Ghosts in the kitchen

Occasionally there are strange sounds coming from the kitchen. Many people would believe there are ghosts in their house. Not if you have a Husky. Apparently, a favorite pastime of Husky dogs is “counter-surfing”.


Now this is not some new form of an extreme sport. Counter-surfing is the habit of exploring the food options above floor level. Huskies know that can reach anything they want. All that matters is how much effort they want to put in to it and if they make enough noise so that a human catches them in that act.

Every now and then, there are little clinking noises coming from the sink area. These usually just mean Cane is trying to pre-wash the dishes before they get loaded into the dishwasher.

Other times it may be a noise of claws-on-countertop followed by a little chomping. Sometimes however, there is no noise at all; there will just be an empty pie crust that was full a few minutes ago. Or perhaps an empty butter dish that you swear had a stick of butter on it the last time you looked.

Fortunately for Cane, there is a carpet shampooer in the house. Just because it is delicious or humans eat it, does not mean that it is meant to be digested by a dog. The result is an upset tummy and a little puking. By “a little”, I mean a pool the size of a dinner plate. Hence, the carpet shampooer.

Now Cane does get credit for attempting to head to the backdoor if he feels vomit coming. Sadly, he usually unloads before the humans can open the door. He also has managed to keep it on the linoleum a few times (thanks buddy).

Sometimes the food does make it all they way thru Cane and he gets a different kind of excitement. I will tell you now that a whole pumpkin pie will give a dog diarrhea. Poor Cane.

This is one more instance where I don’t know if you can break a Husky of a bad habit. The best method is a little prevention. Put things back in the refrigerator as soon as possible; put bread on top of the fridge so it’s a little harder to reach and keep your ears open for ghostly sounds in the kitchen.

Brother Cane

It's been a little over a year since we adopted Cane. I was worried for a while that he was going to be and eternal pain in the rear but he gets better all the time. He's become a favorite of the neighborhood kids and never gets a walk without free belly scratches when the kids are playing. He also has a few regular dogs that he gets to play with on our walks.

Cane has also embraced baby Sidney into our pack and has been doing great with her. He gives her occasional licks and loves laying around her bassinet or swing while shes sleeping. He has not bothered her "stuff" execpt for one teddy bear which he mistook as one of his toys.

It looks like he's going to turn out to be a good big brother.

New addition

It's been a while since I've posted. Mostly due to the last part of my wife's pregnancy and the birth of our baby daughter, Sidney. She was born Sep 14th and Cane was satying with Auntie Silke until the following Friday.

Once Cane got home, he was excited to meet his new little sister and he has been doing great so far with her. He likes to lay near her when she's sleeping and he loves walking next to the stroller. He does so good in fact, that I wish I would have had a random stroller earlier :)

He gets mildly concerned when she cries loudly but mostly goes about his business as usual; meaning lying around and occasionally annoying me. We're trying to get him to naturally lay down when she cries and he's getting used to that program.

As soon as we get the sleeping patterns down for the new baby, we'll get Cane out and about so he can have new adventures.

Walking Club

Found a new group today to help Cane work on being mellow around other dogs. Not all interaction can be fun like the dog park. Sometimes he needs to be calm in a pack. So we went to a dog walking club event this evening and Cane did very well. Only six other dogs showed up and they were all smaller than Cane but he had a good time and acted like a true gentleman (which was a relief).

http://www.beapackleaderdogwalkingclub.com/

Same Ol' Cane

Cane has come along way since we adopted him. He still has the separation anxiety and occasionally escapes. There have been a couple of recent unauthorized excursions.

1. He was at pet camp and cleared their fence, went down the road and found a couple other dogs behind a fence. So he cleared that fence too and played with his new friends. I rec'd a call thanks to his personaliazed collar with my number on it (dogIDcollar.com). That thing is worth it's weight in gold. Unfortunately I was in Mass. at the time, so his new buddies' Dad put him in the truck and took him back to pet camp. Typical Cane adventure.

2. The lawn people came and accidentally left the gate unlatched. It swung open and was unnoticed when I let hin out into the back yard. I just took a seat on the back porch and figured he was doing his business when Momma came home and asked where he was. I said he probably ran away (joking). So Momma looks around the side of the house and my joke came true. I said we could sit tight and he'd be back soon but Momma grabbed her keys and told me she'd take the car while I take the bike to look for him. By the time we got out the door, our neighbor was ringing the bell with cane in hand. Cane had pushed the neighbor dog (Bear) out of the way and went into their house to check things out. Nothing surprises me with this dog :)

Making progress

Working on separation anxiety issues is a test of patience. When Cane failed obedience class, he couldn't stand to be by himself for 30 seconds. Little by little and thru individual classes, Cane has been working on his "stay" and his ability to be alone for a given time without going completely crazy.


Several months ago, a 20 minute trip to the store resulted in a wrecked house. A month ago, Cane howled so loudly at the vet that he had to be picked up early.

In the beginning the only thing that could bring sanity to the house was the crate. The crate was a life saver. Quite bluntly, it kept Cane from going back to the pound. But the goal is to have a good balanced dog that can be trusted alone. Over the course of the past few weeks Cane has had the run of the house. It began with 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there. Soon the elusive 20 minute trip to the store was possible.

Eventually Cane was able to be all by himself for a few hours. In fact, his new record is 4 hours with no destruction. He almost hit 5 hours but an accessible leftover Easter basket ended the new streak.

More practice and “Cane-proofing” to come.

Seatbelts taste good

I need a new seatbelt in my truck. What seemed like a quick and painless trip into Lowe’s will probably end up costing a couple hundred bucks.


I went in for a few small items and was in and out in less than 15 minutes. As I walked back out to the truck, I could see Cane was in the front driver’s seat. As I opened the door, he opened his mouth and my seatbelt fell out. It was only connected by a thread.

Needless to say, it was probably the closest Cane came to going back to jail since we had him. It happened back in December and Cane has since learned to keep his butt in the back where he has a bone to chew on and water if needed.

I did what I believe is a pretty dang good job of sewing the belt back together, but for safety sake I really need to get a new one. Maybe soon…