Re: Re: The MS brain at work after visiting my four wolf dogs this afternoon:

[Guest guest]



's two big ones will look you in the eye when you sit on the sofa - Bridget the crone is under the coffee table

Please put Herrn the male schnauzer on the prayer list - his left hip and leg are hurting - worse than me - and he is depressed. He is a big lovable lapdog.

Also Bridget the tsis zu - she might not make the winter

we all know pain - these two are big babies and full of love

Re: Re: The MS brain at work after visiting my four wolf dogs this afternoon:

At 06:05 AM 12/2/2008, you wrote:>mugs with lids and tippy cups with lids keep furbabies of>any size out of hot beverages -I haven't had a coffee table in years. Not since my daughter was little(she's 29 now) I got rid of the coffee table when I realized it gets in the way of children climbing on moms lap and dogs wanting to walk across it. Not to mention that any clear surface only remained clear until the ex walked into a room. Can we say clutter?But the biggest reason to get rid of coffee table hight tables was the Berners. 85 to 110 lb dogs with lots of coat and big bushy tails. Just the right height to totally clear the top of a table. That tippy cup would be knocked 15 -20 feet across the room the first time the happy tail wagged. And berners are happy campers that tail goes constantly.Thank goodness the kitchen table is a bit taller. Though I did have to watch Max when he first came to us at 18 mo old. He likes to get up on his hind feet and lay his upper body in your lap. If you are too close to the table when he does this his front feet will land on the table. Took a bit to train him out of that. I have just once or twice caught him walking up and laying his head on the table beside my plate when I was eating. Didn't take him long to learn that that is a no no at my house.For years I have used baby gates to keep dogs out of the kitchen. I have the gate fastened with hinges to an end of a cabinet and have never had to hook the other end to the eye bolt through three dogs. When my other dogs were little we had one baby gate that we just leaned across the long entrance to the parlor (double pocket doors opened into the wall) It only takes knocking the gate down a couple of times when they are little to keep them away from a leaning gate. Well Max found that the kitchen gate would open to the side if he took his nose and shoved it to the left. He also soon learned that just because you can open something doesn't mean you should, even if mommy is in the kitchen on the other side from you. Then we got the two girls and they will also slide the gate open and don't care if they get in trouble for it. So I had to start hooking it shut. And I still have to get after the girls because they will still try an open it.I have found over the years that keeping a part of the dogs kibble in a bowl on the counter makes it easy to have impromptu mini training sessions during meal prep time. It's amazing how many down stays, sits and stands, back up etc you can work in while waiting for something to cook on the stove. My first dog did much of the training for his CD in the kitchen. Then we worked heeling outside and at class.Debbie and Ian McKinley (BMD since 93)no litters Kansas http://home.hit.net/~dimck/http://www.flickr.com/photos/dimck23/ (200 carting photo)