5 Star Housesitters

Tag: long term house sitting

Even happier trails, hiking with Barnegat!

Barnegat is a German shorthaired pointer and lab mix who is almost magical in his effect on people. See those beautiful, soulful eyes? We’ve read it’s an animal equivalent of a hug when a dog makes long, relaxed eye contact with you, and that’s just what it feels like with Barnegat, a soul-to-soul hug!

We had the pleasure of spending three weeks with him, in the hills around Santa Fe, on a long term house sitting and dog sitting engagement over the fall. At 13, he is in great shape and still very puppy-like, loves playing keep away with his “Bear” (which is actually either a stuffed toy sheep or pink flamingo), long walks in the woods :), and, EATING! 🙂

There is food motivated and very food motivated — Barnegat is in the latter category. His internal alarm clock about feeding time is always way ahead of what the clock says, which leads to a twice daily “conversation,” with him insisting that the clock is wrong, again! Because we never seemed to notice the clock defect 🙂 he uses the nose flip to tell us it’s time– he’s found if he wedges his (healthy) cold wet nose under your hand, or under your elbow, or even under your notebook, giving it a strong flip up is a very effective communication that he has unmet expectations for you to fulfill!.

Besides being a lovable goof, Barnegat is a great hiking buddy, too. He enjoys hiking as much as he enjoys food, judging by the little happy circle dance he breaks out when all the signs are in place — shoes on? Yes! Water bottle filled? YES! Fanny pack with treats strapped on? YES!!!

The owner’s requested we give him the time on the trails off-leash, which can be a little dicey if excellent recall isn’t in place, but fortunately, not an issue with Barnegat. On the trail, he’s incredibly mindful of staying with the peeps, even as he’s relishing the smell of every pinon pine or rock that’s been marked (or anything else that interests him, which is pretty much, everything). There are so many beautiful places to hike around Santa Fe, and there’s something about sharing that experience with a joyful canine companion that so amplifies our appreciation, too.

As are many working dog breeds, Barnegat is a happy companion. Whether it’s running errands (LOVES car rides), hanging out watching a movie or just moseying around outside, it’s very sweet and comforting having him by your side.

He’s also quite the card (probably not intentionally) — watching him in his very intense positioning of the dog bed (which we dubbed Mr. Pillow) is incredibly cute (click for the quick video). At odd times throughout the day, we’d hear rustling, and come in to watch Barnegat in an active wrestling match with Mr. Pillow — picking it up, turning it around to slam it to the ground, rolling it over, standing it up and straddling it, yet somehow, always coming out on top with the win (we think the match is rigged 🙂 )

It is such a privilege being entrusted with long term house sitting and dog sitting precious little ones such as Barnegat – it’s why we love what we do, and are grateful for the opportunity to provide in home pet care for owners traveling for a few weeks or more!

November 29, 2015
Big Time Wrestling, Barnegat versus Mister Pillow!

Barnegat is one of our favorite little boys, but, he becomes a raging beast 🙂 when it comes to a showdown with his nemesis, the PILLOW!

October 17, 2015
Dog sitting Amstel– the Mighty in the Mini! 🙂

Ever have the experience of committing to something, then showing up and feeling “what have I gotten myself into?” Meeting Amstel, a 100 lb cross between a pyrenees-mastiff and an Australian cattle dog, was like that for us, but, fortunately, the story has a happy turn!

When we talked to his owner about long term house sitting and dog sitting Amstel for a month, he upfront told us Amstel was very protective, but a sweetheart once you knew him, so, he thought it best that we come in a couple nights early to get acquainted with him..

…and, my, was that first night a challenge! When you meet Amstel outside the house, even in the front yard, he’s a friendly, beautiful, calm boy who loves being petted. However, once you cross the threshold into “his” domain, you’re now a threat. Although he doesn’t have a history of biting, the snarling and nipping to herd you away is, unsettling, to say the least. As we headed to bed that night, both of us were thinking he’s never going to accept us and we’re just not going to be able to make this long term house sitting arrangement work. The next morning when we woke up, there was Amstel, 100 pounds of menace (it seemed to us) guarding his owner’s bedroom door — we felt the only safe option was just to stay in the room until his owner was up and around.

And now the story gets better, for us! As we spent more time with Amstel that day — accompanying him on his hour long walk in the park, being there for his morning piece of toast, getting him breakfast and dinner — we saw the beautiful, regal, playful boy he is to those in his “circle of trust.” By the next day, when the owner left, he had fully adopted us, and it just kept getting better from there!

Amstel is, of course, stunningly handsome, but he is a big boy who has to be careful. His daily routine starts with a trip to the park in “his” Mini Cooper convertible, top down whenever possible (the owner kindly instructed us to use the Cooper whenever we could take Amstel with us). The happiness on his face as the wind blew his fur back and offered his nose a constantly-changing menu of street and landscape smells was precious. People in other vehicles were constantly doing a double-take to see this human-sized beauty riding upright in the back — we often had people stop when we parked and come over to tell us how it made their day to see such a sight!

The hour or so we’d spend on his walk in the park was also a treat for us — clear summer mornings in Colorado are glorious, with crystalline blue skies, just a hint of cool in the air, and, in this park, shimmering sunlight on the large pond. Back at home was time for Amstel’s toast, a particularly heart warming ritual. This big boy was such a gentle giant with those in his “circle,” watching him rise on his hind legs and ever so gently take the piece of toast being offered was a special bonding ritual we loved.

Besides going for car rides in “his” convertible whenever possible, Amstel’s other fun times included playing keep away with his ball (his excited breathing as he held the ball in his mouth made him sound like a raging animal, which took some getting used to), and occasionally playing with his best bud, Toosa, a small golden retriever owned by the owner’s daughter (who was always around to help out when needed). On his least favorite list of things is firecrackers (and of course we were there 4th of July season), people coming to the house (I thought we going right through the window) and ambulance sirens (although it’s hard to say whether the sirens bothered him or intrigued him — here’s a video of him howling with sirens, would be interesting to know Why do dogs sing?).

The month housesitting and dog sitting with Amstel flew by, but, he will always be one of our very special “little” friends, and we hope we have the opportunity to see him again, soon!

September 18, 2015
Louisville’s Darling, Duke!

We had the pleasure of watching Duke, a beautiful two year old English lab, on a long term house sitting and dog sitting engagement in Louisville. What a great personality! Duke was still very much a puppy (who doesn’t love puppy sitting? 🙂 ) and we loved watching him joyfully learning about the world.

Our time with Duke included highly structured walks. The owner had recently decided to work with a trainer on Duke’s leash reactivity and, asked us to incorporate the trainer’s techniques on our daily walks with Duke.

As a two year old, besides leash reactivity, Duke also was dealing with impulse control — his motto, ‘stop to smell…the mailbox pole, the tree stumps, the garbage cans, the candy wrapper…’ 🙂 . Being very food motivated, it was really easy to get his attention and focus, and we really enjoyed developing better communication with him as we practiced (and practiced!) ‘leave it.’

Leash reactivity is an interesting situation owners find themselves dealing with. We’re certainly not experts, but it’s always interesting for us trying to decipher what’s going on internally for the dog. In Duke’s case, while there seemed to be some component of intuitively reacting to the leash holder’s anticipation of an encounter, there also seemed to be an element of fear, although the owner didn’t specify any previous, traumatic dog encounters. For Duke, a big factor was the unnaturalness of the “meeting” environment — not being able to approach in a natural way and particularly direct eye contact, seemed really frustrating.

At least for the time we were with him, we were able to get Duke to sit and look at us when trigger stimuli were in view, and choose to pay attention to treats as we would walk past other dogs (at a distance), so good progress for the month we were with him! Because working dogs love to learn and “work,” we also taught him “shake” and “back” to reinforce the structure of how we were asking him to learn (pay attention, make an association between a word and the response we wanted from him, get a treat for success or a good effort!)

Duke, as are many labs of any color, loves ball — you could say perhaps he was even a little obsessed with it. He’s a terrific athlete, and it’s a joy to watch his elegance and coordination catching a ball careening off a slope. Here again, we always wonder what he’s thinking — he had an interesting quirk in his play expectation, if we were holding only one ball, he would catch the ball, sit down and chew on it! It took having a second ball in hand for him to return the first ball — you didn’t have to release the second ball, but having it in hand was somehow an incentive for him to bring the initial ball back to be thrown again.

Duke’s open heart. and loving, affectionate nature made him such a joy to spend time with! At two, he was still puppy playful, and loved physical contact — happily for us, this owner was comfortable with him curling up on the couch and sleeping in bed with us, too. (To be clear, we understand both sides of how close do you get to the dogs — dogs do get dirty on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are social “pack” animals that establish bonding with contact. Our rule — just keep it consistent!)

As always, we were so pleased this owner decided long term house sitting and in home dog sitting, was the best solution, for Duke — we loved our time in Louisville, and hope to reconnect with them again!

September 16, 2015