My Vent For Today

[sheepdog 10]

Stupid, rude, inconsiderate humans. The world seems to be full of them. I can't count the number of times people have called or emailed me and set up appointments to come and see puppies, and then never show up, and of course, you never hear from them again. I understand that sometimes things happen beyond our control, but for crying out loud, why can't a person make a simple phone call or email to let you know they can't keep the appointment? I usually put a fair amount of effort into preparing for a puppy customer. Pups, like children, get dirty no matter how clean you keep their surrounding, they still find a way to get messy no matter what you do, so I always bath my pups before people come to see them. Since I had 2 pups for her to pick from I had taken the time to bath them both, and of course, it takes time to get them dry and give them a quick brush out. I even had the hired man go bring the parents of the pups up so she could see them too, per her request. My help does not work here for free as I'm sure you can guess. And then there all the time I waste just basicly watching for them to show up, keeping an eye on the driveway. It prevents me from doing the other work that I need to get done, You can't stop in the middle of a lot of the things I have to do here, and sometimes I am working in areas of the farm that I can't see if anyone is coming or not. The day this stupid woman was supposed to come we really needed to get to the place next door and cut some wood. But you can't do that if you have to watch for someone to show up. Why do people have to be so damn inconsiderate?

[k_nitin_r 8]

Sheepdog,Perhaps it is a sign. Perhaps you should be giving the pups a wash every single day so that they can look cool no matter when people come in. How about using text messages to remind folk about their appointments? As soon as it's time, if they don't show up, a text message... then, a text message in five minutes, and then a text message every fifteen minutes for the next two hours. Eventually, they would call. You do need to have a way to get the system to know that the folks really did arrive so that it won't send the annoying text messages as a way of getting back at the folk creating the suckfest.Hey, is there any chance that you can train a dog to come barking to you when a car pulls up by the gate? Or perhaps you can put up a door bell. There are remote bells that help get setup quickly, though I don't know how far away they work. It probably works at around fifty to hundred metres, unless they made a cheaper version that runs twenty metres. They remote button unit runs on batteries and the base unit is plugged in. The batteries for the remote would typically run for about a month with regular use, unless you only keep it at the gate for rare occasions. But, better yet, have then call you by phone once they get to the gate so you can head right over and let them in.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

This happens elsewhere too. I run into it all the time dealing with people from Craigslist, as a seller. People will even ask you to hold things for a couple days so they can get time off work or whatever, then not come and never respond to phone calls or anything. It's annoying because you lose out on sales as a result.It's one of the reasons I rarely deal with people "in person" anymore. It's just a major hassle because of the few (seemingly large number of) people who do this, and it really destroys the entire experience.

[sheepdog 10]

Good gosh, if I had to bath every puppy every day I never would get anything else done. Besides, frequent washing is not healthy for the dogs skin and hair coats. The texting might be a good idea, except I don't have a phone that sends texts. I suppose I should be more deligent about getting visitors phone numbers so I could at least call them. I am pretty lax in that department, or I write their number down somewhere and then can't find it. I try very hard to be organized, but I am not by nature an organized soul. I actually bought one of those remote bells months ago. Never had the time to get it all set up, I have to build something to protect the box that sits next to the driveway from the elements. Wanted to make something decorative that blended in with everything else so it wasn't noticable. As far as the dogs barking to let me know someone is coming, hey, I got that covered!