I grew up with all sorts of animals as pets -- snakes (check out the battle between the blue indigo and the rattlesnake, won by the blue indigo), rats, mice, owls, pigs, horses, cows, ants, dogs, cats, and spiders -- so I'm pretty familiar with their habitats, personalities, likes and dislikes, food requirements, etc.

At an inspection last week, there was a large doggie keeping an eye on things:

He was a serious barker, and he had free reign of the side yards and the back yard. My Clients and their Realtor had been to the property before but had never seen any indication that there was a large dog present. That's good, because the sellers were trying to sell their property. When it comes to the home inspector, though, "Let's see if leaving Mr. Dog here will help the home inspector create a good report on our property" -- LOL.

My Clients were not too happy that 75% of the exterior would not be available to me, especially since there were two accesses to the raised foundation, both in Mr. Dog's territory. Additionally, they would not be able to sit out on the back porch and enjoy themselves:

You can see four of the five sets of doors leading to the back porch, so I went to each door and looked out to see what options there were for me. All I saw were about 20 tennis balls, all sorts of chew toys, some big bones (hopefully not human), and ropes and rags.

I made the educated deduction that since it was a golden labrador retriever, a usually very friendly and lovable dog, with lots of toys, it was barking for attention and not as a warning.

I lowered myself to dog level and cautiously opened one of the doors to let Mr. Doggie smell me. In through the crack comes this huge, gigantic, monster, pink tongue, all slobbery and looking for someone or something to lick. I let it lick me and then opened the door, went outside, and threw a bunch of his toys out into the yard, causing him to take 10 minutes to bring them all back.

The reason why my Clients and Realtor never had any indication of a large dog present was because the owners obviously picked up the toys, and the dog had its own back yard way behind the humans' back yard:

Mission accomplished -- Mr. Dog tamed. Inspection accomplished -- crawl space inspected. Clients and Realtor happy. Haven't heard anything from the Sellers, though -- LOL.

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Some of Russel's other blog entries

1. 12 reasons why I won't comment on your blogs
2. Active Rain rags are very powerful. Here's how to use them effectively.
3. Cracks on our properties and in our homes (several lessons)
4. Russel's Gardening Handbook
5. What do you do when deceit is obvious? (chapter two)
6. How to help your Clients' house burn down. 
7. That just ain't the way we do it out here, Sonny Boy
8. Sometimes it's just a question of semantics and definitions
9. A true real estate nightmare affecting hundreds of people
10. I purposefully burned a bridge yesterday
11. What part of that don't you understand? (Reading 101, English 101, & Spanish 101)
12. Out of sight, out of mind, skip the work, charge for it
13. "How much will it cost?" "$399 plus a $100 aggravation surcharge."
14. In a home inspection, if the thing works, the thing works
15. What do you do when deceit is obvious?
16. Sometimes it really is that simple (attic)