Day 40

I received a question in my last post from Irene about crates that I need to address here. (Hi Irene, and don't feel bad because you're probably the only one who knows what a Leonburger is.) Putting it very simply, a crate is a small cage. People here in the States have them in their houses and we keep our dogs in them when we are away and sometimes at night, so that the dogs don't destroy the house. Here is a picture of the "crate" we have for Bear.

Here is a picture of the pen that Bear spent a little over two months living in with one 20 minute walk everyday.

This is the view from our front porch.

I have issues with confinement. I admit it. I really do. It probably has something to do with being swaddled as a baby. I don't know. What I do know is that putting Bear into the cage really bugs me a lot, as does leashing. When we go for walks and the like, I don't mind the leash. What I do mind is that every time Bear goes outside, he is on a leash or a tie. (We have a cable run out front we used for Willie and BJ when they were pups during hunting season.) We have never had a dog that we had to do that with consistently and I'm not sure we need to do it with Bear or if I'm just doing it because I know he has the Boxer in him, I had that experience with the family Boxer as a kid and I'm responding to that and Bear's size in giving him absolutely no freedom. We have also never had a dog so destructive that we felt the need to "crate" when we were out of the house. BJ did go through a real chewing period but not with the living room furniture. He went for smaller stuff.

Bear was chewing up the living room furniture.

The other issue is that hunting season is coming up and dogs that run who are as big and as powerful as Bear get shot. All of the neighborhood dogs know that they are to stay home unless they hear the coyotes going or they are with their owners. Bear doesn't have that distinction yet and probably won't until he's been through a winter...which he hasn't yet because he was born last spring...and is still a puppy in a very large body.

I think the issue here is that "very large body." Because he is so big, I'm expecting Bear to act like an adult and it just isn't there yet. He is still a pup, just seven months old. Off leash, with no visitors, he acts like a pup as well, hanging close to me and playing with Will. I can't rush maturity, but I can mold a pup and working from that mind set might do me better right now.

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear

Day 39 part 2

I know, these two part days do get annoying, but today was a really great day and I have to write about it. The big news for today is that I made a friend at work. Pat, who works in a different agency but has the office next to mine, said something to me about having to get home to her dogs, who were still young. We started talking a little and it turned out that her dogs are Leonburgers! I don't know if any of you remember the earlier parts of this blog... since its all of 39 days old, but on Day 5, before we even knew there was a Bear, I mentioned that I had loved Leonburgers since the days when my husband and I had lived in Germany. (That was a whole lot longer than 39 days ago, by the way.) Anyway, today she brought in pictures of her two Leo's and they are beautiful. As I was looking, I noted that they hadn't gotten their fur in yet as Leo's are noted for a great mane of fur! They are really wonderful dogs and she was so thrilled to know someone who actually knew anything about the breed because they aren't very common here in the States.

I think if I hadn't gotten a Bear, I might have ended up with a Leo...nah. Can't see it. I'd go nuts with the shedding...which interestingly enough, Bear does not seem to do a lot of. I think I probably would have kept looking for our Bear. I really don't see us ending up with any other dog. He does have his idiosyncrasies, but he's one of us now.

On that end, I've been doing some serious thinking about his training. I'm really not happy with the way that its going, primarily because it seems very unnatural to me. We've never trained a dog the way that we are, Bear. Its always been pretty much off leash from the start. Also, the crate thing is really bugging me! As a kid, my parents always kept their dogs tied or crated and their dogs always went mean. One, a Boxer, really got nasty! It used to get out of the house and, because it never got any exercise, went nuts running and would attack people. Eventually, it had to be put down.

I really don't want that happening with Bear and after thinking about it, decided that I really need to start working with him off leash. I started this afternoon when I got home. As I can't walk very far right now, I decided that we would go up behind the house to the field by the pear tree and play ball. I was really shocked when Bear just walked right around the house with me...off leash! That's what our dogs have always done but for some reason, I have been really afraid that Bear wouldn't. He did and enjoyed chasing Willie who loves to play ball. Eventually, Bear got tired of the game and decided to go over to the pear tree and have some of the drops. It was really funny because he searched through all of the pears on the ground, picked the ones he wanted and made a pile. When they were all stacked the way he wanted them, he laid down, shoved his face into the pile and just started eating!

There is now a pile of 3/4 eaten pears out by the pear tree.

After that, he romped a little with Will and then we came in. I did leash him to go in because the traffic was picking up and all of our doors to the house are on the road side of the house. The back of the house is cellared into the mountain. Hard to explain but its an old, Dutch farmhouse with built in fruit cellar. You walk onto our roof from ground level out behind the house.

I think after the success of today's experiment, I'm going to start working with giving Bear more freedom...even in the house. While crating is convenient for me and I do want him to be able to crate for travel, I don't like that he has no food or water access while in there and I don't like the confining him like this. So, I think we are going to start weaning on the crate next week and see how he does. We are also kind of forced into the position of having to start working more on the property here with both of the dogs, so, I think we will be working on voice command off of the leash.

Big decisions but tonight I need to get some photos together to take into work tomorrow. I've wanted to do a screen saver since I started working there, but this gives me a bigger excuse to get it done.

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear

Day 39

Busy day today. Several of the girls are out of the office so we are going to be kind of short and I may have to stay late. Not a bad deal, but it was a very early morning this morning because Bear is off his schedule. My hours were late in the day yesterday and, because of the toe, I'm not going for walks for a few days. It doesn't hurt so much this morning, which is good, so hopefully by the end of the weekend, I'll be feeling good enough to walk with him again.

I miss our walks!

In any event, the Pumpkin Party is this weekend and I will be spending Saturday covered in pancake dough and grease. One thing that doing this every year does for me is make me swear off of deep fried foods for the year. By the end of the day I'm so coated in grease that even the smell of frying turns my stomach for an entire year. I think the husband is going to be with me on Saturday because of the foot. He was going to be out of town, but it looks like he will be here now. That's a good thing. I could use his help and it will make letting the dogs out at mid-day a whole bunch easier!

I think I will make a funnel cake just for the dogs this year. I think they'd like that!

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear

Day 38 part two

Owe! Owe! Owe! My toe is turning purple from the sides first. Bear doesn't know where his feet are and has been consistently stepping on it every time he comes to get loves. I think I'm going to bed now.

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear

Day 38

Okay, foot is still sore but not as sore this morning. I received a blog award a few days ago from Irene over at The Most Splendid Day! (Hi Irene!), and it took me a while to figure out how to get it from there to here, but I finally did. Now, part of the deal with this award is that I have to pass it along to 7 other blogs soooooo, without much fanfare, because I haven't figured out how to do music on here yet, and with great appreciation to all who have labored over their blogs so consistently and ... well, laboriously, I would like to bestow this most esteemed and coveted award to the following blogger's blogs:

A Day In My Life... Photos and More , Hi Marie!

Bad Mutha Fudruckers , Good morning Saratogajean! Time to wake up and smell the mocha!

Animal Hugs and Blessings , Hi Katherine! Everyday is a blessing!

I Live In A Caravan , Hi Therra Cathryn! How's the gas situation?

Ramblings of A Lost Mind , Hi Cosmiccowgirl! How's Kerouac doing today?

Luck O The Labrador, Hi Luck O the Labrador! You're doing great things, keep it up!

Life With Dogs , Hi Chris! How are things going?


Okay gals, the rule is that you have to pass it on to seven other bloggers and go to their sites and tell them they got the award.

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear

Day 37

I'm just gonna come out and say it. I am in serious pain as I write this because I think I broke my toe tonight while cleaning the funnel cake booth for the Pumpkin Party this weekend.

Don't ask.

Okay, I dropped a cinder block on it, by accident.

For real. I did.

I know that I should be smarter than a cinder block and generally I am, but it was getting late and I was in a hurry and my rubber gloves that were coated in grease were also wet. It slipped and ... well the rest is history.

Its my big toe on my left foot and it feels like I slammed it in a car door just a minute ago...when in actuality this happened three hours ago. If its still bad in the morning, I'll go get it checked but I don't know that there is much they can do for a broken toe.

Bear doesn't seem to mind at all. He wants to play and that's about it for now. We had a shortened walk this morning because everyone on the hill decided to let their dogs run this morning and when they run, they pack. We've been having a problem with coyote's starting to pack at night on the hill here. This time of year, this is a common thing. The problem with it is that when the coyote's pack like this, they run the hill at night and take all of the smaller pets and livestock. Cats disappear this time of year, along with ducks, chickens, turkey, ground birds and even younger deer. I know it may seem strange to consider the turkey, ground birds and deer as livestock, but people here hunt for a lot of their meat and do consider these as "non-touchables" for predators. Its taken as seriously as if they had taken a calf from the herd, which would be next if the pack gets too big.

So, rather than allow the coyote's to rule the mountain, people let their dogs out at night to drive the coyote's away, which they do with great skill. All of the dogs on the hill know each other and when they are out at night after the coyote's start the yipping, the dogs know what their job is, except for Bear.

Bear hasn't met "the pack" yet. He's still an outsider and has to be for right now because deer season is coming up. One of the things I knew about Bear when I got him was that he could hunt. He's strong enough and big enough to take a deer at this point with no problem and dogs that do that don't last long up here, especially around hunting season. But, he does need to start meeting the other guys on the hill here because, as a dog on this hill, he is expected to be able to defend the houses, kids, families and livestock with the other dogs here, sooooooooo, I've got to work on that end of the socialization pattern with him. I was hoping that Willie would help with this endeavor this morning, but unfortunately, Willie thought that it would be big fun to go play with his buddies and wasn't listening to my thoughts on this issue at all. I think I'm going to have to work on that too...

Hmmm....The toe feels better when I'm not wandering around on it!

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear

Day 36

There are worse things than Mondays. There are worse things than "The Impending
Financial Crash of Western Civilization as We Know It." In this world it is so easy to fall into a place where all one sees is the disaster and crisis within every minute of every day, and yet this morning I woke up thankful.

Today I awoke with my husband beside me, and there were many days when that was a privilege I did not have. I awoke in the knowledge that all of my kids were fine, again a privilege I have not always enjoyed. I got myself up and went for a walk in the morning with Willie and Bear and realized in that time that what is important to me in life, I have, and that is a great feeling. Life is not always easy, and there are days when the struggle to survive seems so overwhelming, but we do and things continue on. The work day is done, goldfish get fed and the dogs are walked, but there is a time after all of that, when the dinner has been served and the dishes are done, that emerges in the pounce of a puppy, the toss of a ball, the wag of a tail and the peace that comes from knowing that the world is still turning. There is a being beside me whose only desire is to be sure that it can see me, be with me and interact with me. Part therapist, part friend and the rest, a guardian angel, I have a dog who is my friend and along with all of the other blessings in my life, I am blessed by this great beastie of a dog sleeping beside my chair.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I count myself a wealthy woman.

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear