Funny things the dogs do. Part 1

Not a day goes by that the dogs don't have us laughing at some point...likely several points throughout the day. One of my favorite moments/least favorite moments is the daily howl. Let me explain the love/hate feelings I have for this entertaining event.

Just about every day, the dogs will decide to throw their heads back and howl to the ceiling, or the dog gods, or the ghosts that likely inhabit our old building. It's hard to pinpoint what inspires the howl. Sometimes it will happen if there are a lot of people passing by the playroom windows. Noon on Wednesday is a great time to howl--that's the weekly scheduled test time for the city tornado sirens (or are they flood sirens? GREAT. If I ever hear them for real I won't know whether to duck and cover or run for higher ground. Mental note: find out what the sirens mean!). Sometimes I think they just do it whenever the mood strikes.

The leading culprit in starting the howl in the big dog group is Cash. Yep, no withholding names to protect the not-so-innocent here. It is Cash, our beloved red guy who has been coming to Pooches almost since the day we opened in the fall of 2005. Cash is a GREAT dog. He is so easy to handle and he gets along with any dog that comes to play. Everyone loves Cash. But boy can he get the crowd going!

In the early days of our business when we were still building our customer base and introducing Pooches to the community, we didn't have a full house and the daily howl was just fun/funny. Cash would toss his head back, form a little "o" with his lips and start singing. Pretty soon all the dogs in attendance would join in and, what the heck, the humans caring for the dogs joined in too!We had one heck of an opera going. Did we stop to wonder what passersby might think of three or four people sitting in the middle of 20 dogs, howling to the heavens? Nah. We're dog people. We don't care what you think!

Now, however, we have a few more dogs spread throughout our facility. And while the howl is initially still fun/funny, after a few moments it becomes absolutely ear splitting. If we could get the dogs to sing in rounds, it would still be acceptable, but all at once? Well, the decibel level easily rivals the tornado/flood sirens.

So how do you stop the madness? Well, if you're around when the howl starts, rather hearing the humans join in, you are likely to hear a chorus of people calling out "CASH!" You see, we have found that the dog who starts the ruckus is also the dog who can stop it! If Cash sings, everyone sings. If Cash stops, everyone stops. What I would give for a fraction of Cash's power...