Bad Manners and Brimstone

Oh, I had a wonderful Rottweiler, Daisy. Such a beautiful and friendly dog. She was tame enough that I didn't have to worry about taking her out without a leash to the front yard with us (me and young DDs) while we washed the car or did some yard work or some such thing. She would always stay with us.

One time I heard a screech. I looked up in time to see a couple that were out for a walk with their little to dog picking up their dog and running in panic while Daisy was loping along the sidewalk.

She just wanted to meet the little doggie! I yelled "Daisy! Come!" and sure enough Daisy came back to our yard.

I shouted out to the couple who had their little dog wrapped in their arms "Sorry! Daisy really is a good dog, just wanted to meet your puppy." Couple didn't want anything to do with that.

And, yes, I kept Daisy leashed in the front yard after that happened.

Along the same line....our neighbor in MD had a Rottweiler.  Super friendly and well mannered.  ODD was visiting with 18 month old DGS and we were all out in our front yard and Rocky (the dog) came loping over to say hi to DGS.  I didn't give it a second thought until I saw ODD ready to freak out.  I assured her it would be fine.  It got the neighbors children to play with DGS for a little while, too.

This is my son's cat, Mabel.  My son still lives with me, and his room is upstairs.  He has one cat (he does all her vetting), while I have seven indoor cats and a small outside colony.

Mabel's trick:  to wake him up, she either knocks over his trash can or knocks something off a shelf.  This morning, I was awakened by a loud double thump above me.  Son said that this time, she knocked a glass bowl off a shelf, but since his room is carpeted, it fortunately did not break.

My cats, on the other hand, are content to just jump on the bed and start walking on me if they think I should be getting out of bed to serve breakfast already.

One of our lovely dogs decided to roll in fresh dog poop yesterday.  And came in and proceeded to roll around on a few other things before the smell hit our noses.  We got him back outside while we gathered what we needed to bath him.  And since we were bathing one dog, we bathed all of them.  I wonder if they had a convo with him afterwards - 'It's YOUR fault we had to have baths!'

One dog sleeps with us (not poop boy) because he had an injury and by the time he recovered, DH didn't have the heart to kick him out of the bedroom again.  The others are penned in a bathroom and sleep in the tub.  This guy has a bladder of steel.  He waits until we wake in the morning and often chills until we decide to actually get out of bed.  But when he needs out, he whines.  And head butts you.  And walks all over you.  Which makes it very difficult to get up.  He also has the habit of whining in the middle of the night and you have to lift him down so he can go get a drink.

One of our dogs sleeps in bed with us.  He had a leg injury a while ago so couldn't get into the tub with the other three dogs.  (We pen them in our spare washroom overnight; we have bed for them in the tub.)  And he never left.  This guy has become Mr. Personality.  He wants to snuggle with us at first then moves down to lie on DH's legs then curls up below my feet.  He sometimes gets thirsty in the middle of the night and whines to be let down.  We're trying to figure out how to rig up a water bowl so he can get a drink without us getting wet.   

This goofball has started playing a game of keep-away with DH when he goes to let him down.  So eventually, I get pounced on and I grab him, roll over and reach as far down to the floor as I can and drop him - it's a couple of inches.  Off he toddles to get his drink and then DH gets up to put him back on the bed.

This dog has a bladder of steel, I swear.  He has never had an issue but will let us know with very loud whining that he needs to go out in the morning but he has never woken us to do that; he only whines if we are lazing around in bed for a while.

About a year ago, one of our dogs had surgery.  We had to keep him penned up, separate from the other dogs, if we weren't home, as he was supposed to remain calm. (insert hysterical laughter here)  We had a separate food and water bowl out for him and all of them got used to having the extra water bowl there. 

The water bowl has migrated to various locations in the main living area and is currently on the bottom shelf of a wire shelving unit.  One of the dogs expresses his displeasure with said bowl being empty by picking it up in his mouth and rattling it against the shelf. 

It took us several times to figure out what the noise was.  And fill the water bowl.

Who has who trained??