Now We Needed A Dog Part 2

The picture on the home page for this entry is of Dana, Josh, and Seth when we first adopted her. They were all so “little”.

One of Dana’s favorite things to do was to play fetch. She didn’t quite get the concept of the game though. I would throw a ball and she would go get it and bring it back, but she wouldn’t drop it. I almost had to fight with her to get it out of her mouth to throw it again. I solved that problem by getting a frisbee. I would throw the ball, on her way back she would see the frisbee and drop the ball. I’d throw the frisbee and she’d chase that and I would pick up the ball. Of course once in a while she thought she was funny and would only bring the ball back half way before expecting me to throw the frisbee. . .smart ass dog!

She was a very muscular dog and very fast for a Shepard. She was beauty in motion and had great eye-mouth coordination. She would go after that frisbee in the air and if she caught up to it before it came down to earth, she would jump up to 3 feet in the air to snatch it. It was an awesome beautiful sight. We did this as much as possible, it was fun. She was pretty good off leash and never strayed too far away from the house.

We did have to be careful of other dogs because as much as Dana loved people, to her there should have been no other dogs on the planet. In the house she was really docile. Even when people came to the door, she never barked. She would come greet everyone because, of course, they were only there to see her, but no barking. Even if she didn’t know you she would greet you. I think if she could, she would have made you a sandwich and showed you where the jewelry was. There was only ever one person that got her ire up. A friend of ours and her boyfriend came over one day to take the boys to the library. When they came back, the boyfriend had Seth on his shoulders. Dana was looking out the screen door and saw this guy with Seth on his shoulders as a threat to Seth. She went absolutely nuts. Bearing her teeth, barking, totally in “protect my puppy” mode. The guy stopped dead in his tracks, lifted Seth off his shoulders and onto the ground, and slowly backed away from the door. Not too long after that, they broke up. I think Dana knew something about him that his girlfriend didn’t.

As mentioned earlier, Dana was not a big fan of other dogs. Even standing at our kitchen bay window, if she saw a dog 2 blocks away, she would bark her head off! She set off our house alarm more than once barking out the window at other dogs early in the morning. However, if we were out walking the neighborhood and she saw other dogs, she wouldn’t even give them a second look.

They must not have had mirrors at the farm house either. In our bedroom we have mirrored doors on the closets. The first time Dana saw herself in the mirror, she barked. She then started to “play” with the dog in the mirror. Putting her paws down and growling, jumping back and forth like a nut. I guess she eventually realized it was her, but it was so funny to watch her think there was actually another dog in the house.

Dana knew some commands that she was taught on the farm. She knew sit and stay, and when we asked her if she “needed to do business” she would go to the back door to be let out. However, she was still this huge alpha female and we wanted all of us to get some training for her own protection as well as ours.

We decided on the electronic collar training. Before you judge, the collar had both shock and vibrate settings. We could also control how much or little of a shock would be administered. We weren’t too keen on this at first, but the trainers came out to give us a demo and by the end, we were convinced this was a good idea. It let us socialize her for 10 weeks with other dogs and provided an opportunity for all of us to get to train her. It really helped to calm her down, and made us realize how smart she really was. She did play a little with the other dogs at training because we weren’t on her “turf”, but she just had this look in her eyes the whole time that she wasn’t happy about other dogs being there. Basically, she tolerated them.

During training sessions we would take breaks for the dogs and we would play. I usually brought a ball and frisbee so we could play her game. She would go running and the other dogs tried to keep up with her but she would leave them in her dust! She also wasn’t too thrilled that they were trying to get her ball and frisbee. I did have to stop her from eating another dog at least once, but that’s why we had the collars.

She did great with the training but not so much with other dogs after that. She went after neighborhood dogs a couple of times. Once, I had her out front off leash and one of my neighbors was coming around the corner with her dog. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and apparently so did Dana. By the time I went to grab her, she was off! When I finally caught up to her on the side of the house, she had the dog’s neck in her mouth and was on top of her. The dog’s owner was scared to death. I Pulled Dana off, she hadn’t really bitten down, it was more of a “get off my property or else” kind of thing. I made sure the other dog was ok, no blood, no bite marks, no more out front off leash during the day for Dana. We started playing catch in the fenced in back yard after that. There wasn’t as much room but there weren’t other dogs either.

I would still take her out front off leash periodically, but mostly at night when there was little chance of other dogs being around. Even with that freedom, she never strayed away from the house. I remember a couple of years ago during one of the many snow storms that year (she loved playing in the snow!), I had let her out in the back yard to do her business. It seemed like she was taking a while and when I looked out the window I realized that someone left one of the gates open and she got out of the yard. We had no idea how long she’d been out. I told the boys to get their boots and coats on so we could go look for her. I opened the front door and whistled for her then yelled her name. Two seconds later I saw her head come around the bushes and look into the door with this expression on her face that was like, “What? I’m right here!” She was just chillin out front enjoying the snow.

We never attempted to give her a bath at home. We would take her to a pet store that had a clinic and grooming area. She was so noisy, not really barking at the other dogs, but more like whining at them. She was pretty good for the groomers but trying to trim her nails was a chore. We tried mobile groomers as well. Dana never bit anyone on purpose (except the nip on my son’s chest for the finger/hiney incident), but she was very “mouthy”. She would make like she was going to bite, but she never would. The mobile groomers didn’t take kindly to this and banned us from their service. Can you imagine!?

Like most dogs, she didn’t like going to the vet either. The first few years we had her, I would take her to the vet and sit in the waiting room with the other animals. She would whine and complain like a little baby. . this big vicious looking 85 pound baby! It was comical for a while, but then she started going after dogs in the waiting room, so instead of waiting inside, we would either wait in the car or take a walk around the building. Lots of smells and room to poop!

My wife had worked for our vet years before as a vet tech. He took care of our first Shepard as well. One day while at the vet, a guy had this big male Shepard there. This dog just looked downright mean. Whenever the vet examined Dana, he would get right on the floor with her. She would go over and lick his face and was usually pretty good while he examined her. He told me that he would never get down on the floor like that with the male Shepard, or many other dogs. He said you could just tell in her eyes that she was sweet. I wholeheartedly agreed.

One of the dog things I’ll never understand their attraction to their own poop. Especially in the winter, I used to catch her out there having a meal of her former meals. I called them poopcicles. Totally disgusting but I know she’s not the only one to do that. I just don’t get it! Also, dog farts are the worst!! I have sleep apnea and sleep with a CPAP machine. The machine blows air into my nose so I don’t stop breathing when I sleep. Dana would sleep on the floor by my side of the bed at night. Some nights she had this terrible gas that would get into my CPAP and blow right into my nose. Talk about a wakeup call!! I would wake up gagging and gasping for air. . thankfully this didn’t happen often, but it was pretty disturbing when it did!

She didn’t like sleeping in her own bed at night and always waited for me to go to bed and then slept on the floor next to me. That was her spot. I didn’t mind, I guess I was her pack leader and she liked being close to me.