I Found It!

I’ve been searching for just the right thing to carry all the stuff I want to take when I’m out walking my clients. I’ve tried backpacks, fanny packs (the big hiking kind), and over-the-shoulder bags. Nothing has been quite right. Backpacks don’t work for me, because I need easy access to certain supplies, like poop bags. The fanny pack is too small for everything I want to carry, and everything gets jumbled up in it, making it difficult to get what I need when I need it. I found a shoulder bag put too much strain on my shoulder and I was always adjusting it.

So, I've been on the hunt for something to carry all the above stuff in. I came across a link to a site that sells a dog walking jacket. The jacket looked really nice, but it would be too warm for So Cal and it was $250, which is way more than I am willing to spend.

However, it gave me an idea… a fishing vest. So I went to Big 5 and looked at the vests. I decided to buy one and check it out. The vest I got is lightweight, which will be good during the summer. During cool weather I can wear it over a jacket. It’s machine washable, which is important because it will get muddy paw prints on it. Another plus with the vest, it keeps those muddy paw prints off of my shirts. The vest has 26 pockets, not that I need that many, some with Velcro flaps and others zippered. I was able to get all my stuff in it, distribute the weight and wear it comfortably. It might look dorky, but I don't care! I think it’s going to be the answer to my dog walking needs.

It also serves as an ad hoc Halloween costume, as long as you have a cute dog in a lobster costume too.

You may be wondering what I carry with me on my dog walking tours. The following is a list of the items I like to have with me, and why:

Extra leashes: In case a leash breaks, or for the occasional “stray” dog I find. It's handy to have a leash to attach to their collar, or make into a slip if the aren't wearing one. They're mostly for clients who only have retractable leashes… I don’t use them. Want to know why? See my blog: Retractable Leashes Should Be Banned!

Belt: I attach a couple carabineers to it. It’s a handy way to clip leashes to me when I need to have my hands free. For instance, poop pick-ups are way easier if you can use both hands for the bags.

Carabineers: See above.

Poop Bags: For obvious reasons! LOL!

Bag to put used poop bags in: I clip it to a carabineer attached to the vest. That way, I don’t have to hold bags of poop and leashes in my hands. BTW, I use cloth lunch bag I got from Subway, so I’m not throwing way plastic within plastic, and it's washable.

Treats and Clicker: Because I love to train my clients. Plus having treats to toss at an unleashed, and unhappy dog, can make for a great distraction from my clients.

Direct Stop: A citronella-based dog repellant, it comes in a container like pepper spray. I think it would probably work on people too.

Umbrella: Provides protection from rain, sun, and the occasional scary dog. Sometimes opening an umbrella in a dogs face will frighten it away; but, if that doesn’t work, it can also be used as a visual barrier or even a weapon.

Squeaky Ball: In case we feel the need to play fetch.

Water and Portable water bowl: I always carry water for the dogs and myself, but they’re the only ones who drink from the bowl… LOL!

First Aid Kit: For the dogs and me, so far I’m the only one to use it. Thank God!!

Small towel: Because dogs drool, get wet and dirty.

Giant Carabineer: I sometimes use it to clip leashes together when I’m walking multiple dogs.

Flashlight: Sometimes I have to walk dogs, or enter homes in the dark. I found a really small LED flashlight that provides enough light and fits in one of the smaller pockets.

Keys: For obvious reasons.

ID/Wallet: I don’t want to leave it in my car.

Hat: It keeps the sun out of my face.

Phone: Because I might get lost and need to find myself. Thank God for GPS.

Flip Camera: To record the cute things my clients do. Their parents love to see my videos.

Lip Balm: My lips are always chapped.

Eye Drops: To wash out the dirt the dogs kick up and also my cat’s hair.

Hand sanitizer: Because poop happens and I can’t always wash my hands right away.

Wet wipes: Ditto

Lens Cleaning Wipes: Because dogs are always licking my glasses.

Sunscreen: I’m out in the sun a lot, and I’m my pale skin gets sunburned easily. Also I tend to forget it until I’m actually outside.

Rain slicker: For those rainy days, and it can be used to sit on.

Sweet Tarts: Just because I really love them!

Eureka! I found it!

A Little Purple Blast From The Past

Yesterday, Jesse and I took a client to Lindo Lakes for a walk. We walked around the lake, and she and Jesse flushed the ducks into the water (big bird dogs), they stayed away from the geese (smart dogs, especially since they have a bunch of goslings right now), and they still can't figure out how the squirrels just disappear (that going to ground thing is beyond them, guess they're not terriers... LOL).

We also made a quick cruise through the farmer's market, one reason we went there was so I could to stop by the Indian food stand and get some veggie samosas and yogurt mint dip for dinner. Dogs aren't allowed in the market, but half the people bring them anyway and no one seems to care. You gotta love Lakeside. So I got my Indian food, and then I rediscovered part of my childhood...

One stand was selling mulberries; I haven't tasted them since I was a kid. As soon as I popped it in my mouth a wealth of memories rushed into my mind. It was like a sweet little purple password that suddenly opened memory storage, which hadn’t been accessed for a long time. It tasted just the way I remembered when I was young, and there were mulberry trees next to our house. Back then I must have consumed my weight in them every spring and early summer. They were then and still are one of my favorite foods.

My friends would come over and we’d pick buckets of berries. We would have purple hands for days, but it was worth it for the pies, cobblers and jams mom would make with them. Of course, we ate almost as many as we picked.

I loved to climb those trees and just hang out up there. Sometimes one or two of my cats would join me in there, especially if I’d brought a sandwich with me. We would share the sandwich and snuggle up there. I would hide in the trees, and watch the world pass by below. Occasionally, I would play tricks on people, when someone walked by, I would quietly say, “Hi there,” and watch them look all around to find the source of the voice. Unless I made another noise, most people never thought to look up. They would look around (some people would say something like, “Who’s there”), and then walk on, probably wondering if they were losing their minds.

One of my favorite past times was to read in the mulberry trees. I would wrap a blanket around my current book, toss it into the tree and climb up after. I would find my comfy Y branch and use the blanket for padding. Then, for hours, I would sit there, eating mulberries, and losing myself in a book. I would do that all year long, but when the mulberries were ripe, it was tree reading nirvana. I wonder how many purple fingerprints I left on the pages.

Of course, the birds loved them too. Back then we didn't have a clothes dryer, so we hung our clothes out on a line. The birds would sit in the trees, eat mulberries and then fly over and drop purple poop and berries all over mom's freshly washed laundry. Mulberry juice, even when processed through birds, makes a purple dye. A permanent purple dye, the sheets, towels, mom’s nursing uniforms, and the rest of our clothes often ended up with purple blotches all over them. We started hanging the laundry up in the garage, during mulberry season.

The berries also dropped everywhere; the soles of my feet were purple all summer, of course more than once I left purple footprints across the floors. Since the tree overhung the driveway, the berries and bird poop ended up all over the car. Mom said she hated those trees because they were so messy, but she loved to eat those mulberries too.

Once, when I was in trouble for having a bad report card, I tried to hide from mom in a tree. I sat up there and watched her walk around, calling me, and getting madder by the moment. My goal was to avoid punishment (a spanking) as long as possible. I thought I’d hide until she got over being mad. Then I would come home and pretend I had been off playing in the fort and didn’t hear her calling me. (The fort was a large shipping crate one of the neighbor kids found. We hauled it into a field and turned it into the fort).

Anyway, that was my plan, but after what seemed like hours, I came to realize it was a really bad plan. Besides, starting to really need to go to the bathroom, I could tell mom wasn’t “getting over it.” In fact, she was getting angrier because she was getting worried. Since I was up a tree, I didn’t know she’d called all the neighbors, checked the fort and my other favorite playing places. Even back then, when life seemed so safe, bad things did happen to little kids. I was about to give up, climb down and face the music, when mom came out with her secret weapon, our dog Snoopy. Being a dachshund, it didn’t take him long to sniff out my tree. When mom looked up and saw me… a look of total relief came over her face, but it was quickly followed by one of sheer anger when she realized I’d been there all along. I won’t tell you what happened next; let’s just say I never hid from her again, at least not in a tree.

BTW, the above story is a great example of why it’s not a good idea to punish your dog, or anyone for that matter. Punishment usually doesn’t work, the dog may stop doing that behavior at that moment, but he’ll often do it again later. So the dog doesn’t learn not to get in the trash, he just learns not to do it when you’re around. As a young human, with opposable thumbs and a partially formed frontal lobe, I understood why I was in trouble. However, unless you catch them in the act, and maybe not even then, animals don’t get why you’re mad. They just know you’re mad. I went out of my way to avoid the punishment, but I got it anyway, in spades. However, while that spanking may have taught me not to hide from mom in trees, it also taught me to be afraid of her. What it didn’t do was teach me how to spell, which is why I got the bad report card in the first place.

For more information about punishment, positive reinforcement, dogs and people read: Don't Shoot the Dog! The New Art of Teaching and Training, Karen Pryor. Bantam Books.

I also recommend: Chill Out Fido! How to Calm Your Dog, Nan Kené Arthur. Dogwise Publishing

For more great books, check out our Resources Page at: http://pawsitivepawsabilities.com/Resources.html

Poop Fight

This is just a rant and a semi-funny story.

Let me start by saying, if you own or walk a dog… it’s your responsibility to pick up after him or her!!! Not doing so is just plain rude. I find it so annoying when people don’t clean up after their dogs, which happens a lot in my complex. Many people seem to bring their dogs over to our complex to walk their dogs, and then leave their droppings behind. I’m not sure why that is, other than they think our landscapers will take care of it.

A couple weeks ago, I was walking Jesse around our complex. There was a young woman walking her yellow lab down the street ahead of us. It looked like she was dressed for work. She was wearing a very cute pale grey suit and matching shoes. The dog stopped to poop. I knew that when he finished, she’d walk away without picking it up. I’ve seen her do this several times and it irritates me. It’s especially annoying because she walks her dog across the street from her complex, to let him poop on our lawns. They have grass over there too!

Anyway, while her dog was dumping a big load on the grass, I had time to approach her and I was about four feet away when he finished and they started to leave. Even though I was annoyed, I made sure to be very polite. I said, “Excuse me. Please pick up after your dog, here’s a poop bag.” Then I held out a bag.

She turned around, looked me up and down, and said, “F*** You! I’m in a hurry.” Then she started walking away again.

Not so politely, I said, “Pick up your dog’s shit! I’m sick of you bringing your dog over here to shit on my lawn and then leaving it for me to clean it up!”

She said, “F*** You, bitch! It’s not your lawn and the landscapers clean it up anyway. You want it picked up… do it yourself.”

Then I was totally pissed. First of all, it is my lawn; I’m a homeowner here. Yes, our landscapers are forced to clean up her dog’s poop, but that’s not what we pay them to do and it’s not fair for them to have to do it. I know it’s not pleasant to pick up poop; I do it several times a day and I often do pick up her dog’s poop myself. When I’m picking up after Jesse, I grab those poops that other people were too rude and lazy to get themselves.

She told me to pick it up myself, so I did. I quickly opened the bag, reached down, picked up the poop and pulled the bag back around the poop. Then I threw it at her. I threw it hard and amazingly accurately, and hit her square in her back. It made a nice squishy, splat sound when it hit, then it dropped to the ground and a little poop tumbled out.

She whirled around, looked down and saw the open poop bag. She looked up at me with this look of total confusion. To be honest, as soon as the bag hit her, I thought I’d probably bought myself a big fight. I half expected her to attack me; she’d had such a nasty attitude. Of course, that didn’t occur to me while I was throwing poop at her, I was too angry!

Instead, she almost started to cry. Then she hurried away, contorting herself to see her own back and wailing, “Oh my God, is there dog shit on me? What am I going to do, I don’t have time to change. Oh my God, what am I going to do?” I told her she didn’t have any poop on her, but she wouldn’t listen or couldn’t hear me. She just hurried away, muttering to herself.

I know it was wrong and childish for me to throw the poop at her. I shouldn’t have lost my temper and reacted in blind rage. It’s really not like me to lose it like that and I do feel bad about it. I still plan to apologize to her the next time I can, but I haven’t seen her since… until this morning.

Jesse and I were out for his morning potty walk. I saw the woman and her dog walking down the street away from us. They were too far away and walking too fast for us to catch up, so I will apologize to her the next time I’m able to, she can’t avoid me forever.

However, I did notice she was walking with her arm extended out to her side. In her hand dangled a full poop bag.

Making Progress!

In a previous blog called, Learning Painful Lessons, I wrote about being injured while walking a big, strong and reactive dog. I talked about some changes I made walking him, to make it better for both of us and teach him how to walk on a loose leash.

That incident took place two weeks ago. Saturday night I had another overnight with them, so I had the chance to work with the dogs again. Here’s what happened:

I got down the leashes and harnesses and, because the dogs were going crazy, I dropped them on the ground and walked away. Since we've practiced this before, after a few minutes, they remembered I wouldn’t leash them until they’re sitting calmly, well pretty calmly J I’m also teaching them to sit and wait for me to open the door and ask them out. I put the easy walk harness I brought on my large friend, Buddy (his owner walks him on a prong collar, which I refuse to use). I also put Peanut’s harness on her. I left Buddy in the yard and took Peanut for a walk first.

At this point, I will only walk one dog at a time for several reasons, but most of all because I want to be able to concentrate on each dogs needs and abilities separately. If I walk them together, no learning will take place because they’ll revert to their old habits of pulling, fence fighting, and being totally reactive to every sight or sound. I’ll revert back to being dragged down the street from one tree, plant, fence fight, etc., to the next. I’m over that, since it looks like I’m going to be spending a lot of time with these dogs, I want to be able to have pleasant walks with them. Besides, it’s just easier to control one reactive dog at a time! My goal is to be able to walk them together, but there’s a lot of work to be done first!

Peanut and I practiced loose leash walking, and she did very well... she was very focused on me, and the task at hand: Being reinforced with Ziwi Peak, lots of praise, and being able to sniff around, for walking close to me. Peanut and I walked, on a loose leash (for the most part) from one end of the street to their other end several times. She was totally into the training. She didn't even start to react when we went by “the barking fence,” she just glanced over and then looked back to me!!! We started out walking across the street from it and by the time we were done, we were about ten feet away!

I’ll bet you’re wondering, “What the ___ is the barking fence?” Their street is a double cul-de-sac, with a road feeding it, like a T. At their corner, there’s what I call, “the barking fence.” It’s a six-foot wooden fence, behind it there are always two or three large, barking, fence fighting dogs. Buddy and Peanut have a strong history of fence fighting there; therefore they get very aroused when they get close to “the barking fence.”

When Peanut got tired and wanted to go home, I took her inside to relax and think about what we had just done. Then I took Buddy out, after a little practice in the backyard. Buddy loses his mind and hearing when he goes through the front door. He needs way more work in non-distracting areas, which we’re also working on. I’d like to spend all our walking time just getting it together in the backyard first. However, the owner really wants him to have a “walk,” so I’m sort of doing a crash course with him.

We started out walking up and down in front of the house. When he was walking next to me, I reinforced it by letting him have a lick of Turkey baby food from the jar (that is a very highly prized reward for most dogs). When he got to the end of the leash, I stopped moving forward and gave him a few seconds to come back to me. Then we moved forward again, and when we passed the point where he had started pulling, I gave him a lick from the jar. If he didn't come back to me within a couple seconds, I turned and went the opposite way. Pretty soon he was walking, on a loose leash with me. Then I upped the anti and walked him (in the middle of the street) a few feet by the barking dog fence. I was able to keep him with me, even though the dogs were behind the fence having a barking fit. If he wanted to go sniff and pee on something, I would take him there, but only if he wasn't pulling. After about 20 minutes of walking up and down the street (but never completely past the barking dog fence and at least 15 feet away from it), Buddy was tired and decided to go home on his own.

All in all, they both had a nice, exercising walk (mentally and physically), and were very relaxed when they got home.

Retractable Leashes Should Be Banned!

This morning Jesse and I were walking a couple of our clients, a mini Schnauzer and a Westie. We came around a corner and there was a woman with her Jack Russell closely approaching us. When the JR saw us, he started charging, head jutted forward, all his teeth bared, ears pinned back, face really tight. He wasn’t bothering to bark, he was in total fight mode. Since he was on a flexi lead retractable leash, and his owner wasn’t able to control it, he was able to make it to a couple feet from us before I could back my three dogs away from him. They were in defense mode at that point… so, even though they’re small dogs, it wasn’t all that easy.

Luckily the JR finally hit the end before he got to us, and didn’t yank the handle out of his mom’s hand when he did. He was running at us so hard, when he hit the end he was yanked off his feet and over backwards. OMG, he could have broken his neck or suffered serious neck/throat damage, especially since he was on a choke chain! But he got right up and came back at us.

Meanwhile, the JR’s mom was just standing there screaming, “No, No, No…” Once her dog couldn’t go any further and we were backing away, she told me her dog doesn’t really like other dogs. No! … Really? I never would have guessed.

At that point, my goal was to get my dogs away, so I didn’t waste time talking to her. That’s for the best, at that moment, I would have said, “What the **** are you thinking, walking that **** dog on a flexi lead? He’s **** out of control. You’re a **** idiot! You need to control your **** dog.” OK, I wouldn’t have said that, I would have yelled it.

If I were to ever see her again, there are some things I’d like to calmly talk to her about… I would tell her that she should use a regular leash, instead of the retractable so she has better control of the dog, and so he doesn’t get to practice charging other dogs. I would explain how much damage hitting the end of the lead could do. I would also tell her the choke collar was making her dog even more reactive. How a choke collar can cause serious neck and throat damage, even brain damage. But the choke collar isn’t the topic of this blog. This one is about why I hate retractable leashes.

I admit, in the past, I have used them with my dog, and with client’s dogs. However, I no longer use them period! I’ve had too many negative experiences with them. When I walk dogs of any size, I use standard, size appropriate, six-foot leashes. If my clients only have retractable leads, I provide my own (I do tell them I use my own leashes and why).

From a training point of view, it’s very difficult to teach a dog how to loose leash walk with a retractable lead. Because of the design, there’s never a loose leash, it’s always tight no matter how close the dog is to you. So he doesn’t get to experience what a loose leash feels like. Also, he doesn’t learn where the end of the leash is if it keeps changing all the time.

I don't like the lack of control most people, including myself, have with retractable leashes. It's very easy for the dog to get too far from the handler, especially when the dog is at a full out run. Then it's too difficult to reel them back in quickly. With a regular leash, you can grab it further down and pull the dog back… but then with a regular leash, the dog can only go four to six feet, not 15 - 30. The cable on a retractable lead is so thin, it's hard to get a good grip on it and, if the cable runs through your hand, it can cut you. That cable can be dangerous too. I’ve seen playing dogs get wrapped up in the other dogs leash and nearly choked. I’ve also had my legs cut by them when a dog ran by me and the cable zipped across my skin.

The button used to limit the length, doesn’t always work very well, especially while the dog is really pulling. It gets stuck and won't lock or release, this seems to happen at the worst possible times. Plus, it seems like many people either forget to use the button, or can’t locate it when they it need it. I think the handle is bulky and easily dropped, especially when the dog hits the end of the lead. We were lucky the JR didn’t yank his lead out of his mom’s hand. If you do drop the handle, it often frightens the dog. Then he tries to run away from the scary monster chasing him, maybe into traffic… When walking multiple dogs, they tie up both of your hands. It’s very difficult to hold two of them in one hand, which is sometimes necessary (like when you’re doing poop pick up).

OK, I know many people successfully use retractable leads. They’re just a tool and have their place. However, it’s been my experience that too many people use them incorrectly and/or with the wrong dogs. I’ve seen dogs run out and snap at bicyclists, skateboarders, children, other dogs and cars. If you have a reactive dog, to anything, don’t use a retractable leash, it’s an accident waiting to happen. Then there are those super friendly dogs, who run up to everyone, people and dogs, to say hi. The problem with that is, some people are afraid of or don’t like dogs, and some dogs aren’t friendly. That sweet, friendly dog might not seem that way to the people/dogs they’re running up to.

All in all, I think retractable leashes can be dangerous for dogs, handlers, and the public. And I think they should be banned. Or at least, they should come with lots of big warning labels. Danger: You Will Have Little Or No Control Of A Dog While Using This Leash. Use At Your Own Risk.

Learning Painful Lessons

When working with animals, it’s a given you’re going to get hurt now and then. There will be the scratches, scrapes, bruises, and very occasionally bites. No matter how careful you are… stuff happens.

Most of the time these injuries are minor, and completely unintentional on the animal’s part. They sometimes get overly excited and forget how delicate we humans are. They don’t mean to hurt me; they’re just playing or trying to get my attention in their own way. On rare occasion, an animal will lash out with intent, but their intent is most often to get me to leave them alone, or they are redirecting their stress on me. That’s just information to me that the animal is really stressed, frightened, or maybe in pain. It’s also info to me that I wasn’t really paying attention to the animal and what he was saying to me, or about what was going on around us. Then it’s my job to figure out what to do to help him calm down. What I do depends on the animal and the situation. These are lessons learned with a little pain to help make them stick.

Then there are the lessons I learn the hard way, with a great deal of pain. I recently had a hard lesson, which resulted in scraped up hands, lots of bruises along the right side of my body, and cracked ribs. That was a week ago and I’m still in agony. I learned some important lessons, most of all to follow my own advice.

So I was walking a couple of clients. One is a very large (95 lbs), strong and powerful dog. The other is a toy breed. They are both out of control on walks, especially when they see another dog. Knowing this, I have always been on alert for other dogs along the walk, so I could change course before one of them starts to react. If one reacts, the other follows suit and then they both go over the top and try to get to the other dog. I’m pretty strong myself and I know how to use my core strength to maintain control, but they have pulled me a few feet before I could regain control of them.

Anyway, we were out walking and the little one pooped. While I was starting to lean over to pick it up, a couple came walking up the street with their Shih Tzu. I didn’t see them until it was too late. Suddenly the big guy lunged toward the other dog and he literally slammed me to the ground and dragged me into the street. It happened so fast; all I could think to do was to hold on to the dogs so they wouldn’t hurt anyone. It was a close call and very scary, because he got right up to them.

I don’t really understand their reaction to having a huge dog, dragging an adult behind him, barking and running at them. I would have stopped and backed away. These people just kept walking forward, right up to us and then, once we were up to them they stopped and started yelling at me. That didn’t help, it was just making the dogs more agitated. I apologized and asked if anyone was hurt, they said no. So I told them to just keep moving so I could get out of the middle of the street. Finally they went on their way, never once asking if I was OK…

So, I got the dogs settled down, got them and myself out of the street, and checked out my injuries. The backs of my hands were very scraped and bleeding from the asphalt and my right side was very painful.

By the time we got back to the house, I was feeling pretty sore. I cleaned my wounds and stopped the bleeding. We went to bed early that night, but I didn’t sleep well because of the pain. I haven’t slept well for a week now.

This experience did teach we a few lessons, which I won’t forget. Like I said, I learned to follow my own advice. I had recommended that the owner buy him and Easy Walk harness and stop using the prong collar. I refuse to walk a dog on a prong or choke collar for many reasons. For one thing, they don’t really work; dogs often learn to pull through the pain. They can cause throat and brain damage. The most import reason is they often make dogs more reactive. So, I was just walking him on his regular collar, I should have purchased an Easy Walk to use with him. I kept meaning to, but didn’t get around to it. I got one the next day. They’re not the only answer to walking a big, crazy dog, but they give you more leverage over the dog, without causing him pain.

I also decided to walk the dogs separately. Together, they feed off of each other’s reactions to everything along the way. Besides since neither of them have the first clue about how to walk on leash, they keep winding themselves around my legs. Again, I knew this and should have done it sooner, but I was trying to follow the owner’s instructions.

Another thing I’ve changed is that, for now, I only walk them up and down their own street. Once they get past a certain point, they get too aroused, and lose the doggie minds. I want to teach them how to loose leash walk, so we have to work where they can stay calm and focus on me. They get the same amount of exercise; we just don’t go as far. We practiced our new walking training a couple times, and it went pretty well. When we’re finished, they’re tired and relaxed, instead of over the top and crazy. As they learn how to walk well and control themselves, we’ll slowly venture further away. It takes time and practice to teach loose leash walking, since I only walk them occasionally, I’m hoping I’ll be able to get the owner to keep it up too. I explained the process and she didn’t seem to keen on it, we’ll see. She thinks they should take a walk around the neighborhood, but they can’t handle it yet, so I’m going to follow my own advice and do what I know is right. I should have done it long before.

Which brings me to another lesson learned, I always want to follow my clients wishes while I’m pet sitting for their pets. However there are times when I have to rely on my own knowledge and training, and I have to use my own best judgment. If I think a situation is dangerous, I will find a way to do something to keep the animals, the public, and myself safe, while still fulfilling my obligation to my client.

Lessons learned… the hard way.

The Case of the Disappearing Ball

On Sunday morning, I was playing fetch with my friends and clients, Buddy and Peanut. They love to play fetch, so we play together in the mornings before I leave for the day. We play in their large backyard. At the back of the yard is a dwarf tree or a bush of some kind, I know next to nothing about plants, flowers, or trees; so I have no idea what kind of plant it is, but it’s a pretty little thing. It’s also a ball eater…

So we were playing fetch, on the third throw, the ball bounced into the ball eater and literally disappeared. I am not the world’s best ball thrower; to be honest I totally suck at it, so I sometimes throw the ball to one place and it ends up in another. Sometimes the ball ends up going into that tree/bush or other plants, but the dogs usually find it. At first I watched the dogs search for it. Sometimes, I have to search for it too, which is what happened this time. After they’d spent a couple minutes looking in and around the ball eater, I went over to look too. I thought it had become caught in a branch, so I searched all over it (it’s a small tree, I’m taller than it). I looked all around it. I shook it to see if the ball would fall to the ground. Then I looked all around behind and next to it… no ball.

I decided to expand the search, to any other logical area of the yard where the ball could have ended up, and I spent a good ten minutes doing so. The dogs were still looking for it too; Peanut (a Chihuahua/Terrier mix) noticed a lemon in the tree next to the ball eater. She decided it was a ball and tried everything she could think of to get to it. She jumped at it, but it was too high. She tried to climb the tree, but couldn’t. So she ended up barking at it, until I picked her up and let her smell it and she decided it wasn’t a ball after all… when she smelled it she sneezed and didn’t want anything to do with afterwards… LOL.

Finally I gave up looking, so went out to my car and got a squeaker ball (If you don’t know about squeaker balls, your dogs are missing out. Contact me for info). I tend to have a small pet store in the back of my car, for just this kind of occasion. We finished playing our game and I did my morning chores before leaving.

All day long, I kept wondering about where that ball had gone. I hate it when things disappear into thin air… it sometimes happens and it’s kind of disorienting. My logical side says, “It couldn’t have disappeared and it must be somewhere in the yard.” My creative side says, “But you looked everywhere and it wasn’t there, so it must have disappeared.” When I went back that evening, I searched again, still no ball. I looked in places it couldn’t have been… and it just wasn’t there.

So, I have to think the ball disappeared… score one for my creative side.