Bones Banned in Beds

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Bailey does not see this as a huge issue. He mostly takes his soft toys to bed. I like bones. Chewing a bone in bed is comforting. Loud I know, but comforting. OK, so it does inspire me to want to play. I am not a controlled chewer, which can make for a challenging sleeping environment. I just cannot believe they took my bone. I got it back in the morning. However, when I jumped off the bed and took it in my doggy bed, I discovered the ban included my doggy bed, too. That is when Dad said the bone was going away for the night. It went up on one of those awful high places I can see from the big bed, but cannot reach. Now no bones are allowed even in my own bed. Bailey reminded me Dad would let me have one in my crate if I wanted to sleep there.

I practiced chewing on one of Bailey's stuffed toy bones to see if it will work as a bed substitute this morning. Bailey is not looking thrilled.

Parental Curfews

Mom used a version of this post for her Wordless Wednesday post last week. She carefully never explained what the picture demonstrated so we insisted she blog about it this week.

Mom and Dad need a bedtime curfew. As Shelties, it is our job to shepherd our sheep and keep them safe. However, if they will not go to bed however are we to get our sleep? Katy and can usually push Mom into going to bed, but Dad is a night owl. How is a Sheltie to get its beauty sleep when we are kept away waiting for the humans to go to bed? After seeing these exhausted faces would you force us to wait up for you?

Disaster Preparedness.

The news has pushed me to think more about planning. We have pushed forward with long-term plans that we did not wish to think about addressing. What I learned from that process is it starts with education. As I was looking at the poison plant link at the ASPCA I also noticed they had a link for Disaster Preparedness with a list of what you need to do before and during the situation to protect your pets. Some of this we have, some of this we need to do.

I know the first step for me is education. I need to learn more about my options and think about what resources are available to us in a variety of situations. The ASPCA list is a good place for me to start. In fact I think I will start some resource pages for this blog to help others looking for information that I can add links to as I learn more.

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Shelties and Garden Safety

While reading Chunyo's Corner's blog entry yesterday, I started thinking about our gardens and our shelties. Bailey and Katy are part Hoover vacuum and it is important to be aware of which plants are toxic to them.

For my own reference, I am listing the link here so I can find and refer back to it again. The ASPCA has a list that categorizes plants as toxic and non-toxic for cats, dogs, and horses. While Bailey has never eaten any of our toxic plants, it is important that we are aware of the dangers, especially since Katy is more of a plant snack eater.

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Wordless Wednesday

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We Move From Peanut Butter to Cheese

Since the discovery of peanut butter, Bailey has been uncomplicated about taking pills. Recently Katy discovered the secret of the peanut butter and while she will lick the pill clean, she will no longer take pills with peanut butter. We have moved on to cheese.

Bailey is still oblivious to the issue. Human food is a rare treat. Encounters with human food have not been friendly. He loves cheese and peanut butter. Katy is still suspicious so she gets an occasional cheese treat with no pill and some are the real deal. I am not sure where we go when if she starts refusing cheese.

Katy Sniffs a Foot

Our weekend visit went off well, better than expected. Katy did not do as many laps as expected. In fact once the adults left, she showed a great deal of curiosity about our guest. Once they went outside, she was happy to chase thrown balls and Frisbees regardless of who was doing the tossing.

The decisive moment came when Katy came up to our guest and sniffed her shoe without fleeing in terror. I have no idea what it was about the shoe or owner that was fascinating, but she had trouble giving in to her fear when those shoes were so tempting to sniff.

I realize there are some dogs that are shy and never overcome that personality trait. Katy seems conflicted. She wants the attention, but fear holds her back. This weekend she made big strides forward. I believe she will overcome this and be able to be more comfortable in company

Our young guest wants to come to the Whisker Walk with us in June. It might be a chance for the two of them to spend some time outdoors engaged in activities that would help them get closer.

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