Why Bad Dogs Drool

The Great Egg Thief

2009-05-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Well, before Mikalye and Cadet graced us with their presence, Duke pretty much ran the roost. Being an only "child", he was definitely spoiled beyond all means. Well, one time Michelle, Duke and myself went on vacation for a while and when we returned we decided to do a little spring cleaning. Starting with the refrigerator, we cleaned out some of the food that had been in there since before the vacation. Among the things that were cleaned out, half a carton of eggs were among the items. Filling up a garbage bag full of trash, it was placed in the back yard to be taken to the dumpster with the other trash from the spring-cleaning. At this point in Duke's life, he had grown very good at opening doors. Screen doors, bedroom doors, anything that he could figure out, he would master the art of this. Well, while Michelle and I were cleaning the rest of the house, we failed to keep a sharp eye on Duke. A little while after placing the garbage bag in the back yard, I looked up and noticed that Duke was nowhere to be seen. After looking around the house and calling his name, Michelle and I went into the back yard, knowing that he has figured out how to open the screen door. After taking a look around the yard and seeing the array of trash that was scattered about, something just happen to catch my eye. It was an egg carton, but it was empty, where 20 minutes earlier there had been five or six eggs. I looked over and saw Duke with his head buried inside the trash bag. "Duke!" I yelled, and he quickly popped up his head up out of the trash bag. Taking a first look at him, I realized where the missing eggs had gone. Duke had at least three eggs inside his mouth, whole. I started to move towards Duke to try and get the eggs out of his mouth and it was slow motion from there. I could swear I saw Duke give me a fiendish half smile before he chomped down on the eggs, squirting egg yolk and white out both sides of his mouth. Then the chase was on, around the back yard and into the house, trying to keep him from swallowing the shells and anything else that he could possibly have in his mouth. Well, when I finally caught up to him there was nothing in his mouth except a couple pieces of shell. I can attest to one thing though, the gas that followed his rummaging could kill an elephant.

The Noise From Below

2009-05-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

As you have, hopefully, read earlier, our dogs Duke and Cadet are best friends and their own worst enemy. They seem too like getting each other into trouble. One evening in particular, my wife and I were watching TV in the living room and we heard a very loud bang coming from underneath the house. So, I looked out the back door window and saw Duke sitting by the door. Well, I figured that if Duke was in the back yard, so was Cadet, because 9 times out of 10 if one gets out the other is right behind him. So, I thought it might have been some old pipes or something to that effect, since our house is about 70 years old. I then went back to the couch and continued watching TV with my wife. Another 10 or 15 minutes goes by and I hear another bang coming from underneath the house. This time Duke is barking nonstop, which he normally doesn't do unless something is wrong or he wants inside the house. By this time it is starting to get dark outside, so I grab a flashlight and proceed to find out what exactly is going on underneath my house. I walk around to the crawl space that is located on the side of my house, still in the back yard, all while wandering what kind of animal I might have to fish out. I noticed that the metal plate that I have covering the crawl space has been knocked over, so I shined the flashlight up under the house and see a white streak go running by real quick. In the back of my mind I am thinking skunk, so I backed up a few paces. I get back down and shined the light again just as he is running full speed underneath the house and runs full force into the old copper pluming under the house, making a loud bang. Well, I was definitely relieved that it wasn't a skunk, but getting my dog out from under the house was a chore in itself. I think Duke was trying to tell on his buddy when he was doing all that barking. Now, both of them find a way to get under the house no matter how hard I try to keep them out.

The Digging Duo

2009-05-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

I have two dogs that are as different as night and day. One dog is a Yellow Lab; big head, big paws, big everything, and has more energy than a fireworks stand. His name is Duke, and if you have seen the movie Marley and Me, you can envision the type of destructive behavior he is capable of. Duke is about 2 years old and is my wife’s first baby. My other dog is an English Bulldog. He is entirely white, except for a brown spot on above his right eye and a brown spot on his tail, which looks like a corkscrew. His name is Cadet and we believe him to be the mastermind behind all the trouble. We got Cadet about 10 months ago, before that we had little to no trouble with Duke at all. But, Cadet converted him to the dark side. The one thing that they have managed to accomplish very well is digging. These dogs have a network of tunnels all throughout our yard. It's like in the movies when prisoners are trying to escape from prison. Same type of thing happening here, Duke will do most of the digging while Cadet stands guard and watches out for either my wife or myself. When he spots either of us he will start barking frantically and then run to the opposite side of the yard. Another instance was when they were digging underneath our well house in our back yard. They would literally take turns digging and watching out for us. Duke did most of the work at surface and then he would send Cadet down the hole to dig further, because he was too big to get that far. Measured from surface to back of hole was a little over 6 feet deep and funneled down to a circular hole that was just big enough for my squatty little dog to fit down there. These's dogs have escaped from our yard many times and are widely known throughout the neighborhood because of their ability for some good dirt digging.