Running with Dogs | How Maggie & I Saved a Bulldog

Yesterday was day two of running with the dogs.  I was a little nervous about how it would go because it was fairly warm.  Maggie, like her mama, doesn’t do well in heat.  But I am determined to get them exercising on a regular basis, so off we went.

We started out the same as Sunday.  Pete and Maggie were both weaving back and forth.  It took them a while to get into the swing of it.  Of course, the boys pulled ahead in no time.  I could tell that Maggie was taking it a little slower.  She also had a lot more slobber this time.  I mean, to the point that she shook her head and the slimy foam went flying everywhere ala Hooch. (You know, as in Turner and Hooch.  Please tell me you know Turner and Hooch.)

We were a couple of blocks from home and there was a barking dog in its back yard.  Maggie started flipping around and yipping at it.  Just as we made it past that house, I heard some shouting.  “No!”  “Moses, no!” “MOSES!” I did not know who Moses was, but I recognized the tone in the voice.  Panic rising to the level of hysteria.  Moses was a dog, he was loose, and he was heading for the busy street.

I slowed my pace and shouted at my husband to stop.  I looked behind me in the direction of the yells, and sure enough, here was this big, white bulldog barreling straight towards us.  Of course, we were on the opposite side of the street.  Luckily there were no cars close by, but two were approaching.

I got a tight grip on Maggie’s leash and ran out into the street, waving my arms like a crazy person to make sure that the drivers saw us.  The one time I’m not wearing bright, reflective clothing is obviously the one time I’m going to have to run into the middle of the street.  Moses ran to us to say hello.  All I could do was hope that Maggie didn’t freak out on him.  She’s so squirrely around other dogs, and you never know how she might react.  She does not take kindly to other dogs’ noses near her butt.  At a very minimum, I expected barking.

As Moses greeted Maggie, I grabbed his collar.  That was my first priority – stop him from going anywhere else.  My second priority was to try to keep them separated, or at least avoid a fight.  Man, was he strong and solid.  He really wanted to sniff her, and there wasn’t much I could do to keep them apart.  I tried walking them over to the sidewalk, but we didn’t get very far.  I can just imagine what we looked like!  Me bent halfway over with my right hand on his collar, while I had my left hand raised up to tighten the leash and keep Maggie away from him.

All of this took place in a matter of seconds.  I doubt we were even standing there for thirty seconds.  His owner ran over, thanked us, put a leash on him, and we all made it safely to the other sidewalk.  As Moses walked off, I looked down at Maggie, amazed.  She was still just sitting there quietly.  I don’t know if it was the exercise, or whether she could tell another canine was in trouble and needed help, but I was very proud of how she responded.  We waited for the cars to pass and took off to catch up with the boys.

Pete was in top form again, running way too fast for me to stay up with them.  Maggie and I just took our time.  We even got to the point where there was some slack in the leash.  That never happens.  We made it the rest of the way without incident…well, except for Pete slamming on the brakes to take a pee right on the sidewalk.  We even made it past a very crowded Waffle Cone Wednesday with no crazy barks from Maggie.  There was even a small dog that started barking at us, but she just looked in that direction for a split second and paid no mind.

We went back out tonight, and it was totally uneventful.  That is, except for Pete unexpectedly lunging for a squirrel and nearly flying head over heels.  I looked up just as his butt was coming back down out of the air.

In case you’re keeping track, that’s three successful runs, and one successful bulldog rescue.  I’d say that’s a pretty good record so far.

Running With Dogs

We own a couple of pretty neurotic hyper dogs.  We know that exercise will help them behave better.  We talk about it all the time.  “We really need to get a pass to the dog park.” “We should really start walking them more.” “We should try running with them.”  Yet every week passes and we do none of those things.

They have really been atrocious the last few weeks.  They try to “protect” us from everything that goes by the front window, including other dogs, cats, squirrels, and the occasional piece of trash floating by (you know how dangerous trash can be).  As Spring nears and the temperature rises, we again discussed getting them outside.

Pete loves to walk.  He prances around with this big grin on his face.  Maggie, on the other hand, is so embarrassing.  She barks the entire time, but not normal barking.  Oh, no. That would be too easy.  No, she uses her high-pitched, shrill, “everyone look, my mommy is killing me” bark.  I know that it must echo for a five block radius.  She walks on her back legs.  She dives at the ground and rolls around to try to get the Gentle Leader off her face.  And she foams at the mouth.  That’s right.  It looks like she has rabies (or what I imagine a dog who has rabies to look like).  When we get home, her eyes are all bloodshot from tugging so hard, even though the Leader goes around her nose.

She’s such an anxious dog, she just doesn’t enjoy walking.  But we feel bad leaving her home if we take Pete.  We’ve talked about running with Pete ever since we got him.  He’s fast, and he’s strong.  We figured he could handle a few miles.  Maggie, maybe not so much. She’s also fast (not as fast as he is), but she always acts like she is dying after a mile long walk.  We get home and she huffs and puffs and lays around for the rest of the evening.  That is, after she drinks too much water too quickly and vomits everywhere.

We talked about it last night and decided we would just go for it this morning.  We were only running 4 miles and we could drop them off after two.  There is no excuse for us not getting them out.  I mean, how selfish are we that we run 20-30 miles a week but can’t take the dogs out?  We are bad dog parents.

We got up this morning and got ourselves ready.  There was no real game plan.  I decided I would take Maggie, even though the last time we ran together (over two years ago), she knocked me over and I fell flat on my face.  Since Pete is faster, I figured he would be a better fit with my husband.  We got them all harnessed up and we were ready to go.

We’d barely left the driveway and Maggie was already weaving back and forth in front of me.  I finally got her situated on my left side.  Pete took off like he always does, ears flapping in the wind, huge grin on his face. (For those of you who don’t think dogs smile, I can assure you that they do).  Maggie was yipping like she normally does, but not as loudly.  She decided to run along the sidewalk while I stayed in the street.  We hadn’t even made it two blocks when we came upon a dog in a yard.  He sort of growled at us. Oh, no, I thought.  Here we go.

Maggie did not even notice him.  No acknowledgement.  She just kept right on running.  I was stunned.  If we had been walking, she would have lunged at the dog, choked herself, and barked for the next three blocks.  I was beginning to think this just might work.

Around a half a mile, Pete and my husband were pulling ahead of us.  Maggie looked up and saw them and tried to speed ahead.  It was really pretty cute.  Unfortunately, I could not run that fast.  It already seemed like we were sprinting.  We took a short walking break around a mile.  We couldn’t believe how well everyone was doing.  Except for the humans, anyway.  The dogs were running about 20-30 seconds per mile faster than we usually run.  It was a good thing we planned to drop them off after only 2 miles.

At about a mile and half, Pete saw some squirrels he really wanted to go after.  Maggie saw him, and decided she better go after the squirrels too.  We made it past without anyone getting hurt (me included). When we were almost home, Maggie decided it was now time to dive into vegetation and try to get the Leader off.  We had a couple of instances were she ran on one side of a post and I ran on the other, and we bounced back at the end of the leash.  Again, everyone stayed upright.

As we neared our street, I tried to pick up the pace so Maggie and Pete could finish together.  I was pretty impressed with their athletic skills.  We dropped them off and headed back out for the last two miles, discussing how well that went considering what our walks are usually like.  Maggie didn’t have time to be anxious, and may have actually enjoyed herself.  There was never a question about Pete.  Now we have no excuses for not exercising them.  They can come with us on our runs, and I think as time goes by, they will be able to go farther.  Which will be a good thing, considering they weren’t even tired the rest of the day! (What we were hoping for, but did not achieve) ————–>

Two Peas In A Pod

You may recall that a few months back we adopted a six-year-old hound mix named Pete. You can find his back story here and here. We are now four months past official adoption, and he and our first dog, Maggie, could not behave any more like human siblings. It is unreal (and I am hoping good experience for kids!). Their personalities are so different. Maggie is very independent, while Pete loves to be around (on top of, next to, etc.) people at all times.

Maggie is a typical bossy little sister, barking at Pete any time she perceives us to be correcting him. Most of the time it is funny, but when she decides to bark at him and herd him from one room to another at bedtime, it can be a little much. She will still occasionally try to herd him for no reason, biting and tugging on his ears and face, but by this point, Pete is over being polite and has been known, on more than one occasion, to swat her on the head.

While they have their moments of sibling rivalry, more often than not you will find them playing “monkey see; monkey do”. One afternoon I was working from home, and they were laying on opposite ends of the couch in the sun room. Every few minutes they would swap sides of the couch. Most evenings, Pete sleeps on his bed on the floor, and Maggie lies on the love seat just above him. Close, but not too close.

Despite the heat we have been experiencing, those fools will spend all day outside, many times just eating grass (we now have actual grass – it no longer looks as bad as the picture!). At night they will go outside and retreat to the far back corner of the yard behind the garage where we can’t see them. We have yet to figure out what they are doing, but they will be back there for over an hour. Sometimes they come in huffing and puffing and all out of breath. Most times we have to go out and call them in. I’m sure it has something to do with a possum or raccoon, and I dread the day that we find something dead back there.

A couple of weeks ago my husband told me they were working in tandem to trap a squirrel on the fence. Pete stood on deck blocked that route while Maggie kept closing in on it along the fence line. I can imagine what would have happened had they fully executed their plan before my husband went out to stop them.

We certainly had our reservations about how these two would get along, even once we’d made the decision to keep Pete. They can certainly be exhausting, and they sometimes get into real fights, but overall I think Maggie is happy to have a friend, and Pete seems to love living here. I’ve never regretted our decision for a second.

Everybody Snores

Our little border collie beagle mix snores louder than any other dog I have met, and some people.  It is amazing how much sound can come out of that little face.  Sometimes she even wakes herself up.   Many nights she will be stretched out across the bed snoring to her heart’s content all the while keeping us up.

The other night, I apparently was having some issues and was snoring up a storm.  I guess this disturbed Maggie’s beauty sleep, as my husband relayed the following to me the next day.

When I started snoring (I must have been pretty loud), Maggie got up from where she was laying at the end of the bed and walked up beside me, hovering over me and staring.  She looked at my husband, looked back at me, and sighed.  She then promptly jumped off the bed and curled up on one of the pillows on the floor.  I, however, continued to snore.  Her place on the floor was not far enough away from me.  She then proceeded to crawl underneath the bed to get farther away from the sound.

I can just imagine her furry face perched above mine, staring, wondering how to make that noise stop.  I laugh thinking about what she will do with crying babies.  I also wonder what she does the other nights that my husband or I are snoring.  Is this a usual routine for her and we are typically asleep when it happens?  Or was I just really that loud?  I’m not sure which answer I prefer.  On the one hand, no one wants to admit they snore, let alone at such volume.  On the other hand, I find it disturbing that our dog gets exasperated, stares at me, and sighs, all while I am obliviously sound asleep.  Perhaps she is also part human.

Head vs. Heart

Some decisions involve your head, some involve your heart, some involve both.  For me, the decisions that involve both are usually the hardest.  Typically, these types of choices are those where the head should win out, but the heart makes it very difficult to make the right choice (or at least the choice that the head thinks is right).  I recently had to go through this process, and I knew that there would be vastly different results depending on which organ won out.

If you recall, a few weeks ago we took our dog to meet another dog, Pete.  Pete’s owners, who are friends of a friend, were no longer able to keep him.  I saw the picture of him and felt a tug (well, really, a yank) on my heartstrings.  What a sweet face.  How could anyone get rid of him?  I immediately forwarded the email to my husband, fully expecting an immediate and resounding no.  Imagine my surprise when, after pointing out  all of the potential issues with getting a second dog, he said we could still meet him and see how things went.  Pete and Maggie got along swimmingly.  They ran around the yard together.  They barked at other dogs.  We decided we would take Pete the next weekend for a test run.

He arrived at our house and things did not go as expected.  Maggie began barking at him and bullying him around.  She just would not leave him alone.  He explored the house for a while, and then all of a sudden he would no long walk on the hardwood floors.  This presented a problem because about 90% of our house has hardwood flooring.  We put some blankets down for him and he would timidly walk only on those covered areas.  I immediately started feeling sad because I thought there was no way this was going to work out.

Pete also struggled with learning how to use the dog door.  He figured out how to go out, but he refused to come back in through the door.  Despite these things, Pete was a very well-behaved dog.  Much better than Maggie.  His owners told us that he has a lot of anxiety when people leave.  We had no idea what we were in for.  We left that Sunday morning to go get some brunch, and as soon as we put our jackets on he began howling.  He’s a hound, so this pitiful, mournful bay came out of his mouth.  I’d never heard anything so sad.  It was as if he were saying “NOOOOOOOOooooo!”  We decided that a weekend wasn’t enough to truly assess whether or not he was going to fit in with our family, so we decided to keep him for the next week.

During that week, Pete learned how to come in the dog door.  He also learned (by watching Maggie) how to stand on the railing of the deck to look out over the yard.  He got over his fear of the hardwoods, and was soon running across them with Maggie.  We learned that Pete likes to bring you toys when you get home.  But not just one toy.  As many toys as he can fit into his mouth.  Sometimes he brings two, sometimes three.  It’s hilarious.  After a couple of rough incidents related to meal time, he and Maggie started respecting each other’s space and feedings went smoothly.

One week turned into two.  We kept discussing whether we were going to keep Pete.  Every time the discussion went something like this: Pete is a good dog.  We like him, but I don’t think Maggie is really warming up to him.  Do we really want two dogs when we are thinking about having kids soon?  Yet no decision was ever made because the heart wouldn’t let the head say what it really thought: We could not keep Pete.  At the end of two weeks, I said that we had to make a decision.  By this time, Maggie was spending a lot of her time trying to herd Pete, which involved nipping at his face, ears, and legs.  She was incessant.  Was she playing? Maybe.  Is that the kind of play we wanted in the house?  Probably not.  I was finally the first one to say it aloud, through small sniffs: I did not think we could keep Pete.  My husband agreed.

My small sniffs turned into body-wracking sobs.  I buried my face in Pete’s fur.  Seeing how upset I was, my husband offered to have us hire an in-home trainer before we made any decisions.  No, I said, worried that doing that would only prolong the inevitable, and it would be even harder to say good-bye.  I called Pete’s owner and managed to keep it together on the phone.  I could tell he was disappointed.  He said he would make some calls and get back to me.

Another week went by.  Maggie seemed to warm up to Pete.  Maybe we should keep him, we thought.  More of the same discussion.  No, I said.  We’d already made our decision.  We needed to stick with it.  I would steel my heart and get through it.  That Friday we heard from Pete’s owner.  The rescue had not yet found a foster home for him.  Maybe we should keep him until a foster family could be found.  I called Pete’s owner back, ready to offer this.  Before I could even do that, he said we had been generous enough, and he would come and get Pete on Sunday.  That would probably be for the best, I thought, though crying once again.

I was gone for part of that Sunday.  When I came home, my husband said Pete and Maggie had been outside in the yard, sleeping in the sun together.   Then they came in and both laid on my husband on the couch, and all three took a nap.  “What are you doing to me?”, I asked. That makes it even worse.  The time approached for Pete to leave.  I told my husband he would have to do all the talking because I would not be able to speak without crying.  Pete’s dad arrived, and oh, was Pete happy to see him.  That made it easier to say good-bye, but I knew Pete would not be able to stay with the family he had always known.  Through more tears, I watched Pete pull away.  Head had won out.

Or had it?  That night, Maggie was just lying around.  She looked sad.  Monday arrived, and we all felt sad.  Maggie was not doing her normal Maggie things.  Did we make a mistake?  I would not be the one to say that I thought the answer was yes, because I would be letting my heart speak.  The head had to be right in this situation.  Didn’t it?

By Wednesday, my husband said what I was too scared to say, “I think we just need to get Pete back.”  So, what did we do?  We got Pete back!  He arrived back at our house yesterday, and while he was not as ecstatic when he saw us as he was when he saw his owner the week before, he was happy.  And he was immediately feeling at home.  He and Maggie were soon tearing through the house.  They both slept on the bed with us last night (originally, I had no intentions of letting Pete on our bed.  Even though it is a king, Maggie takes up enough room.  My husband decided to invite him onto the bed one night.  I should have known then Pete was going to be a part of our family).  He and Maggie got along so well today.

My head knows that all of those concerns we originally had are still there.  But sometimes, every so often, the heart needs to win out.  The happiness and love that I feel when I look at Pete is all the evidence I need to know that we made the right decision, regardless of the fact that we followed our hearts.  I mean, look at that face.  Who can resist that sweet Pete?

A New Addition to the Family?

The other day a friend of mine forwarded an email from one of her friends about finding their dog a new home.  It seems that her friends are expecting their third child very soon, and are having difficulty dealing with their very active hound mix, Pete.  As the owner of an incredibly hyper dog, I can certainly sympathize, and stories like this break my heart.  I would be devastated if I had to give up my Maggie,  but I do worry about what will happen when we have kids.  Despite all of this, I saw the picture of Pete and I felt like we had to do something.  He just looked so sweet, and has a face similar to Maggie’s.  The description of Pete reminded me so much of Maggie’s behavior.  I felt that if anyone should welcome Pete into their home, it should be someone who knows how what to expect from an overly excitable dog.

I certainly had anxieties, and made it clear to Pete’s current parents that we would have to make sure that he and Maggie get along (she is very particular about other dogs), and that my husband is not allergic to him.  Maggie’s long hair doesn’t bother him, but short-hair dogs can bother him.  I also keep imagining two Maggies tearing through the house and barking at people walking on the street in front of the house.

This afternoon we left the house at 3:30 to go pick Maggie up from the kennel.  It’s over thirty minutes to the kennel, and then we were going straight to Pete’s house – clear on the other side of town.  She’s always a bit worked up when we pick her up.   I was hoping exhaustion would overcome her before we got there.  No such luck.  She was pacing back and forth in the back seat and leaping at every car we passed.  We arrived at Pete’s house and Maggie bounded out of the car, having no idea what she was in for.  As we walked up the driveway and introduced ourselves to Pete’s mom, we could see him leaping up so that his head and the majority of his body were visible in the door.  Yep, just like Maggie.

We got into the backyard, and Maggie did her typical growl when Pete tried to sniff her.  As soon as I got her off the leash, they circled each other, did some barking, and then started chasing each other.  It was awesome!  Pete is super fast, and they were tearing all around the yard, flipping up snow in their wake.  Amazingly, they never knocked down either of the two little boys.  Maggie was surprisingly gentle with both of them.  Pete was so sweet and friendly.  They played together for about over 45 minutes and we asked all of the questions we could think of.  We decided the next step would be to have some extended time with Pete – perhaps this coming weekend.  There’s no other way to know if Pete will really fit into our family unless he spends a few days with us.

I still am a bit apprehensive.  I am not certain that my husband is 100% sure about even doing the weekend visit, although I keep asking him and he says he’s OK with it.  I wonder if I’m insane even thinking about getting a second dog that is too much for a family with small kids to handle when we are planning on having kids in the next year or so.  I am trying to convince myself that we will be able to spend more time with him, spend more time exercising him (he could become my running buddy), etc. etc.  I also wonder if that is incredibly naive of me.  I guess we’ll see how next weekend goes.  Wish us luck!

Border Collie + Beagle = Crazy

 I thought I would start a series of posts that provide a little more insight into who I am and what I do outside of blogging.  I figured I would start by introducing you to my dog, Maggie.  That’s her to the left.  I know the title gave it away, but she’s a border collie beagle mix.  She’s insane.  Sometimes she looks and acts exactly like a border collie.  Other times she looks and acts exactly like a beagle.

When I first got Maggie, I also had two cats.  I thought everyone would get along swimmingly.  The cats had been around dogs before and basically ignored them.  I realized about 2 minutes after bringing Maggie home that the reason for that is because the dogs basically ignored them.  Maggie – not so much.  Her border collie herding instinct immediately kicked in.  This little puppy, barely bigger than one of my cats, immediately thought they belonged on top of the kitchen cabinets.  From that day forward, the cats basically lived on top of those kitchen cabinets (although I can just imagine how they tormented Maggie when she was in her cage during the day).  Any time one of them moved, Maggie would race over to the cabinets, leap at them, and bite at their tails if they were close enough.

The cats now live with my mom (not entirely because of Maggie’s behavior towards them), but that doesn’t stop her from going crazy.  These days, Maggie thinks her job is protecting our house from people, dogs, squirrels and cats.  If you are one of those creatures, don’t even think about walking by our house.  Maggie will show you all kinds of crazy.  She barks non-stop.  She runs from the sunroom, up to a bedroom, and back down again.  She throws her body at the windows.  She will not stop until the “threat” is out of her sight.  You don’t even want to know how she behaves on a walk.

We are trying to do our best to break her of this habit, but it’s slow going.  I know all of our neighbors think she’s nuts.  She has the ability to learn because we have been able to teach her all sorts of tricks.  Unfortunately she wants nothing to do with “stop” or “quiet.”  We need help.  It would be great if we could get on “It’s Me Or The Dog.”  We could definitely use Victoria’s help.

Despite all of the crazy, she is very sweet.  (See right).  She loves to lay with us and keep us warm.  She is very pretty and soft.  Sometimes she will sing with us.  She hates to have her picture taken.  She hears whenever I take the cap off the camera lens and will immediately change positions or stop doing what ever cute thing she was doing.  It’s very strange.

There’s your introduction to Maggie.  She may very well be the subject of future posts because sometimes she does the strangest things that make for good comedy.