Making Some Adjustments For Room-Mates is new to me. I have totally adjusted to living alone since Jim and Chuck went to Heaven 21/2 years ago, so I haven’t had anyone I had to take care of or answer to for a while. Now I have two new room-mates and they are really fun. To accommodate them I have had to make a few adjustments to the house.
My kitchen is one of my favorite rooms in the house. The family room, kitchen and breakfast area take up the entire length of the back of the house. This is where you will find me 90% of the time and where most everyone hangs out.
My two new room-mates love the outdoors, so I needed to create a way for them to easily come and go outside to the backyard.
Yes, I needed a doggie door.
and a dog run.
Meet Helana and Parker my new room-mates. These are my son’s prized Sheltie’s. They really are such pretty dogs and so fun.
He has been living in his RV which means the dogs have very little space to run and play. They love my backyard, so I needed to create a space for them to be safe and run and play.
The pool is just outside the gate, and one already fell in. They can swim, but I need to train them to swim to the shallow end and climb out on the shallow sun ledge of the pool.
My son put the doggie door in and added the gate to this sideyard, so now they can come and go as they please. This side of the yard is only 51/2 feet wide while the other side yard is 11 feet, but there wasn’t a way to add a doggie door in the family room and make it really easy for them to come in and out, so this will do. They have a place to rest on the artificial grass and I leave the gate open all day so they can run and play. Now I need to order a load of gravel to finish off this side of the backyard.
Now my new room-mates and I are having fun together.
Aww! They are beautiful:)
They’re adorable, Marty and I bet they bring you a lot of joy!
Your two new roommates are adorable and will be a great source of entertainment and joy! You came up with wonderful solutions for accommodating them and I can’t wait to read all about the fun they’ll have in the pool this Summer!
When you said “two roommates” I was a little worried. They are beautiful and will provide you a lot of company. Can’t wait to hear more about your roomies.
Marty, They are adorable, and you are giving them the royal welcome! so I know they will be very happy at your home. Congratulations on having some new roommates!
We have a golden retriever now, but have had shelties in the past – such wonderful dogs. On the pool, we have had the best luck with 2 people and lots of treats. We start by putting them in the end we want them to go to. One person takes the dog almost to the getting out point in the water, and the other calls from the “shore” near that getting out spot – in our case the top of the stairs. When the dog gets out there – a few good treats are the reward. We do a few steps back and try again. Over about 10 days we go further and further, with adding some variation to the direction of placement in the water, so each dog learns to turn around and head the same way each time. Eventually we can place them gently in the water in the deep end facing the wrong direction, and they swim the length of the pool. Always practicing with the other person calling from the “getting out spot” and serving as an addition “life guard”. This slow way of teaching has resulted for us, in great stress free learning with lots of retention. I hope you have wonderful success. If you have another training plan please let me know, we are soon about to train our golden in the pool and then after success there, we hope to train him for the much more challenging lake swim and finding the stairs there. Enjoy those pups! -Patty
Thanks so much for the tips on how to train the dogs. I haven’t trained one in the pool before, so this is really helpful. My son and I will follow your advice make sure they know how to get out of the pool. They love to run around it and play and that is how Helena fell in, it scared her to death. Poor thing was clawing at the side and swimming hard so I have to make sure they know how to get out of the pool. Good luck with your training too. Thanks again, Marty
I LOVE them!! Have fun and enjoy the pups!
Ramona
Lakefield ON Canada
Oh, Marty!!! They are sooooo cute!! We had a mostly part sheltie rerscue mutt as our first family dog when I was really little, named Scotty. They are wonderful pets. Boy oh BOY did he like to chase cars – especially school buses!!! They always want to corral sheep lol. Anyway, congrats on your two roommates – the unconditional love they will bring you is second to none.