Bark Park – all the rage! (Miami, FL)

A couple of weeks ago we checked out the new dog park at Tropical Park 7900 SW 40th Street located on the old beach near the Miller Drive (SW 56th Street) area of the park.
I had my reservations about a park in the part of town that I live in. This community is terribly self-centered and rarely takes others into consideration when living life. For example I find the rudest people – will not speak English to you even if they are in the service industry, very angry drivers, dumping garbage illegally – don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the worst place in South Florida, but they just believe that this sort of behavior is normal and make their “garbage” other people’s problem. So with that I expected to find broken fences, stolen items dumped or taken from the park, garbage everywhere but in the cans, spray painted tags. I even pictured people dumping their unwanted dogs there! I know I can be a "negative nelly"...

We got there and had a bit of trouble finding the place because we entered the park through the SW 40th street entrance. We had to travel very slowly through the entire park going over those oversize speed bumps – the dogs were NOT loving this! Finally we park the car and start towards the Bark Park.

The first thing I find is that the gate to the large dog area does not work properly. It had been kicked in and bent out of shape making the latch ineffective. Just as I thought, “those good for nothing youngsters in the middle of the night damaging public property and not caring!”. As we walked up the walkway along the lake the stress of the broken gate began to evaporate in the crisp air and bright sunshine. We enter the main area of the park and take our dogs off leash to walk the perimeter only to encounter the second negative. Over stepping countless “land mines” of poo, my mind went to that “mean place” where it was everyone else’s fault. I told my husband, “You see! I knew the people here are so irresponsible! They don’t even pick up after their own dogs –how disgusting! How rude! How unsanitary!”. My poor husband just shook his head and kept walking. Later on I noticed two major reasons for the large amount of land mines in the park. One was because the complimentary baggy dispensers all over the area were completely out and the other was that the park is SO large that if you have multiple dogs and you follow them through the park it’s nearly impossible to catch them in the act of relieving themselves. If you are so luck as to witness them, by the time you get there with your own baggy – you can’t find it!
The last negative and the most serious was encountering owners with aggressive dogs. They were not out of control aggressive, but while on leash there were a couple of spats. One particular owner kept telling me to keep my dog away from his dog – a fete not easily accomplished if your dog is a Basenji who is stubborn! I tried to explain to him that his dog, while on a leash, is at a disadvantage and feels restricted, thus making him defensive and aggressive. Not to mention if he is trying to socialize his dog, then he should be doing this in a controlled environment with less dogs and everyone on a leash. He did not believe me and so he went on having his dog snap at every other dog in the place finally giving up and leaving. A short while later another man and his dog – on leash – came in asking others to keep their dogs away from him….the story repeats. People just don’t pay attention to the rules.

So I thought there were going to be some major strikes against the Bark Park because of the community it’s located in, but surprisingly enough – the overall experience was a hair short of awesome!
We only stayed in the large dog area because our Basenji’s can be a bit rough with smaller dogs but the small dog area is divided by a fence and you can see all the activities going on over there.
In the large dog area there are hoops, ramps, jumps and stands that the dogs can use. I found that both of my B’s had absolutely no interest in pleasing me by doing the tasks that I asked them for but my Rat Terrier the Fat Boy was more than happy to please me! He jumped up on the stands, ran over the ramps (even the big one), jumped through the hoops and went between the posts on the jumps. We watched as other dog owners tried their hand at “quickie training” to get their dogs to go over jumps and ramps. The owners would do the trick first and then ask the dogs. I thought, “Look how cute! That dog just taught his owner how to do the trick!”

A good time was had by all and when it was time to leave, my husband and I vowed to come back often with the dogs and spend lazy afternoons. All our dogs were exhausted when we got home so they had a bath and went to sleep!

The only negatives I have on the Bark Park experience:
1) excessive poo land mines – resolved to take my own baggies and keep the dogs on leash for a little bit until they have to go.
2) Broken entrance gate – will send a note to the park office about getting it fixed or changed to one that has a large latch and not the regular door kind.
3) Aggressive dogs – yes there were a few owners who would not let their dogs off leash because they were known to be aggressive. HELLO???? Don’t bring your dog! Will include in my note to the park office that the rules of the park be re-posted within the large dog area as well as at the gate.

Super crazy, Super Bowl Sunday

Yesterday was full of surprises, the Colts in control of the game in the first half then losing their grip in the second half to the tension in the air between those who placed bets and were losing. Even the dogs were not immune to this. Food in everyone’s hands, lots of unfamiliar people in the house making all sorts of noises, more opportunities to misbehave and the dogs are just not used to all the commotion.
It all has to come to a breaking point and it did twice yesterday.

First was my ex husband’s German Sheppard and a friend of his wife’s teacup Yorkie. Chopper the German Sheppard is a good natured, mellow dog. She is older and very settled in her ways. The Yorkie “Fendi” is a bit more like the hyper, anxious, nervous and nippy dog that defines his breed.

He went to town nibbling and nipping at Chopper’s ankles until she had enough and put him in his place. Unfortunately she broke some skin on Fendi’s nose and he bled some causing a ruckus at my ex’s house.

On the other side of town where I was watching the game (thankfully sanz my Basenji crew) at my aunt and uncles house we had another sort of crazy mess with their pack of Chihuahuas. They have a total of 6 - Linda the oldest and the dominant bitch in the pack at about 11 yrs, Vicky approximately 4 yrs and a sweetheart, Lorezno her twin brother another sweetie but last in the pecking order, Chico (age unknown) a rescue that suffered severe physical abuse and then the boopsy twins Lola and Adelita the tiniest mini Chihuahuas that my uncle purchased only about 3 months ago from a breeder in Texas. They are bout 5 -6 months old.

Lately Chico has been asserting his dominance over Lorenzo and winning. I’ll be that it does not take much to make Lorenzo scream and cry – he is a bit of a chicken, but last night Chico had chased him down twice and Chico’s owner, my cousin had enough. He (my cousin) swiped Chico to the side causing him to let go of Lorenzo and butt up against the wall. We think he may have bit his tongue in the process causing some bleeding and that cause a ruckus between the adults. All parties involved, left licking wounds and retreated to their respective corners – Chico to his pillow on the sofa, Lorenzo to my aunt’s bedroom and my cousin back at the dominoes table.

The evening ended on a less than chipper note, not terribly annoyed, but not as Super as the game’s name would have implied. We had some cheers, followed by some tears and ended up surviving another game, packs and families in one piece!

Weekend Away!

For the past few years my husband and I have not vacationed together. Not because we have a distant relationship, because of our Basenji boy Oli. He has some separation issues and I have some serious issues with my home being redecorated – Basenji Style.
Our last vacation was a ski trip with our 4 children. A wonderful week spent in Keystone Colorado – the snow was awesome, the place was great but the constant calls from home complaining about the dog put a damper on things.
We left my husband’s younger brother Orly and his wife and kids at home to house sit and stay with the dogs. Oli likes him just fine, but after a couple of days he began to realize that HIS humans were not there. Orly tells us that it started just after dinner on the third night. Oli would run to our bedroom, whimper and then run to the window and whimper. This went on for hours … most of the night in fact.
It progressed from whimpering to howling. An ear piercing cry… morning, noon and night. They tried taking him out on walks, people food, having us call so he could hear our voices on the phone. Nothing worked. After 5 days my brother-in-law and his family bailed. They gave the key to the young boy across the street and told him to feed and walk him. Just as we were boarding our return flight I received a call from that young boy’s mother. She sounded as if on the verge of crying. The worst possible scenario flashed in front of my mind’s eye – something terrible had happened to both her son and our dogs – thank goodness it was not that bad, but she repeated that it would be hard for me to restrain myself when I saw what the dog had done to the house. My husband insisted that I not worry, it couldn’t be THAT bad.
We were speechless as we pulled into the driveway. I could see the damage from outside through our picture window which at one time had a window shade and curtains. There was shredded “stuff” everywhere. The large speaker under the TV had a cover on it (I’m talkin’ 1 ft tall by 3 ft long)– we found it on the other side of the house, full of holes. The sofa was pushed out of place, the curtains and shade were completely torn apart, broken glass from a couple of candles that were ON A SHELF, a pair of shoes – in bits and pieces, unidentifiable chewed up plastic-y things everywhere! That was the living room, in the dining room he had made the center piece disappear, none of the chairs were at the table and we couldn’t figure out what was on the table. It continued into the kitchen. Here he must have done a cat walk befitting of a circus act. First on the dining chair (which he pushed over) to the accent table where he carefully crosses over onto a bar stool and somehow onto the window sill. Here, carefully balancing himself he walks along a 4 inch wide window sill and somehow manages a short jump onto the kitchen counter. Once on the counter top he knocked over bottles, chewed my bottle opener from Mexico (a fish shape that I’ve had for over 16 years!), opened the cabinets and took out most of the disposable plates, destroyed the sponge and chewed up the wood blinds over the sink. Later he finished off the disposable plates he took out of the cabinet and one of the bar stool cushions he knocked over (this was the unidentifiable “stuff” in the living room). He pulled the return vent off the door that leads to the laundry room and continued his pillaging there. He knocked over the garbage, chewed the cover on the ironing board, took most of the dirty laundry out of the hamper and pulled the mini blinds from the window. My husband lucked out there – Oli had to have gotten up on the desk to get to the window and surprisingly did not damage anything on my husband’s desk! He did empty out the waste basket full of envelops and junk mail.
We walked in and stood there, speechless and in shock. Oli came out of the laundry room (where we later discovered that he had been sleeping on the clothing from the hamper) – trotted up to my husband, put his head low almost on his shoe and peed. It broke my heart. I vowed not to let him freak out that way again – ever. He is a rescue dog (found wandering in the street) and we don’t know his past so I can only imagine that he must have been alone long enough to hate it but not long enough to become accustom to it.
This weekend we are going away! My husband and I are going away – together! I am leaving Oli at a “hotel” for doggies that has play rooms and a run path and lots of dogs to play with. I took him once before so that he can see, smell and check the place out. The dogs sleep in “rooms” that look like cubicles in an office and so they are not in a kennel like at the veterinarian’s office (Oli doesn’t do well in kennels). They have a schedule full of play time, snack time and nap time and the staff is wonderful! I can’t wait – I’m so excited! I think that he will have a great time and I’m praying that because he will be with a group of dogs, maybe he won’t miss us too much!

Vacations? I think I remember what that is

We have two Basenji dogs, one female (Jezebel) and one male (Oli) and both are complete opposites while being exactly alike! Our biggest dilemma is when we take vacations because while they are Basenji and have very similar character traits, the fact that both are rescues and their lives are unknown to use before they lived with us makes them both very different.
Jezebel’s past is unknown but she had the fortune of being with another rescue group that truly helped her. She has no issues with separation, crating or aggressions at all. Our other dog Oli is another story. He is the complete opposite – has separation issues, can’t be crated and although he is not food aggressive, he does try to be the dominant one at all times.
Oli is great in our home during the day. We rarely see any damage while uncrated and unsupervised. He tends to destroy his own toys and if we leave the laundry room open, there is a chance that he will push over the garbage. All in all, he handles being alone from 10 am until 3 pm pretty well. We see problems when my husband and I leave over night somewhere.
We had my brother in law take care of him during our last vacation – 3 years ago and yes it was the last time WE went on vacation together! Oli likes my brother in law plenty! Give him lots of lovin’ and sits with him and even pays a little bit of attention to his commands so we didn’t see a problem in leaving him with family members. Besides for my brother in law it would be a welcome break for his family because they live with their in laws – one big happy family… So begins the horror story.
Oli was fine the first day but noticed that we did not return that evening or the next morning. Orly (my brother in law) recalls seeing the anxiety building. He would pace back and forth from the door to the kitchen. An evening away at the movies ended in shredded kitchen towels. As the week progressed the damage increase and so did the whimpering and pacing. Thursday came around and Orly bailed on us. He could not take the crying and destruction any longer and opted for coming around to check on the dogs in the morning, afternoon and evening for a feeding.
When I returned to my house it looked like there had been a reenactment of the Tasmanian Devil cartoons in my living room and kitchen. Oli managed to push a dining room chair over to the counter and spent quite a bit of time up there. He shredded our curtains, the speaker covers on the stereo, the knobs on some of the kitchen cabinets, the dust guard on the refrigerator, the plastic flowers in the vase on the dining room table… the list goes on and on. There were items that were no longer identifiable – we still don’t know how much he destroyed, but every now and then when we move a large piece of furniture we find something – mauled.
I resolve to never leave the dog alone again – big mistake, I know. Well we are planning a weekend getaway and I will be leaving him at a doggy hotel for the weekend. I don’t like kenneling at the vet only because I know that he gets very stressed in a kennel. Saturday we have a “play date” scheduled where I will visit with him and he gets to run and play and get to know the other dogs at the hotel and if all goes well – which means that if the administration likes him, then he can stay. I’ve got my fingers crossed, but with Oli – you never know what you’re gonna get!

The Art of Catching a Basenji

Well, as I was saying – he got out on Friday and I employed another Basenji owner’s suggestion of imitating an epileptic seizure. Much to my surprise it worked! There I was desperately rattling the treat can and yelling for him as he was headed straight for a busy street. In a moment of despair I threw myself on the floor - in the middle of the street – one arm flapping, the other banging the treat can on the floor, wildly kicking and making some awful noises. Neighbors started to peek out the windows. Like a fly drawn to something stinky – he bolted towards me almost instantly! I snagged a leg, shoved a treat into his mouth and hissed, “good doggie” as I got up past my neighbors who were telling me that they were about to call the fire department! “Oh look, there’s that crazy woman who slammed into the parked car last week while trying to roller blade with her dog – now she’s having some sort of seizure!” I swear I heard one say!
I have to say that my boy Oli is a smart little booger! He learned that trick and would not fall for it again. We found out later on that afternoon when he escaped again only this time I had three neighborhood kids helping me round him up. I told them about the method I had employed earlier and how well it worked. Now there are four teen age boys and one adult sprawled out on the sidewalks, street and lawns flailing around like fish out of water and Oli running circles around us – just out of reach! He would run straight up to each one of us as if to check to make sure nothing was really wrong and stopped inches away from our arms. Once he figured out that we would reach towards his legs – he was off again running towards the next floundering mass on the road. Finally my husband drove up in the car and he jumped in for a treat and a pleasure ride. So much for that method.
We attempted to temporarily repair the fence with bricks and old metal lattice, just until the handyman comes to see us later that week when Oli escaped again. Now it’s 8:00am – peek of morning rush hour and this time our Basenji girl Jezebel ran off with him on his escape mission. She is a sweetie that never goes very far. She always heads for the same neighbor’s yard where she knows they have a plate of cat food on the stoop and is always an easy catch. My husband and I ran out to fetch them, he grabbed his car keys and the treat can, I opted for a hot dog. Just as I predicted, Jezebel was an easy catch at the neighbor’s house chowin’ down the cat food. My husband scooped her up and put her in the car. I tried to lure Oli with the epileptic seizure routine again but no success so I tore off the end of the hot dog and threw it at him. He sniffed the air and pow! That got his attention! He ran up to me and tried to snatch the hot dog from my hand so I was able to nab him. I gave him a little bit to keep him happy.
Understand that what happened next was completely unplanned and should have been videotaped to share because it was almost as if planned. Let me set the scene up for you - Oli is a big Basenji measuring about 17 inches at the shoulders and about 24 inches long and was not easy to hold on to with one arm (remember the other hand is holding a hot dog). I had him on my hip with his head and front legs in front of me and his back legs behind me and I was wearing my pj’s which consist of a tee shirt and boxer shorts. He was squirming to get the rest of the hotdog and in doing so kicked his back legs into my boxers and then tried to get a footing on the elastic waistband. Physics can only confirm what happened next – shorts go down under the weight of his legs pushing against the waistband for traction. Picture this I’m standing in the middle of the road, my left arm is stretched out holding a hot dog, my right arm is holding the dog, and my shorts are pulled down to my knees. I now have my knees pinned together to try to keep the shorts from dropping any lower and I’m yelling for my husband to hurry and help me. Do you remember what time it was? I do! It was 8:00 am and that is the time that most of my neighbors are stepping out of their front doors for the drive to work. There I stand – in the middle of the road – at 8:00 am – holding a hotdog in one hand, a squirmy dog in another and my pants are down to my knees – waiting for my husband to put come rescue me. He could barely contain his laughter.
For the moment I have two valuable lessons learned, one is that hot dogs are great for getting my Basenji’s attention and second is that a pantless woman in your front yard is better than coffee to wake you up!

Who ME??? Noooooo!

Our Basenji boy Oli has become quite the actor when caught in the attempt at escaping. We had some not-so-considerate gardeners who opted to dismantle our chain link fence in order to fit their riding lawnmower into our yard. This only after I built a small brick wall around our well pump (because we had to repair it twice!) and replacing the double doors (also broken by them) with a single door on our wood fence making it difficult to fit the riding lawnmower through the main entrance of the yard. I am convinced the yard guy was taught to drive by a blind man!
We have done all sorts of home remedies to fix the fence and ended up calling a handyman to come out and finish it correctly. He is a popular guy so we have to wait a couple of weeks for him to make the repairs and in the mean time we stacked some cinder blocks to block any escape routes. Oli knows this and keeps trying to kick, push or dig out the blocks but we are wise to his attempts. He runs around the yard, looking into the house as he circles and when he thinks no one is watching then he runs to the corner to make a break for it. I watch them from just inside the French doors and when I see him run to that corner I open the door and yell, “NO!” many, many times. It’s like he just forgets that not more than two minutes ago I yelled at him.
If a dog could make a face – he would! Each time he hears the door creak open, he bolts away from the fence and stands about 10 feet away with that “look” like he is saying, “Who Me? Noo! I wasn’t just trying to escape! I don’t know what you’re accusing me of!” On another occasion he even ran up to me, sat down and pawed for a treat as if to distract me from what he was trying to do. What a smart boy.
Our Basenji girl Jezebel did get out once after Oli managed to knock one of the bricks down, but she is such a good girl that she always ends up at the neighbor’s house munching on cat food they leave on the stoop.
I wonder what theatrics I’m in for this evening when I get home.

Big Heart – Big Headache!

My husband, being the big hearted kind was on his way to work when he spotted two small dogs roadside just as a garbage truck was headed for them. He instinctively floored the car, cut off the truck and in a heroic leap, scooped up both dogs into the safety of his car. Now what? His first thought was to wander around the neighborhood to see if anyone was looking for them but he was in a hurry to get to work. Luckily both dogs had county rabies tags and we all know that’s a great way to get a hold of the owners. After dropping them off in our yard he called me with the tag numbers. I thought, “Sure, let’s do the right thing and get a hold of the owners. I’m sure there is some child crying for his/her puppies.” I called the county and proceeded to give them the information. My first call was met with, “you are missing a number on the tag. There needs to be 8 not 7, thank you – click”. My second call (now giving the other dog’s tag number which had 8 numbers) went like this, “Yes mam, I have the owner’s records in front of me, let’s conference you in on the contact number on file.” After a long pause the clerk comes back with negative news, the number was either entered in the computer incorrectly or given incorrectly and there went a familiar “click”. I called back and asked for the station that issued the tag – lucky me – it was from the county office itself. There went the idea that I could cross reference a local vet for the owner’s info… think, think, think. I call back asking for suggestions but the county will not give you any information about the owner other than a name and the dog’s name – that’s it!
You have no idea how many people are listed as R Vasquez in Dade County! So I began calling and sending messages via FaceBook – yes I took it there! In the meantime I searched the internet for postings of lost dogs and posted them on Craig’s list – I’m a veteran at this so I made sure I included a sentence that explained that they needed to provide ID to claim the dogs.
5 days went by… no way to reach the owner until it occurred to me that we could try to visit the county office with a letter in a stamped envelope and see if they would mail it to the owner – after they address it with the top secret address. My husband did his spy work and distracted the clerk who was seeking approval for our odd method of contacting the owners and was able to see the address on the screen. Just as the clerk was coming back he tells my husband to go see the gentleman in the corner desk who deals with the lost and found dogs there. This person was great, he was able to find a second phone number and reach the owners! YeAH! The puppies were going home! Now why the clerk that originally tried to conference me in with the owner never tried to find a second number? – IDK. I can tell you that it was probably only one line under the number she tried the first time, but that would have been too much trouble to help me help the dogs and help them by not turning over yet another animal to the shelter. The county did not make it easy for me! Anyway, later that day the owner came by to pick up his dogs and they were very happy little puppies!
During this ordeal our dogs were troopers – Oli the male Basenji was busy marking his territory, Balto my male Rat Terrier was right behind him marking as well and Jezebel the female Basenji was in a mood. She did not like the other females in the house very much, but was able to contain her emotions and only give a disciplinary “nip” when the puppies got close to her. At one point she tried to play with them, but they were just too rambunctious for her. She has mellowed out slightly – by Basenji measures!