Kim's Game

Look at the items in the photo (right) for 10 seconds and then remember as many as you can.

Well, you can skip the game, but these are some of the items a dog marshal needs to take on the morning walk in the woods.  It's quite a long check list: doggy back-pack (for Pixie), electronic collar and zapper (for Puga), baggies (for all dogs), bug dope (for the humans, although we also have doggy bug-dope for longer walks), three leashes (two for emergencies), whistle, hat (to keep the bugs off my bald spot), dog treats, water (for all of us), etc. etc.

Our general plan is that we take Pixie out in the back-pack and then, at the turnaround point, get her out and let her walk back.  Like the proverbial horse to the barn, she much prefers walking back to walking out.  Her adoption plans have stalled.  What she needs is a nice, mostly-stay-at-home senior who can keep up the regimen of drops in her eye.  Ideally, that's once per hour, but in practice she sometimes has to go a few hours without (at night, for instance).  She is such a sweet, loyal, and loving dog!

Lately, we've been feeling quite pleased with Puga's electronic collar and her recall training.  She is definitely better behaved when she's wearing it, so it is rare that the dog marshal (that would be me) has to use it.  There have been some annoying needle-in-a-haystack searches along the trails for the antenna, which keeps falling off (it's faulty and needs to be replaced).  Thus far, we have managed to find it (once each).

But, this morning, we suffered a dog-training relapse during our morning perambulation of the woods.  Puga ran off through the woods to a house and either couldn't or, more likely, wouldn't (i.e. preferred not to) come back.  Some very nice people helped us retrieve her.  I think the conclusion is that the training has to be continuous.  It's not enough for her to wear the collar – we need to go through the training steps every few days.  Let's hope that will keep her on the straight and narrow.

These two photos of Puga show her new "do".  

When perambulary duty's to be done,
    to be done,
A dog marshal's lot is not an 'appy one,
    'n'appy one.

with all due apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan and definitely not to suggest that I'm not happy with my dog marshalling duties.


Incidentally, if you're not familiar with Kim's game (the title of this piece), you can look it up here.