Amber – 11 months old
Yesterday I received emails from our veterinarian’s office saying the Amber and Smoke needed to tell their owners that they needed their annual shots. I called the office and found out that if they didn’t need an exam, we could come any time. I said we would try to come first thing, which meant about 8:30.
Smoke – about 2-1/2 years old.
My husband found Smoke this morning and stuffed her into the cat carrier. Amber loves to go anywhere in the car, so we just said “CAR” and she followed us out, jumping into the car with a look of joy on her face.
Smoke meowed plaintively a couple of times on the way to the vet, but wasn’t completely freaked out, as our other cat, Abby, was, recently.
On the way to the vet’s, we saw a CALF crossing the road! Amber immediately wanted to go SEE the calf, getting the whole upper part of her body out of the window. I yelled at my husband, having to CONVINCE him that if the dog DID get out, all he could say was, “I really didn’t think she would/could do that.” AND we would have to deal with the consequences. He finally raised the windows a bit so that Amber was free to stick her head out, but nothing more.
When we got to the vet, my husband thought we should change Amber’s collar from the regular shock collar we use during the day to the no-pull collar we keep with the leash in the car. Since it’s a hassle, and I thought the shock collar would be good enough, we didn’t change and went into the vet’s office.
There were two other dogs there. Amber, of course, wanted to see and sniff each one. My husband tried to keep her under control, but she was strong enough the leash wasn’t holding well. It kept slipping because she was so strong even though he was using the zapper. I was wrong and admitted it when we got back into the car after we got the shots. We will just take the time necessary to change collars the next time. (We weighed Amber, and she is now 94.2 lbs.)
We are still very much on a learning curve as far as taking animals to the vet. Smoke was very calm, meowing only a few times on the way home and calmed down when I stuck my fingers through the front caged door of the carrier and talked to her. Amber was fine again when she got back into the car.
LESSONS LEARNED –
THING ONE –
Only let the car windows down half way in the back when Amber is with us.
THING TWO –
Don’t let Amber out of the car until we have changed from the shock collar to the no-pull collar.
PLUS – it would be a good idea to continue to walking-on-the-leash lessons at home because when we are out in public, Amber is a BIG dog with LITTLE brain…
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