Tuesday's continuation

Taken Tuesday morning, after I got home from the hour of sanity with the trainer.  Would you believe I wore a compression sleeve on my arm for my work out?  Just to hide the scabs, scars and bruises from the battle of puppy and mommy wills... when mommy is "ancient" and has thin skin.  Most of the time these days, when Ember draws blood, it's from reopening a previous nick.

"Come together", as the Beatles lyrics went.  The patio pavers will be on top of that crushed rock.  The cappers for the wall will be installed, and the river rock will fill in the area from the downspout toward the rear of the house.

The patio pavers are starting to be laid, and this is where they left it, end of Tuesday.  More to follow!

Ember and I had an unpleasant surprise in the night.  Seems the motion detection light on the back deck no longer works since all the electrical work on Monday.  I know it worked when we replaced the bulb that had broken off (left side in the photo).  

My mind goes to "what else did we do?"  We cut the wire that went to the shed that is no longer there.  I'm wondering if we have some deja vu going on here... was the deck light on the same circuit?  Is that why this is without power now?

The order with the three fixtures is coming from Amazon on Wednesday.  When it gets here, I will ask to have Bruce the electrician who did the Monday work come out for the installation of the "new toys".  

The lamp on the right seems to have potentially broken off, too, now.  I will ask Bruce whether it is worth attempting to fix this, or if I should just order new security fixtures that include not just the motion sensor lights, but also cameras?  I mean, as long as I'm flattening my bank account anyway.

Puppy on Tuesday

We had a pleasant "round the block" walk before the workmen arrived.  Before that, she was a bit mouthy with the teeth, and part of that could be the change with the light.  I talked her into the harness, and off we went.  That seemed to get us past the morning tantrums, and after the walk she went calmly to her den while I went and did my thing.

When I got home, different story.  She wanted to play "chew toy" Mommy, Mommy's shoes, jeans, laces, and of course hands and arms and legs... in short, the demon puppy was in a snit over Mommy not putting HER first!  So, after tussle #1, back into the den she was put.

I set the timer, and let it ring and ignored it to do a couple more things, and when I got her out again, got the harness onto her, and we made it out the door to start a walk.  The good news:  it produced a poo, which probably partially explained her mood!  The bad news:  she seems to be fascinated by poo bags, her own as well as those of others.  This is the third walk this week when we had "disagreements" over what should be done with a poo bag!  We got home in one piece but not without a bleeding mommy!  I kept offering her my hand, she licked it off, and when we got home I did a proper wash and bandage job of it.

While I took care of my own bathroom needs, Ember got lonesome, and lonesome puppies get in trouble.  Carpet on the threshold of the Master Bedroom... rip, rip... this is why you don't let the puppy destroy the carpeted cat tree, right?  But baby steps.  Puppy back in crate again, so Mommy could clean up and "lick and promise" patch.

Once I was satisfied with this, I cooked my own lunch, and I put onions and mushrooms in with eggs and cheese, so there was no sharing with Ember.  She stayed in her crate.

And since I was fed, I was OK with giving a walk another try.  Then it was a matter of eking out the time until puppy class!  This was an experiment, as Ember didn't do so well Sunday morning.  So far, knock wood, it seems to have been a success.  

• Ember normally chills in her crate between 5 and 7:30, while I do human things.
• The class started at 6:30 p.m.  I left her out of the den and she napped a bit during the time between her 4 p.m. supper and class.
• She was very excited when we got there.  There were six puppies in the class, a mix of ages and training levels.  Vocal, but I kept tight control with hands all over her, calming her barking, to listen to the trainers.
• Big tip:  she has run out of motivation for her normal kibble.  It's time to up the quality of treat to tempt her in training.  The trainer handed me some "beef bites" All Natural, and WOW!  Ember would do ANYTHING for those little buggers!  I bought a bag after class so I'll have them for the next class.
• The final event was a game where each puppy/owner pair added a trick or command to show off the whole string, and Ember was last in line, and did them all:  sit, down, touch, sit with hand signal only (no voice command), middle (dog positions herself between your legs), and the one I added was "quiet".  Funny I'd want to work on that!

When we got home, it was an easy transition to bedtime, with a backyard potty break, and a Kong toy in the den. I will go down to do my eye drops when I'm ready, but she won't need to go out until midnight.  If this night goes particularly well, I might consider the Tuesday evening class as a potential "regular" but next week we are going to try out the Wednesday 11 a.m. class to see how that works for her with the new training treats.

I am wiped, and off to bed myself now!  The adventure called life will proceed apace, on Wednesday!  Life is Good.  Spark on!