Alternate plans / myLot

Centralia, Washington

December 4, 2023 4:04pm CST

I drove to the pool this morning and found out that once again the local school kids are having swim lessons. That means that the pools are closed to everybody else. I decided to do my bank errand then headed home to grab Rufus for a walk around the block. Rain continues to be a major presence but for that twenty minutes it wasn't raining. I did not sleep well but decided that I could put out the effort and get Rufus around the block. Rufus and I are heading into another phase. I love him deeply. He has one huge and very loud fault. He barks and barks loud enough that folks that hear him via the phone think we have more than one dog. Hysteria deluxe. So....the other day I think I was motioning for Rufus to lie down instead of bark screaming. Maybe I was tired? Anyway, the motion for "lay down!!" morphed into circular arm motions. Rufus stopped his screaming and stared at me. Yay!!!! Go Rufus. The next time the wind blew and a UPS van caused Rufus to go into bloody loud barks, I again made circles in the air with my arms. Rufus again responded. He is not perfect BUT he is tons quieter and calmer. I encourage him to come to me for a Good Dog! You're alright! Good boy! Thank God apparently we are learning how to communicate with each other.

11 people like this

10 responses

Loretta

@noni1959 (10362)

• United States

5 Dec 23

That's great you learned a new way to communicate. I'll mention this to my oldest daughter who has two dogs. One will go into fits when she hears something and she's been trying to find another way besides a shock collar.

1 person likes this

Lenore Plassman

@sallypup (64196)

• Centralia, Washington

5 Dec 23

@noni1959 Thanks. I don't know your daughter or her dog and I don't know the dog's breed. Rufus is a highly senstive dog. He communicates so well except for this obnoxious issue so I've been wracking my brain about what is disconnecting between us? (Why can he easily learn to back on command but can't stop barking hysterically?) We were going to try a shock collar but it looked complicated and on the edge of dangerous for the dog. Who likes to get vibrated on or shocked even a little bit? I hope this all makes sense.

snowy

@snowy22315 (189107)

• United States

4 Dec 23

That is good I know that dogs also respond to a shaker of pennies. If Jax is around I usually shake a bottle of vitamins if he is on a barking jag. It seems to work pretty well.

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Lenore Plassman

@sallypup (64196)

• Centralia, Washington

5 Dec 23

@snowy22315 A dog trainer told me about the shaker of pennies. I used that trick on Sally when she was a headstrong pup. Worked well. I tried it on Rufus and he went nuts, noiser than ever. He appears to have very sensitive hearing. Who knows what happened to him before we adopted him? Firework noise sends him into a deep scared funk.

celticeagle

@celticeagle (174119)

• Boise, Idaho

5 Dec 23

Like I always say: Communication is so important in all relationships.

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Jeff Moffitt

@moffittjc (124240)

• Gainesville, Florida

5 Dec 23

I was just thinking about how much cats and dogs are different from each other. If Rufus was a cat, he would just look at you motioning your arms and then turn and ignore you and do whatever cats do. Lol

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