Friday, October 10, 2008 by Dana.

All this week, the wife and kids have been out of town… So I have been walking the dogs before work in the morning so they don’t go completely crazy waiting for me to get home from work to go to the dog park.  Two days ago (Oct 7), I walked the dogs a mile up the street to the community park.  When we arrived and turned the corner, a young coyote was standing there 15-20 yards from us.  My 3 dogs didn’t react right away (like they do for rabbits), but they did start to bark after a few moments.  Then the coyote took off to the back of the park.

Seeing a coyote in our neighborhood is not that unusual, but it was the first time that I’ve seen one in the daylight.  Usually we see them in the evening, catching the glare of their eyes in the car headlights.   Then later that day, I came across this article on AZ Central (on-line version of our local news) about cats getting eaten by coyotes.  While I am sure many people in rural areas are familiar with coyotes, the only other time I’ve seen a similar threat to urban pets was in Florida when opportunistic alligators would make a meal of a dog chained up in a backyard.

Have you seen more coyotes lately?  Lose a cat?

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Sunday, September 21, 2008 by Dana.

Several times a week, we take our 3 dogs to a dog park.  For those not familiar with having a dog in Suburbia, a dog park is the only place other than your home where you can have your dog off a leash so it can run, get exercise, or mark his territory on a shrub.
Our 3 dogs have a very high-drive, which means we have to get them out often to run and play.  Nothing against the dog park, but it is analogous to taking your child to a McDonald’s Playland.  You would rather your kids be able to run through the woods or play in the barn like you did as a kid, but here you have to expose them to a germ-infested area of plastic slides and snot-covered plastic balls.  For the dogs, you can’t take them to the neighborhood park to play fetch or even let them out to chase a rabbit in the neighborhood.  You have to expose them a collection of potentially sick dogs and shrubs marked with more urine than an urban fire hydrant.

As working with them on new tricks… forget about it!  There are far too many distractions with multiple different dogs and people.  A couple of our dogs have learned to fetch a tennis ball in the backyard, yet they will make no effort to do so at the dog park.  The distractions keep them from giving you the focus to complete the trick, plus our dogs have no interest in sharing a tennis ball with hundreds of other dogs.  You don’t know where that ball has been, and the dogs seem to understand the same concept.  Taking your own ball is not an option unless you want to see your dogs get into a fight with another dog that thinks it can chase any ball in the park.

What can we do? Nothing.  It is what it is.  The leash laws are because a few aggressive dogs have hurt or killed people.  Even if you have an old, arthritic dog with 3 legs that is blind in one eye, you still have to have it on a leash.   Should we go back to holding people accountable if their dog is not kept in control so those that can control their dogs can take them to any park to play?  What are your thoughts?

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Wednesday, September 3, 2008 by Dana.

Here is the scenario… You are a 78 yr old, curmudgeon that carries a cane but does not need one.  You are walking one block to the shared mailbox location in your neighborhood.  Your neighbor arrives home on his Harley after a long day at work, and his 3 herding dogs come out to greet him with excited barks and much jumping.  While greeting their master, 2 of the dogs spot a rabbit in the shrubs of home across the cul-de-sac near the mailboxes. The dogs sprint for the rabbit, but don’t really notice you.  However, they may sense that you needless fear them, although you are not a sheep or cow.  The dogs bark at you from a distance, probably because they can tell that you are a nasty old curmudgeon.  Dogs have a great sense for people!  Your reaction… throw rocks at them and wave your cane at them in a menacing manner.

How do you expect the dogs to react?  Of course, the dogs respond to the aggression with a show of force, especially the alpha female.   Now, as the curmudgeon, are you telling yourself that you are an idiot for provoking the dogs that are still 15-20 meters away that had no interest in you in the first place?  No… because you are a curmudgeon.  You are so old that rational thought is nearly impossible.

An intelligent person would realize the dogs are more interested in the rabbit than you, and that their master is outside watching them to make sure they don’t go any further than they should.  An intelligent person would realize that barking is not an indication of an eminent attack.  An intelligent person would not throw rocks and threaten dogs with a cane in plain view of the dogs’ master.

Switching points of view… As the dogs’ master, I am watching the dogs do their usual daily chase of rabbits in the neighbor’s yard.  Then I see an old coot throwing rocks at my dogs and waving his cane at them as if to attack, even though they are 15-20 meters away.  I call the dogs to return, which they do immediately, and after they are in the house, I approach the old coot.  I told the old man that I was sorry if my dogs frightened him, and that they were just interested in the rabbit they were chasing.  I told him that if he does not want the dogs to bother him, he should not throw rocks at them or wave the cane at them.  I’m trying hard to be polite!

The old curmudgeon just can’t take advice, because he threatens my dogs and tells me that maybe he should bring a gun next time.  This is where the politeness ends, because nobody tells me to my face that they are going to shoot my dogs that are in the neighbors’ yard.  I step toward him and let him know that he should definitely bring a gun next time, because he would need one if he is going to make a death threat on my dogs.

Do you have an old curmudgeon in your neighborhood?  I hope I’m not like that when I get that age.  I’d rather be like Sean Connery or Harrison Ford… they don’t wave canes at dogs; they date sexy, younger women!

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Monday, August 18, 2008 by Dana.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, we have 3 dogs, and all 3 are recues.  All 3 of them sleep in our master bedroom/bath area with our door shut so that they don’t terrorize the ferrets or wake the kids up.  The smallest dog (J.J.) is a border collie with an intense herding instinct.  She was previously a stray, and we believe she is about 4 or 5 years old.  J.J. has a loud, shrill bark, and she uses frequently because she is convinced that her role in life is to keep the other 2 dogs in line.

Piper, a 2 year old Border Collie/Aussie Sheppard mix, is the alpha dog of the group.  She decides when the other 2 dogs get to eat, play, or chase other dogs at the park.  She has a loud bark, and she uses it in a commanding way… except at 6am in the morning.  In the early morning, she stares out the second floor bedroom window and feels compelled to bark at people that are walking dogs that she can see down on the sidewalk.  This of course requires J.J. to bark even louder because she is certain she should be barking since Piper is barking.

Finally, Lukas is the lone male of the group.  He is an 18 month old lethal white Aussie/border collie mix, and he is deaf.  [Learn more about lethal whites Aussies on the Amazing Aussies website.]  Even though he cannot hear himself bark, he will also bark at people through the bedroom window.  Stopping Lukas from barking requires that we get his attention to give him a hand signal.  This means we have to get out of bed to wag a finger in a “No No No” fashion in front of his face.  Nonetheless, we’ve had more success in getting him to stop barking than we have had with Piper, because… well… Piper thinks she is alpha dog over us sometimes too.

So that brings us to morning… Sometime between 5:00am and 6:30am, as the number of people walking dogs outside increases, our dogs feel more compelled to bark.  We do our best to quiet them and tell them “No!” to get a few more minutes of sleep, which is like sleeping between a 3 minute snooze setting.  Depending on how tired we are, at some point we give up with all 3 dogs barking at top volume and running around the bedroom to let us know that people are walking dogs outside.  By “around the bedroom” I mean that they run over us on the bed as if we were just another obstacle to navigate to get around the room. At this point, Karen and I will have a brief, half-awake conversation to decide if I am taking the dogs hiking or if she is taking them to the dog park after I leave for work.  Either way, I get up to start my day… hike or go into work earlier.

What about all you out there in disturbia?  Do you start your day with a barking alarm clock?  Are you one of those 5:30am walkers at which our dogs are barking out the window?

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