Flying Couscous, Smiling Bug

Here's a story from my friend, Kelsey. Her dog, Bug is a little terrier mix who smiles when he's nervous. Probably because he did it once and everyone laughed and stopped being mad. He does it on command but he also does it when he thinks he might be in trouble. When dogs are a part of your lives, you often find them in the way or tripping over them. In my house, this usually results in a bad word and then an apology and hug to the dog in question. One day, Bug's mom was standing in the kitchen talking to her fiancé about what they were going to have for dinner. She was holding a bag of couscous and tossing it back and forth from one hand to another. Bug was standing nearby watching the bag go back and forth. As happens from time to time, Kelsey missed the bag. It went flying across the room and right into Bug's face. He immediately began to smile, pacing from one side of the room to another with a smile plastered on his face. Naturally, his people were laughing riotously and telling him he wasn't in trouble but this just resulted in him continuing to smile. Eventually he was showered with love and hugs and all was right with the world. The couscous was cooked and everyone was happy.

Buddy Proofing Folly

Buddy is a sweet lab mix you mostly just wants to snuggle or play with his friends. He's very comfortable in his home but when he stays with me (or anywhere) he has some pretty serious separation anxiety. I tried a number of things with him, including leaving him in the house, in his room, with a friend, without, with toys and food, without. Nothing worked. I almost always came home to a river of pee, the closet door opened and stuff pulled out and eaten. He could open drawers, even the refrigerator. This led to an eventful and lengthy process of attempting to "Buddy Proof" the dog room. I moved the dog food into the closet that locked, got a tension mounted curtain rod to keep the other closet door from moving, spun the refrigerator around. He still managed to open the drawers and pull kibble out of there. I was really worried that he was going to hurt himself getting into things or eat something that would make him sick. Every time I came home, I would find a new challenge and fix it. After months of trial and error, I finally found a method that works. Everything food related is barricaded in the closet and Buddy gets a frozen Kong when I leave. When I come home now, his room is clean and his face is smiling. And if it's Buddy proof, it's dog proof.

Heidi's New Bling

Heidi the Weimeraner has some interesting habits. One is that if she is left at home when people are not with her, she will without fail, get into the trash if it's available to her. Her mom warned me and I took it to heart. Normally I lock it in the bathroom but sometimes I forget. These days, I have a locking trash bin, so even if it's left out, it's pretty hard for her to break into (though she did manage it once). When she first started staying with me, I had a normal trash can with one of those lids that flip around. I still locked it in the bathroom but like I said, sometimes I forget. One day, I came home to Heidi, with a beautiful new necklace. Her big weimeraner face was smiling and her little tail stub was wiggling and the trash lid was hanging around her neck. Ohhh Heidi