Sigh. Old dogs...I have to say, Z'ev's passing and not dealing with poop in house anymore has it's benefits. No issue with that with Ami yet. He's just about 12 now (we don't know his actual birthday date, just estimated by vet when he was neutered.) And I hear you on crawling baby and dog pooping on house. Definitely an ick factor there. And, another month or two you are going to need infinitely more sleep.

Our cellular Internet has been absolutely abysmal of late. Josh bit the bullet and went with Starlink. I've been waiting, hoping Amazon's Project Kuiper would be up and running soon but looks like their first customers will be commercial, their license says half in service by the end of 2026 and full service not until 2029. Not sure I can wait that long. And at the moment Starlink equipment can be had in our area for 299 with one month free for both us and Josh if I use his referral link. Though I loathe everything Musk , I may hold my nose and go with it. I dunno if it's rain attenuating signal, tourists using up bandwidth or tower maintenance but damn, many days cellular data is just not working at any speed. Josh was here yesterday visiting and I thought he was gonna have apoplexy trying to use our Internet. That boy can cuss

Ugh. A friend's mom had a knee replacement earlier this summer and is now in hospital - she fell and broke 5 ribs, very well. This woman is a bit younger than me. The thought is she wasn't eating it drinking enough and BP was low. Hubby is suspicious that her husband may be abusing her but this fall supposedly happened when he wasn't home. Whatever, gives me even more determination to get stronger before my surgery. I'll be scheduling it this week once I know the date for my tooth extraction. Tooth is not bothering me now but it's a reservoir of infection that they won't want in me. Can't say that I disagree, either. Also gonna have to mention to surgeon about my foot, that may interfere with my ability for much weight bearing post surgery. At least it is now. The forefoot was actually swollen the other day, not sure what that was about.

Rain today and gonna be cold tomorrow - high of 60⁰ expected. Sounds like a spaghetti and meatballs kind of day. Maybe even a poor of soup of some sort (I love hot soup, one of the few perks of cold weather!)

We are lucky. Our electric cooperative has run fiber in our area which is really how internet should be done. They have the equipment. They have the right-of-way. It helps them offset the cost of the electric equipment that has gotten insane due to supply issues and the moving target that is EPA regulations. We pay $60/month for 500mbps. If we wanted a gig we could get it for $80/month. We used to pay $70/month for 3mbps line-of-sight that was down during foggy weather. Paid more than that for HughesNet that was just down all the time because it was awful.

We are almost done installing new flooring in the basement. I'm so ready to be done with that project. Just have about 10ft more to go in the 'man cave' area and then have to install quarter round then we can put everything back where it belongs. I miss having my gym and access to my dumbbells and weight bench. I feel weak since I haven't been really getting to lift outside of just the lifting I've been doing installing floors, but I miss structured weightlifting. I keep little 10 pound weights in my office upstairs and I've been doing yoga upstairs but still not what I want. And I need my dehydrator that is currently buried down there. I have cucumbers running out my ears I need to do something with and was going to make salted vinegar cucumber chips. Don't really want to do it in the oven. Still getting a little warm here to be running the oven that long, though it was 60 degrees this morning. High of 80 today but we are going back to upper 90s for the weekend. Ready for fall.

If I could get the rain, I'd take one day of 60° weather - though I'd have to get a good jacket for that temp!

I don't know what was going on with Belle last night. We all went out about 11:00 - just after last treat and take care of business and then came in to go to bed ... let's say 11:30 or so. Now she normally sleeps the night through without too much squeamishness but not so last night. She woke me up at 03:00 (what is it with three in the morning??) I figured she wanted out so put her out on A's lead and she stayed out till after 04:30 when I let her in. Apparently something was bugging her - but JUST her - till I got up at 08:00, she kept whining and grumbling and barking (blast that girl has a bark on her!) so I'm going into town (80 miles) with a friend today to do some shopping and I may sleep on the way in. (( er, not the first time I've done that. ))

Knee surgery? Is that anything like my femur repair? a year and a half (or so) later and most of the time it doesn't bother me but there are times when it feels really sore and sitting on my wallet doesn't bother me much but then there are times there too. Seems to me as if the powers that be could find a better way to fix things when they break ... something that doesn't hurt as much or for as long ...

Kenzi used to have select nights where she would just be restless and extra on alert but it was always during a full moon (like now) because more wildlife moves when there's extra light at night.

The very few times Ami was restless at night turned out to be a cow (actually, a bull) crawling under the pasture fence and feeding on our lush, lovely backyard grass. It was a very wet summer and not only was the grass thick, green and full of clover but the ground was saturated, Me. Bull just stick his head under the lowest wire and lifted, the post came right out the all the wet soil.

And Al? 58⁰ at 2:30 PM.

I will NOT turn on the heat on in August!!! I will NOT turn on the heat on in August!!! I will NOT turn on the heat on in August!!!

@Amymeme let's try for 104° at 6:20 PM ... and we hit out high at about 3:00 PM so it's been cooling off for 3 hours ...  this isn't even funny!
Why not turn on the heat in August ... oh, because it's over 100 out??  

I remember your chat about the bull and Ami ... of course I had to be concerned for him but I do have to admit I laughed at a lot of your comments about the situation.

Last night I went to bed early - went to town and came home tired - Avalanche at about 1:00 AM - was standing at the door talking about something that was outside.  I have no idea what it was but it had him really worked up.  I think that @Twisterii might have the right idea, Avalanche is a sight dog so when there's more light for him to be able to see stuff, he's more apt to make noise.

I'm hot, rambling .... sorry

It's still cool today but not quite as chilly as last night. Hubby, granddaughter and I were all giggled together on the couch under a pile of down throws. Watching Men in Black 2. I do believe Steven Spielberg never grew up beyond age 8!

As they say on game of thrones "winter is coming" or rain at the very least here. Temps have been more normal for here lately.

Usually july is the only month the heater is completely down. Whats really funny is when the door open in the living room kicks the heater on the same time the ac is running in the bedroom.

Having some major issues with spider im trying to problem solve. Problem solved is that jerry is a huge factor and to an extent its resource guarding. Jerry was holding spider and my stepdad had splinter and me and my mom went to get drinks at the coffee shop. She pulled jerry (3 weeks after neck surgery) off the bench and dragged him about 10 ft to try and go after another dog. When i got back and grabbed her she was still being extremely reactive to other dogs. We left jerry at the bench and walked down the path and once we passed the earth tube domes and jerry was out of sight she went 100% non reactive. Other then i need to work with her in jerrys presence how do i really address this? Most of what i have read about how to handle it does not pertain to the resource being a person.

And jenn i totally feel you about the doggy dementia thing. Although shadow its mostly getting lost and behavioral changes. Hes doing physically ok now on gabapentin, carprophen, amantadine, librella and cbd, but i morbidly keep hoping to find him dead on the couch in the am.

"Winter is coming!" if you don't mind, I think someone's got it messed up.  We've been at or over 100° for too many days this month ... if this is a predecessor of winter then someone needs to go back to climate school!

Well, Belle's going back on the collar for a while - I'm getting too much of the neighbors trash again.  I walked out back and she didn't come with so I called her and I've got this small, black greyhound zooming past ... she can definitely put some distance under her.  In general she's a good dog, but in specifics she can be a real pain in the touchas!!

I'm glad I'm not the only one.  Avalanche and Sky are both 13+ and there are times when they both have trouble getting up stairs (to the porch) and getting into the Jeep is a two person affair - them and someone to help them.  Both are still in good physical and mental health - thank the powers that be for that, but like @lostmaniac said it wouldn't surprise me to see either of them not wake up some morning and, with luck, they'll pass with little pain.  I won't put either of them down until they can no longer take care of themselves ... and then I'll have to think long and hard about it.  I don't like making that decision.

ETA:  Last evening I had a medium sized chicken that I broiled (I think, slow cooked in a covered, deep skillet?)  I couldn't eat all of it so I dropped it in the fridge and pulled it out tonight.  Like many foods, it was better the second day and didn't need warming to make it better. I got my portion and ...
Of course my counter surfing mutt got supper (or is this desert, she already had supper) and I really hope that she's got a good gut.  I'd taken off the breast and legs so there wasn't a whole lot of meat left and now there's nothing left and, like I said, I hope she's got a good gut!!
I swear there are times!!!!! I swear!!!!!

I hear you, Al, about the wandering fluff butts. Ami went walk about maybe a month ago, now. Got himself into a fenced pasture but couldn't get himself out. Josh found him on his way home. Dumb dog very happy to be found. And Josh very happy that hubby found the two them walking home - Josh is really tall, had no leash with him so was holding Ami by the collar, no way was he letting that muddy dog in his new Genesis But. The upshot is, Dawg now wears his "fry collar" all my waking hours. Though we've found "fry" is less effective than "buzz." Go figure. The transmitter is supposed to have a 3 mile radius but not sure how effective it is with our heavy vegetation.

I bought a new dry shampoo spray for Mr. Stinky. A rather expensive one that purports to deodorizer, leave a pleasant, not overpowering scent as well as help with detangling. It appears to live up to it's advertising. But that detangle thing?  I think it's a relative of silicone because the overspray hit the laundry room floor. And.... WHOOPDY DOO!!!! Is it slippery. How I didn't fall, I'll never know but granddaughter took a doozy and Ami slippy slides every time he walks through there

As for summer? It's back. Temps in the 80s most of the week though night, for the most part down into the 50s. Which is producing massive amounts of dew. Ami coming in at night as wet as if it rained. But, overall, the weather is lovely at the moment.

So, @Lostmaniac Kenzi is largely reactive to dogs because she guards me. I can leave her with my husband and she mostly doesn't have an issue. She isn't interested in dogs and has no interest in meeting them, but she won't instantly go for another dog if she sees them like she would with me. At this point she can't really see another dog unless it's about 3ft from her, so no longer really an issue, but it's not something I ever really got a major hold on. We worked on desensitization and managed to get her tolerance where at least she wasn't lunging from way out. I would train with her around other dogs and try to force her to focus on me and not the other dog. It was a lot of work and she eventually got where we could be about 15ft from another dog without her trying to grab it, which at least got it where we could pass other dogs in most places.

I deal with a completely opposite dog now. Kasper wants to meet all the dogs so we are working on not immediately trying to drag me toward another dog for a meet-and-greet.

Emily and Jenn - Z'ev was horribly when we first got him, highly dog reactive, started screaming and writhing from, I dunno, 1000 ft out more? I worked with him with collar but mostly it was Ami showing him how to be a dog. And how not to be. When Z'ev would attack Ami, Ami would flatten him with a paw than grab his neck, shake the bejesus out of him then walk away. Never left a mark on him, never any blood. Just a good whomping that said "not acceptable, pal." Plus, I used to walk the two them together, Z'ev on very short leash and Ami on long line. And we have zero treats only in Ami's company. If Z'ev went anywhere, Any went too. Gradually sec learned that Ami wasn't a threat, that good things happened when Ami was around and that maybe the work was safe. Best experience was when I was walking the two in early spring and snow melt has loads of water in a culvert. Ami jumped down to play on it, digging furiously. Z'ev watched him with this look of wonder, as of too say "you can do that?!!?" Then got so excited he jumped down to join an but landed on top of him instead. Poor little guy short circuited at that, screaming, hollering, frantically trying to get up out of the ditch. Was quite funny actually.

I could always introduce kenzi to new dogs, if not female, if she was off leash and the new dog was behind some sort of barrier. then i would just get out of the way and let them figure it out. That was how we got keno, kye, and eventually kasper. We could not get her leash reactivity under control all that well if i was the one holding the leash. And kenzi never met a dog she couldn't whoop. Despite Kye having 40 pounds over her. She was never all that big but man she was effective back in her hay day.

I've taken Avalanche out with me and, in general, he wants to do nothing but play with another dog, but we get the typical 'I have no idea what he's trying to do!!' from the other dog since he was so bouncy with his "let's play!!!"  - on the other hand - he's very possessive of his home territory, if a strange dog -one he hasn't met elsewhere- walks up there's apt to be a bit of a fight.  ( 'was' above, he's still here, he's just not a bouncy as he once was. )

Sky - well, she could care less.  Leave me alone says the sophisticated bitch, you're just not in my league!  

Belle - I have no blithering idea.  I've had her in the Jeep a couple of times and on lead or off, she just wants to explore - we haven't run into anyone she wants to play with or fight ... who knows!

Well thank you everyone for a whole bunch of ideas that wont work but i can sort of go off of. Its apparent jerry cant hold the leash and her reaction when it was just him and and my stepdad is something i personally have only seen directed at squirt. It doesnt help that if spider is still she talks, screams and howls and when jerry is with me its more an excited reaction to other dogs. Her with just me and splinter and she is very non reactive. Splinter is always reactive, typical terrier which doesnt make her reactive, if anything she gets annoyed with splinter and starts chewing on him.

I think the summery is i need to get her used to the riverwalk in pagosa without jerry and splinter then introduce jerry after its a not new place. Main reason to not bring splinter is spider likes to get out and walk, not sniff not lollygag (her husky work ethics showing) and splinter stops and pees on every bush and rock we pass, sometimes multiple times and annoys both of us.

So we secured the fence and splinter has not been able to get oit for 2 months. So far i have cut down 10 aspens. The cause of the sudden aspen death and the dirt mounds over the septic tank are caused by moles. Lost another 2 aspens to a beaver. Seems like since i blocked splinter we got invaded.

Never tried the barrier intro, usually we do it on a leash somewhere neutral and start on opposite sides of the street. And when we went to look at a puppy at the durango humane society they did it in a room.

Kenzi is a combination of dominant but nervous which is why she is leash reactive and not just all the time aggressive. Now, she doesn't like other females regardless. Even super submissive ones she will go after off leash. Since she is leash reactive we can't get an accurate read on if she will be okay with a new dog through leash introductions so I've always had to just take the risk of adopting a dog, bringing it home, and then hoping everyone gets along since we can't do meet and greets at the shelter prior. That has worked for me until the pit my husband wanted. when we got kasper they brought him to our house for a home visit and Mine got to meet him through our fence before we committed, which was actually nice. I was nervous about a home visit but it actually wasn't a big deal.

We had an interesting episode this noon.  I was setting here watching a movie - I'm bored! - and Belle starts hopping around.  Sticks her head into the space by the food bags, again a few times, and the pulls out a rat!!  I looked at the bags but nothing had been gnawed on and Belle was looking between / behind the bags so I don't think it was anywhere near close.
What it may have been was the 'poison' (that isn't a poison) that I've been using, it makes a rodent thirsty so they head out looking for water and my water jug is beside the feed bags ... possible.

Anyway, she didn't have any problem attacking and killing the damn thing!  Then she went outside and didn't have it when she came back in ....

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A browser error occured [Error #230], please contact the technical support.

Is anyone else getting this error when they post? If I 'send' it again it's always seemed to go through without a problem.

Nice! Got yourself a rat dog. We had a cat once that delivered a big, far rat to put front door. Good riddance. Not a fan of rats

I meet the nicest German Shepherd this afternoon. I was visiting a woman who worked for us briefly when she was a teenager, we sort of became safe haven for her and the relationship stuck ( she's early 50s, now) She and her husband moved to Tennessee 2 years ago and she has been homesick. She visited earlier in the summer with her dog Gizmo, an absolutely lovely Border Collie. Who immediately took to hubby, climbing up in his lap. Welp. They are up again -her Mom has a knee replacement back in June, just getting back to normal and fell (low BP) reaching over a hard chair and broke 5 ribs on the arm of the chair, puncturing a lung in the process. She spent a week in the hospital, very frail (only 2 years younger than me ). So my friend came up to help her mom as the brother/wife that were assisting had to go to California. So my friend is staying at the brother's house with Mom and 2 teenagers. And Odin. Now, in not to keen on German Shepherds - I got mauled by a Weimaraner as a teen and another friend had an extremely protective German Shepherd that would growl menacingly of we went in the house.

Welp. This guy, Odin, was as sweet as can be. Came running out to say hello and though I was a bit stiff, he sniffed me all over and I scratched his ears. Then he trotted off and return with a large, floppy squeaky toy in his mouth, happy as a clam. Came back multiple times with different toys, looking for his scratch. And Gizmo, the Border Collie scrunched right up to me, got a good scratch on his chin them when to sleep at me feet. Friends mom passed PT walking 400ft so she's home but everyone insistent she use a walker. Cause. Border Collie zipping around the house

So. Al. No problem posting. Went first time

I got an error when first trying to log in but on second attempt it went fine. No issues with posting.

Lineage and upbringing can make a big difference in the shepherds from my experience. I have a cousin who has had two. First was an actual German line shepherd and she wasn't the most friendly dog. Very intense but stupid smart. Second dog was from Czech lines. Very smart but not nearly as intense and was a more friendly dog.

@twisterII weird things is about these GSD? Besides they do not have that exaggerated hind end slip at all, they are really the product of backyard breeding, probably no health testing at all but they are very healthy, beautiful temperaments (I have to admit, I'm a trifle wary of GSD ) and they're all very well trained and smart. Go figure - they should be a nervous/aggressive bunch with hip and elbow problems but I'm not seeing that

Their German lined dog that was intense would definitely fall in that more nervous field with the hip issues. Their Czech lined dog was nothing like that. She didn't have the rake in the rear nor was she nervous at all. She lived much longer than the German line dog as well. I have no opinion on GSD in general. Been around them of various temperaments. There's one at the dog park that can be a little overbearing but he seems to mind well enough. I despise cattle dogs. Barking, nipping, monsters. I'm not warry of them but I find them excessively annoying and have no tolerance for them. Catahoula at the dog park I would like to kick through herself. Only dogs I've ever been warry of have been some pitts. Mostly if i have an animal with me, never warry of them when it comes to myself. I've just had multiple issues with that bully breed line and having dog reactivity and since they are too hard to get off if they ever do manage to get on one of your animals I tend to err on the side of caution. I've had run ins with other breeds but I can get them broke free if they get into it.

Please dont laugh (al will anyway) im afraid of chihuahuas. And im not a fan of heelers and dobermans.

And shadow from a temperament standpoint was a nightmare or a great dog, depending on if you ask the 6 people hes bit. Old man is doing fairly good right now but has bad knees and bad eyes. He was the product of "performance" breeding (ive only seen it in horses before this)Knew from the get go that he was non registerable as a cross between a sable and a solid black results in a genetic brindle. His mom was Czech lines and his dad was a solid black imported from Russia. Before he went completely blind he was an over confident really intense dog. Great guard dog, very manageable on leash, would bite and stalk on command. Doggy alzheimers made him much nicer but if splinter tells him to attack he will still. The 2 breeds i was looking at replacing shadow with are very hard to find. 1 really isnt but well in the eu its 1 breed with 4 coat types and in the us its 4 distinct breeds. Gaint schnauzers are hard to find. So are the Belgian Laekenois. So we are leaning the direction of a cane corso. Other dog i considered was getting a very well bred canaan dog from the bedouins and importing it on my moms lap. I have the idea to train whatever dog (canaan is too small) as a physical assist dog that will also carry a backpack of med supplies. So if jerry falls and im not here the dog can get him up. Seems like i tend to get puppies close together. When i have older dogs, so the puppies dont annoy the older dogs too much.

@al can i borrow belle we have mice at least a few moles and a beaver.

I know a couple people with cane corsos. Both are lovely dogs. Would do well as an assist until about 6 then they both kinda got like most dogs that size do where it's all they can do to get themselves up much less someone else. A friend had a St Bernard that did fantastic as an all around medical dog for a number of years, but oy, so much hair and drool (though canes can also do the drool business).

Kasper is being roped into a partial assist dog sometimes when I need off the couch. I'm not huge (only 25 weeks along) but my ab muscles are not really keen on this trying to stretch business and aren't functioning in some positions so I'll have him pull me onto my side better if I've been laying on the couch. He's always been good at giving me a push out of bed in the mornings since he likes to lay on me. I woke up this morning at the edge of the bed with his head on my butt like a pillow. It's time to get up so he stretches real hard and pushes my legs off the bed the start the day.

Lostmaniac wrote:

Please dont laugh (al will anyway) I'm afraid of chihuahuas.  And I'm not a fan of healers and dobermans.

It's almost funny, I live on the Chihuahuan desert and the Chihuahua pups I see around here are all pretty laid back - the ones I've known from city life are all terrors! What's it called "big dog personality in a little dog"?

Lostmaniac wrote:

@al can i borrow belle we have mice at least a few moles and a beaver.

Nope ... I wish I could let her loose at night to do some mouse / rat catching for me then but in between wanting attention at 2:00 AM and deciding she's going to leave me a solid gift in the kitchen ... you want to borrow her, how about you make a trip down and I'll let you have her!! (( Seriously, no! She's learning just something aren't going as fast as others. ))