When we had 20 inches of rain dumped on us and were forced to cease all non-essential outdoor activities, I started thinking about dogs and their energy levels. The pugs go out for a couple of short walks a day and a long walk almost every evening. I like this schedule for a couple of reasons. One being that walking with the pugs is something we all enjoy and the most important reason being that regular exercise keeps the pugs on their best behavior. When the pugs are well exercised they spend much of the day sleeping while I am working. When they haven't been out for their walks they spend a lot of time during the day barking and getting into things.
So, when we didn't take the pugs out for a walk for over a week, they were pretty much bouncing off the walls. They were bored and were searching for something to do to occupy themselves. And when they come up with ways to entertain themselves it is almost never a form of entertainment approved by me.
As soon as the rain subsided and we saw a break in the clouds we took the pugs out for a walk. They were excited and they were keeping a record setting pace. Even Sol was trucking along faster than normal. It isn't uncommon for the pugs to be strong out of the gates, but they usually slow to a much more reasonable pace as the walk goes on. But, on this occasion, the pugs had over a mile under their harnesses and there was no slowing down in sight. Even Sol was still trotting along. Even on the home stretch the pugs were still keeping an excellent pace and after we arrived home they ran around the driveway for a few minutes.
After seeing how the pugs stored all of their energy from the week, I got a little jealous. If I miss a week of cardio at the gym, I certainly don't hop right back on the treadmill and run harder, faster and longer than I normally do. Nope, I feel the wrath for everyday that I missed!
It is kinda like the times that I take Benny on a run with me. Benny is actually a very good exercise buddy and he loves to go on a run with one of his peeps. The only problem is that he is a little annoying with how good of shape he is in. He doesn't go out running on a regular basis, but he can do a mile easily. It comes to him effortlessly. And if I wasn't sucking wind, it would be cute when he turns his little head and looks back at me while jogging along to see if I am going to be able to keep up.
We didn't get a chance to do anything extraordinarily fun with the pugs this weekend. It was a little too hot during the day to take the pugs to any of the local parks, so when they weren't in the house soaking up the AC they spent most of their time poolside while we tinkered in the yard and did some other chores.
One day, one of the boys had the bright idea to lift their leg and pee on the screen enclosure that goes around our pool. Since the pugs know that they can not walk through the screen enclosure, they treat it like a wall and they are unable to comprehend that the little holes in the screen let their pee pee go through to the other side of the deck.
When they first discovered that the could pee from the outside of the screen and it would land on the deck they were quite pleased with themselves. It was like they just found out they possessed super powers. They could now pee through walls!
While Batman & Robin think of this as a glorious thing, I’m not too happy with it. I have tried to make them stop, but they have me on a technicality. They are in the yard outside when they go potty! The only requirement I have ever had was that you go potty outside in the yard, I never specified exactly where in the yard.
To deter them from going potty through the screen, I built a little garden next to the screen and filled it with plants. It worked for awhile as the plants became their new favorite thing thing to pee on. But then, the boys changed things up and started peeing on a different part of the screen. I didn’t really want to plant another garden so I got a little bamboo fence that you stick into the ground. It isn’t very long, but it covered the main spot where they like to go potty.
It worked for awhile, but then the other day I spotted Benny doing this.
Come on Ben! Must you? The boy doesn’t have much smarts in other areas of life, but when it comes to peeing on things he is a genius!
The way I see it, I have two choices. Take the easy way out and get more bamboo fence or for once and for all train them not to pee on the screen enclosure. While it does irk me to have to squirt off the deck so often, I keep thinking back to when Benjamin & Henry were puppies and the never ending potty accidents I had to clean up in the house. Those memories make this screen issue seem trivial. This is about as close as they come to having potty accidents and that makes me one lucky woman.
I have 5 animals and, knock wood, they all go potty in the proper places. The only issue is my two superheroes that sometimes abuse their super powers and pee through walls.
On Saturday, after hitting the gym and working hard in the yard, the pool was looking mighty nice. So we drug out all the pool toys and the life vests and spent some time splashing around. The boys were having a good time running around and playing tug with the toys. Henry was his usual self, fetching everything out of the pool. But for Sol, this was the first time anyone has ever been in the pool. So we of course had to see how she liked the pool.
She swam quite well with her vest on. She was a little splashy with her front paws which led to a little extra water getting on her face, but all in all she did a very good job. We were very careful to make sure she did not overdo it on the swimming.
While Sol was fine with swimming, way less nervous than Benjamin & Luna, but not as relaxed as Henry, her absolute favorite thing to do was be held and enjoy the cool water. We took turns holding and floating around with her and she was in her glory! I think we may have to resurrect the pug tug.
I managed to get two short videos of Henry and Sol in action before the batteries in the camera died. First up is Henry and then there is a short video of Sol swimming.
Sol absolutely loves car rides. And since she is such a good girl we let her ride shotgun. Well, she is a good girl, but we really let her ride in the front because three hyper, overzealous, crazy fawn pugs ride in the back. When we arrive at our destination or when the fawn pugs know they are close to their destination they start to pace and bark and their seatbelts inevitably get tangled. Sol gets bounced around very easily, so we don’t subject her to the chaos that goes on with Benjamin, Henry & Luna in the back seat.
When upfront, Sol loves to have the window rolled down. She leans up against the door and hangs her head out the window a bit and snorts and sniffs and takes in as many smells as she can.
The funny thing is that if we haven’t taken the pugs for a car ride in a while, Sol starts camping out by the garage door. Then, whenever someone goes into the garage she sneaks in and stands by the car. Oh, and don’t even try to take her for a walk if a car is parked in the driveway. She just stands by the car and refuses to budge.
I love our walks with the pugs in the evenings. They are usually a great way to unwind from a hectic day. The last few nights, however, I have felt like I am in the middle of the old school video game Paperboy. There have been other dogs off leash, kids on bikes, bees and all kinds of other obstacles thrown our way. If only I had a sack of newspapers with me so that I could throw one at them and get them to pause for a few seconds so that we can make our way down the street.
While I never encountered this type of hinderance in Paperboy, one of my biggest pet peeves when out walking the dogs is when someone walking another dog stops to talk to us and doesn’t know the leash dance. When dogs meet, they sniff each other and they inevitably make their way to the other’s rear end to really get to know each other. They circle and smell, circle and smell and during that process the leashes will inevitable get tangled. When this happens, I try to keep up with the dogs and get the leashes untangled. It is really great when the other person is of the same mindset and can help keep the leashes straight so that our dogs don’t become conjoined twins. It really irks me when the other person just stands there while the five dogs get their leashes all in an knot (my four and their one). Some are oblivious, but there is one person that I encounter fairly regularly that just laughs and says, “Oh, look they are getting all tangled up!” What a very keen observation!
So while that person drones on and on I just keep untangling the leashes and thinking to myself that it is quite obvious that this person has never owned more than one dog at a time.
And for this very reason, I am glad that we move the clocks ahead a few weeks back. When it was getting dark earlier, we would walk the dogs before dinner and now since we aren’t in a mad race with the sun, we can walk the dogs after dinner. Trust me, you don’t want to have your dogs leash get all tangled with mine when I’m hungry. I think everyone will agree that walks after dinner are much, much nicer.
