What a night

Wow, what a night. The winds were so strong that I thought our roof might just blow off leaving us to the elements. Which wouldn't actually be that bad being here in Southern California; except that there is so much smoke in the air that you feel like you have the worst throat cold. We managed to get a bit of sleep but even the dogs were wresless. The dogs were all jumpy yesterday which was strange. Strange because Jessie and Tilley are not the jumpy type. Then there is Luke.

Luke is the most skittish dog we have ever had in our family; by far. He hates when things move by themselves which most dogs don't like but he takes it to the extreme. But when you know how sensitive he is to everything, he never misses a beat. He notices the smallest of things, like ants crawling around outside. Not too many dogs watch ants.

So with things blowing everywhere and the house making all sorts of noises the dogs were antsy ;) The wind seems to put most dogs into a state of unrest. We don't get alot of wind here but when we do its huge and over the years I've had to train in the wind often. Training in the wind is always a challenge and one that I don't look forward to. There is a huge "its the wind" factor. You cannot expect as much from your dog and if you can get the tiniest bit of information into that furry brain, you're doing great.

I've been out with dogs that cannot concentrate for a minute, with things whipping around them its just not the norm so they are on high alert. Sort of like "what's that?" "what's that?" the whole time. It makes them jumpy and difficult to calm. And usually if it is really bad we'll move indoors to work. But even that is not enough for some dogs who are use to the calm and quiet.

You must take into account the elements when working with dogs. There are always outside factors.