Dog 'Training Classes' or Dog 'Torture'...My Dog Might Say the Later.

Yesterday wast the first day of my puppy, Miss Hollywood's, Basic Training Dog Obedience Class.  We (well, I) was really excited about attending the class.  Hollywood is half Rottweiler, and 1/4 each Shar-Pei & Boxer, and at just 5 months old she already weighs over 40 pounds and is pretty good sized.  I know that when she is full grown I will need to be in control of her or she will take over. 

Miss Hollywood at 5 months (7/20/14) Looks like a High School Graduation Photo, lol

In preparation for the class I attended the 2 hour human class, which was an orientation for the class and to train us humans how to train our dogs.  After the orientation I was feeling pretty confident with my home training so far.  She learned 'sit', 'laydown', and 'wait' for her food until I said to eat, both with verbal and hand signal commands.  She also learned 'leave-it' (good for on a walk passing an irresistible cat poop) and 'drop-it' (for when she has my shoe or is sneaking out of my room with my underwear in her mouth).  So I thought we were ready.

Arrival at Class

We had to drive over an hour away to the class.  The class is downtown with lots of city traffic that Hollywood is not use to.  She was very nervous when I got her out of the car a few blocks away.  I thought we could take the walk to the class to relieve herself but the traffic and people proved to be too distracting so she didn't stop to pee.  When we arrived, we were the last of 6 people, so the only place left was next to my daughter and her dog Bear.  Hollywood and Bear recognized each other and while Bear was behaving, Hollywood was being obnoxious wanting to play with him and the other dogs in the room.  I tried to keep her near me while the instructor spoke buy Hollywood kept acting up and pulling at the end of her leash tethered to the wall in our area.

The First Lesson

When it was time to do our first lesson I could not get Hollywood's attention. She was too busy watching the other dogs and their owners and trying to get to them to play.  The teacher approached us and Hollywood pee'd all over.  I had to stop trying to get her attention and clean up the pee.  The teacher put up a barrier around Hollywood and I, so she wouldn't be distracted by everyone else.  That didn't work as planned, Hollywood started jumping up and pulling the barrier down.  So we missed the first and second lesson while I was busy trying to get her to stop pulling down the barrier and focus on me so I could instruct her.  It was a losing battle.  The teacher came over again and tried moving the barrier further away so Hollywood could not reach it and told me to just ignore her and keep trying to work the lesson with Hollywood.  By this time I was so frustrated because she never acted this way at home.  Yes, it was her first time in a crowd like this, but my goodness had she checked her brains at the door?

Then Shit Hit the Fan...Literally

My frustration was apparently transferred to her through the lease and she became extremely stressed.  Not only was she not focusing on me, not following commands, still trying to knock the barrier down, but now she developed the screaming shits!  I wanted to just crawl behind the barrier myself and hide.  My daughters boyfriend took over their dog and my daughter took Hollywood out the back door to a vacant parking lot to let her de-stress a moment and finish pooping, while I got down on my knees in front of everyone else and cleaned up a huge mess of dog diarrhea in my area. 

I was embarrassed by her behavior, upset with myself for getting so frustrated, and felt so guilty for causing her so much stress that she got the screaming shits.  My own stomach was churning because of this situation and I began to cry.  Boy, did we make a good first impression on this class. 

I went outside to try to calm myself down and relieve my daughter of taking care of my dog so she could go back inside to work with hers.  By the time we were both sort of in control and went back inside we had missed over half of the class.  I just sat in the chair in my area with Hollywood at my side.  I told the instructor we would just observe quietly for the rest of the class.  We were able to join in on the final lesson and Hollywood did perform it okay.  I think she was just so drained by that time that she didn't care about anyone else there.

"Please Stay After Class"

After class ended the teacher and I talked about what happened.  She said that because we live in a very rural area we just weren't able to exposed Hollywood to enough other people or dogs, like in this setting.  Combine that with the fact that she already has self-confidence issues from being taken away from her mother so early (we got her at 4 weeks old), and its actually not too abnormal for this to have happened.  She said she wanted me to bring her to a structured puppy play class on Friday (before her next training class on Sunday) so this place wont be a scary setting for her. 

When I left, my eyes were still swollen and red from crying.  I stopped at Starbucks for a frappuchino (trying to pep myself up).  I know the poor young man behind the counter wanted to come around and hug me.  (They are so sweet there.)  I continued to cry about halfway home, feeling like the worst doggy-mom in the world for upsetting my baby to the point she got the screaming shits. 

After the Tears Dried

When I finally stopped crying, I came up with a plan and made a vow to correct this so she would never feel that way again. My plan is to work with her more at home to help build her confidence and try to expose her to more people and different places this week.  Then on Friday, before the puppy play class I will spend about half an hour at the public park throwing the ball for her while she is on her 50' leash.  This will let her have lots fun with other people and dogs around, but not right next to us, so she will maybe wear herself out, allowing her to be more calm in class.  (And hopefully empty her bladder and bowls thoroughly before class.)  I will do this before each training class as well.

I need to have her be an obedient and well-behaved dog since she is going to be so big, but I never want to cause her so much physical and emotional discomfort again.

I will let you know how it goes...

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Product Review: BriteTap Chicken Waterer ~ Traveling with Chickens

BriteTap Chicken Waterer

BriteTap installed on 2 Gallon Rubbermaid Cooler Jug

*Note, the link above takes you to Amazon to purchase the cooler alone.

When I bought mine they were only $9.97 each, shipped Prime.

If that price is higher now it may be peak season, so shop around.

  
Those of you who know me personally know that I spoil my chickens rotten.  They are not just livestock or egg producers, they are my pets.  Every one of my 17 'girls' has a name, not that she responds to that name, but she has one.  Like my pets that live inside the house, the 'girls' go with us when we go on vacation.  Yes, we take all 17 chickens with us.

How do we do that without looking like the Beverly Hillbillies?  Easy, my husband and I converted an old tool trailer into a mobile chicken coop trailer.  It has 6 nest boxes, 24 feet of roosting area, 72 sq ft of deep litter floor, and a pop door, just like at home.  We installed a roof vent that is covered so it lets warm are out and if it rains the girls don't get wet.  We also installed special vents on opposing sides of the trailer to create airflow without turning the insides into a dust bowl.  I personally tested this by riding inside the trailer while my husband drove down the highway (Don't try this at home its not safe and probably not legal either). I just wanted to know what the ride would be like for my girls.

The evening before we are heading out on our trip we close up the home coop and let the girls free-range by the trailer.  I open the pop door and toss in some treats and they voluntarily go to bed in the trailer.  I close the door and open the vents.  The next morning we hook up the trailer and head out.  The girls spend the day inside while we are on the road.  If its very warm outside I also place about 5 frozen water jugs on the floor.  They huddle in the front of the trailer on the floor while we are moving.  Sitting near the jugs combined with the air vents keeps them from overheating.  When we make stops I open the pop door and give them some special treats while they stretch their legs a bit.  I usually collect eggs at each stop too because they will periodically go sit in a nest box as the urge hits them while en-route.

When we reach our destination, (our cabin in Colorado) I pull the trailer up to our pre-constructed run area, pull the two chain-link fence end panels up against the front and back corners of the trailer. These panels have a piece of fencing attached at the bottom which blocks access to the area under the trailer to make a secure run.  Then I open the pop door and put their ramp up to the door.  They come out in the new location and are as good as home.  We have made this trip several times this year.  I think we have perfected the system by now.  The girls don't seem to be stressed too much because the trailer is just like home.  They do get a little cranky from sitting in the trailer all day (it's an 8 hour drive) but they get over that pretty quickly when I let them out to catch all the new bugs that moved into their run since their last visit.

My baby Miss Hollywood is the unofficial chicken guard.

One thing that I use to make traveling with my chickens so much better is the BriteTap Chicken Waterer installed on a Rubbermaid Cooler Jug.  The girls have a Chicken Fountain at home so they are accustom to getting fresh, clean, cool water from chicken nipples.  Since I don't want to transport my Chicken Fountain, I purchased the BriteTap Chicken Waterer (actually two of them) along with a 2 gallon cooler jug for each.  This way I can strap one jug inside the trailer while we are driving, and have two of them set up in the run once we are at our destination.  Each morning I just refill the jugs with water, add an ice block on warm days to keep the water cool all day long, and put them in the run on a couple of cinder-blocks.  I can also easily add electrolytes or other liquid supplements during the trip and the day before heading home to help the girls deal with any stress from the trip.

I love the BriteTap Chicken Waterer because it was designed to fit on the cooler jug, (it can be installed on other containers too, see the pics below).  You just remove the spout at the bottom of the cooler and replace it with the BriteTap Waterer, all the hardware you need is included.  The cooler jug insulates the water so it helps keep it from getting too hot or too cold, depending on the outside temperatures.  They are easy to clean when needed and the girls always have access to cool clean water.  The handle on the jugs also makes it very easy for me to carry in and out for refilling or cleaning.  You could just open the top and use a hose to refill them but I take them inside and clean & refill them in my kitchen each morning.

Other methods ways of installing BriteTap, but they do require some drilling.

You could probably make something similar yourself using the bulk chicken nipples.  I have tried, but when I install the nipples on the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket (which is an additional system I have at home too) you had to find a way of securely hanging the bucket so the chickens can get underneath to drink from the nipples without fear of it falling on them.  The BriteTap Waterer allows me to just set the cooler on a cinder-block with the BriteTap hanging over the edge.  I just found this to be a much better mouse trap for our needs.  It isn't cheap, but I feel it was well worth the price paid.  I will get years of use out of this product not just when we travel, but here at home if I need to quarantine chickens and therefore need additional waterers or if I have babies that need their waterer height adjusted as they grow. 

To Sum it up:

• Would I recommend this product to a friend?  Oh Yes
• Did it do what it was advertised to do?  Absolutely!
• Was it worth the cost? Yes - pricey, but worth it.

*This was an unpaid, unsolicited review of a product that I purchased myself and the opinions expressed here are solely my own. The owner of this product has no advanced knowledge about this review and will only see what I have written after this post goes live.   I have included Affiliate links in this post, please see my Full Disclosure here.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!

5 Facts About Me That You Probably Didn't Know

I enjoy reading blogs on subjects as varied as chickens & backyard farming to techy how-to's, and from living green to entrepreneur networking, but that isn't one of the 5 Facts.  While reading all these various blogs, that have been written mostly by women (and a few men), I've had the opportunity to learn a little something about the people behind the blogs.  In the past I kept my own personal stuff to myself.  Partly because my husband was leery about me sharing too much personal information on the world wide web, but also because some of my beliefs don't fall in line with many of the bloggers that I follow or who follow me.  I was afraid of losing those virtual friends if they knew more about the real person behind the Backyard Chicken Lady.  But as I said in my recent come back post, I've come out of hiding in the closet and I am ready to share more of myself with you.

So here we go...

5 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Me...the Real Backyard Chicken Lady.

My first name is Anna.  But that wasn't my birth name. I was born PollyAnna. But try growing up with that name.  By the time I finished school I was so sick of hearing children chant, "Polly want a cracker?" or having the nick name "PollyWog."  Throughout my childhood I'd never met another child with my name. However I did meet several old women with this name.  When I was of legal age, and working as a Paralegal, I legally changed my name by dropping the 'Polly' completely.  Now that I am an old lady myself the name Polly doesn't seem so bad, but I'm kind of fond of Anna now.

Family story is that my mother saw this movie the week I was born.

I ride a motorcycle.  When I was turning 39 (but thought I was turning 40) I went through a bit of an early mid-life crisis.  I didn't fear growing older, heck I was celebrating my 40th when it was actually my 39th birthday. (I didn't figure that out until the next day).  Anyhoo...on this monumental birthday I decided that I was not going to live my next 40 years like I had my last 40 (or 39).  Nope, things were going to change.  Yep, I was going to do something I had always wanted to do...I was going to learn to ride a motorcycle.  My new husband rode motorcycles since he was a little kid so we were already surrounded by bikes.  I just needed to learn to ride.  I took a beginners riding course at a Phoenix motorcycle training school and got my license.  Since then I have been through 4 bikes and ridden over 30,000 miles on my own bike.

One of my favorite bikes (#2) a Suzuki Intruder 800.

I am afraid of birds.  Not chickens, I'm afraid of the sky-flying birds, but not just the really scary birds like buzzards and hawks, I am also afraid of crows, sparrows and parakeets too. I can thank Alfred Hitchcock and his movie 'The Birds' for this.  I watch it now and it seems so corny, but when I was a little kid it terrified me.  Still to this day I go into a bit of a panic if a bird flutters its wings near me.

Are you old enough to remember this movie?

I own guns, but believe we need gun control.  I would like to see guns registered like we do cars.  Then if you sell or give away your gun you have to report it so that you wont be held responsible for what the new owner (or thief) does with it.  And like driving cars, if you don't have a license to operate it, you don't get to legally use it.  I think too many people believe all the scare tactics being promoted by gun sellers, that gun control means taking away our guns.  That is so far from the truth, but the truth doesn't sell guns in record numbers.

Reality

We need gun control because not everyone is a sane, responsible gun owner like you. This image is from EsterGoldberg.com a very funny blog I read.

I believe I was born an Entrepreneur.  I have been self-employed most of my life.  I started my first babysitting business at the age of 12.  It truly was a business, I was the only girl in my neighborhood that carried a calendar and was booked up for weeks in advance during the summer after the 8th grade.  I was so sought after because I wanted to be a mom SO bad that I would literally pretend the kids in my care were my own children.  In addition to playing with the kids I would cook their meals, fold laundry, do dishes, vacuum, and still get the kids bathed and in bed on time.  One parent, a single mom, even hired me to just come help her clean house on occasion when her kids were gone to their dads.

I've had multiple businesses throughout my life.  I've been self-employed at everything from being a paralegal to a pet sitter, from a eBay power seller to owning and operating a brick & mortar baby store.  I have had businesses that did well and I've had businesses that failed.  I am currently self employed in a passive business but still find myself constantly thinking about different businesses that I could start today.  I sometimes feel the need to create businesses like you might feel hunger.  My two favorite magazines are "Backyard Poultry" and "Entrepreneur."

[Disclosure: These two are affiliate links.]

So now you know a little more about me.  I will continue to open up about myself in the future so you will learn more about my thoughts and feelings on lots of topics other than just chickens.   But don't worry, I still have lots to say about chickens...and the donkeys I am thinking about raising!

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

I would love it if you 'Liked' me on Facebook too!

Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!

Disclosure: In an effort to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendations, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Thank you for your support and please know that I will only feature products I absolutely love!. Unless of course its a product review for a product that is terrible, and in that case you will NOT find any affiliate links for that product.

I'm Coming Out of the Closet

I've known I was a democrat as far back as grade school when I first learned the differences in the two primary political party's platforms.  I have not wavered on that position, although I have not always voted democrat.   Yes, I have on occasion voted for a republican, because I felt that person would've been a better president. (you are welcome Mr Reagan).

Over the last 30+ years of being of legal age (to vote) I have pretty much kept my political opinions to myself.  I was taught that your votes were secret, hence the secrecy around the polling place and privacy while in the voting booth and turning in your secret ballot.  So I only shared my democrat preferences with very close friends or relatives.  As a self-employed person for most of my life, I never showed a preference one way or the other about politics in my business establishment because I figured that approximately one half of my customers were like me and the other half were not, and I didn't want to offend the 'other half'.

DONKEY: The donkey is arguably the noblest beast in all of the animal kingdom. The donkey is sober, patient, cautious, intelligent, sure-footed, has good stamina, and contrary to common belief it is not stubborn -even though they were formerly referred to as an Ass. [Source]

It seems that of late (since the 2008 elections) people have become more outspoken about their political opinions...from what I see the most outspoken have been the republicans and tea party members.  My neighbors, community leaders, and the businesses that I frequent don't seem to think it's a problem to publicly rant about the opposing party, or fill their yard (or business windows) with posters and signs supporting their choices and strongly opposing the other, as if 'their' choice was the only 'right' one.

None of my democrat friends, democrat neighbors, or democrat owned business that I frequented were doing this.  If you drove around in my neighborhood it would appear we were 100% Republican, when in fact we are nearly a 50/50 split. My husband even succumbed to the pressure and asked me to remove the small magnetic bumper sticker that supported Barrack Obama before we left the house so no radical republican/tea partyist would scratch up my car (they were actually doing that).  We democrats kept silent, we didn't boast loudly that we were voting democrat. We didn't stand on street corners shouting political propaganda at passer-byes, we didn't have huge rally's with Fox Channel celebrities making hate speeches. And we certainly didn't post signs in our businesses meant to offend one half of our customers.

But I feel a change coming on. I personally (and I'm not alone) am fed up listening to the nonsense that people are repeating as fact because they heard it on a Fox station. (I refuse to call it Fox 'News'). I am tired of keeping silent when a loud mouth racist republican insults or disrespects our President.  I'm tired of shopping at businesses that make it clear they don't like democrats.  I'm tired of not expressing my thoughts in mixed company because I don't want to offend someone (who has NO trouble with offending me).  I am tired of being a closeted Democrat.

I am coming out of the 'Democrat' Closet!  This next election season I am going to proudly share my choice in who I feel should be our next President and who should fill all of the other political positions beneath him or her. I am not going to remove my bumper sticker. I am going to host an election night party.  And I am going to speak openly about my beliefs.  But I am going to be a better, more respectful citizen, by doing all of this without becoming an offensive jerk like the people I have quietly tolerated for the last 6 years. 

Yes, in the next election season you are going to see a whole new Chicken Lady who ain't Chicken anymore!  

[Source]

 

Does it make me a Crazy Chicken Lady if...

Okay, I think I am officially Chicken Obsessed!  This week we were having some really HOT days.  And although I have done a lot to cool down the chicken run for my chicks, I was still having a problem keeping the inside of the coop cool enough.  This would not normally be an issue since the little chickens don't usually go inside during the day.  But I do have one layer, Big Red, who seems to go inside to lay an egg when it is at the hottest times of the day.  She is probably baking her brains in there, sitting in that nest box when it is easily 100 degrees inside, even with the fan circulating the air.  Her egg production has had a few issues this week and I think some of it is because of the heat in the coop when she goes inside to lay.

So while I was hanging out inside my air conditioned house, trying to figure out how I could possibly cool it down for her, I got an idea...

Yes, that is an A/C unit sticking out of my chicken coop window.  Crazy, I know, to install A/C for your chickens, but hey, they are my pets as well as my egg producers.  Wouldn't you provide the very best for your pets?  Well, I would.  I just happened to have a $150.00 gift card I got for signing up for DirectTv service recently, so I took the card and went shopping at Home Depot for an inexpensive, small room A/C window unit.  I found this one for $119.

It's has an energy saver rating and is suppose to only use approximately $42 of electricity per year.  Since my goal is to keep the coop in the 80's and not as low as I have it inside my house, I figured it wouldn't use too much electricity.


So Early on Father's day the hubby and I installed this unit in the window of our coop.  As you can see from my thermostat inside the coop, it was already 91 degrees at 8:35 am!

With the A/C unit we managed to keep the inside temps in the mid 80's all day, running it on low cool, despite the outside temps in the high 90's.  When dusk came and the temperatures dropped down in to the low 70's (and down to the 60's during the night) the thermostat on the A/C unit turned the compressor off.  The next day when the temps began to climb again it turned itself back on.  Nice!


And here is the lovely egg Big Red left for us as a 'Thank You' for her new A/C unit...

So yes, I may be the crazy chicken lady, but my chickens are probably the happiest chickens in the state of Arizona!


I bought these cool tote & grocery bags for myself recently...Now I think it's even more appropriate than the day I bought them, Ha ha ha!!

Click the bag pictures if you would like to buy one too!

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

I would love it if you 'Liked' me on Facebook too!

Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!

 

I shared this post on the following fun Blog Hops:  "From the Farm Blog Hop", "Backyard Farming Connection Blog Hop","Clever Chicks Blog Hop", and "Down Home Blog Hop"