Hitting the Road

June 20, 2013June 20, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

I’m in Rowe trying to pull some last minute things together, mainly getting all of the canines here for their fun-filled weekend with a dog sitter. Not just any dog sitter mind you but Nadia, Chester’s first mom. He may look sceptical in the photo but once he sees her he will only have eyes for her.

We will be heading out to the Finger Lakes region of New York – Keuka Lake to be exact. One of our nieces is graduating from high school and Bill promised we would go (a very long time ago). We will be spending a long weekend with his side of the family in one of the most beautiful places I know.

This is a 6 hour journey through New York state on the thruway. Once we get off of the highway in Geneva we begin to get into some serious farm country. As we get closer to Penn Yan there are big beautiful farms owned by Mennonites. The farms are large and tidy. I will keep my eyes open for the tell tale clothing on the lines, shirts and dresses in vivid solid hues. If I’m lucky I will see a horse and buggy on the road (or bicycle) going in or out of Penn Yan.

Once through Penn Yan we cross over the northern part of Keuka Lake into Branchport. This is the area where you see vineyards. I think I will be spending some time this weekend with a few glasses of the local wine and maybe get a case for home.

How Chester Spends His Days

June 15, 2013June 15, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

We have a small brook that runs the perimeter of part of the field in the back forty. It’s been raining buckets the past week so the brook is running well through the weeds. This is truly one of Chester’s favorite spots. He walks the entire length of it – in the water. There’s a small pond on one end and a culvert that goes under a dirt road on the other. He doesn’t like the heat much so this is where you can find him on any warm sunny day. He’ll happily play fetch if you are willing, and will play with the girlfriend next door but it’s always interspersed with a walk in the brook. He must be part lab.

The Magic Window

May 9, 2013May 9, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

Sophie is a dog that is wound a little tight. She’s very nervous and barks at every little noise she hears. She feels as though she needs to be in the middle of everything but can be so noisy that she often is left behind when those little trips happen. I just don’t want to listen to her barking.

One of the things that sends her into a crazed state is what we refer to as the “magic window”. Cait believes that is what all dogs think of drive up windows at fast food places. They know that you drive up and a person hands you food, usually french fries which is a special weakness for all dogs and children. Sophie starts barking as soon as we approach the magic window and it escalates when she sees the person behind the glass. It doesn’t matter that there’s food. At least that is what I thought until today.

Once a week I go to the drive up window at my bank. It’s a very small bank in what seems like the middle of nowhere. Every time we go the teller gives me cookies for the dogs. We just started going to this bank about a month ago and it is on the way to Rowe so Sophie is always sitting in the front seat next to me. The first time we stopped she lost her mind when the teller appeared in the window. She opened the drawer and there were two milkbones in it. I gave one to Sophie and one to Chester. The teller gave me two more with the receipts. Sophie stopped barking.

Since that time Sophie has not barked once when we’ve gone to that drive through. This seems to be somewhat of a miracle to me. Maybe it’s not just the cookies, maybe it’s the teller. All I know is this is the only window I’ve found that is truly magic.

Dog Heaven

April 29, 2013April 29, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

As I’m sitting at the computer writing this Chester is curled up in his bed beside me. This is typical for a Monday, we refer to it as the hangover.

Brush was burned this past Saturday with our three dogs and Malcolm all there to make the most of the greening grass and sunshine. There is nothing they like more than to be in the back forty doing whatever they find to do. It is always more fun if their people are out their with them. There’s always the chance there will be a game of fetch.

It wasn’t so long ago that none of these dogs got along. We were always on alert for the next sign of a fight. The fights were ugly, blood was always drawn, always over a stick or toy. The blood didn’t necessarily belong to a dog either. This past weekend was one of those weekends where everyone got along. There is nothing they love more than being free to go anywhere without a leash. They just ran and ran and ran. They all took a dip in the swamp – Chester more than once. Malcolm had to have a bath and the burdock picked out of his fur before he could get into the car to head back to Boston.

A lot was accomplished – we are all feeling it today. Unfortunately Chester is the only one who gets to sleep it off.

Sophie’s Multiple Personalities

April 4, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

When we got Chester it became clear right from the beginning that Sophie did NOT like him, not one little bit. They initially had a huge fight over food where Chester bit and pierced her ear. It had to hurt but Sophie is such a drama queen that you would have thought she was near death. As the months went on she would continue to attack him for no reason (at least that we could see). I then started taking just her and Chester to Rowe during the week and they seem to have bonded. We’ve had Chester for a year and a half now and Sophie is tolerating him and at times will even play with him. Monday we were driving from Rowe to Enfield and this is what I saw in the back seat. Since it was April 1st I’m thinking this was some sort of joke.

Little Dogs and Snow

March 5, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

It’s difficult not to love snow when you have dogs that are crazy about it. Sophie is especially obsessed with it. I don’t know where it came from or how it started but if she sees you with a shovel she’s there. This is what she lives for in the winter.

All she wants you to do is throw shovels full of snow into the air so she can jump into it.

And she doesn’t stop. She will jump and jump every single time.

She’s quite the acrobat.

And more entertaining than anything I can possibly think of indoors.

Of course she really appreciates it when we go indoors and there’s a fire in the fireplace. Unlike Chester, all of the snow sticks to her fur in little snowballs. She waits in front of the fire until she is standing in a puddle of melted snow. Now if she would only learn to stand on a towel.

Little Dog Syndrome

February 5, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

Poor Chester doesn’t know he isn’t a little dog. He’s taken to sleeping in what once was Buddy’s bed. It’s maybe 26″ across. He squishes himself into it and will stay there for hours. I found this out a couple of weeks ago when I was carrying the bed home in the back of my sister’s car intending to have it at the house in Enfield for Bud to snooze in. Chester was in the car for a couple of hours sleeping in that bed. He normally has the whole back of my hatchback but thought this was much cozier.

Young dogs always learn a lot from the older dogs around them, unfortunately for Chester (or me) he’s only been around Miniature Schnauzers. He doesn’t understand why Sophie and Buddy can sit in our laps and he can’t. On the occasion when someone has picked him up his tail wags like it’s one of the most momentous occasions of his life. You know he’s been feeling neglected because the little dogs get that snuggle time and he doesn’t. Every morning he gets onto the loveseat where I’m sitting, drinking my coffee, and leans against me. It’s sort of a hug. Mind you I also have at least one other dog sitting in my lap, usually Sophie. It’s cute but he’s large and doesn’t realize it. He thinks he’s doing what he’s supposed to do.

He and Sophie have become fast friends. It took over a year for her to warm up to him but in the past few months they have started to play – a lot. There is nothing funnier that watching them go at it. When Sophie is on her hind legs she comes up to his shoulder. They play tug of war or just wrestle around on the floor. Chester knows all the tricks to get her to let go of the toy. He just realized that if he can find the squeaker she will let go – she hates any toy with a squeaker.

All in all it’s fun having a dog with size confusion issues. He makes me laugh every day. Most of my dogs have made me laugh intentionally but I think Chester just thinks he’s being a normal little dog.

More About Chester

January 30, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

When Chester moved in with us he insinuated himself into every aspect of our lives. Dogs are good at that, especially young dogs. Chester was different in he honestly was the best behaved puppy I have ever owned. I was fully prepared to take him off leash and have him take off into the woods and not see him for a couple of hours. It didn’t happen. He loves his people. He made friends with the dogs at the houses on either side of us. Jolie (his girlfriend) never leaves her yard. The dogs on the other side of us have an invisible fence. The bonus in this situation is that he never learned that he could run away, although I’m not sure he ever would.

Chester does have some true abandonment issues. For the first year we could not leave him in a crate. All of our dogs are trained to a crate, they sleep in them at night, in our bedroom. They love their crates, it’s a safe spot for them. It took a couple of weeks just to get Chester to go into a crate, a few more until he stopped crying. If we left him alone in the room in his crate he lost his mind. Consequently he went EVERYWHERE with me. He became our shop dog at L&S Automotive.

We put a gate up in my office space, got another crate with a cushy bed and brought him to work with us every day. I would take him to the park a couple of miles away to run him mid afternoon and then he would nap. In the photo he is lying with Malcolm, Amanda’s dog. They have a love hate relationship to this day – in this particular photo they love each other. I can gladly say that after a year and a half he is a little better adjusted to being left alone although you can see his anxiety level go up as you’re heading for the door. He would sit in the car and happily wait for me all day if he had too, just because he knows he’s with me and hasn’t been left.

An interesting thing has happened with Chester at the shop. He has become our official greeter. He loves everyone (especially kids) and waits in the waiting area for people to come in. I know he has shown more than one person that dogs don’t have to be scary. He also has built quite a fan club, there are days when you’d swear that’s what he’s doing, building a fan club. We have customers and parts delivery people that call to see how he is, that bring him treats, that play fetch with him out in back of the building while their cars are being repaired. There are people that drop their keys in the drop box in an envelope with dog biscuits. He’s added another dimension to customer service.

After a year and a half he has settled in and now takes advantage of as many situations as he can. He’s a sofa dog but there has always been furniture he’s not allowed on. Well, most of the time.

Chasing Balls in the Snow

January 14, 2013January 14, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

There is a lot of snow in Rowe, even with the January thaw we’ve been having. Chester has had to retool his tennis ball games because of it. His new game is to hunt for the ball once it disappears into the snowy white unknown. When we toss the ball he keeps his eyes on where he thinks it’s going to land and runs out to find it.

He will root around in the snow until he comes up with the ball.

Then he gleefully returns it and waits for the next toss. He never tires of this game. I’ve seen him go outdoors by himself with a tennis ball, drop it into a snowbank and dig and dig until he “finds” it. If he loses a ball he will stay out looking for it for hours and will not take a new ball. You throw him another one and he ignores it.

Bill may have changed the game a little for him yesterday by accident. He was tossing the ball and with his last toss it landed in the snow on top of the garage roof. Chester looked for that ball for a good 3 hours. Bill tried the substitution but it was a no go. That dog actually came into the house to warm up and went out again to look for that ball. Poor Chester. It looks like an OCD to me.

Dogs and Snow

January 2, 2013January 2, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

Sophie loves snow more than anything. You’d think she’d hate the cold, or the snow balls that stick to her fur, or the fact that the snow is too deep to walk in. Her favorite game is Bill throwing snow with the shovel into the air and she leaps into it. In the first photo she knows what’s coming. She wants to make sure she’s there before Chester (who is clueless about this game).

Success! A few more shovels full and she’d had enough. Went into the house and stood in front of a fire to melt the snow.

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