Chillin' in the backyard on a very blustery Monday. It wasn't cold, but it was certainly windy. There were plenty of leaves flying with the wind, tempting Ember to chase them. I'm sure there were plenty of layers to what she could smell on the breeze, too. In the end, though, she just wanted to sit and watch the world and listen to the birds sing. No ball chasing, no puppy zoomies... just chillin'
Monday overnight we got a very minor amount of sky water, and The Prisoner even came in and ate a bit in the shadow of Ember in her "safe space". Ember passed a good overnight with a potty break at midnight, and a wake up potty outing at 4:45 a.m.
Tuesday morning
The 5-6:15 time frame was a whirling dervish time that included feeding Ember and feeding the cat. Looks like the cat is moving to a meal schedule that will match Ember's. Breakfast was interrupted by play time and she got pretty rambunctious. I moved her crate back from the kitchen/dining area to the living room/parlor, and she chilled there while I waited for enough daylight to go out for poo-patrol. Found both from overnight, and she also did her bit while we were out on patrol.
It is trainer day today, so I tried to schedule enough exercise for her to be content in her safe space while I go do that thing.
Ember had other plans. She found the two big bags of potting soil that I had put in front of the gaps under the fence, and today, she was not willing to listen to my "leave it". She started tearing the bags open and digging in the potting soil that spilled.
I had to scoop the puppy up not once, but twice (after playing inside for a while we tried to go out to play again). After the second puppy retrieval, she pulled her water dish stunt (dump it and drag it into the living room, dripping all the way, then hang on to it like a chew toy). That did it... Ember went into the crate about 8 a.m. so that Mommy could do clean-up of the minor flood in the dining area.
But as long as I have her started on her morning nap, I went out and did some upping of the blockade. Hopefully this will hold for a while, and I'll ask Gary (trainer) to go a little easy on me today, as I shifted those cinder blocks a ways to put them there. Oof!
Now I'm taking a "mommy break" and changing to workout gear. Also building my shopping list:
- Water bowl that she can't tip/flip over.
- Enzyme carpet cleaner.
- Next 20 pound bag of her puppy food
Oh, yes, my house may be no cleaner than it was, but it is getting cleaned in pieces more frequently!
One more puppy training photo: her collection of practice items for "let go" / "drop it" command (progress is very slow on this one!)
I did not choose these items, Ember did. It's a cluttered photo, but it's the shoes that she drags out of the closet when I go to hang up or get out my jacket. I'm sure she'd go for all the paper products on this shelf, too, if given the chance.
Busy morning! And I'm off to finish getting ready for the trainer.
Life is good. Spark on!
Stainless steel bowl with weighted edges (with rubber strip) that touch floor works here for water and food bowls. Switching to these stopped the scooting the bowls around behavior.
ReplyDeletePHOENIX1949
Thank you... specifics for my search!
DeleteOne of our dogs is prone to digging hoping to get to a squirrel and we have a wooden fence; eventually my son-in-love attached chicken wire to the needed posts and curved it down into the dirt. Not pretty, but it worked.
ReplyDeleteAnother good suggestion. I am having some landscaping done in that part of the yard and will be asking the guys that do that work for their suggestions, too. Functionality is more important to me than beauty... keeping little Ember (soon to be big Ember) safe is a priority.
DeleteWhen we replaced the wooden fence shared with three families that also have dogs, the fence installer suggested a 2x4 or 2x6 board tacked along the base of the fence with small spaces between each board to not block drainage. Our yards are sloped so this was a little tricky. Has worked great for the three of us with smaller dogs, BUT the two big dogs behind us chewed up boards, dug below them and then started working on the pickets! One has sinced gone to the Rainbow Bridge and the other is no longer interested in the fence. We had tried heavy plastic edging material. metal flashing and concrete forms used to edge flower beds but that didn't work out too well. Our yards are very little top soil over very rocky ground, mostline limestone. Good luck.
DeleteA suggestion that was given to me was to use an invisible fence line with slight collar shocker if pet crossed it. A cousin used this to keep their cats on their property. Spouse would not hear of doing this so that got tabled real quick. I must admit thinking about it reminded me of accidentally touching the wire fence in our hog pen area when I was a young child.
PHOENIX1949
I've been fearful of invisible fencing because once a pet crossed it, they might find it harder to "come home". And yes, a pet may well go through an invisible fence in pursuit of prey (like a squirrel or a cat) and they happen to have a strong prey drive.
DeleteBTW, I, too, as a child, learned about electric fences (the wired kind) from my farm cousins. It was not an accident, though, it was a dare and a demonstration. Farm kids just love "getting" their city cousins, don't they?
One day, one challenge, at a time.
Sounds like things are falling into place between Ember and the Prisoner.
ReplyDeleteIt's busy times w/a puppy! But she's learning.
Good luck w/the water and food bowls that Ember can't play with. Sounds like you had good suggestions.
Hugs
barb
1cd
One of the great things about online community is that collective experience that gets shared. I'm so grateful for the suggestions! And yes, the little one is learning, even while she has her stubborn moments!
DeleteGood luck with the water dish and fence problems. Shoes, too, maybe.
ReplyDelete🤗💖🐶😸
It's funny... the challenges of one day sometimes turn into the lessons of the next day. I have two shopping lists, nowadays. One for groceries, a different ones for places like TSC (tractor supply company).
DeleteNon-spillable water container = 5 gal bucket. May not be particularly esthetic, but it works & has the secondary benefit of letting you practice your farmer’s carries ;-)
ReplyDelete(Val)
LOL! Val, you have the most hilarious and yet practical suggestions! I imagine it won't take Ember long to grow to the point where she can drink from a 5 gallon bucket, too! Let's see, 5 gallons at "a pint's a pound, the world around" would make those buckets 40 pounds of water, plus whatever the bucket itself weighs. Farmer's carries, indeed.
DeleteWhelp, you don’t have to fill the bucket to the brim - generally when I’m hauling water around horse camp, I’ll fill my buckets about 3/4 full (feels like about 30 lbs); still a good weight to tote around, but minimal sloshing! (I then go back around with a half bucket to top everyone off)
Delete(Val)
Strong woman, Vet Val!
Delete