The Good Yummas! - or my dogs out smarted me

I have three dogs, one of each size.  My largest dog is a 85 lb Siberian husky, then the smallest is my 11 lb Pekinese and right in the middle is my new guy a rotty mix who is now 6 months old.

We have this routine that as soon as I get home from work they want to go out, they greet me as they are running to the back door to go into the yard.  It’s not that they don’t have someone else at the house who takes them outside its more about the YUMMAS!.    I call them the “good yummas!” lord knows what they put into these things because the dogs are addicted to them.   They are strips of dehydrated pure chicken and the dogs go crazy over them.   Not only do they recognize the bag, they know I keep them in a separate area than the regular treats… only special occasions get the “good yummas”.  So addicted are they that I haven’t been able to get a good nights sleep since the 1^st bag I purchased.

You see, I used the “good yummas” as a training tool to get my dogs to hurry up and quickly complete their doggy doo doo business and then come back inside.  It was a great idea – or so I thought.  I had accomplished my goal – only a little to well….. the dogs will go up to the door to the back yard, paw at the door to let me know they have to go out and then run do their business and quickly come inside.  Then they will run as quickly as they can, sometimes the little one has difficulty rounding the corner on the tile floor and will slide half way across the hallway.  They all try to be the 1^st one to the back of my room where my dresser is. They stare up at the bag sitting on top – there it is , the golden bag – the good yummas.  They can hardly contain themselves as I take one for each and give them to each one. 

And then my plan backfired. 

Somehow the dogs devised their own plan.  I was no longer in charge of the good yumma scheme.  I couldn’t get the dogs to all go out together.  It started with my husky Zorro. He came to me and wanted to go out, he was jumping up at me, running back and forth to the door like it was an emergency and he had to go.  I let him out and tried to get the other two dogs to go.  Nope no one else was interested. They sat on the couch and stared at me like no we don’t have to go.  I really wasn’t paying much attention. Zorro came back rather quickly to the door and barked to let me know he was ready to come in.  as soon as I let him in the other two dogs joined with him in the mad dash to the good yumma stash.   Not wanting to be a bad dog mommy by playing favorites, I gave each dog a treat.  

Approximately 15 minutes go by and my little one started barking at me, and acting like she needed to go out; thinking nothing of it I let her out and stood with her outside while she ran made a quick pee and ran back in.   Once again all three dogs make the mad dash to the good yumma stash.  I tried not to have to walk all the way to the bedroom and stopped at the kitchen treat box. But oh no, they weren’t having any ordinary old dog bones they insisted on the good yumma’s and waited for me to get to the room, not exactly patiently they were barking and howling for me to hurry up.   Once again I gave all the dogs a good yumma’s, this time I only took one and broke the strip into three pieces and distributed it.  The three dogs went back happily to the living room. Once again I sat down and got comfortable and started to watch a tv show.  Before the 1^st commercial came on my buckeye starts barking in my face.  I told him to be quiet and to go lie down.  He started to do the agitated I gotta go dance.  Now I’m getting a little suspect.  There is no way that all three dogs have to go separately all within a half hour.  I told buck he would have to wait, and of course as the insanity starts to take hold of my mind - I start to reason with him.  I ask him very long questions, like “why didn’t you go out with Zorro or Munchkin.?” He just stared at me.  He didn’t answer. I then asked him if “he was kidding?? Or did he really have to go?”  nope, still didn’t give me an answer I could comprehend.  He just wagged his tail, licked my face and ran to the back door and jumped up at the handle several times.  I gave in, got up and let him out. 

He didn’t even go to the bathroom.  He just stood on the opposite side of the door and barked to come in.  I was getting really annoyed, especially when all three dogs jumped up and happily ran to the bedroom to the yummas.   This time I wasn’t pleased. I refused to give them a third yumma.  I told all three of them that I know they must have had some doggie conspiracy theory concocted to keep getting yummas.

The worst is that they try at all hours of the night, so I never get a good nights sleep due to interruptions to go outside.  Problem is I never really know if they have to go or are they just in the mood for a treat. A few times I misread them and didn’t take them out right away – then when I finally let them out they had loose poops and I felt awful that I made the poor puppy suffer.
 

To this day it’s a good yumma contest to see which dogs can convince me to give them the yummas.   Worse yet is my sisters dogs now have gotten into the game so when they visit my sister has a fit because all the dogs hit her up for the yummas.

I guess you can say my dogs outsmarted me, again.

Buckeye and the water bottle

Here is a learning experience for anyone who tries to take the cheap route for buying dog toys for a new puppy.

So I adopt Rottweiler mix from a rescue in Atlanta Georgia. Doing my part to help save a life. He was 10 weeks old when we got him. He is smart and full of energy which leads to many crazy antics. He is 6 months now.

One time after finishing a water bottle I handed him the bottle – he loves to crush it and the sound it makes. He runs and crushes it until there is nothing left.  The light bulb went off in the cob webbed mind of mine that hey I can save on dog toys.   So I took an old sock, washed it so that there was no scent on it and shoved an empty water bottle in it.(made sure no cap was on it so he wouldn’t choke) and tied a big knot in the other end.   I was so proud of myself for my creation…… that was until… I got bored with changing the the water bottle out every 20 minutes, when there was no more crushing noise coming out of it.

I got caught up in watching a show on the television and wasn’t paying strict attention and then I felt something wet. I was puzzled until out of the corner of my eye I saw that buckeye had taken a full unopened bottle of water and his k9 teeth had made it into a mini water sprinkler.  He was standing next to me to get my attention. When I lunged for him which felt like slow motion he got in his head that we were playing a game and ran like a maniac all over the house sprinkling water everywhere he went.   I almost caught up to him when the natural dynamics of a wet tile floor took over as my feet flipped up and I landed on my butt.  Buckeye must have worried about the sound of the crash as I slid to a stop and rushed over to see if I was ok… and the water just sprinkled out over my face and chest.    At this point there was nothing more to do but laugh and decide that when and if I was ever able to stand again I would just go get the mop.  He must have thought I was crazy lying there on my back laughing and soaking wet, as he took pity on me and lay down next to me but by now the bottle was empty of water and he was able to now make that crunching sound he wanted in the first place.