I was lying in bed the other night thinking about Moto as you do when you lose your heart dog, I was remembering all the trouble he used to get himself into, the headaches he gave me and well, the smiles he put on my face even though he was so bad.
Then I thought I wonder if there is enough to do a top 10 Most Mischievous Moments…I could probably do 20 but that would be a lot of reading for you guys so here is part 1 of Moto's most mischievous moments. I hope they will also bring a smile to your face. If you have a funny story about your dog leave it in the comments.
As you read you will soon realized why I became a dog trainer! There was a quote by someone that a dog comes into your life to teach you something. I think Moto came to make me laugh and teach me about patience - He could push your buttons but you could help but smile and love him. So without further delay here is part 1 of this blog...
10. Moto’s house tours…
I have many stories of Moto breaking into houses so to break down 1 is a tough call, I may have to tell you at least 2. Moto knew how to open doors (in Surrey we lived in a townhouse complex) he would often escape out the back yard – run around to the “alley” where the garage doors were and IF anyone’s garage door was open, they were getting a visitor. He would run through the garage door to the man door -jump up and unlatch the door (doors swung in) and in he would go. So many and I mean many times Moto had done this trick in search of food maybe – or attentions? I have no idea what he did when he broke in– to him it was a fun game. 23 Units in the complex I am pretty sure it was in at least 80% of them, he had his favorites trust me. By the time I would get to the back alley to search for him typically I would hear the man door slam and then Moto would be running back out with a smile on his face.
The 2 biggest house break in I can think of we weren’t at home- we had again gone to a trail head, on Vancouver Island and this trailhead was at the end of a road with a scattering of houses. I was waiting for a friend to arrive and had the dogs on leash just outside the van. When she did arrive, we started our walk so I unleashed the dogs. Immediately, Moto (again) did a 180 degree turn and ran for a house a little way away. I was on the chase and by the time I got to the house I could see their sliding glass door was open and Moto was running though their dining room with the women chasing him. OMG I was so embarrassed – I apologized to the women profusely I leashed him up and when we left. After we finally finished my hike, I went to the local coffee shop and bought her a gift card for her troubles.
The other big break in I wasn’t there for – I had gone to California and Moto was being dog sat by a friend of mine. They had a big back yard with a fence (what could happen?) well she was on her way to a job interview and put the dogs in the back yard while she went to shower and get ready for her interview. She comes out of the house all dressed up and she sees her dog but not Moto – turns out the neighbor had a dog, and conveniently there was a pile of wood leaned up on the fence that Moto was able to climb and hop the fence (those people were not home) and there was a lock on their gate, she couldn’t get in the back yard to retrieve him PLUS she was in her interview dress clothes ready to leave for her interview… To be honest I don’t know how she got him back in time, but I am sure it was a stressful situation for her – but even with all that she still loved his him and his personality- how could you NOT? MOTO!!!
9. Van run through…
Now you must remember that Moto also loved “TRUCK” the truck word meant that we were going and because he had extreme separation anxiety it was always an exciting thing to get into vehicles. We went to a 5km paved loop trail in Surrey. It had a big parking lot; on this morning I had parked beside a Mini Van and the van had both its sliding doors open along with the back hatch. There was a man (father) at the back getting a baby stroller out of the back and there were “some” (I don’t remember how many) kids strapped in car seats – I want to say there was 3 kids in there maybe 4.
I walk to the back of my truck not thinking much about it and I open the window of my canopy. The second the window lifted- Moto launched himself over my shoulder landed on the ground and with 1 large leap he jumped into the back of the van and then over the seat onto the first kid strapped into the car seat – to the second row of seat landing on another kid (who by the way started screaming) the father SCREAMING at me trying to catch Moto and Moto thinks this is great fun (he loved kids) he bounced into the front seat and then spun and launched himself back the way he came – jumping on the kids yet again. More screams from the father – I am finally able to grab Moto’s collar. We didn’t go for a walk that day I was so embarrassed I couldn’t be on the trail with this angry man and his kids who were all crying- I just loaded Moto back up and I left. “MOTO!!!!!!!”
8. Clean car run through…
Behind my house on Vancouver Island was a big ballpark with many fenced ball diamonds which was a great place close to home to let the dogs go have a play – Bear would roll in the grass and Moto well he would as per normal get himself into trouble. This day off in the distance a man was outside in his driveway cleaning his car – I could see from a distance he was vacuuming the car. Moto had been running around the diamond for quite some time and stopped sat and watching – seeing this I just knew he was about to bolt, and I was correct… off he went through the dug out and down the parking lot to the man and his car. He leapt in- ran up and down through the clean car with his dirty feet happy as a clam- thinking maybe this nice man was going to take him for a car ride! Surprisingly the man giggled and wasn’t too upset that his newly clean car was again dirty from the bad dog. MOTO!!!
7. Dog Park disaster…
In Surrey, close the ball diamonds there was a dog park which had 2 separate areas – 1 area for large dogs and 1 area for small dogs (I believe the sign said dogs under 30lbs) at this time Moto was maybe around the 30lbs mark as he was still a puppy- a puppy who was able to escape or shall I say to break into anywhere. So, on this day we Bear myself and Moto were playing in the large dog area and there was nobody there but us. As we were getting close to the gate about to leave, there were 5 or 6 little dogs in the second area. Well, “hello” I could see Moto say – at this time Moto was going to a daycare which had fences like this to separate dogs and the one big problem they had with Moto was he would hop fences and go wherever he wanted to go. So, this day he sat in front of the fence and watched for a second. I suddenly realized what was about to happen. And he leaped! Over the fence he went right into the pack of little dogs. (I am taking about the little, little white fluffy, barky dogs…. The Shih Tzu, Chihuahua, Maltese, Yorkshire Terriers you know what I mean.) When he landed the barking started – a bit of snapping from the little dogs – not the warm fuzzy welcome Moto was expecting. He suddenly looked at me with a sad face saying, “Mom save me!” I had to laugh because he put himself in this positions. The people in the small dog area started picking up their dogs, screaming at me to get this BEAST out of the small dog area, even though he was doing nothing other than standing there and he was weighted for the space, but he was tall and BLACK and a part Pitbull. Only one man with an older dog who was currently sniffing at Moto was laughing and thought the whole thing was funny. I also was laughing because I knew Moto wouldn’t do anything to any of the dogs. Before I could do anything I had to catch Bear and put him in the truck cause can you imagine if I let a 100lbs dog in the gate OMG so I got Bear and got him in the truck and turned back to get Moto – by then he was at the gate eager to get out of there (why he didn’t just jump back over the fence I don’t know) but I rescued my little man and I wish I could say that was the last time he hopped a fence but I would be lying… He never changed – was always the goofy fun dog with an amazing personality. MOTO!!!
6. The Broken Finger…
The second time Moto broke one of my bones (eye roll) the first being my baby toe. As you can probably guess Moto was a ball of pure energy and he never did anything a gear lower that 6th… if he was standing, he was running/bolting/jumping. He broke the toe running down the stairs as I was walking up the stairs. Somehow managing to clip the toe with his paw and well toe was broken – not really his fault just bad timing for everyone. The second bone he broke was my baby finger. Now Moto had been bolting out of cars his whole life – and I had gotten smart and bought a seat belt for him. I had arrived at a client’s house for some training, and I had wanted to move the dogs into the back of the van (if I remember correctly) so I could clip them into the seat belts on the floor because there was a nice comfy dog bed in the back and he had already been in the van for quite a while. My ex’s dog was also in the back and when I opened the door and reached over to un-clip Moto at the exact second he heard the clip noise Shyla jumped out – and Boom Moto launched himself out of the van – my baby finger somehow got caught up in his harness or the leash of the seatbelt – I don’t honestly know… other than the fact my finger was off sideways and I was in pain and 2 dogs were running around my clients yard. She of course heard the commotion and came running seeing me holding my finger and face beat red – (cursing like a trucker) telling her I had just broken my finger – she said, “Are you sure its broken?” lol yes I was pretty sure fingers don’t bend at that angle. We taped up my fingers and only after I finished her lesson did I make my way to the ER and had an x-ray and yes the finger was broken off at the second knuckle. MOTO!!!!
So there is the first 5 of the top 10! Stay tuned next week to read Number 1 of Moto's most Mischievous Moments... Number 1 is quite funny.