Under construction: day 2

This was the state of things after Josh left the house on Thursday.  Preparations laid in for Friday's work. 

The shower head set to 76 inches, not the standard 84 inches!  And pipes!

Thursday evening, Josh said they might have to cut into my ceiling as part of the plumbing they needed to do... but Friday mid-morning he said they figured out how to do it without putting a hole in the ceiling!

The photo below is the new shower floor in waiting, still in its protective wrap.

I let Ember stay up a little later than usual, due to how many hours she had been confined on Thursday.  She is definitely upping the ante for what it takes to entice her back into her den.  She is starting to turn up her nose at her regular kibble, anticipating higher value treats.

We survived the night.  A little soupy poop as her last elimination Thursday prompted me to give her a little bit of kaopectate before she went in for the night.  She lasted through to the morning, no midnight poo.  She has grown into her crate. It now actually fits her properly as opposed to being too big for her. 

Morning brought what I anticipated.  There's a bit of a reaction to yesterday's "good girl all day".  This morning she was a bit on the crazy side.  She turned up her nose at her regular breakfast, wanting treats instead.  She started jumping up on me, and I resorted to the search / treasure hunt game to get her to calm down.  I then gave her the sit cue, and a better treat the kibble I had scattered.

The Snoop is supposed to be a slow feeder.  But it is to be used only with kibble, and only when supervised.  This morning she rolled it under an end table and could not reach it.  I'm still debating whether this is a good tool for use with her, but things are so topsy turvy in so many ways it might take me a while to assess.

Big Friday step forward

After a mid-morning walk, I was having trouble wrestling Ember back into her crate.  Treats and pupsickle and all, I had her out of the harness, off leash.  I tried the "put the hind quarters in" push, and ended up with my hand on collar and scruff, and her pulling herself into "dead weight".  I quick-like clipped the leash onto the collar.  In all that tussle, I did feel her teeth on my skin, BUT... no breaks in the skin, and after all was done and dusted she was in the crate and I was outside.  In short, she threw her little puppy tantrum, but she did not hurt mommy!

Now the folks who know do NOT recommend leaving the leash on when the pup is crated, but I figure this was the better part of valor for today's special circumstances.  The men are working upstairs, the drop cloths are on the hall and stairwell, etc. it's a very distracting situation!

I found out why the recommendation when I went back to check on her. She had pulled the leash entirely into the crate and was chewing on it.  So... out she came, and we tried another of the trainer's suggestions... keep her on leash in the house and have her follow me around doing whatever I was going to do. That's pretty much what she does off leash, anyway, so "no big deal".  

Car practice

The pharmacy had texted that my "prep" was ready to pick up for a week from Monday.  Yeah, that little adventure is coming up, too. So, into the back seat she goes.  I clipped her into the car seat belt tether, and off we went. 

I stopped in the parking lot of the grocery/pharmacy to complete my online payment for the thing, then got in line for the drive-thru.  Well!  My passenger managed to unhitch the tether from the seat belt.  This is the second time she's done that.  This time (and come to think of it, the other time, too), she stayed in the back seat anyway.  Good girl!  

I kept dropping treats to her when she was being quiet and calm, and even though it was a looong wait in the drive-thru line, we got home in one piece, with the package.  No car sick!  Of course, it was only about a mile round trip.

When we got home, Josh wanted me to do a visual of where the shower seat will be, for a height check.  I still had Ember on leash, but he didn't mind, and with him there, I had an extra dog person to hang on to her when I needed to try out that height to check the angle of my knees.  Wall sit time!

With all that activity, I think we finally got Ember's puppy brain to a good spot to go back into her den.  One more peanut butter bone and a few of the good treats, and in she went without much protest.

Next up:  Josh found a nick in the shower floor they had just installed.  It's small, but it's a defect, so he's going to take it back out and install another without said flaw.  Sigh.  This puts him behind schedule.  Like I said in a comment on yesterday's blog, "Imma gonna need this weekend break".

That's about enough for today's update.  To be continued, of course!

Life is good!  Spark on!