Bad Dogs

First a couple of things, its snowing again. Just a real light snow but consistent. Snowed all day yesterday too. I’m not doing anything today.

This morning about 7am, I was woken up by my cell phone telling me I had a voice mail from twenty minutes earlier. I would figure if that notice alarm woke me up that surely the phone ringing would have but again, my phone has failed to ring. It was already 7 and I didn’t have the truck so I called Dr. Farrell to see if he would take the call since it would be 45 minutes to an hour before I could get there. He agreed and apparently his truck is still in the shop anyhow.

Yesterday, I had to do farm calls-horse vaccinations and coggins at two places with my own car. It was fine and all. Of course, there were horses that were jerks about getting blood drawn. I’ve got to figure out the best way to approach that. Its frustrating for me.

Joe went to St. Joe for the weekend. Like I said, I’m not going to do anything. Work upstairs some, clean the house. Possibly, buy myself a birthday present-a vintage dressmakers form.

Anyway, this post is about how much of jerks my dogs are. Every last one of them.

Riley by herself can be pretty good. Her favorite place is still underneath the futon. Sometimes she’ll get up on the couch with me but you pet her wrong or move or Sadie jumps up here too and Riley is back underneath the couch and is upset. And she doesn’t really come when called.

Sadie’s housebreaking issues have seemed to resolve mostly. Outside, her incident of running away is significantly decreased. Add in an unseen rabbit or cat in the backyard though and all that coming when called or staying close is out the window. Sometimes shaking the treat container helps bring her back, sometimes it still takes a minute. Letha suggest training the dogs to a whistle. I think I might start this weekend on it.

Mary is the one that I can’t deal with though. The instant that she hears that you are awake-one time of the alarm going off, getting out of bed to go to the bathroom-she starts whining. Its this high pitched annoying yelp and then a cry. We’ve tried ignoring it. We’ve tried yelling at her about it-sometimes a firm ‘MARY, QUIET!’ will get her quiet for just a little while. Its not that she needs to go out. She can go all day in her crate, but of course, she’s been whining all day too according to the neighbors. I’d like to stop it so I can sleep without guilt or without waking up. I’ve been thinking about getting one of those no bark things (because the dogs bark too much at pretty much everything-doorbells in real life or on TV, things going on outside (kids riding bikes, people on walks, people getting out of cars, the mailman) and Joe coming home) but I don’t want to punish the corgis that are being quiet. Maybe a shock collar if it would work from upstairs. I could shock her when she started whining. Knowing Mary though, she wouldn’t get it. Maybe sneaking downstairs and spraying her with water when she whines? That involves lots of work and not being in bed on my part. I really also don’t like Mary barking at me in the morning or when I get home from work. It feels like my head might explode especially after a long day of working with dogs.

More and more, I’ve really decided that I’m a cat person. Bess can be a jerk but its simply because she’s a cat. She’s cute and nice. She doesn’t listen because she doesn’t have to. She’s a cat. Sure, I love cuddling on some dogs-especially some goldendoodle puppies but eventually those puppies will grow up into a jerk dog. Sigh.