Sunday, February 14, 2010

“Wipe Your Feet!”

Hi all, Just wanted to share an amazing breakthrough we’ve had with Marley this week. It’s been raining off and on for the past two weeks here. Still very hot and humid but with the occasional break in the monotony by a thunderstorm and some rain.

Since enclosing our outdoor room with windows and screens Marley and Jasper have been locked out whenever we’re not at home.

Twice this week after getting back from dropping the kids off at school I’ve come home to eight very muddy paws and two very wet muddy noses. Marley and Jasper have two little friends that live next door and most days they like to speak to each other through the side fence – which gets a bit annoying hearing the four of them barking at each other. Marley has been slowly tunnelling under the fence with the help of the neighbours dogs (a Bichon Frise and a Lhasa Apso x Shih Tzu) who started the whole thing two years ago (Blame it on other people's dogs) tunnelling back from the other side. So far they can all get their noses under the fence, but that’s all. We keep thinking of ways to stop them – concrete pavers placed against the fence, sheets of plastic buried under the soil…which reminds me…I’ve found a new hole so – Note to self: Tell Dad he needs to stop up that hole before it gets bigger and we have one, two or all four escapees…

Anyway, on Monday when I got home there they both were running to greet me at the back door with all this mud on them. I went to get an old towel to wipe their feet before letting them inside and then I carried them one by one into the laundry and washed their faces and feet.

Since we got them both I have been doing it this way and when I let them in the back door I make them sit and wait until I’ve wiped their feet, all the while saying to them “come on wipe your feet!” They will sit patiently while I lift one paw at a time and wipe their feet clean.

This week I was amazed that when I said “wipe your feet” to Jasper, before he could come closer there was Marley running onto the towel and attempting to wipe his own feet. He looked so funny like he was running on a treadmill on the towel and swiping his front paws one at a time…
He repeated the same process the next day after it had rained. Who says dogs are dumb? Not me – but some cat loving friends of mine say so…what would they know anyway.

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