The Bath

Since I am Landon's groomer I prefer grooming him outside. We have the most perfect little bistro table for him to stand on. It's a little less mess outside. Although during the winter this past year I got pretty good at containing the hair situation during indoor groom sessions. The biggest negative to grooming outside is the possibility of Landon's friend next door named Moose coming outside. They love to run back and forth along the fence line.

So there I was the other day grooming my sweet little dude outside, he was done getting groomed and it was time to give him a bath. I carried him over to be closer to the outside hose setting him down on a lawn chair. Started bathing him, when all of a sudden two dogs were barking at the back of our fence. These were the same two dogs that I see getting walked in our neighborhood by their owner with no leashes ever. Of course upon hearing these strange dogs at the back of "his" fence, my completely head to tail soaped up little dude bounced off that lawn chair and went bolting to the back fence. He looked like a soaped up drowned rat standing his ground at the back of our fence. Highly intimidating...not! He ran back and forth guarding his property and running in and around everything we have in the backyard. Finally the owner of the two big dogs caught up to them and they all walked on, continuing down the walking trail behind our house. Yes, our house has a walking trail behind it, we aren't back to back with any other homes. Which we enjoy!! A soaped up little Landon was now a muddy dirty mess. I had to wash off the first round of soap along with the mud then start over. He had also gone through a sticker bush during all his fury. Normally he's aware of that sticker bush and avoids it but not when under pressure of protecting his homestead. He had so many stickers in him, he started whining. I was working as fast as I could to get them out, hearing his little whines was hard on his mommy. In the end he got groomed and had two baths thanks to a rendezvous along the back fence. It was the dirtiest messiest bath I've ever given.

On another note...I will never understand walking dogs without leashes. I see it a lot in our area. Bravo to them for having such seemingly well behaved dogs to "walk" off leash. But that's just the thing, the dogs I see are behaved decently enough however, they are still doing as they please while the owners do nothing. Allowing their dogs to run through neighbors yards, eat flowers, and cause other issues. I have two words...leash law! I know, I know, the leash law is only for 90% of us, it's not for the good dogs with the bestest owners. I'm being sarcastic! Be a good owner...love your dog enough to put him or her on a leash.