The Dogs Have a Yard!

We did it! We bought a ranch-style home with a yard, and now the dogs have their own playground!

Zoe sets the pace. She's the first to dash out the sliding glass door into the yard. Then she engages the others with a series of play bows, snatching up toys in her mouth and daring the others to chase her. Trooper and Shadow are up for the game -- Angel is less interested and prefers to poke around and sniff for a little while and quicklyasks to rejoin the people in the house.

Big upside: Happier and better exercised dogs.
Downsides: Dealing with mud in the house; Dave and I get less exercise because we walk the dogs less frequently.

And Shadow Makes Four

Four dogs in a townhouse!

Shadow joined the pack in April. Dave rescued her from Newark, where she'd been on the streets for a good part of the winter. We fostered her for a week while finding her a "forever" home. Unfortunately for the adoptive couple, "forever" only lasted two days. She got out and turned up on our doorstep the next morning.

We don't know how she found her way back, but since she picked us, we adopted her. It's a Lassie-come-home story.

Shadow was very skittish. You can see the fear in her eyes in this photo taken on the second day she was with us. She has become very cuddly and loving with Dave and me and her circle of trusted dog walkers.

So we've been trying hard to sell our townhouse and buy one with a big yard for the dogs! We're selling it ourselves, so I've used my marketing background to create sales materials. Here's the website: http://www.berkeleyheightstownhome.com I created it using a beta product called Microsoft Live. It was very easy. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs a website. Best of all, it's free!

Three dogs in a townhouse? Get ready to walk

We spend a lot of time walking dogs.

We have three dogs and we live in a townhouse without a fenced yard. So anytime the dogs go out, they must be accompanied by at least one human.

We divide dog walks into categories.

Type A: Taking the dogs for a "piddle" (a quick stop outside to empty their bladders) requires just a minute or two, depending on how long it takes for the human to dress for the weather. Piddle walks happen three times a day (first thing in the morning, right before dinner -- as soon as we get home from work, and right before bedtime.)

3 piddle walks x 3 dogs = 9 per day, 63 per week. Assuming 1 minute per walk that's about an hour per week.

Type B: Full walks provide opportunities for exercise and elimination. The dogs get three full walks a day: after breakfast, midday and after lunch. Full walks range in length from 10 to 20 minutes. Each dog is walked solo.

3 full walks x 3 dogs = 9 per day, 63 per week. Assuming 15 minutes per walk, that almost 16 hours a week of dog walking.

But we have some help. Weekdays, our dog walkers are responsible for the midday jaunt. That's almost 4 hours we don't have to do. So it brings the full walk total down to 12 hours per week, and total walking time to 13 hours.

Three to four times per week, two of our dogs run off-leash instead of being walked. It's good for them, but it actually take more time than walking.

Anyway you look at it, we spend a lot of time walking dogs. Even so, I bet our dogs would like more.