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.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Cheryl, Thank you. We have a long 30 foot line, but I thought she would not take off. Wrong and never again. Yes, I keep thinking, "why would one spoiled dog run away?" but you are right, they are still dogs with a prey drive. Thank you!! I may start drinking :)

Allyson, Thank you for your nice comment. I agree, keepers...and how he treats his animals tells you he is going to be a kind and wonderful father!

Lori, I know...my modeling career...right? LOL A tether is a good idea. I was considering a cage with bungee cords....I think your way might be better. It was very scary. Thank you!!

Karen, My boobs are finally back on the same side....it took a couple of days..LOL!! Yes, he is a great Doodle dad and the panic in his voice scared me most of all, because he never panics. That is my job! Thanks for the laugh about setting Fudge straight. I think you should definitely come, because she escaped from the yard again today. My heart is still pounding.

Thanks, Kaytlin!

Amy, Yes, I do not need lip plumping surgery....LOL!! In fact, I do not need anything plumped :)

Christine, We used the command touch and it was like a miracle. Not anymore...she is trying to give me a heart attack :) I hope Camus keeps responding!!

Ricki, Thank you! Fudge and the word relaxing do not go hand in hand...LOL!! I will tell my DH!!

Lucy and Sophie's mom, I even told my DH your story when you went to the ballgame and how your dog came back. Please come train Fudge :) I think of that story often.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Jane, I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I had another scare today. She escaped out of our gate.  Last week our DD told us one side of the gate was open when she got home, but we thought it was a fluke. Today, I know I latched the gate and when I checked on the dogs, half of the gate was open again and Fudge was gone. My heart can not take much more. It was about 45 minutes until we found her. My neighbor helped me. Vern did not run off and ran in the house twice to alert me. I was getting cookies out of the oven and had left the front door open. He got a walk, a swim, and a roll...and you cannot tell he was groomed this morning.  I am waiting to hear from our trainer. One of these days she is going to get killed. I wish I drank wine :) Please have fun. Come on, Murphy make us proud!!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Oh Laurie, this sounds like a really bad weekend.  Do people seem to notice that boob in the back?  Between that and the "pumped up lips" I'm thinking that you might have a whole new set of clown career opportunities. LOL  I should not be poking fun at you, because this is our first "beach weekend" of the season, and heaven knows what kind of shape I'll be in by Tuesday morning.  I had made arrangements to board Murph and take Guinness (the good one).  DH wouldn't hear of it....he actually gave me an ultimatum (this is unheard of in almost 40 yrs of marriage).  I was in shock when he said that either Murph "goes with" or he will take a load of the beach stuff down and drop me and then come home to spend the weekend with Murph.  WTD? So Murph is coming along....six kids (including one toddler who thinks it's fun to chase after dogs), strange dogs running free on the beach....nightmare.  Thank heaven for wine.  Anyway, Laurie, I'm so glad that you found Fudge and it all turned out all right.  Here's hoping for a more relaxing and fun boating weekend ahead.

[cheryl & oliver]

Oh Laurie, what a weekend, I am hoping that u and hubby are ok, how scarey, I think we tend to forget that no matter how well we train them or they are trained, that they are still animals, and do have they prey instinct.   I know I would have been hysterical with fear not being able to find Fudge..Hugs to your husband...And yes, they are as attached to the dogs as we are...I like that idea of an app for the phone and something in the collar to track the dog..Great idea, I am going to look into that, but I also think that maybe that tether thing might be a good idea too for the boat.  Can they do that??? or something like that to make sure Fudge can't do that again??...Hugs to all, and a few glasses of wine are in the picture for this week before another day on the boat..

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Oh doodle, that would have made me so scared.  Your DH sounds wonderful.  My DH has said something similar before. He loves his doodle so much.  Definitely keepers :)

[Lori, Rooney & Zuzu]

Oh, Fudgie... what are you doing to your poor parents?!? 

This was quite a story and had my heart pounding! An hour!! I can't imagine my pup being missing for an hour! I'd have been a sobbing mess by then.

Have you considered a tether in the boat? I use a tether hooked to the seatbelt for Rooney in the car because I prefer knowing he has to stay in one place and can't leap out of the car when I open the door. That would at least assure you that she can't fly out of the boat when she spies an annoying gaggle of geese.  It might also prevent any more injuries to your face- you do have that modeling career to protect.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

OMD, Laurie, what a weekend! I hope you and your DH are healing up and your boobs are both on the same side of your body again, hopefully in the front. :)))

That comment your DH made over dinner choked me up. He really is a keeper.

Fudge, you better straighten up and stop battering and scaring your parents, or Auntie Karen is going to have to pay you a little visit, and Vern will not be the only doodle at your house who pees when meeting a stranger.

Now excuse me, I must go buy a lemon cupcake.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

wow you must all be exhausted! i am from just reading about it!

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

so much for a relaxing day on the boat and a quiet swim.  You shouldn't complain about the big lip though...Fudge may have cost you money at the vet, but she saved you money on lip plumping surgery :)

[Christine & Camus]

What an adventure!  I think Fudge has a soul mate - Camus, Mr. I'll chase anything that moves fast, before you can blink.  We are working on it and I find it to be quite a challenge.  I have found a new command that, at least for now, he seems to love.  Instead of using the command "come" I now use "here" and he responds instantly, running to me at full speed.  Now to see how long the new command works.