for Kingston, well I have no answers there.  You can talk until you are blue in the face to some people and you just can’t get through.  I feel sad for this dog because they are not doing him any favors and are really putting him at risk for injury or worse.

Thwarted Again – Update

I thank you all for hanging in here and helping me through this process.  When it comes to writing I can be somewhat creative, but coming up with witty names just isn’t my forte.  Notice the ingenuity regarding the name of this blog.

I have to confess, I really got a case of the giggles when I came up with “Doindoggiestyle.com”  and I still think it would be funny, but it’s just not a great name for googling, you know what I mean? 😉

I did have two FABULOUS ideas from two different commenters.

Al said, Jodi, how about barksandbytes.com

Then Peggy said,  I’ve seen it done like writerjodistone or jodistonewrites.

I like both of these ideas and they are both available.

Since I wanted to include my name in the title I am currently leaning towards jodistonewrites.com.

I’m still considering calling the woman who owns, ‘Be the Dog’ and perhaps collaborating with her on a tee-shirt.

Anyone interested in a tee-shirt?

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Be The Dog – Author’s Note

I think this started with Lena West’s “You can do it now or NOW.”  I sat down to write a witty blog post about how Lena had motivated me and boom!  There it was, “Be The Dog.”

I love it.  Be The Dog.

I could see the tee-shirts, bumper stickers, speaking engagements (why not, it’s my fantasy.) 🙂

Then I checked the trademark office and the saying is trademarked.

Boo.  Hiss.

I’m still working out the kinks on this one, so hold tight.

No-One Calls My Dog A Behemoth! – Author’s Note

I should have been clear in the post.  Delilah came to us from a rescue.   The vet who originally examined her said she was spayed.  The rescue took the vet’s word because….well you should trust your vet.

As soon as I realized she was in heat, I contacted the rescue.  Originally they agreed to pay $125.00 which is the normal fee they paid their vets for spaying.

Delilah’s spaying was $325.00.  They told me it was so high because she was a big dog, had already had a litter of puppies and she still had a lot of the pregnancy fat that they had to go through to spay her.

Delilah’s adoption fee was $375.00 and here we were three months later shelling out another $325.00 making her a $700.00 dog.  So much for rescuing I thought.

But the rescue ponied up the entire $325.00.  The vet’s office faxed over the bill and we had a check in hand within a matter of days.

I was not upset with the rescue, they received the wrong information and they made it right.  You can’t ask for much more than that.

As for that vet from hell, well a short time later I received a notice that the owner had sold the practice and it was under new ownership.  By this time I already had my new vet who I love.

Just like the previous owner, I left that practice and never looked back.

My blog was pretty focused on  “Just Be The Dog”  this past week, so that’s it for my Follow-Up Friday. 🙂

Have an awesome weekend.

 

Follow-Up Friday

For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

Hot Car = Dead Dog – Author’s Note

Your comments gave me so very many ideas, I just don’t know where to begin.

Julie over at The Daily Dog Blog made an excellent poster, “When is it too hot for your dog.”  This poster has lots of great information on it and Julie has made it easy to print off.  I made about 10 copies that I intend to put in my car, just in case.  I also will be stopping at the Dollar Store in the next few days to pick up some thermometers like Jodi Chick suggested to have on hand should I come across a dog in a car.

I did have a thought about making a video but I’m going to need a bit of help on it.  Can any of you who do video-editing suggest an inexpensive program I could use to edit video?

And rest assured it does not require me locking a dog in a car!

WTF Wednesday – Author’s Note

To answer a couple of questions left in the comments.

1) I am 99% sure Hubby does NOT read this blog.  (There is of course always the tiniest chance he will, but I won’t hold my breath.)

2) Delilah does NOT sleep with an eye mask.  Sampson however will.  Once I put one on him and left the room and a short time later he came out without it.  When he was done sleeping he just took it off.  LOL I love that dog.

The Pupperatzi just won’t leave me alone!

It Won’t Kill Them To Miss A Day – Author’s Note

Some of you agreed with Mr. Reluctant in the comments, don’t worry I don’t hold it against you. 🙂

I will say that knowing my dogs, I know how much their daily walk means to them.  The other night when we walked around the block Mr. Reluctant looked at Sampson and said, “Look how happy he is to be out walking.”

With that being said, there are certain times such as weather or time constraints when a walk just isn’t possible.  In that instance, it is my job as the caregiver to provide them with something stimulating which will help them release their pent-up energy.

This is especially true with Delilah, I’ve found the better exercised she is, the better behaved she is as well.

Despite the heat, we will manage to exercise the dogs, whether it be in physically or mentally.

That’s it for us, so how was your week?