The Baboon Congress

Knock Knock Joke

59 Comments

Today’s post comes from Sherrilee

We have dog issues at our house.

The first issue is that my dog isn’t all that well-trained, but she usually doesn’t bug me, so I have let things slide. The second issue that that Young Adult’s dog isn’t even CLOSE to well-trained. And the third issue is that when our big dog Thorin passed away this summer, we realized that he had been the buffer between the other two dogs. We discovered this the hard way last month when they fought over food, I slipped in the melee and got very badly bitten (there were 3 of us there and none of us can even  say which dog bit me).

So we bit the bullet and had a dog trainer/behaviorist out last week and now we have doggie homework. One of the things I wanted to tackle was the fracas made when people come over: the jumping and the barking. But it’s hard to train at the front door by yourself. You really need at least one other person to stand outside and ring the doorbell or knock. During the week, Young Adult and I are like trains passing in the night so yesterday I decided that I would work on the froDogDoorbell2nt door training by myself. I downloaded a doorbell app (yes, there are such things) onto my phone, selected the tone that sounded most like our doorbell, put some painter’s tape down on the floor near the door and called the dogs.

 

I hit the doorbell app; the lovely tones peeled out a la Big Ben. The dogs stood and looked at me. I hit the app again. And again. And again. Nothing.   I went outside and pushed the regular doorbell and they went wild.    DogDoorbell3

Trying not to be outdone, then I downloaded a “knocking on wood” app. It was very realistic sounding. The canines didn’t bat an eye, although they erupted when I went onto the porch and knocked with my knuckles. As I retreated to the sofa, I realized that while they’re not rocket scientists, my dogs are smart enough to tell the real doorbell from the app on my phone.

What’s really sad is that I’m not sure I’M smart enough for that!

When have YOU been fooled?

59 thoughts on “Knock Knock Joke”

  2. Barney is like that with singing. He will sing if Miss S or I sing first to get him started, he will sing when S plays her clarinet, but he will not sing to recorded music of any stripe (not even to the opening notes of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue).

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  3. I should have known that that exercise equipment Chuck Norris sold me wouldn’t flatten my stomach. And that juicer machine now only works on bananas. Nor have I become rich despite the purchase of multiple CD’s and books showing me how easy it is to make millions. But then I have a long history of being fooled, starting with collecting enough Bazooka wrappers to get x-ray glasses, down to submitting my test portrait to gain admittance to drawing school. Gotta go now. A Nigerian princess needs my help.

    Liked by 10 people

    Reply

  4. Rise and Fall for It Baboons!

    How long a list would you like?

    The blog post yesterday with no comment button while your peers are all on the TB Playground playing on the swing set that you can see but cannot access. SOB.

    * The speedy computer equipment which does not work as advertised
    * The home repair of roof which leaked
    * The Office mate on the APA Ethics committee who had an ethical slip
    * The medication which does not function as advertised
    * The supposedly reputable boss who turns into a hellhound
    My list goes on and on.

    But it is not as funny as VS’s dogs who only respond to the actual doorbell rather than the virtual one. Thanks for a laugh VS.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. My list of technology cluster Fs is long and growing longer by the year. Because of my history, I greet a new devise with a strong belief that only I will encounter obstacles. And I always do. Hours on the phone with techs for each new devise has firmly convinced me that I will fail

      The latest example is an Apple TV. Along this was an effort to register for a new ap: HBO. That one took six hours over two days and half a dozen techs from both Apple and HBO. They kept tossing me from one to the other.

      Ultimately, the problem was one I discovered. While registering for HBO, I didn’t check the Agreement box properly.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. Oh, let me count the ways….but I’ll spare the Babooners the details.

    I’m curious, VS, what the professional trainer suggested as a solution to the frenzy when visitors arrived? Years ago, the animal behaviorist Patricia McConnell had a helpful and fun radio show on Wisconsin Public Radio. On her website she has a fun article about dealing with dog “packs.” Plus books and dvds you can buy, of course.

    Most helpful for me was her mantra about offering “good” behavior as an alternative to unwanted behaviors. I tried it with my current dog, an English Mastiff named Madame Hildegard who was killing chickens when she first came to live with me in May. I kept her on a leash and when she got excited and started to chase, I stopped her with the leash and a stern “no” then said “sit. Look at me” When she did I lavished her with treats. I now can trust her off leash and when she does get excited or pays too much attention to the chickens, I say no and look at me, but most of the time I don’t need to say anything but no and she comes to me immediately.

    So in this case, I’m the fooler and Hilde is the “foolee” — in a manner of speaking.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    2. One prong is some bean bags thrown on a cookie sheet to get their focus but they already don’t need that. We have painter’s tape on the floor – they have to stay on the other side. And asking visitors to wait on porch a bit while the dogs calm down is going well.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. Been chewing on this one this morning.

    I think I probably have too suspicious a nature to fall for very much. On the one hand, it keeps me from losing more than I can afford, on the other hand, it’s probably kept me from having as much fun as I might have.

    Just remembered why I have the suspicious nature. Taught it by parents who have no scruples about tricking me into doing what they think is right and then having me pay for it.

    These are not nice stories for a beautiful morning. Suffice it to say I make it a policy to be scrupulously honest with the s&h.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. Good morning. As a substitute teacher I was fooled many times. I tried to find ways to avoid being fooled. However, Sherilee, I had about as much luck getting those kids to obey as you had training your dogs. They frequently told that their regular teacher allowed them to leave class early. In fact, it was sometimes true that classes are allowed to leave early and I certainly was ready to let them go early on occasions when they had already tested my patience many times.

    In one case, several kids insisted that they should be let out early and, of course, no one said that this was a lie. However, I happen to glance at a kid who was from a family knew who was standing in the back of the room. She shook her head no. She did this carefully, making sure none of the others saw her. With her help, I was able to avoid being fooled on that day and didn’t let the class out early.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. Greetings! Reminds me of the those old commercials — “is it real, or is it Memorex?” Amazing how animals can tell the difference. I tend to be taken in by the lose weight quickly gimmicks, although I do try to be very skeptical and read the studies and corroborating information.

    Cute story, VS. Even dinosaurs are smarter than we think (according to movies Jurassic Park and Jurassic World). They can open doors, 2-ton creatures stealthily sneak up on you, make you think they escaped one way when they didn’t, etc. Must have been tough on our ancestors.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. Someone once said “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” I’m afraid that I have been fooled enough times that I should be ashamed. There’s just no getting around it, I’m a sucker. I fall for just about every hard luck story I hear. But to tell you the truth, I’d really rather err on the side of helping someone who needs it than knowing I could have helped, and didn’t. If they’re deceiving me, I’ll let that be on their conscience; not my problem.

    That said, no one has fooled me more than I have fooled myself, but that’s too painful to go into details about.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  12. OT in Evan. But at home have another guest blog mostly done. Will get to Dale tomorrow. I read something too wonderful to pass on despite I all. So you all better be writing guest blogs or you’ll be over run by me.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  13. Morning–
    Your story cracked me up VS! I mean I’m sorry you’re having doggy issues in the first place, but your ‘analog dogs’… yep, that made me laugh.
    Good luck. It will all be worth it if you can get them trained.

    I think about our dogs. Our little rescue, Allie, was trained well before she got dumped. She’s a good, smart dog.
    When we added Humphrey to the mix this spring it made us realize how good Allie is. Course some of that is just the size difference and ‘puppy energy’ vs. adult dog.

    I once need to find a tillage implement in the middle of spring planting. The old 14′ disc broke and all I could find was a 10′ disc. The dealer told me how much fuel I’d save because the tractor wouldn’t have to work so hard. I didn’t have much choice so I bought it.
    Man… that was like cutting your grass with a 10″ mower after using the 36″ mower… I’d go around the field FOREVER “…saving fuel with every trip!”. Sold it that fall and got a 20′ disc.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  14. SInce our dog is deaf, she doesn’t do anything when the doorbell rings or someone knocks. However, her favorite perch is on top of the love seat, which is in front of the bay window. If I leave the blinds up, she will bark like crazy at anyone who dares to walk past our house, either on our side of the street or across the street. Not only will she bark, she will grab throw pillows and shake them as if they are vermin whose necks she is trying to break. She will also try to rip attached sofa cushions in her fury. We got new blinds last winter, and made sure they were the kinds that can be lowered from the top or raised from the bottom. That way we can have light in the living room without the dog seeing out the windows.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    2. I can imagine a would-be burglar looking in the window at the terrier furiously attacking the sofa cushions and thinking, “Well, maybe I’ll move on to another house.” You never know…

      Like

      Reply

  15. Of course I have been fooled too often, such s life. Most often over car purchases. A few people have not so much fooled me as disappointed me. Students never fooled me because I expected teenagers to be changeable, challenging, developing good and bad social skills. I tend to buy the new thing, which is not wise. Pastel sticks at Dick Blicks fool me; they are not that Color when I put them amidst other colors. Bu we call those moments “happy accidents.” Prescription drugs usually fool me an my dr. Somehow they do not work in my body as they do in other bodies. The weather often fools me. Drove 60 miles west on 9/28 without a sweat shirt or jacket. Things I photograph fool me. They do not look in two dimensions as they did in three. Book jackets and movie promos fool me. Recipes lead me down a disastrous path every do often. Sounds fool me now: what are they and from where do they come? “Details at 10” news teaser do not fool me because I never watch at 10. Nova documentaries and the like make me uneasy when they cover a topic on which I am well read because they ignore or warp what I “know” or thought I knew, like the latest Nova on the finding of one of Franklyn’s ship.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Clyde, I agree with your statement about the nature of students. I found that grade school students are as challenging as teenagers and that the older teenagers are not as challenging as the younger ones. The challenging nature of students didn’t surprise me and I enjoyed working with them. However, they did make a fool out of me from time to time as I tried to maintain a reasonable amount of order in the classroom and didn’t always succeed at doing this. I was personally not too worried about students getting out of line. I was worried about what the other teachers would think or say if my classroom got too far out of control.

      Like

      Reply

  16. Like most of you, I have been fooled too many times and most of them aren’t nearly as funny as the analog dogs (nice story, VS). More recently (2 years ago), I was fooled by thinking that when youngest daughter went off to college that life would be simpler. Less people in the house would mean quieter days and nights, no more high school stuff to keep track of, I could go grocery shopping less frequently and spend less money doing so, I could eat popcorn for supper 5 days in a row if I wished, the house would be easier to clean…

    Well, I’m on my second stint of having daughter #2 live here and who knows when that will change. As some of you know, she has 2-year-old twins (during the previous stint they were younger). All that stuff I listed above – except for the high school stuff – is totally not happening. In fact, it’s all increased exponentially in the opposite direction. Quiet? Only when they’re sleeping. A cleaner house? That’s laughable – especially now that the vacuum cleaner is broken. Food bills? I can never budget enough money to last the entire month. Popcorn for supper? Only after the little terrors go to bed. And I didn’t mention laundry… any of you who has marveled at how much laundry one toddler can produce, just use your imagination to visualize the mountain of laundry two toddlers create. Uff da. It’s a good thing that they are so darn cute and can be very sweet (at times).

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. So many laundry mysteries in the world. I also could never figure out how those little tiny outfits made so much dirty laundry. Right up there with where all those socks go….

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

        1. Or maybe that black hole that is in the news this week that is gzillion times bigger than our sun? I bet a lot of socks would fit in there.

          Liked by 2 people

    3. Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary. https://www.minneapolisparks.org/parks__destinations/gardens__bird_sanctuaries/eloise_butler_wildflower_garden_and_bird_sanctuary/
      It’s been a while since I’ve been there, but it was lovely, serene, and uncrowded the last time I saw it. I agree on the Japanese gardens and there are other areas of Como park that might fill the bill. I’m forgetting someplace that’s niggling at my brain and whispering “St. Paul’s best kept secret”, but I’ll have to let the inner librarian search the card catalog before I’ll be able to spit it out.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  17. OT – I need some ideas! I have an assignment to photograph my “favorite place.” I realized, after reading the assignment, that all of my favorite places are too far away to have it be realistic for me to do my assignment there. Does anyone have any suggestions of some place that could become a new favorite place of mine? Ideally, it would be within an hour’s drive from south Minneapolis, it must be outdoors, river or lake and/or woods, preferably away from buildings, quiet. Any ideas?

    Like

    Reply

    1. Anything near the falls? Bike/walking trail along the lakes that goes underneath a bridge or highway? Quiet bench in the Arboretum (sp?) One of the Adirondack chairs near Spoonbridge & Cherry (is that the name of that sculpture?)

      Just not my house – no quiet there these days either!

      Like

      Reply

    3. Bertram Big Woods State Park by Northfield. The new park along the MN River south of RenFest. The Arb or the county parks near it. Taylor Falls area along the St. Croix.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    4. So many good ideas, people – thanks! I think I will do William O’Brien State Park. Before we moved North, my parents and us kids would sometimes go camping there – I think because it was such a short drive from Lake Elmo area. So I have some nice memories of being there.

      I’m going to make a list of the places you mentioned, though, and try to go to at least some of them!

      Like

      Reply

  18. I can’t tell you how many times… but as several have alluded to, the most embarrassing ones are when I fool myself – into thinking I know the solution, or can “fix” someone or something for someone else.

    OT: I’m having an enlightening time in California, and may be able to send a blog post if I get access to this computer again. Will have to read what I’ve missed, sometime.

    Like

    Reply

  20. Tonight I was fooled into listening to an hour or so of music I don’t particularly care for, in the mistaken belief that there would be a Twins game on the radio tonight. Until “Miles the DJ” informed me that it was a rainout.

    Once when I was about 12 years old, I got something in the mail telling me I’d won $75. I was terribly excited, until I read the fine print and discovered it was a $75 credit on the purchase of an expensive sewing machine. Perhaps that early experience was valuable. Since then when someone tells me I’ve won something, a voice in my head asks “What’s the catch?”

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Oh no, Linda, tell me it isn’t true. “They” turned you from a dreamer into a cynic at twelve? I guess I’m the twin that when given a truckload of manure, digs and digs, and believes that with this much horseshit, there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  21. On a more serious note, I received a phone call from Denmark this morning. My favorite uncle was found dead in his garden this morning. The last time I visited Denmark was because I knew he had severe heart troubles, and I wanted to see him before he died. He outlived everyone’s expectations, and had a good quality of life. He was 80 years old, had an indomitable spirit, and was a man loved dearly by a lot of people. He was found this morning by Per, a man with whom Børge had coffee every morning. He had apparently died last night.

    I’m saddened at his loss, but grateful that his passing was quick and painless. I can still hear his conspiratorial giggles. He was my first buddy, and I loved him dearly.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. Ben, you can’t even begin to imagine how much this man meant to me as a child. He was my friend and protector, my co-conspirator and source of so much high spirited, totally unjustified glee. No matter how much trouble we were in, we were in it together. I’ll miss him, but will cherish the memories of our escapades together.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.