Ember's Wednesday

I love how the sunlight paints her head, neck and ears "silver", leaving the rest of her dark.  That's the nature of the "charcoal" lab.  She looks like a black lab until you put her next to a truly black dog (like Carl).

Ember's morning walk had its share of challenges:  "human things" that we are trying to "leave alone" for one.  While the flags have been removed from our own front yard, several yards around our normal morning walk block had them marked:  water lines, gas lines, and sprinkler heads.  

Add to that our new trainer tips (change is not Ember's favorite thing), and mommy had her hands full.  At one point on our route, we had flags on one side of the street, and spraying sprinklers on the other.  I walked us in the street for one yard, waving at a driver who was coming down that street.  He chose to drive on the other side of the road for that block.

Bad behavior:  jumping up and nipping, happened twice.  The trainer protocol calls for turning my back when she jumps up on me.  Well, she was jumping up on my back.  When that did not get a rise out of me, she escalated with the nipping, grabbing my sweatshirt, which now has two more air-conditioning holes in it.  Fortunately or unfortunately, it was one she had already started in on.  I tend to put it on because it's already destined for the discard pile.  No sense starting another down that path, if I can avoid it!

Plan B for the jumping and nipping is the "search" game, dropping several treats on the sidewalk for her to chase and calm herself down.  One of the bad behavior instances was triggered when I told her to "leave it" for one of the marking flags and she nabbed it anyway.  I got it away from her and tossed it back where it came from (approximately) and off we went with the jumping.  I turned my back to "ignore her" but she figured we were already arguing.  The other was triggered by my stopping to pick up her poop.

So I mentioned this to the instructor in puppy class today.  Advised to practice the poop pickup, when there isn't any poop to pick up.  Pause in the walk and squat or bend over, and make the motion so that it's not something that should cause her concern.  Classic conditioning, right?  Doable.  Totally doable.

The funny thing is, all of the advice makes perfect sense and you do one of those "Doh!  Why didn't I think of that?" 

One of her teething bones, being put to good use, before we went to puppy class.

In puppy class we had a full class.  Three of them were littler mates to one another:  beautiful fluffy white dogs.  All but one of them were Ember's size or bigger, and he (Charlie, the Peke) did not stay for playtime.  Don't blame his owner for that choice at all.  It was a great class for Ember to have puppy play time with.

We worked on several skills in class, including keeping our puppies busy and on-task when there's a lot of activity around them.

The trainer tried to help size Ember's new "Easy Walk" harness.  It's just a shade too big across the chest, when adjusted to its shortest.  But we limped through class wearing it best as we could.

The new harness doesn't have her name on it, but it's a front clip harness, designed to minimize pulling.  It really must fit properly to work properly, as must all harnesses!

After we got home, as is usual after one of her sessions, Ember was exhausted, and collapsed onto the cool tile floor.  She shared part of my banana snack, and snoozed.  

A little later she joined me in the family room, but then slid off the couch at about 1:30 and started heading toward the kitchen, except... she began to leak.

Oh-oh!  "Why didn't you tell me you needed to go?" I asked, and she headed for the door.  I clipped on her leash and took her out, and... here's the step of progress:  she had some left to deliver OUTSIDE!  I was so proud of her.  She did her best.  She then went on to find a poo spot, too.  How can anyone be mad at a puppy who does her best?

She didn't disrupt the clean up process much, either.  Yay!  Partway through I decided to give her a pupsickle treat in her crate, finished cleanup on my own, plotting to go to the grocery store.

That plan became solid as the HVAC/Plumbing/Electric folks called.  They have a man available Thursday (as in tomorrow!) morning to start my tub/shower conversion work two work days early!  Which means they would work Thursday / Friday this week, no work on the weekend (leaving things in a partial state), and come back to finish Monday thru Wednesday next week.  "It's going to be a wreck anyway, and you know," thought I, "a break for the weekend might be useful, considering... Ember!"  So I said OK.  They will be here between 8 and 8:30 Thursday morning.  I'm so glad I cleared myself from the trainer's schedule!

Thoughts and prayers appreciated, gang!  Tale to be continued...

Life is good.  Spark on!