Dean Barlow » Pets

No Regrets

Dean — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:10:51 +0000

This photo is funny to me because I have a cat who actually does this. If we put a fresh roll of TP on the dispenser and leave the bathroom door open, chances are very high that we will come home later and find this pile on the floor. I think we are the only family in the neighborhood who has to kept their bathroom door closed at all times.

Pit Boss

Dean — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:18:06 +0000

Has anyone else watched the new TV show on The Animal Planet Channel called Pit Boss. I haven’t been able to watch a full episode of it yet, but have seen bits and pieces of a few of them in the last couple of weeks. So far I like what I see, it is an interesting concept that I’m thinking will go far. It’s good for little people and good for pit bulls, a two for one so to speak!

Can you litter train your dog?

Dean — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:55:42 +0000

My wife and I have a keeshond. Yes, that’s a dog. The dog originated in Holland, and was originally used as a companion and guard dog for the barges that go up and down the canals. When you think about it, that seems to me that these dogs must have been litter trained. I have to wonder how large the litter boxes must be on the barges, since the keeshond is not a very small dog!

I was reading an article on how to litter train a dog on a website that has a variety of pet care information on it. Their advice was essentially to try to train small dogs (again basically because the size of the box!) but also they claim that the dogs will try to eat the kitty litter! I’ve seen dogs go into litter boxes to eat what the cats have left behind, but never seen them eat clean litter! That was a big surprise to me!

Nest building

Dean — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:22:52 +0000

Yesterday I was out in the garage, working on my pickup truck. I kept noticing a couple of birds flying in the garage, but didn’t pay a lot of attention to them. After a while I realized that they were building a nest in the corner of the garage! Now I’m faced with the dilemma about what to do. Should I destroy the nest, or leave it alone? If I allow the birds to nest there and raise their family, I’ll need to leave the garage door open all of the time. I’m not real keen on that idea, since I have a lot of expensive tools in there. And I’m not real keen on the idea of bird droppings in my garage, on my motorcycle, truck, or tools. But I’m a softie at heart, and can’t quite seem to be able to bring myself to destroy the nest! I wonder how long it will take from the nest building stage to the completion of the baby birds being raised! I don’t even know what kind of birds they are. Maybe I’ll pull out the bird book and see if I can Identify them.

Swan crossing

Dean — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:17:01 +0000

A few days ago I found myself driving down a rural road near where I live that I had never driven down before. I had never gone down there before simply because I never had the need to go down there. I knew it was there, I just never paid it much attention. Well, this particular day there was a road block and detour that caused me to HAVE to drive down that road. The road was narrow, gravel, and very twisty-turny. At first I was aggravated that I had to drive down the road; it was rather badly washboarded and it was slowing me down! However I was really rather amused when about a mile down the road I saw a road sign that said “swan crossing.”

I’ve seen “deer crossing” and “moose crossing” signs before, but never “swan crossing” signs. Well, immediately after the next turn, sure enough, there were three swans walking across the road! There were two beautiful ponds with waterfalls on both sides of the road, with swans in both of them. Some of them were simply switching from one pond to the next. These swans had wide gold bands around their necks. I had to wonder who put the bands on them, and if it was simply a declaration of ownership, or some kind of scientific research! Either way, I was glad I went down the road and experienced the swan crossing!

Social networking

Dean — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:52:40 +0000

There is a new social networking site my sister has been telling me about that she has joined. This network is not about getting a date, it is about sharing information and opinions about things that you like/dislike. Basically like product reviews from your peers.

She was interested in it because she has been thinking about buying a new puppy, and wasn’t really sure what kind to get. A friend of hers told her about the networking site and suggested that she join it and see if there were any comments on it about different types of dogs, so she could get a better idea of what kind might be a good dog to get for her family.

So she went to the pet networking site and found that there were a lot of different pets reviewed there. She did notice that it seemed as if the same person was writing the same review for a lot of the different pets; that made her wonder exactly why that was the case. She said that the wording was almost identical. So she didn’t quite trust those reviews as much as the others that sounded unique.

There is a leash law, people!

Dean — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:43:26 +0000

I’ve always been a “dog person: and take my responsibility as a pet owner very seriously. When my dogs go outside, they are either in the fenced back yard or they are on a leash.

The last couple of weeks we have had other people’s dogs in our yard at all hours of the day and night. I guess some of our neighbors think it is OK to just let their dogs run free after dark. I have a big problem with that, and hope to find out who the dog owners are and maybe have a talk with them. It is for the safety of their dogs as well as my dogs that they stay in their own yards or be on a leash. I have had at least 3 times since we’ve lived here that other people’s dogs have attacked my dogs – every time my dogs were tied!

I hate to think that I’ll have to call animal control about this, but I really am quite annoyed over this situation!