A fun distraction in the shop today....

[stitcher_guy]

We've talked about shop mascots in the past. In May we got Tucker, a cute little bundle of puppy. Just a few weeks old, he fit in the palm of my hand.

He grew quick.

He eats a lot

He grew more and more

Tucker is only about 8 months old but is a big old huge brute by comparison to my kids and to the other dogs we've had. He's great. We wrestle and box and go at it hard.

Lately when he visits the shop, he has realized he's a big huge brute, and my table doesn't look that tall and daunting to him anymore. Especially if I have a bag of chips or one of his dog treats up there.

So who else has had to work around this??:

[daveich]

Mine dos not get on the table thank got. got him at nine mouths old about a year ago as a play mate for my lab mix. it said in the ad he was free, weas part lab, part retiver. part hound, they left off the elk part on the hound. my wife picked him up in a ford focus, ho took the whole back seat. he will sit next to the machine with his head on the table watching you and if you look his way the nose is under your arm wanting loving. you tell him to lay down, then you have to look before you move your chair or you think a herd is stampeeing thru. he dose not have a mean bone in his body. the grandson cawls al over him and he dose not let his head and the other day he was laying in the livingroom next to a playpen fence that is round my table next to my chair, so the grandson can't get to it. the wife walks in and said look at him. the grand son was standing on the side of the dog reaching over to grab stuff on the table boomer never moved. when i said his name he lifted his head and looked at me, but did do anything about the boy. Don

[Mojo]

I have two shop dogs that are our indoor pets. I also have a shop cat which belongs to my wife. The cat lays on my cutting table alot but the dogs thankfully stay off it.

The other day King, our large male seen me climb inside my boat to get some measurements. He thought that looked like fun and made two leaps - one onto the swim platform and the other right over the engine and into the boat. Scared the living daylights out of me.

King is 100 lbs and Tessa is 80 lbs. The biggest shepherd I have ever owned was Trooper a 135 lb male. He was huge and had a head the size of a grizzly. He is pictured below with my daughter Natalia:)

Chris



Tessa & King



Trooper & Natalia

[bobbin]

Our dog tips the scale at 95-100 lbs. and came from the "pound" at about 1 1/2 yrs. old.  Completely untrained (what a surprise he'd been "returned" twice, lol).  He's some sort of Shepherd cross but with a black brindle coat; very eye-catching, and he's wicked smart (Shepherd!).  I basically trained him a couple of months but he requires a firm hand and responds beautifully to it.  Nothing mean about him, but his "job" is to mind everyone else's business and guard his territory (Shepherd).  My job is to "save him from himself" and act as the liason when we're "out on the town" or "have company".  Once he's been introduced and reminded that his job is to do what I tell him to do, he's a perfect cooperator. 

Also, the resident pride numbers 3.  I am, first and foremost, a "cat person".  In fact, until we got our present dog, I was always sort of ambivilent about the species in general, although we'd had 3 before him. 

What our dog has taught me is that I like working dogs.  I like dogs that are intelligent and require a "job".  I love GSDs, Dobermans, Rottweilers, and I like terriers very much, too.

<IMG SRC="http://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL889/1214523/11016919/141240873.jpg"; border="0" alt="Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com">

What a fun thread. 

[Mojo]

I basically trained him a couple of months but he requires a firm hand and responds beautifully to it.  Nothing mean about him, but his "job" is to mind everyone else's business and guard his territory (Shepherd).  My job is to "save him from himself" and act as the liason when we're "out on the town" or "have company".  Once he's been introduced and reminded that his job is to do what I tell him to do, he's a perfect cooperator. 

Dang. I had to re-read your post twice. I thought that was my wife talking about me. It took her a while but she has trained me.  I am even housebroke as well.

:)

Chris

[bobbin]

No wonder you're the envy of every wife who reads these threads, Chris!

(didn't say it before but your dogs are beautiful and your daughter is the perfect "backdrop" for Trooper) 

:)

[Mojo]

This should bring a smile to your face Bobbin.

A friend of mine created this photo just the other day. It ended up on my facebook. :)

It got a lot of comments from my other friends. It is a nickname my kids gave me and of course my darling wife Ally enjoys it. :)



Chris

[Geech]

That looks very familiar... here is my mascot.


We adopted our little buddy 2.5 years ago from a couple who thought they were taking in a much smaller breed with no place for her to run. Being a lab / border collie mix, she loves stretching her legs on our acreage.  However, my wife and I have absolutely SPOILED this dog to where she is convinced she is one of us. For instance, I'm sitting in a chair at the computer in my home office this morning and after she decided to be a 50lb lap dog while I tried to work (which she also loves doing when I'm seated at the machine in the shop too), she decided she'd be more comfortable on our bed in the other room.  The minute she hears me get up to go out to the shop, she'll be by my side no matter how many times I bounce between the two buildings.  The ultimate companion doesn't quite describe her for me!

I'm sure you already take precautions to make your shop pooch friendly, but despite my best attempts of always keeping chemicals out of her reach and scanning the blacktop and asphalt every time a car/boat is parked or moved, all it took was me to be distracted one day and my 30 second slip in judgement up led to her licking up a half dollar size drop of antifreeze that had leaked from a classic that just left my shop after coming for an estimate.  Had she not been distracted by the neighbors cat and moved away before she could lick the second tasty second drop, I would have never noticed the "tongue mark" left from the first one on the blacktop and never known until it was too late to save her.  Unfortunately, by the time a pet shows signs of poisoning from antifreeze, its absolutely too late as their organs have begun shutting down and the animal needs put down to save it from further agony.  Spring scares the daylights out of me because too many people still use automotive antifreeze in my area to winterize their boat instead of the safer RV product to save a buck, and all it takes is the right angle to have it sneak out of the outdrive so I take even further precautions when any boat comes my way that hasn't splashed into the water yet for the season - as odd as it strikes my customers, its one of the questions I ask before they bring the boat on my property.

It was a very expensive and frightening 48 hours while she was in the doggy ICU that (embarrassingly) brought this 6'4" 225 lb "tough guy" to his knees unable to focus until she was home safe three days later.  Fortunately she never knew she had anything wrong with her and I got her there in time.  I've been one of those guys who said "You spent $1400 to keep your free dog alive?" simply because I never had to make such a choice before, but apparently until you've been in that position after the dog becomes a part of your life the owner is the only one who can decide what their friend is worth to them like I did.  Here was a dog drooling charcoal, tail wagging happily, excited to be somewhere new, and the second vet's office saying "Is there anything wrong with this dog?" to which I had to say "She's dying but doesn't have any clue so please don't tell her." I quickly found myself offended when they asked if I wanted to go forward with the treatment to save her after learning the price associated with it!

If you don't already, keep a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide in the shop JUST IN CASE it drinks any automotive fluids or other bad stuff.  While it alone won't ave the pooch - it will greatly increase the odds of your four legged friend surviving such an incident by getting the bad stuff out of their system asap.  Also, while most vets stock the antifreeze antidote for cats these days, I've come to learn only the largest vet within 50 miles from me stock it for dogs due to its high cost and short shelf life.  Our regular vet gave her activated charcoal after purging her stomach since I had no peroxide myself at the time, but their only available form of treatment was to give the dog an IV of grain alcohol for 5 days and hope it distracted her kidneys from processing the bad stuff, but an hour drive to the nearest vet with the medicine they found for me would have been my first stop had I known.  While I have no kids and this is my first dog as an adult on his own in the world, I laugh now and say finding the right vet is like searching for a pediatrician for your children.  May nobody make the same mistake I did, but it pays to be prepared!

[JuneC]

All beautiful animals.    How much to add to our lives...

My current two - both rescues.  Mr. P, the Belgian Maliniois on the right, was turned in to a rescue org by his owners when he was about 10 months old.  He was hell on wheels, but with some training became one of the best dogs an owner could hope for.  Mini Me, the shepherd mix on the left, we adopted from the Humane Society just 4 months ago.  She's about a year old we think.  As for mixed with what?  I'm guessing goat.  Springbok maybe?  She likes to entice the other one to play by springing up on all fours from a standing position and doing 360's while in the air.  I've seen her do it repeatedly till she falls down.  We like to call them "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" - remember the Cat in the Hat?  The "things" were mischief-makers.



June

[Mike8560]

Dosent look like the two n your a itar June   What happened to them? 
Mike I don't have a pic at the moment likes otnallot more now that I'm wojrkinf from home n
leaving my kitchen there is a wash/ mudroom leading to the garage and my machines he last owner had a cat door In the door between the kitchen and washroom she lime to stick her head though the door and check out what I'm doing.

[JuneC]

Ok, fixed the break in the link above.  Mike, the black one passed last December and the brown one in the background in my avatar is Mr. P.  I need to get a new avatar. 

June

[Darren Henry]

Back in '95 when I met Buddy (Border collie/springer in my avatar ) He jumped onto a saw horse , then the swim platform,and into the 25' cruiser we were working on in Peter's yard. The drain plug was chest level to me .

When we lived at the shop ( retarded hours for spring push/old lady split for another "too busy" time) in '08 he could still jump up there beside me on the cutting table at bedtime . [not too shabby for a 14 year old stray,eh?]

Now he has to get a good run to get into the car. He went stone deaf in two months this summer. Other wise he's healthy.

June; Sorry to hear about your loss. There's mega tears on the horizon when his number comes up. I just hope and pray that I don't have to make that call and do it .

[gene]

I read these posts last night. I just got back from the emergency vet. Fannie, our border collie, died. She was 15. We knew her all those years but we took her in 2 years ago when her owner moved to another town.

She survived a pulmanary embolism 2 months ago. This morning her heart stopped just before the vet was going to put her down.

She had been a 'working' dog her entire life. Herding sheep and competing in competitions. When she came to live with us I taught her the joy of begging for treats.

I think she had a wonderful retirement.

Yes, Geech, crying is about the only thing you can do at a time like this.

gene

[Darren Henry]

I'm sorry Gene. My deepest sympathies to you and your family.

[JuneC]

Very sorry to hear that Gene.  Unfortunately they don't outlive us, but all we can do is make their short lives meaningful and comfortable.  They say you can't buy love - I disagree (though I don't agree with "buying" a dog). 

June