Not so Stupid Dog Tricks

I will try just about anything to keep the deer out of my yard.  Tall shrubbery, wooden fences, deer netting, urine sprays, dried-blood sprays, human hair, scented containers and even Irish Spring soap.  If they allowed shooting, I might even try that.

This spring I bought twelve bars of soap and spread them around the yard.  I am not sure how much help they have been since I have so many other deterrents around.  I noticed a few weeks ago that some of the soap was chewed on.  I was thinking that it was a raccoon, chipmunk, or squirrel.  That may be, but my neighbor has informed me that his chocolate lab puppy is the culprit.

He told me that every time his dog would walk past him in the house he would get this faint perfumery odor.  He couldn't figure out what it was until he saw a bar of soap in his yard.  Seems that 'Coco', who likes to come over here and sit in the shade, picked up a bar of soap and carried it home.  So, my neighbor found the bar and brought it back, depositing it in the flower bed.

A few days later, the dog was in his back yard standing on the steps leading into his swimming pool.  He saw her shaking her head back and forth in the water and went out to inspect what she was doing.  Ah.  She was making bubbles with another bar of my soap.  Once she had a sufficient amount of bubbles, she set the bar down and then went back to break the bubbles with her paw.  I think this is a version of a dog giving herself a bath and told him it would save him the effort of doing so.  And no 'doggy breath'.

The next thing we need to teach her is how to scare away the deer.  And maybe the geese.  Forget that silly sit and roll over stuff.  We need something useful.