Raining Feathers?

The other night I was watching TV in the living room when I looked out the window to see what I thought was ash floating through the air. Worried there was a house on fire, I ventured out on to the deck. I didn't smell smoke, but continued to see this stuff floating in the air. I soon realized it was feathers! Needless to say, Anika could smell the bird and was frantically racing around the yard trying to find the source of the feathers. Since I have a superior mind (!) I figured out there must be a hawk in the tree having a snack. I watched the breeze lift the feathers from the trees and tried to find their source. Finally, I spotted the hawk half way up an oak tree. I went to fetch my binoculars to get a closer look. And there he was. I watched for a bit and went away feeling awed and blessed at seeing a little but of wildlife right in my own backyard.

Sometimes I'm a Bad Mother

I am usually very vigilant and responsible about my dogs. But I have had two experiences of being absent-minded that could, but fortunately did not, end disastrously.

The first incident occurred when we were getting the dogs ready to go for a walk. I put Steffi in the car to wait and left Anika in the garage. But I also left the prong collar on Anika. You know those awful-looking collars, used for training:

Now, I never, ever leave a choke collar on my girls because I've heard horror stories of dogs getting strangled on them, so why I would leave her alone in the garage with one of these on is just beyond my own comprehension. She tried to get it off by putting her paw in between the prongs and got it stuck. She started howling and both my husband and I came running! Luckily for all of us, she didn't hurt herself. But it could have been horrible.

My second incident of absent-mindedness happened yesterday when I came home from the store, drove in the garage, and went in the house, but left the garage door open and the door to the back yard from the garage open. The dogs were safely in the house. But did I leave them there? No. I got distracted, let them out the back door and put stuff away. Then my internal alarm went off. Did I close the garage door? Yikes! I ran downstairs to check on the dogs, saw the garage door open and panicked. Thank goodness those dogs were merely circling the car, hoping for a ride and not running loose in the street!

I was extremely lucky in both cases that nothing happened to the dogs, but I need to make sure my head in on straight from now on!

Anika wearing her Thundershirt

I got Anika a Thundershirt yesterday. Although I haven't taken her for a test drive yet, she looks very beautiful in it.

More to come...

The Barking is Driving me Barking Mad

Weimaraners have lots of energy. Anika is no exception. She has energy to burn. She wakes up at first light and is on the go all day. Usually she's zooming around the yard. Sometimes the excessive energy manifests itself in barking.

When we first got Anika, she barked at EVERYTHING. The worst was the middle of the night barking when she would hear my husband wandering around the house. Or when he would open the bedroom door to come to bed. I do appreciate her desire to warn me of unwanted intruders and protect me, but I'm glad she's not barking at Jack coming to bed. She does, however, vigilantly hop off the bed and greet him at the bedroom door, just to make sure he should be there.

I don't even mind her running along the fence and barking at people walking their dogs by. After all, many dogs do that. I do, however, discourage that behavior when I am outside with her.

The barking that has me barking mad is the excited barking she does in the car, behind me, in my ear, when we pull in the driveway, the dog park, off the freeway to anyplace. It's the slowing down and getting ready to park in anticipation of some fun activity that sets her off--even if it's at the veterinary clinic.

She can sit quietly for maybe 20 minutes in the car and then she's chewing on a chew toy, rolling on her back, hurling herself around the back seat. I keep her in a harness restraint, so she can move around, but can't get too far. But soon she's whining and then she's barking. We want to take both dogs to the beach, but when we tried a couple of weeks ago, it ended in both dogs barking after about 20 minutes. Coincidentally, we were close to a hiking trail we've been on with them. Hmmm.....

I've decided to try a Thundershirt for the car travel. I will report back.