Office Dog

NOW HIRING:  OFFICE ASSISTANT:

Wanted:  a friendly, out-going, hard-working office assistant.  Applicants can apply within.  

I don't know how you could possibly outshine this candidate?!  It sounds like most "want ads" just need a good dog!!  ;)




Jasmine LOVES to go with me everywhere.  So this time she accompanied me to the office!  

June 24, 2016 is Take Your Dog to Work Day!  Better start practicing!  ;)   Take Your Dog To Work Day takes on a whole new meaning when Jasmine comes along!

No matter where Jaz goes, she is greeted by smiles and grins.  She still LOVES to do tricks, and so I make little YouTube videos because it's fun for her.  And I do it to inspire others to work with their dogs.  

I encourage relationship-based training using positive reinforcement.  I believe dogs are family.  And we train our children to be polite and have good manners.  So it's equally as important to spend that time with your dog to do the same.  I think this promotes life-time acceptance and a positive relationship with animals.

Tricks are just a bonus on top of that.  It just develops the bond you already have with your dog.  I didn't start out teaching Jaz tricks.  I was just trying to teach basic obedience (Sit, stay, etc.)  But she picked it up really fast, and loved to learn.  So I had to come up with new things to teach her!

Jasmine was trained using positive reinforcement.  (Her favorite reward is treats.)    And if you know Jaz, you'll know that she LOVES to do her tricks.  If you walk into our house, she'll lead you over to the treat counter and start doing some tricks to get you to give her a cookie!  She's sneaky that way!  

Thanks for watching!  And now get offline and go spend some time with YOUR favorite pup!  :)

This dog is a Criminal Mastermind!!

This dog is a criminal mastermind.  For those of you who don't follow Jasmine's Facebook page, this is my new dog Chewy.  (I got married last fall, and this is my husband's dog.)  

If you don't follow Jasmine's Facebook page, then you might not be familiar of "the adventures of Destructo Dog".  It's been a long process trying to introduce Chewy to the civilized world of being an indoor dog, which includes NOT chewing up my stuff!!   He's finally kennel trained now.  (And in fact, loves his kennel.)  But yesterday was just such a beautiful day, I decided to leave him outside in the backyard.  (I was thinking there wasn't much left he could damage out there.)  He has already torn every screen off every window/door.  (including pulling the screen door off the frame.)  He has dug up a dead cat we buried over a decade ago.  (that was lovely).   I have covered up the water drip system (for the plants) to keep him from digging those up.  So in my mind, there was no more damage he could cause.

Besides, I was only going to be gone for ONE HOUR- while I went out to lunch with my friends.  When I came home from lunch, I opened the front door.  And surprise- both Chewy AND Jasmine were there to greet me!!  ??????

Upon further investigation, I discovered Chewy is WAY too smart.  He was able to open the LOCKED doggy door, and let himself in.  To lift up the panel of the doggy door, you have to push down the handle, and then left up.  (Which apparently is no problem for Chewy.)

You slide the panel in and lock it from the inside or the outside.  I used to lock it from the inside, until Chewy tore apart the inside of the doggy door and started ripping out drywall out of my house.  (In his effort to get in.)  My husband just fixed that.  Since then I've been sliding the panel in on the outside to lock it.  But apparently this doesn't work anymore!!)

This also solves the mystery of how Chewy got inside the night of the Easter Pageant. I swore I put him outside when I left.  But when we came home, he was inside.  And all the doors were locked, the doggy door was shut, and there were no broken windows.  My parents have a key to my house, but they said they didn't come over.  So we had no clue who let him in.  We finally concluded that after I put him outside, he must have snuck back inside when I wasn't looking.  (It didn't seem very likely, but it was the ONLY explanation at the time!   But now I realize, he must tried this trick before.  He must have lifted up the panel without removing it, slipped underneath to come inside, then the panel slid back in place behind him. Which explains how that dog got into a locked house!

Ugh.  Crazy, crazy, crazy dog.  I just need to convince him to use his superpowers for good, not evil!!