February 2004 archives

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Tuesday, February 17, 2004

adventures in bode-sitting

A couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to dog-sit for my sister and brother-in-law, who took a trip out of town. This served them well (they didn't have to pay for a kennel) and was going to serve me well, as Kelly was supposed to come up and see me on the Saturday of that weekend. Always a good thing. (Exhibit A - Bode, significantly smaller than she is now, but I don't have an updated pic.)

Anyway, I made it down there to find Bode, very ready to be released from her cage. I fed her and walked her, and it was there that I re-learned a few things about dogs.

• A dog will eat their food in just about any place but over their food dish.
• If given two different types of food at the same time, the dog will inevitably eat all of one type of the food first, and may not even touch the other kind.
• If given light pressure on a leash to move in one direction, any dog worth their salt will immediately strain in the opposite direction.
• Corollary: no matter how often a dog gets yanked back by her leash by running too far away from the holder of the leash, it will continue to pull away.
• If allowed to sleep in bed with you, a dog can always lie down in a way to perfectly align to your body position.
• A dog chasing and eating a leaf is quite a humorous sight to see.
• Dogs will invariably want to go to the bathroom in any yard but their own.
• Dogs who like to dig will only dig in certain spots, but they'll strain against man and leash to get to those spots to try to dig.
• It's a good thing that pigs have ears, because dogs wouldn't be as happy without them.
• If trained well enough, a dog can play the ricochet of a ball off of a wall without running into it.
• Corollary: Bode's not well-trained yet.
• In a car, even when only riding at 15 miles an hour, a dog will stick its head out the window.
• If given one end of a "tug-of-war" rope to pull on, a dog will always want the other end of the rope.

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