Goodbye Dash, Hello Pete

We can honestly say we tried it … but … we’re just not dog people.  It just wasn’t working for us.  It seems we have no luck with dogs sticking around.  After three attempts with dogs we faced that fact that we are not really dog people.

I think it’s because Rob and I both grew up on a working farm that we just assumed that if you’re in the country you should have a dog … a dog just goes with the country.  What we didn’t really think on is that because we grew up on farms where there was actually daily activity going on outdoors or around the farm the dog always had someone to follow or watch or protect or whatever it felt it needed to do.  The dog had the closeness of a human in one way or form, even if it meant just watching or following.  Our dogs could find warmth in the barn around the other animal or the work that went on there during the cold months, and during the warm months there were always things going on outdoors … plus we usually had two or three dogs at a time.

We really did think that Dash was a keeper.  He was a wonderful dog.  He loved the family and was faithful and protective.  He stuck around, listened well, was calm and obedient.  He didn’t beg or jump or get in the way.  He was content to just lay beside us if we were outdoors, just wanting to be in the presence of people.  He did well adjusting to be outdoors but he appeared sad.  He made it through his first winter with us but we often felt guilty because he looked so sad and lonely.  He didn’t get enough attention during those cold months.  The girls would try to go out with him each day but it just wasn’t enough for a dog that was used to be indoors around people all the time.  As summer came we were back outdoors again and the long winter was forgotten.

Throughout the summer we ran into a couple instances that made us a bit concerned when we realized just how protective Dash could be. Twice he bit when someone (not a family member) was fighting with Matthew, as his way of protecting Matthew.  We understood why Dash did it, but it was a bit discomforting.   As summer ended we began to wonder if we were being fair to Dash.  He seemed to thrive off of attention (as most dogs do) and though he got a fair amount during the summer he still appeared sad.  He was dealing with his new life as an outdoor dog but wasn’t content with it.  We debated what was best but that was as far as it went, until he stopped sticking around.  Third dog now that we have this problem with.  That last two dogs were fixed as this was suppose to lessen the problem, but no such luck.  Once Dash discovered the dog next door we couldn’t keep him home.  If we turned around he was gone and so he had to spend most of his time in the fence.  To me there is no point in having a dog if he’s just fenced up all that time … that’s no life for a dog.  When Dash decided to bite the delivery guy one day …. even though I was standing right there I lost most of my trust for the dog, always leary whenever someone came on the property as I was no longer sure what he would do. 

Rob tried his best to give Dash more attention and even allowed him to spend some time in his office while we were cleaning it out, but when he left the office for a minute Dash was gone.  We decided it was time to stop talking and to post him on Kijiji … he need a home where he could be indoors and around people more.  We were quickly able to find this home for him and we took the kids with when we brought him away so they could see where he was going.  There were tears and sadness to see him go, but everyone knew this was better for him.  He got a great deal as he can no be indoors but he’s still living in the country so he’s got room to roam, a pond to play in and can go on car rides again and with them to their cottage on weekends … I’m sure he’s not sad that he left here.

We have fond memories of the good dog that he was for us.  It’s unfortunately it did not work out, but we just don’t seem to be the people who can find the time for an outdoor dog and indoor is just not an option.

Goodbye Dash

Now we get to the Hello Pete  part.  I’m not sure Dash would be too please to know that he was traded in for a bird.

Pete is our new pet canary and one more to our liking.  Pete is in a cage and can be left in the cage if we want.  He can be left for several days without needing someone to come to feed him.   Pete doesn’t need someone to walk with him, run with him, pet him, play with him, etc.  Pete is quite content in his cage watching us and we quite like that Pete is nearby so we can enjoy him regularly.  The best part about Pete is when he sings, canaries sing beautifully.

Pete came with a 60 day guarantee.  We’re beginning to think Pete knows how to count.  For the first months we had Pete he sang ALL THE TIME.  Almost too much.  He especially loved to sing during Bible reading, prayer and psalm singing.  We loved his songs.  Unfortunately he has completely stopped singing.

We decided to try train Pete to fly outside of his cage.  It didn’t take much training really.  Canaries like to eat often and so he returns to his cage often enough that we can just close it once he comes back for food.  But now that he’s used to us and we’re used to him we know how to shoo him back to his cage … he’s not dumb, he knows what’s suppose to do.  He also knows that if we come near the cage when he’s just flown back in that the doors are going to close … we have to be fast or he quickly takes off again.

Not long after Pete was adjusting to his freedom of flying around outside of the cage he ran or should I say flew into a sticky situation … fly tape.  We have a continual problem with fruit flies or drain flies or some sort of annoying small flies and so we had fly tape by the kitchen window.  I guess it’s not just fly tape, it can also be called canary tape, for there Pete was, stuck to the tape.  Rob rescued him and he lost a fair amount of feathers out of the deal.  After that Pete didn’t sing near as much.  We read that if a canary is injured or in pain he will stop singing.  We waited for him to heal … but his singing slowly decreased until it stopped.  We recently noticed blood by his wings where they meet his body and since he had been scratching we started him on some mite treatment … too bad they didn’t tell us right away when we purchased him that canaries are susceptible (pretty much guaranteed) to getting mites …. would have saved us the hassle of disinfecting and cleaning everything as we would have just done maintenance treatment right from the beginning.  So Pete is just over a week into mite treatment and is looking a bit better … still hoping to hear him sing again :(

He’s still cute, even though he doesn’t sing … but really, we want to hear the singing!  When Pete comes out of his cage he usually heads for his favourite spots, the window near his cage, the floor by his cage to peck at food on the ground (as if he doesn’t have enough in his cage) and the table to clean the scraps out of the center crack.

He starts on one end and works his way to the other side.  Usually he goes back over it one more time as well. It’s pretty cute!  He must get something out of there each time since he goes there pretty much every time he’s let lose.

We’re still hoping Pete will sing again … should we tell Pete that just because the 60 days is up doesn’t mean we can’t replace him??

Grade 6 Year End Camp Out

So I’m going to start my updates a little out of order, since I know that this is the one that Marietta really would like me to do and she has been soooo patiently waiting for it.  This is a REALLY LONG post with lots of pictures of the good time we had.

On June 22nd the girls successfully finished another school year.  Rebecca will be heading off to Grade 5 and Marietta to Grade 7 in the fall, but in the meantime they get to first enjoy their summer holidays.  Our tradition has been to go for ice cream (and usually lunch or supper) on the last day of school.  Because of evening plans we did this right after the closing assembly, with Rob meeting us for lunch and ice cream in downtown Attercliffe.

It had been a busy week but the order for the afternoon was a nap and so when we returned home we all climbed into our beds for a good nap so that we could each enjoy our evening/night … Rebecca at her friend Taylor’s, Matthew at Grandma’s and the rest of us at home, camping, in the yard with 18 other Grade 6 (or should I say Grade 7?) students.

The idea came for a class camp-out sort of last minute, but not too last minute for we still had enough time to pull it off.  I’m not really sure what triggered this idea on Marietta’s end, but it was a comment from her that sent the idea rolling.  She made a remark a couple weeks before school ended that it would be neat to have the class for a sleepover … she does not really remember this comment or what made her think of it.  I remember clearly thinking “hmmmm, that would be fun, good memories and shouldn’t be too hard to pull off”.  But I didn’t say anything for I didn’t want to spout off something that I hadn’t really thought through completely. I stored it in my head to speak to Rob later.

The idea actually got forgotten for a few days before I suddenly remembered that if we wanted to do this I would need to get going ASAP!  Rob was game, so I called up my dear friend Ange and her and Dave were game to help out on the night of, so invitations were prepared and handed out.  At first we tried to surprise Marietta and Brent as well by not telling them and just making up the invitation to be handed out at school … but due to school politics we had to change it so that the invitations came more directly from the kids and it did not look like a school function.  So Marietta and Brent got to have their own little secret for a day until they handed out the invitations the next day at lunch time at school.

June 22nd arrive and the weather was beautiful.  The kids had a half day of school that day so we requested that they all be brought at 6:30pm … tummies full from supper, but still enough time to play for a while.  The kids promptly decided to soak themselves down by empty our water barrel in whatever fashion they could – water guns, buckets, etc.  Once the water was gone and they had that out of their system we moved on to some games to help dry them off.

Our most successful game for the evening was Kick the Can(Ball), a game I grew up playing on the school playground.  Since my kids have not heard of or played the game I suspected there were plenty of other kids who also had not … suspicion confirmed.  Now they all know how to play kick the can.  I think it was a hit as they played it for quite some time and then started up their own game the next morning.

At one point we saw a cop car slowly drive by but didn’t think too much of it, figuring they were just checking out what we were up to.  A few minutes later we saw a cop car slowly coming again … but this time he slowed down even more and signalled into our driveway.

As you can imagine we were all quite curious what this was all about and the kids quickly abandoned their hiding spots to come see what was going on.

Apparently we didn’t break any law, they just saw a perfect opportunity to give a little helmet lesson and hand out some coupons for free frosties at the local Macs store.  So after the kids all promised that they would wear their helmets when biking (you have that here in writing parents, I heard them :) they were given coupons.

After a few rounds of Kick the Can we decided to move on to play British Bulldog.

   

Jaden gives up

In the below pictures the kids got an idea to create a chain to catch the few leftover kids trying to bypass the bulldogs.

In the process of looking up how this game was played (I remembered playing it when little but couldn’t recall how we played it) I came across some sites that said this game was banned at school due to the roughness and accidents from it … we learned a bit of what that was all about … maybe the cops should have expanded those helmets to include all contact sports.  Thankfully we saved ourselves a trip to the Emergency, maybe technically we should have gone but we chose to just wait it out at home … guess it helped it was our own kid, if it had been anyone elses kid it would have put an even bigger damper on the evening.  I don’t think Marietta will be playing British Bulldog again anytime soon

I was not outside when the accident happened, so I didn’t see what happened, not that it would really have made much difference as it probably didn’t like like anything too major.  Apparently Jake and Marietta were both running full speed and they ran into each other, clunking heads.  We’re not quite sure how, it seems Marietta’s mouth collided with Jake’s eyebrows/forehead.  Marietta decided to take a break after that and Rob asked her a couple times if she was okay and she just stood by the barn saying she was fine.  I was in the house and she came to me and started crying that her lip hurt and saying “There’s a party outside mom, but I don’t remember planning a party”  Not sure what she was getting at I just casually told her “That’s because you didn’t plan it, I did”  A look at her lip showed a pretty deep gash but it hadn’t gone all the way through and since the bleeding settled after a short bit we decided it didn’t need to be stitched.

Now I will say that in former years Marietta has been known to dramatize things, stretch the truth, exaggerate, make a mountain out of a molehill, look for attention through injury, etc. so I did downplay her injury and play it cautiously to the point where I wasn’t very sympathetic at first.  I know that she no longer does this to such an extent but we continue to remain cautious.  When she kept saying “I don’t remember anything mom” I thought she was stretching it a bit, so I would ask her simple questions: what is your name, how old are you (which she answered wrong saying she’s 12 when she has not yet had her birthday), etc. She could answer these questions, but she began to cry and look lost and become frustrated and almost scared (rightfully so) and then I began to become concerned.   Rob came in the house about this time to find her crying away in the bathroom, her tears were because she couldn’t remember anything, not because of her lip injury.  We start some further questioning: what day is it? what’s going on outside? why is everyone here? what did you do today?  She did not know what day it was or why everyone was there, she began to cry when we explained to her that she had finished her last day of Grade 6 (she loved Grade 6), shaking her head and saying she couldn’t remember that.  She had no clue about the closing assembly and could only vaguely recall that we went out for lunch when we prompted her on it – she remembered doing something but couldn’t remember what.  She had no clue what they had done that evening or how she had got hurt.

After some discussion as adults we decided to just keep an eye on her.  I’ve been in Emerge for concussions before (Rebecca) and knew that there was little they did for more “minor” head injuries.  Ange had been through Brent’s injury last spring and knew that they had just woken him and questioned him from time to time but there wasn’t much else they could do … so we figured we’d just stay home instead of ruining the evening by sitting in Emerge when likely they wouldn’t do anything more then examine her and tell her to rest.  We suggested Marietta lay down but she want to remain involved, so she headed back outside to try enjoy the evening.  Unfortunately she did not feel much like participating in anything … not that it mattered as she has no memory of what happened until around 11:30pm, then things slowly began to come back.  By morning she was back to maintaining a memory of what was happened, but still confused and asking silly questioned that made us realize she didn’t remember things from the night before … e.g. she found a sparkler’s package and asked when we did sparklers.

Some online research shows us that she suffered from a moderate case of Post-traumatic Amnesia (PTA).  She was slightly over stimulated during her recovery time, since she joined in the party again and soaked up some attention as the kids kept asking her questions to see what she remembered.  She would continuously ask people what happened and had no idea that she had just asked that question minutes earlier.  Looking at pictures the next day she was able to vaguely recollect a few parts of the game of British Bulldog, but besides pictures doesn’t have any memory of the party from the time she was hit until just before bedtime when she came and joined us in a game around the fire.

After game time the kids sat around the fire and roast some hotdogs, spiders, and marshmallows while munching on some of the goodies they had brought.  Since they seemed to be entertaining themselves they would just come and go and do their thing, some sitting by the fire, some playing, some hanging out at their tents.  A game of Ghost in the Graveyard was attempted but ended up not being too successful as everyone seemed to know a different version of the game and couldn’t  figure out what way to play.

Trying to figure out how to roast a wiener when the fire is so big and hot … Syvannah’s version

  

Jacob’s version … you can’t quite get the full version on the picture as it involved some sort of dancing back and forth and stabbing the stick out in the process.

Sparklers

Rainbow Fire (copper pipe with cheap garden hose in it … lasts anywhere from 15 min to hours)

Gathered for devotions

 

We had devotions at 11pm because several kids were saying they were tired and wanted to go to bed.  Not often you hear that and we were a bit suspicious of why they would want to go to bed, but decided to have trust in their good judgement of knowing it’s time to sleep.  After devotions the kids were free to go to bed if they wanted or they could stay up until 12am.  The rule was that they had to be in their tents at 12am and after that they could not come out unless they had to go to the bathroom.  They had to respect others in their tent who were trying to sleep and not disturb them.  All the girls were in one tent and the boys were split between two tents.   About half the kids went off to their tents after devotion and half stuck around or wandered around, slowly we had a group that played a clapping game around the fire until midnight.

As chaperones we had not expected to get any sleep that night, so we were pleasantly surprised when all was quiet by 1am.  While they had to stay in their tents we could not force them to sleep and we figured we’d here chatting and such well into the night … but I guess we wore them out good enough and they were all asleep pretty quickly and we hesitantly went off to our tents to get some sleep.  While they did go to sleep sooner then we expected they also woke up sooner then we expected.  We’re not quite sure what time the firsts woke up, Rob thought he heard some talking at 3am … but for sure by 5am kids were awake and shortly after 5:30am they were rolling out of their tents.  We arrived at the fire around 6am to find they had managed to get the fire going again and were warming themselves around it.

While it was earlier then expected, once we were up and at it we were glad that it was nice and early as it allowed us more time in the morning to relax as well as do some more things.

The kids were quite impressed with how fast we were able to fry up breakfast on the hot plate over the fire.  It was a job that required cooperation.  Tejada cracked eggs, Rob put them on the hot plate, Ange flipped them about as fast as they went on, Marietta held the pan ready to have them scooped into when done. 

The same with the pancakes, you had to be on the ball to prevent them from burning … good job Rob and Ange!!!

Breakfast was ready in no time and after devotions everyone gobbled up their share and off they went to play a game of Kick the Can,while the adults sat around the fire sipping tea.

We were impressed with how well Dash did.  We were worried he would be annoying and need to be put in his pen … which would mean he would bark half the time.  But he did great at watching and mostly staying out the way.  It worked better then previous get togethers because there were no younger kids that were afraid of him.  The kids gave him adequate attention but when told to go lay down he would listen.  I think he suffered from withdraw symptoms after they left … he definitely loves all the extra petting and playing he got.

Jethro has a talent with animals and he and Dash hit it off pretty good.  Here Jethro is getting Dash to roll over.  While Dash will do this for us, he did it very well for Jethro if asked and when the other kids would ask he would sort of look at them and pretend he didn’t know what they were asking

   

The kids were eying Rob’s trilliptical bike and so any who wanted to try were give a chance to see if they could ride/drive it. 

They quickly discovered that it’s a lot harder then it looks … but a couple of them were persistent enough that they were able to get make it work

 

Seven kids on the tire swing … I took the picture but then I quickly looked the other way … it’s one of those things were you don’t want to be over paranoid but it just seemed like a lot of weight on the swing … Rob would probably say it was fine, so I’ll have to trust him on that one

The morning started off cool but quickly warmed up and we organized the kids into teams to get a game a baseball going

This last game was a success also.  Waterballon Volleyball.   The girls had played a similar version of this game during their Play Day Timothy years but instead of one big sheet they had towels between two of them

It took a bit for them to get the hang of throwing the balloon and understanding how to launch it without getting their towel all wrapped around the balloon

But as the game went on they got the hang of it and the balloon would go back and forth quite a bit before it would break

Since they didn’t all really get wet during the volleyball game we filled up the water barrel again and away they all went with their water guns … couldn’t believe how far the water in the barrel went, but it kept them busy for a bit as they were still working on emptying it when their parents arrived to pick them up.

You were home-free when filling up at the water barrel, but once you stepped away from the barrel it was fair game to be sprayed or dumped on by buckets for those who did not have a water gun (I think we were 3 or 4 guns shy of having enough, so that worked pretty good)

 

By time the water was empty and everyone was wet it was past 11:30 and parents were there to pick up their kids.  From the feedback we have gotten it sounds like the kids had a great time.  As hosts we were happy with the kids behaviour and had a good time with a good bunch of kids.  We haven’t made any promises as we know how much things can change from day to day, let alone year to year, but based on how things went this year I think we may be doing this again next year.  While Rebecca was quite upset at first about the fact that she could not be there (we felt it best to keep it strictly Marietta’s class) we did tell her that it is our hope that we could do the same for her when she completes Grade 6 … she did point out a little hitch in that plan … I will probably be in Ottawa with Marietta on her Grade 8 trip … but we’ll worry about that if the time actually comes.  In the meantime we are thankful for the good time we had this year.  We love our country property and what it allows us to do!! We had lots of fun! We are especially thankful that Marietta’s injuries were not any more serious and although it’s sad that she doesn’t remember most of the party, we can be thankful that her memory came back after a few hours and she did not suffer any further adverse affects fort he incident.

Lightning and Thunder

We told the kids that come spring they could get a cat again.  Then we stumbled upon Dash and weren’t sure if the dog and cat mix was going to work seeing as our last cat disappeared as soon as the dog arrived.  But we figured with the dog there first it might go okay. 

Now I’m not sure that two cats is better then one, but at least they have each other to keep company with and maybe that way they’ll last a bit longer.  So when Dave and Ange’s cat had kitten we said we would take two of them once they were old enough.  The day finally arrived when the kids could pick up their kitties and settle them into their new home … the barn.

One of the cats is specifically Matthew’s, the other is the girls.  The day they were picked out we were expect another thunderstorm and since the one cat has a white nose and the other  black, they were named Lightning and Thunder.  Matthew’s kitty is Thunder.

So the kitties have lasted almost two months so far.  While Dash came from a home where they had a cat his natural dog instincts perked up right away when he saw the kitties and he was off chasing them.  They seem to have come to some sort of agreement now … the barn is the kitties, the house area is the dogs.  While we mostly keep Dash out of the barn, if he does go there now they no longer hiss and run, but tolerate each other.  At first I encouraged the girls the play with the kitties and have them come closer to the house so that they wouldn’t become wild barn cats, but after being in the barn from time to time and constantly tripping over them because they are under my feet, I am reminded of growing up at home and having cats by the door all the time and not being able to walk without tripping … so I’m quite happy the Lightning and Thunder have decided to stick to the barn.  I have to get another picture picture of them yet,  it’s really cute to see them sitting in the barn door watching us from afar.  They will wander a little ways out of the doorway and play around outside the doorway, but mostly they stay by the barn (except when we were on holidays they were found across the road by the neighbours).  Once or twice Lightning has followed the kids to the house, but mostly they are friendly, funny, playful kitties that live and play in the barn.  Just our luck … they are both female!  Anyone interested in kittens for next spring?

Cash for Muddy

Remember our dog Muddy?  I posted about him last spring when we got him … see here.   Anyone who’s been around our place in the last year knows how fond I was of Muddy … as a few of my other posts about him gave some indication to here and here.  Muddy tipped the scale when he decided to tear up our pool after Rob had just spent hours trying to clean it and taking it down to store for the winter.  For some reason we still hung onto him a bit longer, thinking if we could make it through the winter spring would come and we’d have an older more mature dog.  He still had one good thing left about him … he stuck around and didn’t wander off or go to the road.  And then he decided to totally tip the scale and stopped sticking around.  We couldn’t let him loose for more then a few minutes and he would try sneak next door.  By March we gave up.  Muddy was constantly in his pen because he was always trying to take off and even when the kids were outdoors we couldn’t have him loose as he would take their mittens (especially Matthew’s – even the kind with the strings attached – he’d just rip the string and take off with the mitten) and chew them up.  To say that Muddy had no brains was putting it mildly.  When we got him we just figured he was a puppy and needed some training … but nothing we did could get through to this dog (I will admit we aren’t exactly experienced dog trainers).  He continued to be over hyper and jumping all the time, he continued to chew up anything in his sight, he continued to bark for absolutely no reason,  he continued to take off from the property.  What was the point of having a dog if he was always in the pen and could never be played with.  So we posted him on good old Kijiji and away he went … hopefully his new owners have better luck with him!!  We had some sad girls for a few days.  I think that’s the only reason we continue to hang onto him … we didn’t want to have to deal with the trauma of getting rid of him.  But they got over it and we were all much happier to be without an annoying dog!

It was decided that maybe it wasn’t such a wise idea to have a dog.  Our lives are rather unsettled for the next years, we have no idea when we will move next or where we will move to.  Next summer Rob will be doing his practicum and we’re not sure if we’ll be home then or how much we’ll be home.  Always having to worry about someone taking care of our dog isn’t very ideal.  We figured since we had this nice pen in the yard maybe we’d do something a bit more useful with it.   We would get laying chickens.  At least then I’d get eggs for the cost of the food we were buying.  The idea was it would allow the girls to have a small income by getting enough chickens that they could sell the excess eggs.  In order to have chickens we needed a shed for them.  So the search was on for a free shed … if it wasn’t free it wasn’t worthwhile as then I might as well buy my eggs and save the hassle.  Layers only last about 1-1.5 years so then we could get rid of them next summer if we weren’t going to be around to care for them.  The plan sounded good … but getting the shed did not work out.  There were plenty of free sheds on Kijiji over the weeks, but we never seemed to be the lucky person to be the recipient of them – or when we were they were in such a state that they had to be taken apart to get out of the yard and then put back together … not something Rob had time for. 

We hadn’t yet dismissed the idea of chickens when I stumbled across a free ad on Kijiji.  What made me look at this ad is beyond me as there are plenty of free dogs on Kijiji every day.  But I did look at it … and it suits us so well that I sent Rob a message.  Five year old altered male lab/mountain bernese mix.  He said “go for it” right away.  And the next thing we knew we had Cash.  Why we took him home is beyond me.  We went to see him, he was an indoor dog and he ran back and forth and was quite hyper.  It should of made us walk away right away, but I guess something about him just made us decide to give it a try.  What a wonderful dog … except the name.  We had to do some name modification again (Muddy was originally called Buddy).  Cash has been renamed Dash … sounds the same, no issues with him understanding.  I did speak to the owner after we got him and she said he was named Cash after Johnny Cash.  At least that explained the odd name, we really were wondering why anyone would name their dog Cash.

 

The biggest challenge with Dash has been the fact that he was an indoor dog … one that really only went outdoors to go to the bathroom and when on a leash.  He was lucky that we brought him home in the pouring rain on a miserable, windy cold day.  Originally we had said we would just start him outdoors right away and get him used to the new concept immediately … we didn’t have the heart to leave him outdoors and so indoors him came.  The first days he spent mainly indoors, the weather was miserable and he was adjusting.  I was just looking back in my e-mails and realized that we’ve really only had Dash for a little over a month, it seems so much longer then that.  With time he progressed to outdoors during the days and coming in later at night … and then last week we progressed to outdoors all the time.  The first couple nights were rough when he barked to let us know that it was getting late and time for him to come in … but now he’s does good.    He’s such a sweet and good dog that I feel guilty for leaving him outdoors when he’s been used to be inside all his life, but I just can’t cope with the hair!  I would be completely fine with continuing to allow him to sleep indoors at nights (and somehow I have a feeling I’ll be seeing him back indoors come winter nights), but it’s unbelievable the amount of hair we sweep up just from the hours that he sleeps indoors.  He is only allowed in the entrance hall-way and Rob’s office, but we find hair throughout the main floor area, especially the bathroom and our bedroom.  If it weren’t for the hair we wouldn’t even bother training him to be outdoors at night … although it is also good that he’s always outdoors for when we go away.

Dash has brains, he is very trainable, learns quick and listens well.  He learned where he was allowed and not allowed in the house and the only time he came in our bedroom at nights was when we had thunderstorms, which was understandable, and even then he just lay quietly at the end of the bed.  Being part Mountain Bernese means he’s a big dog.  He looks mostly lab, except the white on his chest, but he has the size of a mountain dog.  He’s calm and great with people and kids.  Matthew loved to lay down with him in the mornings before he would be put outside.  He is strong also, having broken through two of the ropes (leashes) that we used to tie him when we were gone.  He refused to go in the dog pen at first, but was fine with a leash.  So we had him on a leash by the house.  He wanted to be near us and we sort of liked seeing him laying by the door.  The problem arose when he kept scratching the door, and ringing the doorbell, and scratching the window and ripping the screen, of Rob’s office.  He wanted in.  So we moved him to the pen … on his leash.  He’s quite content to be in the pen on his leash … and quite smart about getting out of the pen if he’s not on his leash.  So we still have to work on Dash-proofing the pen (stones around the base so he can’t dig out).  The one things that we haven’t been able to train Dash on yet is his attraction to the road … not sure if it’s because pavement is familiar to him being born and raised in the city … but he has this attraction to the road and no fear of vehicles.  The vehicles have to stop for him!  Hopefully this does not mean a short lived country life.

He’s a keeper!!

 

  

So while we didn’t actually get cash for Muddy we did get Dash for Muddy!