Thank you sir. It’s been tough, for sure. I’m one of those guys that has never had to make these decisions, al beit twice, and so soon together…. let alone feel the life leave these two fine pets. Truly life changing.
Usually the big male (in the center) gets pushed out of his seat by the little gray one....he wasn't getting bullied by his sisters today...too sleepy.
Definitely. After loosing my Husky mid 90's I swore off getting another dog. Took me over 20 years but I finally did it. I occasionally find myself preparing for that day and he's only about 2.5 years old. Need to stop that. She was a special one. Still sucks thinking about it.
Update, I let this little lady in the garage tonight as per our system, she comes to the back glass door. I pet her back by her tail as she ate and I filled her water, she looked at me, holy cow she's already getting old. It was like yesterday when she was meowing by my truck door that night. If anyone is interested we tried to let her be our house cat but it didn't work out, she always wanted to be out except to eat and drink and kept injuring us when she did come in so she became a pampered garage cat lol. Also, turns out the neighbors older druggie daughter brought her here, not actually dumped like the first 2 in 2014, but was left to fend for herself . Her kittens were sent to shelter and were fostered. I remember a new vet in the early 90's calling my first two dogs geriatric, upsetting at them time. But now I know better. Lila's face is getting gray and her body shape is changing. Idk, same for me lol.
My buddy Rocky. Smartest dog I've ever had. I'm teaching him to spell right now so I can mess with my wife and kids. Can't say pig ear, haircut, milkshake, ice cream, float, dairy queen, or ride in front of him. He always gets a little half scoop of vanilla when we have any kind of ice cream. Pig ears are his favorite treat and he likes going for rides and getting his hair cut so everyone always spells that stuff to keep him from getting excited. So now I'm teaching him to spell haha
I'm thinking about training our dog to come to the sound of my truck horn, the two short beeps that indicates it's locked. Any thoughts on this? The GPS collar is great! But it's geofence only (our property), so when she splits we get notified and know where she is but like JD Guy mentioned, I do think she's too sensitive for shock. There was a dead jackrabbit down the road weeks ago but she still keeps going back there little stinker. Oh, and she is officially chicken safe! We have a hen that's escaped a couple times and we let the dog out unknowingly with no problems. Kiddo's seen them and said they were fine.
Once your dog is collar conditioned (sounds like that’s the case) wildwest the beep tone on the collar should be enough to recall the dog. I am a fan of treats for the pup when they perform on recall. Others may disagree. One thing that many ecollar first time users miss is that the dog needs to know what the task is you’re asking of it and only then do you reinforce the learned behavior with the tone or lightest correction possible. The preferred task or behavior cannot be “shocked” into the dog, only makes them collar shy or a basket case. I think that you also have similar thoughts
So true! Both my dogs know the beep is a command of some sort outside the distance my a voice command. Maple is great no matter what I ask, but Birch being a puppy still needs recalls, especially near the fence. I've needed to incorporate a loud NO and a brief shock so he knows putting his paws on the fence is of limits. (He patrols the perimeter, but has learned he can either dig or jump this 5 for fence.) Have used the GPS collar a dozen times heading him off once he sneaks out. These are wonderful tools for us to keep our pups safe.
Afraid all we are using is the GPS now, which alerts us to when she leaves our property. At the moment my mind is scrambled from kiddos phone parental controls, holy cow a zillion different passwords number code verifications that and tech stuff I have to google I had a dog that was part chihuahua and didn't hesitate using a bark collar on him after I had our daughter (naps), sweet guy was a drama queen. But I also had a dog that was terrified of smoke alarms,even down to the beeps when the battery was low, it was so bad for her I don't even want to risk this one, she is sensitive to even our voices when we yell in fear of danger like when some jerk is speeding on the private road, or she she's encountered our chickens (we don't mix them but things happen though she doesn't chase our escape artist hen, but she did rush the chickens today while they were free ranging after they accidently took her out with them). Here's the drama queen guy that was part chihuhus of all things and the WireHaired Viszla that a basket case with smoke detector alarms.
I'm going to adopt another dog when we move to town (fenced there. I'd do it this instance but we cannot keep the fences upright with the snowdrifts out here). I don't like being alone when they go hunting and camping. Wooo! No yip yaps, not a gun dog. I suppose mutt. I am so stoked to move into town in a couple years! We've had 3 mutts and 4 purebred's over the decades (not counting one that did not make it, one long term visitor, and another rehomed) . I'm partial to med-large dogs, can't wait to see what the future holds!
