Everywhere i go, the customer has a dog...so there always seems the need for proper dog edicate.
( before i continue, i have a dog....)

>Some customers leave a key, and don't tell me there's a dog, allbeit clues of dishes, chew toys, etc may tip you off...

>Some open the door for rin-tin-tubby to barrel off the porch at you full tilt, usually accompained by a 'he's a love' line...

>Some barricade the animal in a room where it goes banana's while your there ( and the panel ends up in said room)

>Some 'crotch hounds'have an incredible sense of timming....

> Ditto 'leg hounds'

>Some make we wonder if they have a pulse at all...

>A few have , on my arrival, immediately left thier mark on my van tire ....

>Some you continually have to play ball, or whatever keeps the animal amused, while you work....

>Some will amuse themselves with the tools you've brought....usually mimicking the 'fetch' game...

> Some will simply not accept a biscuit, or bite from your lunch, while it's master watches...(but do when it's master is gone)

>Some wanna piece of you no matter what....

> Some , mostly little dogs, sneak up behind you and then explode into mad howls,( again thier timming is notable....)



[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 06-04-2002).]

Some wanna piece of you no matter what....

> Some , mostly little dogs, sneak up behind you and then explode into mad howls,( again thier timming is notable....)

Sparky:
you are right its the little ones that are the worse, I got a call from a good customer, he had some breaker problem, but the big problem was the two little I think 'Chows ??' mean little suckers growl anc chased me all over the basement, the guys real nice and also has two cats that dont bother anyone and also a Blonde Lab, when I came over the Lab just yawned and the cats disapeared, but those two little ones bit at my ankels the whold time I was there.
But the worst I have been involved in was a customer who had a Mastif(sp) he didnt bother me except to try to smother me with all the affection he could muster, this animal must have weighed closed to 200 pounds and was so big they gave him his own room, but he was a gentle sort guess that is why they call them the gentle giants.

this business is amazing

-Mark-

Steve, we must be on the same wavelength...

Just yesterday, while doing "rescue" work for a lady whose "handyman" had botched a service and failed the inspection (I'll send pics to Bill, look for the rest of the story in the Violations Photos Section...) I had a little chihuahua (sp?) dog who nipped at my heals the whole time and barked constantly. A few near misses with little stones gained me some respect and peace for a while.

Drove me nuts...

lol!
do you fella's remember the scene in the 'Pink Panther' where he asks
"does your dog bite?"
~the dog promptly bites him...
"i thought you said your dog does'nt bite?"
~reply...
"that is not my dog"

Like the list... I guess dogs shows similar attributes the world over.

I've also found it's often the smallest dogs that are the most hostile, and the most paranoid. I've done a couple of jobs at a nearby house where the lady has about five little ankle-snappers -- "Pugs" I think they're called. Every time I moved from one room to another I was confronted with five minutes of non-stop yapping.

I was called to a home to move a 35lb ceiling fixture(luminaire).
Here in Florida we wear shorts to the job site a lot(conditions permitting)revealing a lot of bare leg.
When I arrived at the house I was introduced to BO a big "loveable" black Lab.
There I was up on my 6ft ladder holding on to the fixture when BO decides he is in love with the back of my legs and started licking them all the way from my ankles up my short pants leg.
I almost fell off the ladder and dropped the fixture.I started to pet his head and he started to lick my hands.By the time I left I felt like I had had a tongue bath.Better than being bitten.

Chris

I guess I'm a bit crankier than most. I tell the homeowner that the dog has to be confined or call someone else. Fortunately I've never been sent away (or bitten).
I did have one dog poop on my drill case tho.

I use to carry dog biscuits, lately i simply pack a few extra cookies for lunch.....

It really irritates me when people let their pets jump on me or bark constantly. People know how their pets act and should be polite enough to confine the ones that won't behave. But what's probably worse is a 3 year old human that stands by you the entire time and asks questions in a language similar to english, but not quite. After an hour or so the parent might say "just let me know if he's bothering you" and of course you say " not really" because you don't want to offend and you think they know he is bothering you. I had one 6 year old who "helped" me put together ceiling fans using one of me screwdrivers, I was nice and didn't complain, but I got "pink Eye" a couple of days later.

We did a lot of work on farms when I was younger, and we always seemed to be able to handle the dogs with biscuits and a friendly hand. But, the biggest problem that we had was that almost every farm we worked at had a pair of geese, they're heads are just at the right height to get you where you don't want to be got.

LOL!
CS...you need 'goose biscuits'

Hmm, kids....

I did a fairly big job at a house last year and actually had some of the best help I've ever had from two girls aged 5 and 6.

They held tape measures in place, moved things out of the way, etc. and really were a great help.

Considering their age, they also asked far more intelligent questions than many GCs and seemed pretty interested in what wires ran where and why. I didn't mind taking time to explain things to them.

Oh, yeah, kids,

A couple years back, I ran a service call to a house out in the country. A wife with a cute little girl, about four or five, was there, and they had a receptacle in the master bedroom that worked intermittently.
No problem, and things went smoothly until the litle girl wanted to show me what her Dad just brought home. Since she was standing directly behind me as I knelt in front of the receptacle, I turned to see what she had, and ended up nose to muzzle with a 9mm Beretta pistol, and little Missy's fingers on the trigger! Luckily, it was a decocker type, and the safety/decocker was down in safe mode. I took it away from her, and drug her and the pistol to her mother who was intent on a soap in the family room. Her mother was apologetic, with one eye still on the soap...

Or, the service call with the six-year-old Einstein that knew how to plug the 30 amp fuse block back into the service panel, while I was working on the garage air compressor it fed. Twice. I took the fuse block with me after the first surprise. Turns out there was a spare block his father had that had 60's in it when he used the compressor a lot, so that he wouldn't blow so many 30's. Imagine that, plus that little Einstein knew about it.

Give me ankle-biting barky dogs anyday over bored and helpful kids...

[This message has been edited by Dallas (edited 06-11-2002).]