Selfie Saturday

Charlotte and I discovered Photo Booth on my Macbook. We are soooo technologically savvy! NOT!

Charlotte the Hoover

I've trained my dog to pick things up for me. It's a great trick. I tap at something on the ground with my foot and she picks it up with her mouth and hands it to me. I originally started training her this trick as a form of punishment for tearing up a paper towel. My thought was, "Why should I have to pick that up? I'm not the one who chewed it up." So, with clicker in one hand and a bunch of treats in the other, we began. She picked up the concept pretty quickly. Getting her to put it in the trash took a little more work. Half the time it landed on the ground next to the container.

I decided to expand this skill to include her toys. She only has about 15 billion of them because I'm an over indulgent pet owner. Just ask my husband. So, we worked on picking up our toys and putting them back in the basket. This one went a little rougher. She'd pick up a toy, put in the basket, take another toy out of the basket. And then another. And then she started dropping them in the trash can...I obviously failed to define the difference in receptacles. Okay. Better to have her hand them to me and I'd put them in the appropriate place.

This worked out great! We progressed from toys to stray socks, or things I dropped. I hardly ever have to bend down any more.

Well, because she's Charlotte, she has a thing against stuffed animals being stuffed. Particularly if there is a squeaker in it. She'll create a hole, remove the stuffing, remove the squeaker, remove more stuffing. I'll rescue the toy, sew it back up and return it to her. Often she commits these murders in her crate, so I don't see the stuffing at first because it's not in my line of sight.

Charlotte in the "Crate of Shame" with her next victim.

Well, one morning last week, I'm sitting in my chair, having my morning coffee and here comes Charlotte with a big old piece of fluff in her mouth. She walks up to me and deposits it in my lap. My eyebrows go up and I say in a surprised voice "good girl!" and I give her a treat. She trots off and moments later, here she comes with another piece of fluff. So I give her another treat. And this continues until all the fluff is picked up.

Now, every morning, while I'm sitting in my chair, here comes Charlotte with a piece of trash. And yes, for every piece of trash she gets a treat. These are hardly big treats. I keep cat treats on hand and she gets one or two depending on the size of the piece of trash. But even this she seemed to figure out. Suddenly she's picking up three and four pieces at a time and bringing them to me. Of course I reward her with more or bigger treats.

Here's the truly funny part though. This morning she ran out of fluff and bits of paper to bring to me. So she brought me a feather that had escaped from my down blanket. Then she brought me a hairball one of the cats had hacked up. Now if I could only get her to sweep up all the fur she sheds I could stop cleaning all together!

Crazy Dog People

You know  those crazy dog people? The ones who are covered in pet fur and sporting bumper stickers like this on their car?

Yeah... I think I might be one of those people. What am I saying? I started  a  blog  for my dog. Of course I'm one of those  people.

It wasn't  the blog that clued me in though. It was the treats. Today I reached into my coat pocket  and  pulled out a baggie of treats. I wasn't  surprised, I'd just  forgotten  that  I hadn't taken them out after our walk. This has been happening  more and more lately.

I take my dog with in the car quite often because the excitement  of going new places is good for her. In the car is my "doggie diaper bag".  It contains a spare leash, her harness for when she gets overly excited and I don't want her to strangle herself, a ball, a frisbee, a bag of training treats (of course), a spare clicker, poop bags, and a collapsible bowl and water bottle. Oh and a pair of gloves. Those are for me.

The treats may be getting out of hand though. We have a jar in every room of the house. It started as one jar in the kitchen. It started as "you get a treat when you come in from going potty outside successfully." Then I discovered  the idea of clicker training and positive reinforcements. So I put a jar in the living room so we could work on training while watching TV. Hey, if you're laying on the couch the last thing you want to do when the dog sits on command is to jump up from your comfy position to walk into the kitchen for a treat. This doesn't  work because the moment you get up, the dog gets up and follows you. So now she thinks she's  getting  a  reward for following  you to the kitchen .  So there's  a  jar next to the computer, next to my reading chair, in the craft room as well as the original one in the kitchen and living room.

Yep, officially a crazy dog person. But she's  so darn cute!

And pardon me for saying  so, but my dog is really smart. She can do anything -as long as you have a treat. ;)

Don't Chew the Bear

I bought Charlotte a bear from the Goodwill. It cost $.50 

I thought she'd enjoy something she could play with that was large enough to pounce on - cat sized - that wasn't a cat.  She did. However she really enjoyed chewing on his eyes and nose. 

I asked her not to chew on his nose and eyes.

I think I made her sad.

How I Became a Dog Mom

Just over a year ago I adopted a dog. Well, she was a puppy then. But she's a 58 pound puppy now. We named her Charlotte Bronte because we name all our animals after authors.

The cats were/are Samuel L. Clemens,

and Agatha Christie.

Except for Eddie. He was named after my favorite newscaster/anchor, Edward R. Murrow. I was in Journalism for all four years in high school.

Sammy passed last January. That's how we ended up with Charlotte. This is what she looked like when we brought her home.

This is what she looks like now.

The loss of a pet leaves a hole that needs to be filled. Especially if you don't have children. And I wanted a pet I could take places. I know people take their cats places, but mine throw a holy bitch fit if I stick them in the car even to go the vet. Going for a walk with one is like dragging a 10lb. sack of flour around on a leash.

When I was convincing my husband we should adopt her, I said I needed something to nurture. I got that and then some. That's how I became a dog mom.