Our dogs, JJ and Benny, are really successful keeping Jack on his toes with home maintenance and improvement. He keeps improving the fence if he wants to keep them out of that part of the yard. First, he slapped a plastic fence around his stuff under a tent in the back yard because JJ and Benny kept chewing up his stuff. JJ and Benny simply chewed a hole in the plastic and slipped through. Jack then erected wire fence around the tent but didn’t stake it very tightly. One day, I caught JJ standing on the wire bending it down. Jack tightened the stakes and put a few more in. There is an old dilapidated bench next to the fence and a large wood chipper just on the other side of the fence. I looked out one day and JJ stood on the top of the now collapsed tent. I yelled at him and Benny appeared, on the wrong side of the fence. Benny frantically searched for a way out, and then found it. He bounced on the wood chipper, over the fence and onto the old bench. So, it’s the dogs 3, Jack 0.
I need to convert the dogs’ success formula into one for myself. Reasoning hasn’t worked. He never completed the dog door. We just have a plastic curtain to keep varmints out and the door stays open. Due to the door being open, the basement is absolutely freezing. This cools the entire house and it’s hard to heat this old house as it is. I can feel the wind come through the walls during a storm as there is no insulation. He moans about the heating bill but doesn’t connect the dots to the basement door being open when its 30 degrees out.
Maybe I’ll cut down those trees in the backyard which will prompt him to fix the wood chipper. We need to throw down lots of chips to reduce the mud the dogs churn up. I think the dogs putting their muddy paws on his chair or computer will work better. He can’t argue with them.
In a similar situation? I’d love to hear about it and any suggestions.
Life and Befuddlement 