Working late night on a project, listening to the crickets, and the girls just want to go to bed. I was sitting here writing, and I could feel both of them looking at me with their little LAZER eyes. Lily has the eyes of sadness- “Why are we not in bed spooning? I love you. I will lick your face and curl up next to you and rest my head on your shoulder,” while Rosie has the Jack Russell eyes of intensity- “Hey fat person who I don’t bite, why are we NOT FUCKING DOING SOMETHING YOU LOSER?” So I gave them treats- a chew toy, the size of which would please a German Shepard for Rosie, and a chicken strip for Lily. Then I started to think- what makes them happier- me yelling “WHO WANTS TO GO FOR A WALK” or me yelling “WHO WANTS A TREAT?”
By a wide, wide margin, like Dallas Cowboys over the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl margin, walks trump treats. It isn’t even close. Which kind of makes me like my girls even more. They’d rather spend quality time with fat boy than have a treat.
yopd1
Our dog literally is jumping out of his skin when we say the word “walk” Also, he knows the sound of my wife’s Garmin GPS watch when she turns it on and will bound the entire way through the house just to see if she’ll take him.
As for treats, he’ll take them when offered, but won’t make any special effort for one.
GG
I’m known as “Five Treats Mom” because when I first stayed a week taking care of my grandpuppies, I slightly overdid the treat thing… but they’d both take a walk over a treat in a second. Which actually didn’t thrill me that much, because they were (are, the older sweetie has passed on) Huskies, and more than a slight challenge to manage on a walk.
Long ago, my own dog got so tuned to words that we took to spelling o-u-t, and then he learned that…
joel hanes
In the long run, the walks will make all of you happier than the treats.
Strontium 90
John – looking at your previous post. You (and anyone else so inclined) need to read this book:
amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345014665&sr=8-1…
Gary Taubes has written several op-ed pieces in the NY Times:
nytimes.com/2012/07/01/opinion/sunday/what-really-makes-us-fat.html
nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all
nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?pagewanted=all
Apologies for not embedding the links. I am + 8 and franky did not feel like it. His book is required reading for people who want to understand how their body works with regard to fat storage and fat burn.
burnspbesq
Dont think it’s been mentioned here, but the United States has filed an amicus brief in support of UT in the Supreme Court cars challenging its use of race as a factor in admissions. Maybe not a huge surprise, but get this: the name right next to the Solicitor General’s on the cover page is the General Counsel of DOD. And a major thrust of the brief is that a diverse pool of college graduates is essential to the national defense.
Makes sense to me, but I can’t imagine it convincing Justice Thomas.
John - A Motley Moose
A key word for any dog is “want.” You have their total attention as soon as they hear that word.
Elizabelle
Great. Linda McMahon won the Republican primary in Connecticut, vying for Lieberman’s seat.
She outspent her opponent 12:1; loser was former Congressman Christopher Shays (R-Sanity).
Democratic nominee is Congressman Christopher Murphy.
blehmann
I got a puppy!!! Yesterday three teenagers came traipsing up to my door holding a ridiculous pit bull pup with a streak of hot pink manic panic hair dye on her forehead. I opened the door and said, “What you got there?” and the oldest boy said, “It’s your new puppy!”
I’ve missed my girl, Felony the pit-bull, for 9 months but didn’t really think that the time was right for a new dog. I have the uber fancy Havoc Tiberius, a 19 month old male German Shepherd. Last Tuesday, there was a block party and a few neighbors shared memories of Felony, the pit-bull. As luck would have it one of the neighborhood teenagers overheard and had a friend who couldn’t keep a 10 week old female pup so they presented her to me.
Havoc adores her and she’s tough enough to play with him. I wanted to name her Fishbone but my son suggested Tempest. I am so pleased. I’ve rather envied John’s random acquisition of Rosie and have had wonderful luck with the unexpected dogs that I’ve come across.
typos due to dog distraction
Elizabelle
@blehmann:
Congrats on the new pup. Hope you will all be very happy.
Pics please, especially with the pink fur.
andy
I walked up the block to my usual polling place (we had a primary just yesterday here in Brainerd, Minnesota). I decided to vote for Rick Nolan, who was running against Tarryl Clark (who hopped up to the 8th to try her luck after she lost to Michele Bachmann back in ’10), and Jeff Anderson, a Duluth City councilman.
Nolan is old-school DFL from way back, and though Anderson got endorsed by Tom Rukavina (which counts a lot for me, since I am from the Iron Range just like him and Anderson), I ultimately went with Nolan, who like I said is an Old Head in the party. Clark, of course, was totally out of the question. She got a lot of out-of-state money and President Clinton’s endorsement, but she really should have stayed in her own district.
Anyway, after walking another block or so I stopped by the Farmers Market they have on tuesdays to see if I could score some local tomatoes and squash for a caponata, when who should I see working the crowd but Nolan himself. Got to shake his hand, wish him luck, and scored this awesome tomato.
I’ve been feeling really hopeless lately, and I found that voting and meeting the guy who’ll be the one who’ll get to take a crack at taking Chip Cravaack’s seat back for the DFL felt pretty good.
Mary G
I don’t believe you still have Rosie, John. There have been no pictures of her for months.
Elizabelle
@andy:
You take some beautiful photos!
Tomato p0rn!
karen
As a Mets fan, I have to admit that the baseball season is over. >_<
asiangrrlMN
Pictures. Tunch. Now.
Citizen_X
@blehmann: Great story. Good on the neighborhood kids–sounds like they know you all too well!
Like your dog names, too.
WereBear
@blehmann: What a serendipitous meeting of the minds!
Congrats on the puppy. It’s good you have an older dog to show her the ropes. Older dogs love that.
Lojasmo
@andy:
Clark could have beat chip. Nolan will be beat in a walk, sorry.
Found out at the polls I was dropped from the rolls, presumably due to redistricting.
kindness
I buy frozen beef back ribs at the market & cook ’em up for my kids. I give them one every other day.
Walkies rule but a beef rib makes them feel like a wolf on the savannah with a fresh kill (that’s miraculously been barbqued). It’s so cute to see their eyes roll back in their heads as they chew the bone.
My kids will take the beef rib then come back after denying they ever had one and wondering where that walkie we were talking about was.
moonbat
Hey JC, check the package on your chicken treats (particularly if they are chicken jerky) and make sure they were not made in China. There’s been some dogs made ill by those treats, including mine. I threw a whole bag of them away a few of weeks ago.
Sorry my linking fu is not strong but Time online did a story about them back in late May
JCT
@karen: Their bullpen is an epic disaster. My teenaged son is locked in his room in a foul mood. I wish I could quit that team. Sigh.
redheadwglasses
I once house/dog sat for friends. Their very well trained dog was taught to go out the back door in the morning, run around to the front, grab the newspaper off the sidewalk, then come around to the back door. I knew this. So I let him do it. But he would NOT let go of the paper! It was ridiculous. I finally had to smack his nose to get him to drop it.
When they got home, I reported this to them. “Well, did you give him a treat?” Um, no, why? “He won’t give you the paper until he sees he’s going to get a reward for going to get the paper.”
red dog
@kindness: All vets say give the dogs bones raw so save yourself some time and just cut them up. Cooked bones can splinter and are not as easy to digest for canines and they like them better. Remember all our doggies came from wolves waaay back.
kindness
@red dog: With all due respect I don’t care what the vets say. One of my dogs doesn’t like raw beef so I humor her. Plus it’s been my experience that uncooked beef bones are more apt to splinter than a cooked one. At least that’s what it looks like when I clean up the back yard. So I kinda disagree there.
andy
@Lojasmo: Clark has been proven unacceptable to the District already. How could she have possibly won in November? She earned a lot of respect in that last contest against Bachmann, and lost it all when she did her little carpetbagging routine and moved up to the 8th. Now the only people who love her are those out-of-state donors who got used to sending her cash back in ’10…
Santo Minshew
Gee, how well argued. You accuse the poster of “pure B.S.”, but provide absolutely no counter arguments. So, in other words, you demonstrate a distinct lack of ability to “think for yourself”. But I guess that’s not needed where you come from you’re told exactly what to think and when to think it.