Anchoring Forward When Things are Hard

In my last post, I told you about the rough time we had when the vet thought I had cancer in my leg AND Mom got a head injury. I forgot to tell you about one of the things Mom did to cheer us both up. 

Mom grew up around boats and said she learned how to “anchor forward” when in a rough storm. She would throw the anchor off of the front of the boat (bow) and then use a winch to pull the boat forward instead of letting the winds and current carry her where she didn’t want to go. At least she was moving forward, even if really slowly.

With that in mind, she bought a new special backpack to use on our future hikes together. This one would be better for carrying my jackets, boots, water, and stuff. And my snacks. Lots and lots of snacks. I’ve learned to refuse to walk until Mom gives me snacks to get going again. I also make her pay me (more snacks) to stand still for photos. Anyhow, she got this new backpack as a way of anchoring forward and not staying discouraged. I watched her pack it so it was ready to go, including my toys and snacks. She put it where we’d both see it as a reminder.

Finally we took the new backpack on it’s maiden voyage on a hike to a waterfall. We had to hike through a deep canyon for 100 miles I think, just to get to the falls. Well, when you’re closer to the ground as dogs are, the earth seems to flatten out and stretch to get bigger. Or something like that.

Come on, Mom! Carry my snacks a little faster, ok?

 

We passed little waterfalls on the way to the big one.

Can you tell I’m hot? We had to cross the creek 9 times on the way to the waterfall, and got soaking wet. That was fun 🙂

After a while, I started to feel a little sick. You can tell in this photo that I was feeling light headed (see the light on my head?).

Seriously though, I was getting really sick. Mom has pictures of me being really sick, but I won’t let her post them. Too embarrassing. 

We FINALLY made it to the waterfall way up in the mountains. How pretty! Even tho I was still a little sick, I let Mom take a picture of me with the falls.

The falls are a 40 foot drop, but somehow I look pretty big in the photo. I’m not really 10 feet tall. And I’m not happy about standing still for pictures.

Another photo of the falls (without me)

 

I’m glad Mom explained anchoring forward and picked something to look forward to. Mom struggled to recover, but she did, even if it seemed slow. I waited for her though, and looked forward to more snacks hikes and more fun times with her. We’ve been hiking together now for 11 years and 7 months. Yay team Behr Behr!! Still going strong!

♥♥ Love, Behr Behr, the 10 foot tall Dane (yeah right…)

P.S. – Happy Mother’s Day, Mom 🙂

 

Life Lesson From My Senior Dog

It’s funny how walking along in silence with your dog can MAKE SPACE for contemplation and overall de- stressing from our hectic pace of life. Sure, I like hiking with friends sometimes, but there is no silence to be able to process life. Walking with my dog gives me that needed time. Sometimes I even discover things about myself during that quiet time, but this time my dog taught me a much needed lesson.

When we got Behr as a puppy, she was unbelievably energetic.  We’re not talking normal Dane puppy here; she was a ball of fiery energy that never stopped. She only had TWO speeds…full throttle zooming ahead and sound asleep. No in-between with her.

. 

Everything Behr did as a puppy was with full gusto. Life was one big adventure to her. She never walked, she only ran and jumped. I’m NOT kidding.

Taking her for walks was seriously exhausting both mentally and physically.  One time as I was being dragged by a neighbor’s house, she yelled out, “Hey, do you get frequent flyer miles with that dog?” She was referring to the fact that I was almost airborne as I chased after my full speed ahead pup. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry when she said that.

Behr had a mind of her own and was seriously stubborn. Ha! I had originally planned to show her in conformation and obedience, but she made it clear that she had other plans. Mind you, I was quite capable as a trainer and had a long history of training some top obedience dogs, horses, and even wild animals for film. Yet, I couldn’t get this puppy to do anything. I had signed up for puppy obedience classes, mainly for socialization, but she got kicked out. It was suggested by more than one nationally known trainer that I get a different dog because this one was incorrigible. Wow, that was humbling after my history of successfully training animals.

BUT, she was the PERFECT dog for me to hike with!  I was “conquer oriented” and aimed to cover as much ground with the most elevation gain possible. I have always kept logs of our distance, speed, and total elevation gain during our hikes. Depending on temperature and season, we averaged 40- 120 miles per MONTH for much of Behr’s life (with time off for my knee surgery and sometimes for work schedule) No matter how aggressively I hiked, I still had to turn Behr loose to run in fields and up hills just to burn off excess energy and make the hike pleasant for me.

Behr had an interesting fault, however. She simply never acknowledged pain. She could injure a paw and I would never know it. The only way I would figure it out was noticing she maybe wasn’t walking quite as fast as usual. She didn’t slow down if she was sick, injured, tired, hot, cold, or anything else. More than one emergency veterinarian pointed out that she was incredibly “stoic” (their word) Looking back, that probably explains why she acted a little dazed but fine after her fall over the cliff in Oregon.  After her neck injury was diagnosed (due to paralysis), I realized in retrospect that her only clue was that she would play hard and then stop suddenly and go lay down, probably due to pain.

Things have slowly changed in the last two years, though. She eventually got to the point of trusting me enough to let me know she had a problem and needed help. If she got a sticker in her paw, she would now STOP and wait for me to come help her. If she was too hot while hiking, she would plop down under a bush or tree until she cooled down.  When she got thirsty, she would pull me over to a large rock (kind of place I usually stopped to water and snacks) and wait for water. She stopped dragging me most of the time, and began to walk at a normal pace. Sometimes she even lags behind me. It feels really odd to walk in front of her for the first time in 11 years. The roles have changed. She loves to stop and sniff things thoroughly or to stand on mountain tops and stare at the view forever. She absolutely LOVES to do that, in fact. I have no idea what she’s even looking at, but she likes it.

Sometimes she decides she is done hiking, or doesn’t want to go the way I do. She puts her little brakes on and like a mule, won’t budge at ALL. OK, maybe with a bribe she’ll get going again. Maybe she wanted to go that way anyhow and got a snack out of it. I don’t know. 

Walking along thinking about all of these changes recently, I realized what an amazing lesson this was for me. I really needed to pay attention to what Behr was teaching me!!!

 I realized that when she began to change, I was kind of agitated inside, although I would never admit it. I think I was so used to her being my “land conquering companion” that I couldn’t believe she was changing. Sure, I knew she couldn’t keep up that pace forever, but was still bothered. My last dane was my training partner for my trip to Nepal and Tibet, and hiked 12 out of her 13 years before the dreaded bone cancer stopped her. Was I somehow hoping Behr would do the same?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could looking at her graying face and feet and be visually reminded that it was time for her to slow down some. Not only that, but she has a spinal injury that I need to be careful with. I would think about these things and then feel like the bad “dog parent” for expecting more of her. What was wrong with me to expect her to never slow down?  As we walked more slowly, which I needed to do now anyhow (my spine and leg injury), I suddenly realized what was happening. What I realized was painful at the heart level. Deeply painful, in fact.

Behr, as a younger dog, had been just like me. Together we raced through life and ignored all pain and illness. Yes, I did it too. We were quite the pair. When I had major reconstructive surgery on my knee, the surgeon told me no more hiking on hills. Did I stop? No. As soon as I got out of my full leg brace, I started walking again. I just wear a smaller brace on my knee now. Hiking is a BIG part of my life. I had a job that was very demanding and for over 8 years straight I worked 90 hours per week with no vacation. I was sometimes so exhausted that I would be sick, but would keep going. I, like Behr, even have a serious spinal injury that caused damage to the nerves in my leg. I wear a brace that shocks my leg and helps my foot move. (It had become sluggish and I was tripping a lot) Behr has a spinal injury and slightly drags her back feet as well, wearing her nails down in the process. How odd of a coincidence is that?? We are more alike than imaginable.

Except in one way…

Behr learned to slow down and honor her body before I did. 

I think I subconsciously thought I could be super woman or something. My whole life has been spent trying to prove how capable and strong I am. I was the crazy one that would get up at 4 a.m. and run 10 miles, get the kids off to school, go to the gym, then to work, to their sporting events, and run a 10 acre ranch and keep a humongous house perfectly organized. Oh, and make it all look easy to anyone watching. The list goes on and on for my whole life. What I used to be proud of is now embarrassing to recount. What was I thinking? None of that matters in the end. Really.

So as we wandered through the hills that day, I realized that Behr had grown up and gained wisdom that I needed. She was modeling how life should be lived. Who would have ever guessed that the wild and crazy puppy would one day become my teacher? The lesson she was teaching me was hard to swallow, though. To slow down and admit my physical needs made me feel weak and vulnerable at first.

Since that day, I am trying to honor her requests to stop and enjoy the view from e.v.e.r.y mountain top. I even took a pad to sit on recently and when we got to the top of a mt. she loves, I sat down and let her stare as long as she wanted. I let go of my agenda to conquer miles. She seemed quite surprised, but enjoyed it.

I’ve even bought a little compact ultralight chair that fits in my backpack to take when the weather is nicer, just so WE can stop and enjoy the mountain tops. I bring snacks and water and we just sit down and have a little picnic together. Honestly, I’m enjoying the view as well. There is so much beauty that I’ve missed in my years of race-walking through life. It’s amazing how powerful the stillness and calm of nature can be for healing our tired souls (see my recent post about forest bathing for more information..) The trick is to go for a walk and NOT spend the time thinking about what we need to do when we’re done. That totally cancels restorative benefit and stresses us out more (because we’re “wasting time”). I’ve taken off my backpack full of expectations (both self-imposed and real) and decided to admit I can’t do everything anymore.

So now what? Well, we’re both taking off our super hero capes and hanging them up. Neither of us need them anymore. Besides, we were never super heroes anyhow. We were only like little kids dressed up in costumes pretending we had super powers. The only ones we fooled were ourselves. And now we are free to run and play like we were meant to, without the heavy weight of the hero capes.

♥ Behr’s mom

 

Forest Bathing – The Other Kind (wordless Wednesday)

(Different view of yesterday’s post)

Forest Bathing

Right now, while Mom is typing what I say, I’m lying close by all snuggled in my blankie. We also have the smell of trees drifting through our house. Mmmmm. As soon as she’s done typing we get to go for a walkie and smell lots of trees. Yay! Type faster, Mom!

So, have you ever heard of something called “Forest Bathing?” No, for real. I didn’t make that up. In Japan they call it Shinrin-yoku, which literally means “forest bathing.” It’s where you go for a walk in the forest and enjoy with wonderful pine tree smells and it makes you healthier, happier, and sleep better. It’s not a walk where you rush, but slow down and enjoy the beauty and smells.

The people of Japan are lucky because they have a LOT of forests there (67% of the land!) and it is a recognized form of stress management.    ( Doctors even prescribe it!).  Here are some pictures of me forest bathing. 

(this one was before I started turning white…)

Here’s me stopping to enjoy the whole forest, not just the smells on the ground. That was HARD for me to learn at first. 🙂

Here I am standing in the forest and gazing at the peaceful lake. Kind of a forest meditation…

Ok, so I got distracted with the size of THIS tree. Well, that and the squirrel that ran up it..

Even the trees themselves seem happier in the forest. I feel sorry for the poor trees that live in the city. They should move to the forest. Really. Maybe we should too 🙂

Wow, all of this forest bathing really IS making me sleepy…

By the way, I know some of you live where it’s snowing right now. That’s ok. You can put a tree in your house like Mom does this time of year, and then go for walks when it’s not snowing. 

May the FOREST be with you 🙂

♥♥ Behr Behr, the Forest Princess

Behr Behr’s mom here.

What an wonderful concept! The Forest Agency of Japan has created acres and acres of beautiful forests for the people to go to in order to “de-stress” and get healthier. It may sound funny to post this in the winter, but winter is when a lot of people feel “down”, so it just might be helpful to consider. I have to wonder if that’s why many people feel so wonderful in the fall and spring, when the weather makes outdoor activities more inviting. (not too hot, not too cold) When there ARE decent days, though, this could be a good thing.

Meanwhile, breathing essential oils of balsam fir (or maybe pine) in an essential oil diffuser could bring cheer, or even looking out of the window at trees if that’s all you have. One time when I had a really painful surgery (out of the MANY I’ve had…), I found that just watching videos of nature helped calm me and reduce my pain levels some.

I actually like to blend essential oils of Balsam Fir mixed with Orange oil for a particularly uplifting blend. Orange oil (or Bergamot even)  has been shown to reduce depression and stress. Of course, having a real Christmas tree or wreath are helpful if you celebrate the holidays with those. Studies have even shown that hospital patients with trees to look at outside of their rooms have faster healing times.

Here’s a great website with more information about what forest bathing is: http://www.shinrin-yoku.org/. 

Australia has created the “Healthy Parks, Healthy People” program (http://www.hphpcentral.com/) modeled after Japan’s Shinrin-yoku, and it is s.l.o.w.l.y starting to catch on here in the U.S.A. as well. Emphasis on the word slowly.

So, being the major scientific research fanatic that I am, I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of evidence that exists to support the concept of forest therapy building our health.

For example, breathing the oils (called phytoncides) from the coniferous trees (tree that have cones, like pines) has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and anger. These same oils increase your natural killer cells that help prevent tumors. The tree oils basically build your immune system. Important to keep up, even in winter. We just have to bundle up and convince ourselves to go outside on decent days in the winter 🙂 

It’s recommended to spend at least 20 minutes in the forest, and if you spend 2-3 days there (vacation anyone??) the effects on your immune system can last up to 30 days afterward. Wow! Even just 20 minutes can reduce cortisol (stress hormones) by 13%, however.

Forest bathing also increases your creativity and problem solving capability. Many famous authors and inventors did their creative thinking on walks. 

If you are so inclined, you can learn more basic information on these websites:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793341/,

https://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/about/science,

http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/90/5/530,

http://www.hphpcentral.com/article/forest-bathing.

Ok, I’m going to bundle up and brave the cold, dreary, windy weather to take Behr for a walk now. Both of us need help with our immune systems, so that’s my motivation for the moment. Brrr.

The Day I Was Poisoned, Part 2

(If you haven’t read part 1 of this story, please do so here :Poisoned part 1 )

Boy was I SCARED being in that hospital all by myself! I was super sick and Mom and Dad were nowhere around to hold me and tell me it would be ok. 😦 I just wanted to go home to my own bed and family.

The hospital place did all kinds of scary things to me and they didn’t even remember to feed me. Totally mean!! Sometimes I would cough and choke until I couldn’t breathe.

FINALLY Mom came for me and we went home. Unfortunately, I had to go back again because my lips and gums were turning blue. Is blue really a bad thing?

I had to take some yucky medicine to help heal my throat and I couldn’t run anymore without trouble breathing. Since I LOVE to run (even zoomie runs in our house), this was depressing. It was almost a year before I could run more than about 1 minute without the coughing and choking thing.

so depressed 😦

You can see the spot on my leg where I had something called ivy. (I.V.)

IVY marks

At least Mom and Dad took turns sleeping on the floor close by me, which was comforting. When I got really scared from they would pet me and calm me down!!

Mom did everything she could to help me get better and to live, and it worked. I’m really glad she did, and that I lived to tell you all about it! 

♥ The (Phoenix) Behr Behr

Mom’s side of the story.. Behr’s difficulty breathing was such a concern that we took turns sleeping by her so we could listen in case she stopped breathing. We never knew when she would have to be rushed back to the vet again, and were on edge for WEEKS after this crazy incident. We also didn’t know if she would EVER be her normal self again,  and we felt so sad for her. It was obvious that the the choking scared her a lot. (us too)

During this whole ordeal, Behr apparently damaged her esophagus, causing ulcers on it. She was put on a medication called Sucralfate that helped her heal, but had it’s own set of complications. (Most medications side effects of some sort) The medication itself can cause difficulty breathing and vomiting, which only added to the problem. Besides that, I was concerned about the fact that this medicine is 21 % aluminum by weight, which is also a neurotoxin (as was the insecticide).

When she was done with this whole episode, my next project was to find out how to DETOX all of the chemicals used during the event and to restore her health. I’ll tell you more about what I did in the next post, since some of it applies to things our dogs are exposed to in their daily lives.

Behr’s mom 🙂

 

The Day I was Poisoned

It all started out as a fun hike with mom on a lovely spring morning. She took me to one of MY favorite trails.

I like it because a big part of it is on private land and the owner said I can run around without being tied to Mom with that silly leash thing.

Mom took me to the field where she finally un-hooked me so I could run and play. Yippee!! I LOVE deep grass!! I stopped to rest for a minute and then we were off to the top of the mountains.

I got to run free ahead of Mom at the distance I’m allowed. We stopped for water and snacks at the top like we usually do. You can see part of the trail we came up in the photo.

On the way down, I was running ahead on the trail. This was the last photo Mom took because “the incident” happened right after she took this photo.

So, as I was leading Mom on the trail, I spied a yummy green snack lying on the ground. Perfect! Mom didn’t give me any greens today. Just in case Mom didn’t want me finding my own snacks (sometimes she doesn’t appreciate my help), I glanced to make sure she was too far away to stop me and grabbed the snack.

Sure enough, she ran toward me and tried to get the snack out of my mouth. Ha! I still got a bunch of it anyhow 🙂 

We were almost back to our car when I started to feel super SUPER sick.. I had trouble breathing, was trembling, stumbling, and vomiting and drooling a lot with my now blue lips. Everything after that is just a blur. All I remember is having to go to the animal hospital. 😦 I guess Mom will have to tell you what happened next. 

We’ll finish the story tomorrow, so stay tuned.

♥ Behr Behr, the (Phoenix) Dane

Wow! What a scare! One minute Behr Behr was a happy puppy running free on the hills, the next, a terrified and desperately sick girl. The yummy green “treat” that she helped herself too was horse poop. Normally gross, but not dangerous.

It turns out that this particular horse had been given what’s called a “pass- through” insecticide to cause it’s poop to be a neurotoxin for flies attracted to it. The vet ultimately said the dose for a 1500 pound horse ended up in a 105 pound dog. NOT GOOD!!

When I arrived at the animal hospital, they took one look at her and ran toward her, scooped her up, and dashed off to a treatment room with her. (weird hospital didn’t even let me go with her…!) They said she looked poisoned. I was honestly scared at this point, and didn’t know if she would make it. They finally sent me home and said they would keep me posted. (ugh. They saved her life, but I won’t return to THAT hospital again!!)

I didn’t even get to hug her goodbye or comfort her or anything.

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much at all while she was gone because they said they weren’t sure she would live through this.

Stay tuned for part 2 Saturday …

Trail Mix

While we were on vacation in the far away place called “Oregon” we hiked on lots and lots and lots of trails.

You know, I think humans believe we dogs just walk along with no absolutely no thoughts in our heads. How silly!! Our minds are quite busy!

For example, I do a lot of sniffing when we walk because I’m gathering information about who/what was on each trail.

I’m actually writing a travel guide for dogs that will be called,”Makes Scents to Me”, based on the information that I’ve collected. 

I don’t think Mom knows what I’m doing, since she tells people it’s like walking a vacuum, ’cause my head is glued to the ground. Really, I’m really working hard.

 Another thing I do is listen to what Mom and Dad are talking about. I’m always trying to increase my vocabulary.

When I don’t understand a word or phrase, I store it away until I do. 

That means a lot of times what I hear is stuff like, “Blah blah blah blah BEHR. Blah blah FOOD. Blah blah blah WALK blah DOG blah PLAY blah blah TOYS.”

Then every once in a while, I suddenly understand a phrase I’ve heard before. For example, on the trails we hiked, there were a lot of bridges. 

On one bridge, I remembered Dad says, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there”, and suddenly I understood what he meant. When we came to the bridge, sure enough we crossed it.

One of the bridges we walked across actually had a cover, and a light bulb went on in my head as I remembered hearing Mom say, “No worries, we’ve got that one covered.” OH, she means a covered bridge! 

As we walked along the trail beside a creek, I realized when Dad says something about being “Up a creek without a paddle” he means one of these creeks.

Of course we didn’t have any paddles with us. In fact, we didn’t bring our raft either. I guess that’s what he says when he realizes he forgot our raft.

Wow, I’m learning so much on this trip!!

Of course, we saw about 596 waterfalls as we hiked.

Don’t worry, we won’t put all of those pictures on my blog. Mom can get her own blog if she wants to do that. I let her post those two because she types this for me.

When I’m walking, I’m also watching out for other animals. You never know when one will cross our path, like the squirrel that was taunting me from the tree.

If you think your humans also believe you walk along with an empty mind, here’s a little tip for you. Just scroll back up to the phrase above, “You know, I think humans believe we dogs just walk along with no absolutely no thoughts in our heads.”  Then walk away from the computer, kind of “accidentally on purpose” (if you know what I mean) leaving the computer on so that they will read this. 

I think after they do, they will feel embarrassed. Then they will start bending down to look you in the eye and talking verrrrry slowly, like they do when talking to older humans who can’t hear very well.

That’s a lot better than if they continue to talk right over your head and pretend you don’t understand. They’re only kidding themselves, and you can help them get rid of this bad habit. It’s our job to try our best to train them.

Until next time, stay safe… “It’s a jungle out there!” He he he.

 

 

♥ Behr Behr, your trail guide 🙂

Excuse Me, But Do I Look Like a Horse to You?

Just wondering. Apparently my parents think so. My Mom raised horses for a long time, so when it she needed a warm, durable “coat” for me for our camping trip this coming week, she got me a horse blanket. Ok, I know you are laughing, but I don’t think it’s that funny. Really. Seriously now, no laughing. Do I look like I’m amused?

Like I said before, it takes a good sense of humor to live with my parents sometimes. I should have never asked, “What will they think of next?”

How do they come up with these things anyhow? Sometimes I wonder if they just stay up at night dreaming up funny things to do to me.

Here I was, all excited about my first ever camping trip. They said they were taking me to the mountains (almost 10,000 ft. elevation), where there are lots of trees and fun things to do. Even Rusty chimed in and told me I’d like it because camping means lots of walkies and squirrels. (see the comment under “Squirrel Patrol”) Then I started finding out there were some funny catches to my vacation. First it was the cable thing I have to be on sometimes. No big deal; it’s like a super long leash. After that, they told me it’s really cold up in these mountains, so I would need to wear a coat. Ok, I’ve done that before too.

Then the UPS man brought a package to our house with my coat in it. Just a side note about the UPS man while we are on the subject. I think he’s afraid of me because my bark sounds scary. Ha Ha Ha. When he brought my coat, he literally just threw it onto our patio without even coming to our door. The time before that, he ran when he heard me bark. What a funny guy. 🙂

Anyhow, I was shocked when I saw my new “coat”!!! What kind of coat is this!?!? And did we have to buy a blaze orange one???? (and one that’s a little too big) Hello, it’s embarrassing enough for me to wear a silly horse blanket, but then to make it bright orange too??? I’ll bet even the squirrels will be laughing.

All I can say is this “camping thing” had BETTER be fun. I’ll let you know how it went when I get back.

♥ Behr Behr, just horsing around….

Note from Behr Behr’s mom: I bought her blaze orange because it happens to be bear and deer hunting season near where we are going, and I didn’t want her to look like a black bear cub to a careless hunter…. even tho they aren’t supposed to be near the campground. It’s been known to happen, unfortunately.

Foal and miniture horse blankets happen to fit most great danes, just so you know. They also happen to be waaaayy less expensive than “dog coats” as a rule, and far more durable. I guess others have bought them because now they even make horse blankets for dogs (including small dogs). Behr’s is waterproof and insulated even. I’m going to add an additional strap around her waist tho, since it’s big on her right now. Great idea for a growing pup in my opinion.

Woo Hoo! I’m an Official Hover Dog now!

I’ve been learning some fun new things. Remember how I told you I love to pronk, like a gazelle? Well, this is really cool! I’ve figured out that if I slow myself down while in the air , and change the angle of my leap, I can actually HOVER!!!

Yipeeee! I’m an official Hover Dog  now! Those silly flying nun ears of mine make great wing flaps, too.

Check out my photos, and you’ll see I can hover at a pretty good altitude for a dane puppy. Maybe even as high as Falcor in the “Neverending Story”, but I’m cuter!! OK, so my landing is a little sloppy sometimes, but I’m still learning how to get the angle of my ear flaps correct for a smoother touchdown. Hey, I’m just a pup.

Actually, mom said I’m not supposed to be jumping around so much, but that maybe when I’m a little older I will be able to compete in jumping. Now THAT’S something I’d really like to do! Maybe I am part antelope afterall. Hmmmm. Would that make me a “dane-alope?”

♥ Behr Behr, the danealope hover dog 🙂

Whoa there, Mr. Rattlesnake!

Yesterday Mom told me it was time to go for a ride. Yippee! I love rides in the car! After a few minutes, we met up with Dusty and his Mom. Oh, this is going to be good! Dusty and I are going to have a play date! Woohoo!!

Off we went for a long ride. When we got out, I was super excited because we were at a pretty little park. I could just picture the fun Dusty and I were going to have with our moms exploring new trails together. Within a few minutes, tho, I began to realize something funny was going on here. Dusty went in this fenced area with his mom…but we didn’t go with him. Hey, what’s going on here? Aren’t we going for a hike, Mom?

Then I noticed Dusty was doing some kind of weird dance or something. Hmmm. I’ve never seen him so animated while going for a walkie. Oh well. I thought maybe he was just feeling frisky or something. I get that way all the time.

After a while, a nice man came and took me on my leash while Mom stayed a little distance away and watched. I thought this was a little odd, but the man was nice and I love walks, so I went.

All of a sudden I saw this weird thing that I’ve never seen before. It was long like a rope, but curled up and it had eyes that were staring at me. Wow, this rope’s alive, Mom!! I thought she should come check it out with me, but she didn’t. Oh well, I thought I’d just go check Mr. Live Rope out myself. I noticed he smelled really interesting, too. As I got closer to check him out, I felt a funny little * zing* in my collar. It didn’t hurt, but it sure surprised me!! I backed up and thought about it. Hmm. Must have been a weird coincidence. Ok, back to Mr. Live Rope… *zing* again. Now I started to think that Live Rope had something to do with all of this. He was still staring at me, his head following me around with a mean look on his face. I decided that maybe I shouldn’t sniff him after all.

So, this nice man kept walking along with me. Whew! Got away from Mr. Live…..uh oh. What was this? There are TWO more of them up ahead, and they are moving on the ground and making a funny sound.

I inched closer, when *zing*, there we go again. I don’t think I like these rope guys. Every time I thought about checking them out and started to move to investigate, I got the weird *zing* thing again. I didn’t dance like Dusty did. I’m not sure why he was dancing, but I learned he can jump really high!

Back to our walk. This kind of stuff went on for several times, but don’t worry, I learn pretty fast. No more Mr. Live Rope for me! Then the guy with my leash just let go of the leash and let me run. Yippeee!! My mom called me, so I was going to run over to her and tell her all about Mr. Rope when I noticed that there were more of these stupid Rope guys around here. I decided to run to her, but go waaaaaaaay around the Rope guys, just in case. Mom was super excited to see me and we jumped and played and celebrated. I’m not sure what we were celebrating, but whatever it was, Mom seemed happy that I had made a good choice of some kind. Then we left the fenced in area and went to be with Dusty and his mom. Boy, that was a weird way to play, and not even with Dusty. Dusty just wanted to get in his truck and go home I think.

Then we got to go to another park and Dusty and I went for a REAL walk, together, with no mean-eyed rattlely old Rope guys around. That was more like it!!! Whew, I’m glad it ended on a more fun note like that. I don’t think Dusty was in the mood to play with me after he met Mr. Live Rope. We’ll just have to get together again soon and run around for fun. Somewhere where we’re alone, maybe. Without any mean-eyed ropes, that is.

While we were driving home, Mom explained what all of that was about. She (and Dusty’s mom) were having us trained by a Mr. Patrick Callaghan to learn all about rattlesnakes. (oh, that’s why they made that funny noise..) We learned to recognize them by smell, sight, and sound, and to avoid them, AND alert our owners to the danger nearby!! She said that she has had another dog trained this way before me, and also told me about a cat that she had who was bitten by a rattlesnake. (he survived with veterinary care) Since I like to go for hikes with Dusty, she was protecting me from learning the hard way about the rattlesnakes. Now I understand.! Thank you, mom! Thank you, Dusty, for being a good sport and going to rattlesnake class with me.

Here Dusty is telling me he didn’t think my comment about his dancing was very funny.

Now, can we go for a hike please?

♥ Behr Behr, professional snake alarm dane

Comment from the mommers: Thank you, Patrick Callaghan for such an incredible organization to help our dogs stay safe. You are spoken of very highly by every professional dog trainer I know.

Just so you know, no snakes or dogs were harmed in the training. Surprised, yes, hurt, no 🙂 Yes, these were live, uncaged rattlesnakes. They had their venom “milked” that morning (not that that was so reassuring) and their mouths taped shut, long enough for 70 dogs to be trained. Yes, I said taped. I was wondering whose job it was to tape all of the snakes’ mouths shut that day. Can you imagine?

Hi, my name’s Frank.

Hi Frank, I’m Bob. So, what do you do for a living, Frank?

Oh, I put tape on rattlesnakes’ mouths when people come for snake training. Then I take the tape off later, taking care to not hurt those cute little snake lips any.

Then I put them back in their little snake houses and feed them din din, ‘cause they’ve been lookin’ at food all day, working up quite an appetite and all, ya know?