Lawn bombs

Well, the weather was very nice today so took off as soon as I was done working and got home and took Miller and Deuce for a walk on the track. I really thought there would be more people out walking with the nice weather but the track was empty. I decided to let Deuce walk without his gentle leader today. He walks great with it on but take it off and he is balls to the wall. I fear we may have to use it for a very, very long time. Miller has been acting very hyper here lately so he isn't helping the situation. Usually he is very laid back and nothing phases him but on our last two walks, when we have walked past a dog in a yard and the dog is barking, he has started barking back. Very weird for him and of course that send Deuce over the edge because if Miller is doing it, so should he. Now, every time we walk past any yard, if it has a fence, even if there is no dog in that fence, he gets very excited. Looks like we are going to have to take the clicker out and try and mark good behaviors with clicks and treats to try and increase those behaviors versus the bad, barking and lunging behavior. Thanks alot big brother Miller!


I decided also since the weather was so nice, I would go ahead and clean up lawn bombs. Much to my dismay, the yard was fairly clean meaning that Deuce is eating ALOT of poop. Looks like he isn't eating his own thank goodness but everyone else's. I am wondering if maybe I cut him back on food too soon? I have no clue what drives a dog to eat poop? The only time he is out in the yard is in the am for about 45 minutes. He and harley are both out together so maybe harley is also eating it? I did notice harley had something in his mouth and I yelled at him and ran over and it was a poop log. YUCK! Maybe I will try some type of remedy with them even though I have never had any luck with any of the remedies in the past. Am also wondering what to do with all of this poop. I wonder if I could compost it and not use it for anything but just compost it to get rid of it. I hate just putting it in garbage bags and leaving it for the garbage man.

On another note, which might be a good thing, we are probably going to have to stop letting the dogs out in the backyard anyway. Half of our yard is shaded thus no grass grows so half is mud and half is grass. Well, due to the extreme amount of snow we have gotten this year, the usually grassy side has turned into mud as well. I fear that it might not recover and we may have a huge yard of nothing but mud this year. I went ahead and took all of the equipment off of it today to try and give it all the sun it can get. I am hoping with the warmer temps, maybe we might get some drying action. I really need to at least go and get some straw to try and at least make the really muddy side a little bit better. We have pretty much had snow all year on the ground so the ground is super saturated:( So the up side or down side however you look at it is that the dogs may not get any play time in the fenced yard anymore or at least till it dries out. This will help with the boy's poop eating habit but won't help them get rid of excess energy. I am going to have to get my butt out of bed and walk deuce and harley in the morning instead of nestling down in the bed and putting them out in the yard:(