The flexible and creative games we play with our canines

 

I came up with the magic bowl game because Ember stole a broom and dustpan out of my supply spot.

The magic bowl game in action.  It doesn't have to be flat on the ground to be a "magic" bowl.  If it's in any way able to hold a few kibbles, the magic can happen.

But when it's upside down, the bowl has lost its magic, and no more kibble falls into it.

When she's distracted by something else, I put the magic bowl atop the refrigerator, until the next time it's needed.

Also, who needs a formal "tug toy" when you have the dog towels?  These came into play Friday morning when Ember started chewing on the Muddy Mat by the back door.  I swapped her for a towel, made it enticing by playing a little bit of tug, then letting her win.

I found another fragment of baby tooth in the mat by the front door this morning, too.  

Permission to geek out on dog training

Last night as I was getting ready for bed I flipped on a YouTube by Susan Garrett, a Canadian dog trainer with champion agility dogs as her specialty.  In it she said if there was ONE thing you could do to make your training more effective, would you do it?  Well, what would that one thing be, Susan?  My ears perked up when she said, "Most people don't want to do it", and then revealed the big secret:  RECORD KEEPING.

If you want to make much more progress, you must track what's happening, when, the context, etc.  This will help you analyze what might be triggering your dog, and give you a much greater chance of being able to overcome whatever the problem might be.  "Aha!" my geek brain chirps in, "Permission to geek out."

Today I started "Ember's Training Log".  Beware, world, the Geek has been awakened.

Ember can now reach up over the lip of the kitchen sink and look down into it.  Yikes!  And she can reach (easily) the third shelf of the bookcase.  I had cleared the bottom two shelves, but today while my attention was on something other than my puppy... Ember declared herself an atheist.  She pulled a "One Year Bible" off the shelf and began ripping pages out of it.

Oh, well, I wanted a different Bible, anyway.  Of course in the process of "being naughty" (and don't think she doesn't know this is naughty)... she also peed on my carpet (see why I was glad I didn't replace it yet?)

Into the crate she went while I cleaned up both kinds of mess.  Sigh.  She stayed in for a while, and I did other things.

But eventually you have to get her out again.  I took her on a car ride to go pick up a prescription of mine.  When we came home, she spotted a discarded child's toy that someone had left in my yard.  I had moved it into the garage, thinking to donate it somewhere.  Well, Ember was all over that rollable toy.

She dragged it into the living room and treated it like a teething toy.  And as long as one is being naughty... I enticed her away from it with some treat or other, and as she was moving toward the dining room, she just squatted and started to pee!

Dang, girl!  I thought we were past this stage!  I can just imagine her doggy little brain thinking "In for a penny, in for a pound".

Back into the crate, little one!  I left her napping there for an hour or so.

Then I got her up and decided to do "science experiments for puppies" on the back deck.  My goal was to keep her outside until we did BOTH kinds of business!  Enough of this cleaning up after!

I grabbed the box of ice cubes from the freezer, and started putting them in the water bowl on the deck, and for good measure just scattered several of them on the deck floor.

About 1/3 of the deck was shaded at this point in the day, and having the ice there did make a difference.  We did stay out long enough for the stated goal to be realized.

Then we came back inside and played the trainer's version of "fetch" / "wait" / "OK, go get it".  At least as well as Mommy's coordination and Ember's energy level could pull it off.

By 3 p.m. she was tired again and napping on the cool tile floor.  Yes!

Joining the "smart house" world

Pretty much since hanging out with my brother's daughter in 2019 when he passed, I have been acutely aware that I'm behind the times.  Seeing how LeanJean6 (from Spark) / Lakeside Lady (here on Blogger) has all her place wired by her son so her children can monitor how she and her Himself are faring, no matter where said son (the pilot) might have flown, I've wondered about putting something similar here.

I mean, I don't even have a peephole in my front door, and would have to go to the Bay Window to see who's on the porch.  So when the motion sensor light fixture on the back deck failed on me, Bruce the electrician helped me choose a fixture to replace it.

Bruce did not come today to install it, a different Josh came (different from the one that did the tub/shower conversion).  The advantage of getting a different guy to come do the install?  I had the benefit of his assessment of whether he could install the doorbell (with camera) on the front door, too.

So now, I'm wired.  Or my house is.  It wasn't nearly as expensive as I feared it might be.  I was able to "share" my camera views with my son and daughter in law... we shall see how that works.  They have to download the app to access them.

Here I am, accessing the app while standing on the back deck!  I had to order a memory card for this particular camera, but the app lets me "take a photo", and that's how this image was captured.

Side note:  One thing the security cameras are pointing out to me is how often I'm bending over/looking down.  Of course there is the lure of a puppy to pay attention to and I am looking down at her, but the posture was a "have to watch that" moment for me.

Life continues to be good, even when the puppy takes it into her little brain to be naughty.  Spark on!