Farley here,
I may not have a boat anymore, but I still have to lifeguard.
Here’s how I spent my Canada day. I thought this land life was going to be all about relaxing.
I guess my role as Captain Safety is never ending.
Woof Woof.
Dog Training
Farley’s Friday: A Five Dog Weekend
Farley here.
How does a Wheaten Terrier cope in a small space with four other dogs?
I’m the wheaten in the photo. The dogs with me are a lab/springer mix, and two Australian Shepherd/Poodles mixes. Callie, the Jack Russell is below. She refused to have her photo taken with us because she was too busy napping in the pillows.
So we were on a boat but who invited the thunder storm? Smudge (Lab/Springer) and I don’t like them. The other dogs didn’t care.
Five dogs and only a couple of snapping incidents – not by me because, as you know, I’m perfect. One of the Australian Shepherd’s snapped at Smudge. Smudge, being a lab, just ignored the dog. I hid behind Kristina’s legs. I don’t like conflict. The humans all talked about how to stop aggression in dogs. The conclusion. Someone has to the be the alpha and take control. I didn’t get whether that meant a dog alpha or a human alpha. All I know is I’m not the alpha. It’s all so confusing.
We swam, we ran, we got wet, then we had to stay on the back deck until we were dry. All the human’s got to go inside and warm up. but not us. Oh, except the spoilt one. Callie gets cold, so she got to join in side and bury herself on the couch. And you thought all this time, I was the spoilt one.
Woof, woof.
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Farley’s Friday: A Wheaten Terrier and Thunderstorms
Farley here.
I like to think I’m brave, but I get the shakes when the skies are shaking. I don’t understand the booming that penetrates my body or the flashes of light that make me squint. I tried to hide, but there was no where to go.
My human, Kristina, has endless patient. I signal to her to follow me, and she does. I check out every room at the cottage. To my amazement the thunder is in every room. I thought if I hid in the back bedroom, I could get away from it. Not such luck.
My peeps won’t coddle me when I’m afraid, but Kristina’s so smart. She grooms me. She thinks she’s tricking me by performing a mundane task to distract me. I know what she’s doing and yet, it works. She pulls the brush gently down my back in repetitive motions and I find myself calming down.
When the storm finally passes, I crash. I get so tired when I’m stressed. Sometimes a dog just needs a nap and to dry out.
Woof Woof.
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Farley’s Friday: A Wheaten Terrier at the Cottage
Farley here.
The summer is coming to an end and that means all my peeps go back to their own lives. The kids go back to school and get too busy for me. Not to mention, they live in different parts of Canada. I get to go to the Bahamas, which is great, but I’m still sad about the pack dispersing.
I don’t understand kids. They’re always in the water. No matter how hard I bark at them to stay on land, they jump in. This time, they took a camera.
“Get out of the water,” I bark in my frantic manner.
They laugh and swim deeper. Now I’m not sure they can hear me when they’re under water, but I bark more anyway.
They get the giggles and have to surface, but not before taking this odd photo of me!
It gets worse. I told you about tubing, well now they want to water ski too. I make sure I get in the boat and can at least bark safety instructions. Why oh why do kids like water? It’s just too stressful for me.
Woof Woof.
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Farley’s Friday: When a Dog Visits
Farley here.
After a wild weekend of playing with my new girlfriend, Jersey, I had to nap. Jersey is a 10 month old Portuguese Water Dog. And don’t you think she has the best hair ever?
If you have a visiting dog, make sure they play nice and can share. Once a a golden doodle visited me and snarled and snapped when I tried to take her bone. After that incident, my humans supervise the first time I play with another dog’s toy. Jersey didn’t have that problem.
Being young, Jersey has trouble settling down. The humans picked up every shoe they could find and placed them on the railing. Ha, don’t they know dogs are patient? All Jersey had to do was wait for her moment, and then, and here’s where she gets a bit silly, she runs straight to the closest human and shows her prize.
This is me chasing Jersey away from the shoes. Okay, it looks likes she’s got the upper hand, but I saved her first by distracting her from the shoes.
Jersey didn’t listen very well and didn’t seem to care when the humans got all excited. She even knocked over a table. Kristina is strange – she just laughs at it all and says she likes having other dogs around.
When another dog is visiting, especially a puppy, the house needs to be dog-proofed. No food can be left on counters, no chemicals can be left out, for sure put away your favourite shoes, and don’t forget dogs love to chew leather so any electronics with a leather cover should be out of reach too.
Don’t leave young dogs alone with children. They don’t know how to be gentle yet. Don’t let the dogs eat in the same room as another dog. I don’t mind other dogs eating my food, but some dogs growl a me if I go near their bowl.
But really,having said all that, how could you not love a dog with hair like Jersey’s?
Woof Woof.
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Farley’s Friday: How to Stop a Dog From Begging
Farley here.
My humans trained me not to beg by never feeding from the table. This means at all meals and even happy hour if you can believe it.
There are advantages for me and not just my humans:
- I get to attend happy hours with my owners.
- I get to sleep under the dinning room table while they eat – as long as I don’t even look at them.
- They save me yummy tidbits to have in my bowl later.
- I’m very svelte – and you know I’m very sensitive about my looks.
- l never (okay rarely) get tummy aches.
So what I don’t get it why this guy no only got to eat at happy hour, he got to eat right out of the nut bowl.
Was he scolded? Did they make him sit in the corner?
No. The humans thought he was cute and let him return time after time to fill his cheeks and take the nuts away.
Could someone explain this to me?
Woof Woof.
Creative Story Editors 