Spoiled Doggy!!

Well, since we've moved to North Dakota, our dog has gotten to spend more time outside and she LOVES it. She is a 100% indoor dog, but she has come to love the cool breezy weather here in ND. Don't get me wrong, we'd let her outside when we lived in Ohio, but we lived in a neighborhood where the neighbors were much closer than here and we didn't have a fenced, not even an electric fence, yard. So, the extent of her going out was supervised or she got tied out. Here she has free range. Also, the Ohio weather wasn't very conducive to a big Saint Bernard being outside 24/7 - I know people have saints outside in Ohio, but I know when Chloe Bear would be out for any extended time on a warm & humid day she was much relieved to come into the cool house. Now, when it snowed or was cold in Ohio, forget getting her to come in voluntarily. She loves the cold and digging her nose into the snow.

With that said, can you imagine the doggy heaven she is in here in ND, especially now since it is single digits, even below zero with the windchill, and snowing. She has gotten herself into a daily routine that consists of first thing in the morning going out to do her business and check out all the scents in the yard from the overnight visitors (jackrabbits - they're HUGE, cats, deer, coyotes, etc.), come in to greet anyone that is up, eat (if she's in the mood), and then go out and lounge on the back deck. Well, occasionally we aren't as willing to let her out to lounge especially if it's been raining or like now snowing because the deck is wet and we DO NOT want a wet dog smell lingering in our home.

So, when we don't respond by opening that back sliding door to let her out she will linger around, wait MOPE around and WHINE until she wins, which requires some additional work on our part or is told a resounding, "NO, go lay down!!".

This morning the back deck was covered in snow, so I told her to go lay down and she did. Well, when Cassie got up, she went whining around Cassie. I told Cassie the only way she could go out was if someone, and it wasn't going to be me, would go out and clean off the back deck. Cassie told Chloe to wait . . .



Here Chloe is patiently waiting . . .



While Cassie went outside with the broom to clean off the back deck. The things one will do for their loving pet. LOL



Once the deck was swept, Chloe was off to her favorite spot.



Yeah Me!! I got my way.



Just relaxing out in the 17 degree (feels like 7 w/windchill) weather. FYI, tonight's low is suppose to be 1 before the windchill, tomorrow's low is suppose to be -2 before the windchill, and Tuesday's low is suppose to be -6 before the windchill. We'll see if she continues to like to go out there as the days get colder.



When she's had just enough, she stands at the door and waits for someone to let her in. She is a great dog. The best thing about her being on the deck is we don't have to worry about her leaving it to chase the occasional cat, dog, or other critter that scurries through our yard to the pasture because she will NOT go down steps. Having lived in a ranch style home for her entire life she has never had a need to go up or down any steps. We had a basement at the in-laws but we didn't want to teach her how to go down the steps because we wanted to keep her away from their living space. So, she's never gone up or down and now she's too lanky to even try - she has tried at my brother-in-law's and she fell halfway down.



Chloe looks to thank Cassie for letting her back in, just to usually want to go back out in a short time. We'll keep letting her out until she decides it's TOO cold to be out there! Which for me - unless I have to be, no thank you. However, it's really not that bad - just layer up and throw on the winter coat, scarf, gloves, and boots and you're set.