Well, I Spoke Too Soon!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

My husband and I look bad this week, almost like we have been in a catfight.  We are sore and cranky and putting all the blame on one Chocolate Labradoodle named Fudge. 

It started on Saturday morning.  I got up with the dogs and went out and plopped down on the sofa.  When my daughter woke up, the dogs got very excited and started wrestling.  Vern jumped up on the couch with us and all of a sudden, Fudge leaped onto the sofa and landed smack dab on top of my chest.   I am pretty sure I will be sporting an imprint of her paw on my chest for awhile and I told my daughter I see a future entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the only woman who has one breast in front and one in back.   I could tell my daughter was very worried by the way she said, “Just promise me if you can’t find a bra, you will not walk around braless.” 

My daughter was having a friend over to go out on the boat with us, so my husband and I left early to get the cover off and take the dogs for a walk and then they were going to meet us over at the boat.  I was concerned about Vern having a new person on the boat, but he quickly figured out if she was our daughter’s friend then she was all right with him.  Everything was going fine….Fudge was seated on my lap…Vern wasn’t peeing himself every time the new person spoke to him…until Fudge spotted a flock of geese in the water and decided to leap up and forward to get a better look and gave me a big, fat lip.

Luckily, I had a hold of the handle on her life vest or I do believe Fudge would have jumped off the boat to get to those geese.  On land, she barely glances at them, but in the water seems to be a whole different story.  No matter, I am now walking around with a fat lip and an inverted breast.  The rest of the day passed uneventfully, which brings us to the worst day of all, Sunday.

 

My husband went to Home Depot and to get gas for the boat. After a couple of hours, I began to worry that he had gone to Ohio to get the gas and called him only to find out he was at the boat and someone was there to do a Safety Inspection and he wanted us to meet him over there.  My dogs have started something new in the car. They like to bark at other dogs as we go by and I hate it.  My trainer had given me a small air horn to use if another strange dog approaches, but I opened that horn and at the first bark in the car, I “horned” them. 

The horn has stopped Fudge from barking, but not Vern.  The horn is loud enough to wake the dead, so you can only imagine how wonderful it would be to be walking your dog and have a blue van approach you with a woman inside screaming “NO!” and honking a horn, one dog continuing to bark, and the loud horn going off again.  I am surprised someone has not dropped dead of fright right in front of my van and then I would have a major fiasco on my hands as I tried to find my phone to dial 911, all the while honking my horn at two dogs, now barking at someone lying in the road, clutching their chest and holding a dog on a leash.  I do try and use discretion when honking the horn and opted not to use it when we passed a group of horses with riders for fear I would cause a stampede.

I only had to use the horn once on the way to the dock on Sunday, but I was hopeful my husband heard me coming and would be waiting to help me with the dogs and all the stuff I had to carry.  No such luck. I could see him on the pontoon and I waved, jumped around, and even yelled his name once, but he must have turned off his Selective Hearing aids because he didn’t move. 

I walk my dogs on prong collars, but because Fudge had the choking episode and the vet had been concerned about an obstruction, she wanted me to use a harness for seven days.  Luckily, I had a Walk Your Dog with Love harness at home and that is what we have been using.  The first day, I used the collar I thought it was a godsend. Either Fudge was too weak from her four hours at the ER vet or the new collar felt weird to her, but she did not pull at all.  By day two, that had all changed and either I have the collar on wrong, Fudge had regained her energy, or she realized that pulling against the harness gave her super dog strength, because now we call it the Walk Your Dog with Cuss Words collar. 

Nevertheless, I had to get to the boat, so off we went and I was grateful when my husband finally saw me and came out and took Fudge.  Our inspection went well, and once again Fudge and Vern were wonderful with the inspector and Vern, especially, made me proud because new people are hard for him and we were in a very confined space and he never even barked and sat right beside her.  The only glitch, so far, was when someone with a dog (a Goldendoodle puppy) walked by our boat and Fudge reacted and Vern acting on her energy barked, too. 

 

Finally, we got going and it was a perfect day.  We found an island with no one there, beached the boat, and let the dogs get in the water.  We wanted to try out our dog ramp which required one of us get in the water to guide them up the ramp.  The other person in the boat did not volunteer, so even though the water was still very cold, I got in to help. Neither dog likes to jump into the water.  Fudge can be lowered into the water by her life vest, but Vern is too heavy. We also don’t think the ramp is going to work for Vern because of his size. We did the ramp a couple of times with Fudge and I had the bright idea to let her off her leash and I said and I quote, “there is no where she can go.”  Meanwhile, Vern would not jump off the back end of the boat, so I was encouraging him to just walk in and swim to me.  This is where it all went wrong.  Something about the water and Vern being in it amps Fudge up and she takes on the role of a dominatrix.  

We have been correcting her, but on this day, all of a sudden she jumped out of the back seat and onto the land.  This is a dog that won’t jump up on the bed without help and rarely jumps down and she cleared at least eight feet without batting an eye and took off like a bat out of hell into the densest, most impossible to penetrate area of land you could imagine.  Vern started to follow, but came immediately back when called. Not Fudge. 

 

My husband had no shirt on and ran into those briars after her and instructed me to take the only small path we could find, which I did with Vern.  It is a testament to how much I love Fudge that I went into the woods without a concern for snakes.  We searched in panic for at least an hour and still no Fudge.  Finally, I heard my husband yell he had her and then both of us got slightly lost trying to make our way back to the boat.  I kid my husband all the time about watching Daniel Boone, but he said he actually looked for signs of shrubs, etc. being disturbed and tracked her that way and found her on the other side of a briar bush and she came to him. His back, arms, and shoulders are all torn up and I could kick myself for letting her off her leash.  I knew better.

We have never had a dog like Fudge. Vern is so exceptionally good on that boat and is a joy to have with you, but we have to be so watchful with Fudge.  I don’t know if you want to call it her prey drive, but she is on constant alert for anything that moves and I really believe she would follow her nose wherever it leads.  It seems to be getting worse and never in a million years did we imagine she would jump off the boat.  We are implementing new rules on the boat and she will never be off leash again and we are going back to square one with the come command.  Both of us are discouraged, but this was my fault and could have ended very badly because of my stupidity.  kOn Sunday, my husband was my hero and later when we were out to dinner and he was drinking a beer he said, “If we hadn’t found Fudge, the thought of her being lost and alone in those woods would be more than I could bear,” and I knew exactly how he felt.

 

P.S.  I keep telling myself, there are no bad dogs, only bad dog trainers, but I don’t usually like to take the blame for anything, so I am working on a new slogan.  I think I like, If life hands you a reactive, prey driven, naughty little lemon Chocolate Doodle, don't sit around making lemonade, make lemon cupcakes, and bring them on the boat with you along with an extra strong dog leash.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I think I want an air horn!!!! And earplugs.....   I like the idea of trying the special recall word for serious recalls. We also have a gate-latch problem - it looks latched and to a  touch it is latched, but not totally and completely.  Ned is our sneaky culprit.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

How very scary for you.  When I was a little girl my family went on a vacation to the mountains.  On the way we stopped at a large unpopulated lake.  My beloved pet suddenly decided to take off after the birds.  She ran the entire perimeter of the lake before finally coming back to us and there was really nothing we could do but wait and hope she came back. It was traumatizing for me because I thought my dad would leave without her - he didn't and we had a very happy ending.

I like your new slogan!  In my maturity, I finally realized that dogs can never truly be trusted not to take off.  This is something that I forget periodically though, especially because I am so cautious about their off-leash freedoms.  Our Springer, who goes to college with our son, goes everywhere with him off-leash, suddenly ran out our front door and across the street after a cat one day!  He had no recall on that one either, yet normally.....

I'll take one of those lemon cupcakes, please.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Who couldn't use a cupcake, count me in : )

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Charlotte, How nice of you to take your mom's dogs. It doesn't always happen that way. How scary to have to be driving around at 1:00 am. I am partial to chocolate labs, though, as we had a wonderful dog named Hershey :) Thank you for your concern about our Fudge. I could use a cupcake, too :) LOL

[Charlotte and Bo]

Sounds like Fudge has decided to assert her independence.  That is never fun.  When my mom passed away I inherited her dogs.  The chocolate lab "Molly" was very attached to my mom and I think maybe she was trying to find her way home, but whatever the reason she turned into an escape artist.  My fence was blocked and staked with every piece of lumber, tree branch, tent pole, broom stick, and whatever I could find.  Still she would find a spot to dig out.  Sometimes I found her quickly, sometimes not. I live in a not so good neighborhood a block or two from a low income housing project. I remember driving around the "projects" at 1:00 in the morning asking people hanging around outside (possibly drug dealers) if they saw a chocolate lab.  Lucky for me they were helpful and I found her without getting mugged.  Molly was my mom's favorite and I loved that dog too so I had to find her.  Sometimes we have to do crazy things for our dogs. 

I'm very glad that Fudge didn't get herself into major trouble. 

I too want that cupcake! :-)

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

That cupcake looks really really good right about now.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

LOL Donna!!!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Hahahaha. Took me a moment, though.

[Donna K & Quincy]

Laurie, I know just the word to use, "Hokum", just don't go yelling it in the redlight district. :>)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Thanks, Deanna. I am sure your daughter was terrified and I am sorry she continues to have stress about the situation. It is just so scary!