I'm An Idiot in Diary

I must have been an idiot to think I could do this. Most of my customers are huge, insane, badly behaved dogs that their owners can’t handle. I honestly don’t know why some people keep these animals as pets. They’re not pets, they rule their lives.

I’ve been spoiled with mam and dad’s border collie Meg. She was the most well behaved and lovely dog in the world. She could walk ANYWHERE off the lead, she never ran away and only needed to go on the lead in big crowds or crossing certain bridges that she was scared off. She never begged for food. She never jumped on the furniture. She never complained when she had to be left alone. She always stopped at the side of the road and never went until you told her it was ok. I was naive and thought all dogs could be like this, and that all owners taught them to be like this, which a responsible owner should do. How wrong I was.

Macca, who I’ve had a few times, is a Plummer Terrier and he’s a little nightmare. He chews on anything and everything that he can, jumps all over the furniture, tries to eat your food while you’re eating it and screams like he’s being murdered every time you leave the room for more a millisecond or stop him from chewing up my crocheting.

Yesterday I was supposed to have him from 10am until 6:00 or 7:00pm. His owner said he would ring me when he was on his way home, so me and Jay arranged to go to the cinema to see a film at 8:00pm.

6:45 his owner rings me and I think he’s telling me he’s on his way back. No. “Oh I won’t be back now until 8:30, is that ok?”

No it isn’t ok! We’re going to the cinema! My day rates are for eight hours, you can’t just suddenly change it at the last minute, adding extra time on and assume I don’t have a life! I told him I was going to the cinema and he says bloody hell, there won’t be anyone at home until 8:30. So I say I’m going to have to lock the dog in the summer house and bring him home after I’ve been to the cinema; no way was I cancelling. This is the same bloke who thought he could keep cancelling at the last minute and that I would carry his payment over indefinitely. So I locked in the dog in the summer house and he screams. We come back after the film and he’s still screaming. I’m driving him home at 11:00pm after a 14 hour working day.

Loki and Sabre the huskies. I thought I could handle them with the haltis but I’m beginning to think I can’t. Today they spent the entire walk leaping around like they’d had an electric shock, trying to get the halti collars off. They were getting their paws tangled in it, which made them leap around even more, which made them get their legs tangled up in the leads, and they both ended up in a massive pile of leads and dog, while I waded in to try and and untangle them without either of them escaping. Loki did get the halti off at one point, so I had to try and get it back on with one hand while he’s leaping around and resisting, holding Sabre with the other hand and again trying to stop them both from escaping.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the second I let them back in the house, they both sprinted upstairs and immediately attacked the house cat. I had been told there was a cat, but their owner said they tend to ignore each other. So, two enormous huskies properly laying into this one cat, biting and growling and scratching from all angles, and I had to try and separate them. I lifted up one dog by his collar and the cat had itself wrapped around his throat. I held onto the collar whilst trying to push the other dog away and hoping the cat would let go. It did eventually, but then just stood where it was instead of running away, while I was still trying to wrestle these two dogs to stop them from leaping onto the cat again. I managed to push them into the bathroom and close the door, whereupon they immediately started scratching at the door to get back out. I opened a bedroom door, even though I’d been told to keep them closed, but I needed to get the cat locked away. It ran into the bedroom, I closed the door and opened the bathroom door to get the dogs downstairs. I eventually managed to wrestle them back downstairs and into their crates.

Sabre had blood all over his face, presumably from the cat scratching him. There was mud all over the landing carpet from the dogs’ paws and my boots, paint all scratched off the bathroom door and then I found a claw on the floor…so the cat has had a claw ripped out of it’s socket. The cat was hiding behind the bed and wouldn’t come out so I have no idea how badly it’s injured.

I called their owner and told her what happened and she said not to worry as it isn’t the first time. Really, I’m glad she isn’t blaming me, but you could have bloody warned me! Also, it really isn’t fair on the cat to have to live in a house with TWO huge dogs that seem hell bent on killing it!

I came home and cried. A lot. I’m a bloody idiot, I don’t know why I thought I could do this. Sure my office job was boring, but never did I have to fight with a pair of dogs that are almost wolves and a cat.

Never did I have to spend the whole day with a dog who screams when he doesn’t get what he want and still working at 11:00pm.

I’m also spending about three hours a day just driving from one appointment to the next. I hate driving around here because there are so many idiots, but also, that’s about three hours a day I’m not earning any money.

I’m getting bored of having to reign in my spending and really think about every penny I spend.

I’ve only been doing it for just over two months and I’m already thinking about throwing in the towel. I haven’t even earned enough money for pay for everything I’ve spent on equipment, insurance, advertising, memberships etc.

I’m a bloody idiot.

Oh, as well as all this, my work phone suddenly stopped working yesterday so I had to buy a new one and have lost all my contacts, text message etc. And my zebra finch died last night.

I’ve got another chance to pass my Safe to Skate test tonight but, judging how the last couple of days have gone, I’m probably going to fall over and break my ankle.

Everything is shit and I’ve got no one to blame but myself.

EDIT Please don’t give me any tips on how to help with the dogs’ behaviour, it isn’t what I’m looking for. I already have qualifications for this but, as they’re not my dogs, there isn’t a lot I can do unless their owners are also consistent with the training, especially with the ones I only have occasionally.

Last updated November 12, 2014