Weather and such

 

Thursday about 4 p.m. the first front blew through.  I was out "picking up the dog toys" and was carting the puppy pools back to the garage.  That gusty wind that leads the front was blowing strong, and it slammed the gate shut.  I unlatched it, and it slammed the gate open, then as I was putting those pools away, the wind shifted and slammed the gate closed again.  Adventures.

It's raining.  We shall see tomorrow how much we get, but as I type I can hear the thunder rolling over.

Friday morning was a little hectic, and I didn't get the rain gauge checked until I came here to update the blog after supper!  It showed half an inch.  I do not know how much of that was the rain overnight, and how much might have been the automatic sprinklers that I left run for the ten minute cycles through the stations this morning at 4 a.m.

Here is part of the Friday morning hectic contribution.  Ms. Ember had been worrying at the bottom step's carpet again, so I put her into her X-Pen with her toys while I was whisk-brooming up the fragments of carpet and padding her teeth had dislodged.

This was more than Ms. Ember could handle, and smarty that she is, she managed to move one end of the X-Pen panels and slip out.  But that wasn't enough for her.  She also nudged the part next to the couch, and managed to place herself ON the couch, inside the X-Pen with her toybox and the waste baskets.

Sometimes I don't know whether to be amused at her cleverness, upset with myself for not doing a better job by her sooner, or what!  Guess I'll just have to keep on loving her and doing best I can, one day at a time.

In any case, that meant taking time during puppy nap #1 to add two panels to the edges (thankfully I had two extra panels I could use).  Ember's containment system is made up of not one, but two eight panel X-Pens.

Friday morning was also puppy class over at Zoom Room.  I have three more classes already pre-paid.  I have not scheduled another private session, but need to do that soon, or my prepaid set of those will expire!

Ember was a rock star this morning, if I must say so myself.  I replaced the suggestions of the trainer in charge with the Susan Garrett versions of them.  So when the class was asked to play "the Name Game" that only required the puppy to make eye contact with you to get rewarded, I used solo recalls, since her name is also used as her recall word.  And when it came time to practice the "heel" position, I used the "mama's hip seam as your personal pez dispenser" to walk her "at heel" in circles, while a couple of the other pups were still working on luring into the by your side at a sit position.  Finally, when they asked for a practice of "middle", I used Susan's "sound" (it's not a word, it's a noise, kind of like a trill, but it means the same thing as the class use of "middle").  She tucked herself between my legs, as desired.

One of the staff commented on how well she was doing this morning.  Considering some of her problematic class sessions, this one was a real ego boost for her mommy.

Which is good, because Mommy has been super frustrated by trying to provide video clips for the online classes.  After a couple of teary sessions, I came up with two good clips late in the day.  Solo Recall and Tug.  Welcome to my back yard.  The camera is propped up at the door of the elevated playhouse over the sandbox.

Life in Emberville remains good.  Spark on!

Sometimes the only thing for it is pulling weeds!

Thursday morning was a bit on the "exciting" side in Emberville.  Mildly, mind you, not as in total emergency.

Let us begin with "I slept well".  That's always a good start to the day.  I did the cat chores, then I let Ember out.  

I fed her "chow" when she first came out of the crate.  She was plenty hungry, having last eaten her supper around 3:30 - 4:00 p.m., before Alicia came over.  I gave her a "last call" about 8 p.m., so the bathroom needs hadn't kicked in just yet.

I put down kibble after she finished the 1/2 can, and she indicated "out", so we went out in the 5:30 a.m. darkness.  I could tell that she did her business and approximately where in the yard.  It is one of the most pleasant times of the day, in terms of temperature, and the moon and stars are out, so we stayed outside for a while.

Then I had this bright idea to go hunting for that plop in the dark with my phone flashlight.  OK, you experienced dog people, you can see it coming now.  In my hunt, I managed to put my foot in it.  Literally.  Squish!

Shined the flashlight down, and my eyes and nose confirmed it.  There was still enough solid left on the ground for me to do my best to pick it up and discard it in a poo bag.  Which I did.  With my brain trying to figure out "what do I do next".  Wiped the foot on the grass, best can do, but you all know running shoes have lots of nooks and crannies in the soles.

The plan became:  entice the dog into her X-Pen inside and change shoes, setting the offending one in the garage for later cleaning.  Here comes the excitement.  I started executing this plan.  There was an old pair of now dried shoes in the garage, and I put them on.

But Ember has a long memory.  When I let her out of the X-Pen and she saw those shoes on my feet?  She did what she used to do whenever I would change shoes or pants or put on a jacket or sweatshirt!  

This is the first rip she put in the shoe.  

Then when I told her "We don't chew on Mommy" and tried to show her it was me, she moved her mouth to my pantleg, then gradually up, eventually lightly holding onto my hands.

What to do?  I opted for "show her this is Mommy"!  I reached down and untied the shoe, then removed my foot from it.

She dashed off into the X-Pen with the shoe in her mouth.  I closed the gate and calmly decided to just clean up the blue shoe right now and let her have the older shoe.

Sigh.  

Once I was back in the blue shoes, the chewing on feet was over and done with.  We did not go on a leash walk Thursday morning.  We did go play chase the ball in the backyard.  We played a little bit of tug, too.  And inside we played a bit of "ItsYerChoice" with cheese.

By the time my breakfast was interrupted two or three times to distract Ember from the stair-step, and she was behaving well and put down for puppy nap #1, there was nothing for it but to go pull weeds (top photo), put away the toys, and consign the now unusable right shoe to the garbage.

Sigh.

Clearly, we still have work to do with desensitizing Ember to mom changing apparel!

Life is still good.  Spark on!

Emberville and Dad Day

One of those "geeky" things I keep track of:  today I reached the number of days since my birth that my dad reached on the day he passed, back in 1999.  Some folks may consider that a bit on the morbid side, but I don't.  I can now say I have outlived the lifelines of both my mother and my father.  And while they might not have lived as many days, they certainly had full and meaningful lives.

Having adopted Ember, I have a new chapter / mission, to ensure she has a good timeline of her own.

As I was eating my breakfast, I saw her quietly chewing on her purple hippo and could not resist.  I have so many pictures of Ember!

Shortly after I snapped this photo, the little one got bored and started to sniff and paw at the foot of the stairs carpet.  Yeah, the last step that is not protected by the "gate".

I called her name, and she came right to me.  I gave her the special recall treat, then I let her outside for a sniff, then back in while I prepped her Kong for puppy nap #1.  

I interrupted my breakfast to save my carpet.

Speaking of rescuing things, I broke the zipper on the Schitty Kit this morning.  Ember and I are hard on things.  I've always been hard on things.  I remember my mother commenting on how hard I was on my shoes as a child.

Sewing kit to the rescue.  I put the zipper back together while Ember napped. I stitched up the end of it. It works again.  I ordered another Schitty Kit.  It is just too useful.  Ember had already done a number on the mesh, as well, so it is only a matter of time before this item wears out.

Between the puppy naps, a new package arrived at my door.  It came in a long tube.  It may be a while before I'm ready to give this one a try.  But until then, this giant cardboard roll is making a fine "destructo-toy" for Ember.

Alicia came over at her usual time and she did hold Ember for a couple of "restrained recalls" but, seriously, Ember had already had her supper by then and it was hot outside.

So we put her to bed and sister-chatted in the human part of the house.

Life is good.  Spark on!

Shopping the closet

 

When you don't get the laundry done between personal trainer appointments, you have to improvise.  This morning (Tuesday), I went on a "shop the closet" expedition and ended up with this eclectic outfit.  The shorts are from a Buffalo Run, years past, and the shirt from a Boston Athletic Association 5K, also years past.  I'm amazed at how fast those years do pass.  But the good news is that 1) I still had these items, and 2) They fit again!  Actually, the shirt is so oversized that it would have fit me even at my peak in March, but the shorts, not so much.

Running shorts are really not ideal for my workouts with weights, but both of my usual "bottoms" are currently in the washing machine.

Emberville Tuesday

I had not even attempted to put the harness on for a couple of days, so we had no leash walks since Friday.  I am working at the IYC version of what happens when we choose to use our teeth to communicate with our human.  This morning, something clicked in her puppy brain, and she did not try to bite me, but accepted the cue to stand, and stood there (granted with a treat in her mouth) while I clicked the belly strap on.

Then during the walk, I didn't even have to say "leave it."  She sniffed and walked right by a discarded plastic wrapper.  Magic?

Another element of the formula is her food.  I'm starting to feed her canned food as part of her "chow".  Trying out a couple of different flavors and textures.  When I put this chow down, she gobbles it up and licks the bowl.  As opposed to the kibble, which she will eat, but she's not enthusiastic about.  

Yet another is that we spent time out in the backyard as it started to get light, got her chasing a ball or two, so that she got exercised enough to "take care of business" before I even tried to put the harness on her.

I am not sure exactly which pieces of the incantation of behavior on my part are resulting in this peaceful morning, but I'm grateful. 

I went off to my personal trainer session, the only one this week, since the trainer has a track meet Thursday morning.  When I came home, Ember and I played some training games, and even though it's cooler than Sunday and Monday, it's still pretty doggoned warm out there.  The lawn mowers came after puppy nap #2.  When they finished, I took Ember outside for some exercise in the backyard.  

We had our biting incident of the day, after I attempted to do a solo restrained recall.  We were putting the toys away, she was still on leash, and I bent down to tie my shoe.  She redirected her frustration to my hands, and although I was "better" at following Susan's bite protocol, I had again neglected to take some things into account.  When this puppy is hungry, she gets bite-y!  And it was 3:30 p.m.  She normally gets fed between 3 and 4.  Add to that her extreme dislike of the leash-centric restrained recall.  

I escaped with a single new bandage, and I proceeded to feed her the "evening" meal.  She ate the half can of dog food down to licking the bowl, then also ate a cup and two thirds of kibble after.

When I heated up my own supper around 5 p.m. I set aside a small plate with about half an ounce of ground turkey for her, but Ember lost her rights to it by putting paws up on the counter and stealing a lick of it.  I hated to do it, but she had made a choice.  Then I put her to bed with her peanut butter bone.  This dog is not going to starve because of the missing bite of turkey.

Life continues to be good.  Spark on!

 

Some like it hot

 

This is mommy's favorite tug toy!  It's one that Ember has good purchase and an easy way to avoid getting her teeth on Mommy!

It's soft on Ember's mouth, and ventilated when mom tosses it for a retrieve.  Slowly, between the two of us, we are learning to play tug and learning how to end a game of tug.  This particular toy, with hand loops on both ends and that ventilated soft plastic in the middle, makes it suitable to both tug and fetch, so that the reward for Ember letting go ("Thank you") is for Mom to toss it for her to chase.

This other tug toy has a problem.  A loop on one end (braided rope) is what Ember generally chooses to hold.  The tassels on the other end are not easy for Mom to grip.  And the middle is just a little too thick for Ember's six-month-old mouth to grip.

So not as good for tugging and tossing.

Can you tell I'm developing opinions about the various toys we try out?

Then we have "toys on the cheap".  There is more than one way to recycle.  This way is called "repurpose".  That's a milk jug she's chewing on and it cost me nothing.  Well, I bought the milk inside it for $2.88 and the jug came along to hold it.  I reuse milk jugs, plastic pop bottles, toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls.  

We are still under heat advisories here.  Yesterday it topped out at 103℉, and so far today, it's already 98, on its way to a predicted 101.

Now that Ember has poked holes in the second puppy pool and resisted my efforts to fill the pools with water, I'm not putting a lot into that particular heat relief.  

The "thou shalt not mess with mommy's bandages" version of "ItsYerChoice" went well this morning.  I only had to put the treats up once.  

The "let's see if we can get you to accept mommy's hands in gloves without showing your teeth" effort is just beginning.  You see, someone on the forums for others studying dog training with my mentor suggested trying wearing gloves to prevent her messing with the bandages... and I got the giggles!

Remember the first few weeks of having Ember?  How she stripped my garden glove and buried it?  It was "cute" as a puppy but would not be so cute if she did this to a workman or at the vet's office, for example.  My avoiding wearing gloves and whipping them away from her has not helped her become desensitized to them.  In fact, that turned it into a game and reinforced the undesirable behavior.  So that's on my list of "things to work on".

My list is growing, but so is my confidence that these things can be dealt with.  I just have to work on me being patient and consistent!  Believe it or not, with the whole house pretty much transformed into a limited space for the dog, and limited places for me to sit, it is easier to establish clarity of what I want Ember to do, and for her to do it.  I must introduce challenges gradually, not all at once.  I do believe that has been my biggest problem, trying to push her too fast because I'm the one in a hurry.

I'm already noticing things like her conscious avoidance of getting her teeth on my hand when tugging, and her conscious avoidance of running into me with a body slam when she's racing around the yard.  When she finishes such a sprint and skids into a sit at my feet... that's awesome.

Life is good in Emberville.  Spark on!

The Spirit of Ollie

 

Sunday is a good day for honoring the spirit of Ollie.  Ollie was a lineated parakeet, who lived a brief life with my son's in-laws.  He was pampered and loved by these two retirees.  He rode Bob's leg as an elevator.  He dipped his crackers in Donna's water glass.  He watched bird videos on their phones, and mimicked the calls he heard, both on the videos and in the world around him.  He learned new songs from my daughter-in-law's cockatiels.  He even seemed to like it when I would whistle to him at family gatherings.  He will be missed.  Interestingly, a young Cardinal has been hanging around my house and my neighbor's the past week or so, and I have dubbed this bird "the spirit of Ollie".

ItsYerChoice and the Band-Aids

This morning a lightbulb went off in my brain about how to approach the Band-Aid stripping that Ember had been doing of late.  While I do consider it a clever thing, it's not a behavior I wish to encourage.  She had been doing it particularly during the ItsYerChoice game, when I was focusing on whether to close the hand holding the treats and ignoring unwanted efforts on her part, but she seemed to have concluded that some of that behavior was a precursor to getting down to the business of earning the treats.  Maybe she even thought it was part of what she needed to do.

Unfortunately, I can't read the puppy's mind.  But I can control the resources.  My first effort was to change hands and close the left hand around the treats.  She still tried to strip the bandage on my left arm.  She ignored the closed hand.  So I put the treats back in the bowl and put the bowl in the cupboard.

I waited a few minutes, then tried again.  Same thing, she went for the bandage.  Same thing, I put the bowl away again.  

Third time's a charm.  When I got the bowl out a few minutes later, for the third time, Ember planted her bum on the floor with her nose a good foot away from my treat-holding hand.  She got right down to business, ignoring the distraction of the bandages, and earned every treat I had allotted to the session.  We shall see if this "sticks" or if I have to repeat the lesson tomorrow.

Lunch with "the kids"

It was a last-minute decision, but since my son's friend had connected with the car through me, I accepted the invitation to "stop by" where they were meeting for lunch and share a slice of their artisan pizza.  Yum!  

He purchased my niece's car, and now should be about halfway across Iowa on the way home.  He brought his partner along, but she doesn't drive a stick shift, so he is handling all the driving.  I heard a few stories I hadn't before, both from my son, and from his friend.

A very pleasant interlude in the day.  I tucked Ember into the big crate for puppy nap #2 while I went.

Hottest day of the week

It got up to 102℉.  When I got home from the luncheon, I let Ember outside, for the usual reasons.  She is a smart cookie.  She knows that water comes from the hose.  She picked it up by the end and shook it to try to make the water come out.

I obliged by turning it on, which made a little puddle in the grass that she played with for a while.  I got out the puppy pools, and tried to run some water into them, but Ember would have none of that game.  She wanted to drag those things around on the patio and the grass.  She even dragged one of them under the deck.

In any case, we had no leash walk today, due to harness behavior and heat.  But we did get a couple of good training sessions in for ItsYerChoice, Collar Grab game, and a solo recall, but not the restrained kind.

And we kept working on the "hot spot" training, too.  For supper, I tried out canned food for her for the first time.  As expected, she liked it and gobbled it right up.  I only fed her half the can, because... transitions in diet should be gradual.

On the biting front:

Only one new bandage today, on a finger, as it happens.  It was clearly an "oops", a collision of a tooth on my finger as my hand was holding a ball, not an intentional bite.  

My skin is still 71 years old, and I still bleed easily.  No surprise there.  But I'm calling it an optimistic day.  

The week ahead leads into the Labor Day weekend.  How did that happen?  The year is just flying by!  In September I have an eye appointment and a dental appointment, and toward the end, the plan is for Carl to come stay while the kids travel to a wedding in Kansas.

The kids will be having one of their grill outs next Sunday.  Ember and Carl will have their first play session since they both got off of "restricted activity".  

Ember will have her puppy class on Friday.  I am debating with myself about whether to schedule another private trainer session for her before that, so I can get some more restrained recall assistance. 

Life is good. Spark on!

Saturday adventures or not

 

Let us begin with the glory of sunrise, over the neighbor's roof.  Ember had slept through the night.  I was still holding out hope for the lake outing with Carl, his paw-rents, and the other side grand-paw-rents.  I mainly wanted to give Donna and Bob a hug over their lost birdie.

The Prisoner was in fine fettle, having spent the night inside, and ready for his own outdoor adventures.

He's alert, keeping an eye on the sliding glass door to the deck, lest Ember decide to "come say hi".  Ember, in fact, has grown leaps and bounds in the area of "let the kitty get away".  We don't see the big "grooming" sessions anymore.  I don't know how much of this is Prisoner getting his licks in, how much it is Ember knowing Mom will defend the cat, and how much of it is she's just learned it's not all that exciting.  She will still chase him up onto the rail, but then she lets him be.

Ember, meanwhile, was examining the reconfiguration of a "gate" at the bottom of the stairs.  She quickly figured out the towel situation, managed to slide the gate section enough to retrieve a towel, and of course it all fell apart.  While she cooled her heels outside for a bit, I got some empty milk containers from the recycle bin and used them where the towels had been.  This lasted even less time than the towels.

The milk containers became chew toys in short order.  But she did not violate the gate.  My next configuration involved lashing the one end of the "gate" to the newel post with the 18 foot long line. Might as well use it for something, right?

In any case, I don't remember the exact order of events related to the reconfiguration and my thoughts about going on our usual morning walk.  But Ember did not wish to cooperate with getting her harness on.  I was "done" with dealing with teeth and decided to play "ItsYerChoice" for the harness.  You don't want the harness on?  OK, you have chosen NOT to go for a neighborhood walk.

Instead, I took her out in the backyard for games of ball-toss and a little bit of tug with the air-bumper.  She got her exercise, then was wiped out and ready to nap by 8 a.m.  This was about the time (a little before) we would have to leave for the lake adventure.

Given the behavior, I decided to forego the lake trip.  I messaged my DIL that we weren't coming and why.  Secondary, I think since this is Carl's first off leash outing since his injury 3 weeks ago, he really doesn't need Ember distracting him from his own fun.  

I chose instead to reconfigure the X-Pen to protect the rest of the furniture and give Ember a more open "play area".  One that I can gate off when needed.  Here she is, chilling in it, with the "door" removed.

Note the big crate is inside the X-Pen.  She seemed quite content after her nap to chew on her chew sticks inside the pen.  I left it open to let her adjust to it, and when it came time for puppy nap #2, I put her to bed in the big crate, inside the pen.

But before we got to this point... I got a text message from my youngest sister.  Typically, there was no forewarning:  "Just an FYI, I am in Lincoln.  Would love to meet Ember if we can figure out a time that works."  This is my extroverted youngest sister's style.  Very opportunistic, not a plan ahead kind of gal.  Often when she shows up, I'm already fully committed or fully exhausted, one or the other.

Today, I welcomed it.  Ember loves having people come and fawn over her, and I'd just deprived her of the opportunity of a lake trip (although she didn't know that).  I texted back that anytime between then and noon would be fine for a visit.

Thankfully, my family are big on making dogs keep their paws on the ground to get attention.  Jen (sister) also helped me with a few restrained recalls, some of which turned into tug games or fetch games.  I still need to find a more consistent way to deliver the layered training that is supposed to be part of the purpose of this game.

Ember slipped a tooth off the toy and got my hand, so the game ended with me bandaging up again.  She's starting to understand that tooth on mommy in tug ends the game, so I could tell it was not intentional.  I can tell she's being more careful, but she still sometimes has those "oopsies".

We came back in and demonstrated the IYC game with cheese.  Jen told of the therapy dog at her workplace whose handler can put a treat on her nose.  The dog then flips the treat up on cue and catches it in the air.  Awesome, but we are not at that level.  Yet.  Maybe someday.  Or maybe not.  

Jen looked into Ember's eyes and saw some of what I see:  a dog who really wants to be a good dog, just still figuring out all the rules.

I got caught up on family happening... and sis left to go visit her youngest son and his girlfriend at their new apartment.  Always good to get sister-hugs.

Ember and I had our lunch salads, and now she's down for puppy nap #2.  You know, we really needed a quiet day today!

Life is good. Spark on!

Fall-like weather

 

Enjoying the cool spell, but the weekend is predicted to be beastly hot again, topping the century mark on Sunday.

I took the cloudy sky through the tree this morning, pre-sunrise.  It just has this "time is passing and the seasons are changing" look to it, to me.

It's going to be a busy people-y weekend.  Today, Friday, Ember has her Puppy Plus training class at Zoom Room (5th from the last). 

Tomorrow, Saturday, Ember and I have been invited to join "the kids", Carl, and DIL's parents at a "local" lake so that Carl can get some exercise before the worst of the heat arrives.

It's a long drive, so I worry about Ember's car sickness.  But it would be supportive for my co-In-laws to the young couple.  Yesterday they lost their young bird, Ollie.  He really was young, I think under two years, and it was completely unexpected.  They thought he was sleeping in, as he sometimes would do, but he had died.

On Sunday, a friend of my son from his online in the basement gaming days is coming to town to look at a car being sold by my niece.  It's also supposed to be the hottest day of the weekend.  I do hope I'll get to see him, and I hope that Ember is up to a meeting, too.  It's a long trip for him, and last I heard, he was thinking of taking the train from where he lives, on the far side of Iowa.

Ember did well at her puppy class.  There was just one other puppy there, Mason.  He's a shy guy and needs lots of encouragement.  Ember, meanwhile, was full of frustration, pulling the paper that was covering a hole in the wall, and shredding it.  She also wanted to chew on the stool legs (this is common behavior on her part), to jump up and knock things over on the wall around the gym (it's a half-high wall, counter height), and to chew up the mat that she was supposed to relax on with the "go to mat" cue.  However, she did a fine job of "wait" and "heel" behavior (I don't use the word "heel", I use "with mommy" and "hip").  She's learning that "break" is a release word, as is a fresh cue to do something, like "come", or "search".

We did alternate activity while Mason was learning "go to mat".  

She was tired when we got home. She was a good quiet pup while I fixed our salads and fed her.  She almost made it to my finishing my salad, but in the end was up the stairs, tearing at the carpet.  This time she did not take down the baby gate.  Instead, she started on the carpet at the top of the stair steps!  Ai-yi-yi, Ember!

Well, at least I have an answer to my son's question about whether the hardwood trim was in fact hardwood stairs, underneath the carpet.  No, son, sorry, it's not.

After puppy nap #2, I had a colossal failure at trying the solo version of restrained recall.  I have decided that I shall not attempt this again.  It freaks Ember out to have a long lead (it's 18 feet, I think) wrapped around a pole.  She grabs the leash and restrains herself, and then she's so afraid and upset by what she doesn't understand that she takes it out on my hands.  LOTS of new band-aids today!

I abandoned the long lead on the deck while I went inside to wash and bandage myself.  Ember calmed down once that was out of the picture.

We played an extra round of IYC, with cheese before I fed Ember and put her to bed.

 

I improvised another layer of containment for the stairs, since the baby gates can't attach in this spot.  I roll up towels to hold the section of X-Pen in place.  Hope it works.  Wish me luck!

Life is good.  Spark on!

National Dog Day treats

I should have sent one home with Alicia to tempt Benji with.  These came from the Zoom Room, in honor of National Dog Day.  Pastries baked for canine consumption.

Oh, well, if they are still viable on Saturday, I can take them with for our possible play date with Carl.  One is already gone, having been fed to Ember 1/4 at a time.

On Wednesday afternoon, I took Ember for her private session.  I had their trainer hold her for the restrained recall first session.  She did pretty well, I fumbled a few of the mechanics.

Later in the afternoon, when Alicia came over for our weekly visit (which we had skipped for two weeks due to the craziness of the start-up of the school year), I had Alicia do the same.

On Thursday morning, after I got home from my own personal training session, I figured I'd try the "solo" version of the restrained recall.  I fumbled the long leash badly and ended the session with it mainly being "getting familiar with the equipment".  I removed the long lead and we played ball chase, a little tug, etc., and did some straight recalls, without the restraint.  She was plenty motivated.

As far as the training games are concerned, Ember is doing well!  As far as getting bored and wanting to tear apart my house and furniture... eh, it varies.  On Thursday morning, I had put up the baby gate in the upstairs hallway, but Ember just plowed it over.

Wednesday's damage that I patched up with duct tape and gated off.

Thursday, after plowing over the gate, she continued on the path of destruction.

Below is what she did on Thursday morning, photographed after she went into her den for puppy nap #1.  This is after I cleaned it up a bit, removing the fragments of duct tape and carpet padding.

Sigh.  Carpet is 25 1/2 years old, stained from prior pets, etc.  I deferred doing anything about this scenario until after my trip to the trainer.  When I got home, I put the gate back up when I went down to let Ember out after her puppy nap #1.  We played our usual game of IYC with the banana bits she was going to get.  

A little while later, she headed up and was whining at the gate.  She pushed it.  I heard it starting to slip, and I called her down to me.  She came!  She did not push the gate over!

We went outside and played.  She got good and tired. She did not go back upstairs again while I fixed her salad and fed it to her.  I cooked my broccoli and ate it topped with cottage cheese.  She lay quietly.  She did not go back upstairs while I cooked a half dozen eggs.  Oh, we did go in and out off and on through this entire time period.

She went quietly into the big crate for puppy nap #2 on Thursday.  In the quiet after she did, I decided to use the muddy mat from the back door that I had to remove from that spot, due to her chewing on it.  I just put it over the top of that mess.

I am still madly in love with my puppy, regardless of the chaos.  I can clearly see she's learning, and maturing, and making better decisions in some areas.  She came charging up to me in the backyard, and instead of jumping up on me, dropped into a pretty sit!  Love it!

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking!

Fly chasing is tiring work, ma.

From Monday afternoon:  Ember was so distracted by a fly, that she forgot to finish her corncob treats.  That fly drove her nuts.  

Banana nut bread, shared by my daughter in law.  Afternoon snack for the human also from Monday the 19th.

The cardinal that's growing up in my neighborhood has been hanging around, chirping cheerily.  When I can't see him, I can hear him.  He adds such a nice splash of brightness to both sight and sound.  

Puppy nap breaks on Tuesday have been spent repairing whatever "enthusiasm-induced" damages my favorite canine inflicted.  Tuesday morning, it was the couch, where she didn't completely remove my prior repairs, but did start working at it.  Tuesday afternoon, it was the drapes on the sliding glass door to the deck.  Sigh.

Wednesday morning I woke early

The bladder got me up.  The brain kept me awake.  Gave up and got up.  I discovered I had not finished and posted the blog, so doing that now.

Life is good!  Spark on!

A rainy day in Emberville

 

That's what Sunday was, a rainy day.  Ember is not a fan.  Rainy days are when she's most likely to have a potty-training failure, and she did on Sunday.  One of each variety, despite my practically forcing her to come outside in the rain.

She also likes to drink from the downspouts when the rain is providing a fountain there.  I checked the rain gauge that I tucked into the rock bed in the front.  We got a tenth of an inch over the course of the day.  

Monday report

On Sunday afternoon, I had tried out the "big crate" for Puppy Nap #2.  Ember went in OK, and came out OK after, but when it came time for "bedtime", I just felt she'd feel comfier in her little den, so that's where she slept overnight.  

Monday morning, I put the baby gate up at the entrance to the family room.  Remember the leather couch?  We got the business outside taken care of.  Then there were a series of things going on.  At some point, I took the gate down, as the idea was to do some "spot" training back there.  Many adventures, but the bottom line, in the end was that she's not ready to be left with that couch... it is way too tempting for her!  She managed to start ripping the back cover off!

I got her away from that and put the gate back up (again, many adventures to get there), and proceeded with the day.  The new harnesses were delivered late Sunday, and I worked on fitting her in the "easy walk" one.  Oops.  Sorry, Barb, it's too big.  The good news:  used the chicken livers and the context of "ItsYerChoice" game training, and did not end up with any new bandages (yes, I did wear the sleeves, recognizing the risk).  But in the end, determined I'm going to have to drop a size for another "interim" harness.

I did not take Ember on a leash walk before the puppy nap.  I had hoped to do so, if the harness fit, but it didn't.  Instead, we played ball toss in the back yard, three different sessions, in between training sessions inside.   

I'm working to train her to go to a specific "hot zone", although I call it her "spot" (so far) to her.  I have two of them, one in the kitchen, and one in the family room. In the kitchen, it is a folded-up towel.  This is one of my "dog towels", downgraded from being a "swim towel" in its past life.

After I took this photo I observed that Ember has trouble putting all four paws on it, so I unfolded it to make it easier at this stage.  Once she's reliable on these "spots" I intend to invest in a raised dog bed to be her "hot zone".

In the family room, it's "Carl's blanket", also folded up.  The general idea is to call her to you, and when she gets all four paws on her "hot zone", click and treat.  Continue treats while she stays on it.  Walk away briefly.  If she stays when you walk away, treat her again when you come back.  The theory is that she stays until you release her with another cue (like "search" or a pure release work, like "break").

Or I send her off with a "search" cue, and if she comes back with all four paws on the spot, click and treat, praise.

We're on the third day of playing this particular game.  I've still been holding off on the restrained recall, and I've been sort of skipping ahead to find games that I think are going to be high value for home good behavior.

I went and got Ember out of her den about 10 a.m. and tried on her medium sized harness again.  I had played with adjusting it, since finding out the large one is "too big" for her.  Somehow, I ended up with what looks like an OK fit, and we went out walking in the neighborhood.  Oh, it felt so good!  Not the pull that comes with just collar and lead, nor the pull that comes with the top-connected harness, either.  Just re-direction, and a sedate walk.  Saw another dog-mom with a young-un in training, headed down the opposite direction on the other side of the street, and we smiled at each other.

She was happy and so was I, but I still need to gate off the family room, as even after coming back from the walk, when I took the gate down, she headed right back to go after the couch where I had made repairs!  

The guy came to clean out the dryer vent, something that comes with belonging to the subscription service, every two years.  Last time they did this it increased the speed with which my clothing actually dried.  Funny about that, maintenance is good for your home and appliances, just as it is for your car and your body.

I scheduled a private training session at Zoom Room for Wednesday afternoon and talked with the trainer about the plan to have her help with the Restrained Recall game.  I also signed Ember up for another Puppy Plus on Friday.  We've missed three weeks, due to the spay outage, and they have changed their class schedule.  I have five classes prepaid at this point, and three private training sessions.  Once these are used up, it is my plan to take that particular expense out of my budget.  

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking!

if they don't win... it's a shame

The home team lost by a single point, but not for lack of excitement.  The momentum of the game swung back and forth several times before the end, and the bottom of the ninth we entered four points behind.  A double and a home run brought us to with two.  We got one more run before the final out.  

It was a beautiful night to be outdoors.  Full moon over the bullpen.

We had classic picnic fare on the Home Run deck, under the scoreboard.

And then moved to better viewing seats for the game.

Came home with scones and banana nut bread, provided by DIL and her mom.  So the scone, baked by a friend of son's in-laws as "practice" for a State Fair entry became part of Sunday morning breakfast.

And the funny coincidence in the parking lot was discovering that DIL and her dad had dressed alike, as had my son and I.  We all had the "uniform" shirt, but DIL and her dad were both in jeans, and son and I both in khaki shorts.  And no, we didn't call each other, but we got a giggle out of it.

Meanwhile, Ember was in her overnight longer than usual.  Sunday morning, Mom's a little tired, and Ember is full of energy.  We made it to puppy nap #1.  So you get the baseball blog.

Life is good.  Spark on!

That did not seem to work

 

The instructions on the bottle do warn you to verify your dog's aversion to the bitter spray before leaving them unattended with your sprayed object.  Hmmm.  I expect that dogs like Ember, who seem to LIKE the bitter flavor might be why?

She got into the room and was licking the places I'd sprayed early in the day.  I distracted her out to other activities.  Later in the day, she got back there again and went to town before I caught up with her.  Sigh.

So much for "chew prevention through chemistry".

I sprayed some more and persuaded her away from it, but man, I did not expect the problem to get worse!

Pretty ugly, huh?  

This morning, she was back at it as soon as I started to brew my coffee.  I went out to the garage and got one of the baby gates thinking to block off (if I could manage to attach it) the family room.  However, since Ember was out in the house, she went after the baby gate.  I put it up atop the dining room table, pulled out the treats to play our IYC (ItsYerChoice) game, and she only got the treats when she calmed down and stopped going for the gate, sat down and played the game.  

Then I decided to try "crapper training".  This is where you take the puppy into a bathroom, where they have fewer distractions, and the choices become clearer.  Well, I didn't set it up ahead of time, so we had a pretty crazy time getting to "yes" moments, but we made some progress.  One tissue box was the only real victim of this session, and I rescued its contents.  As she went for various things, I waited for her to drop them, gave her a click and treat for the drop, and tucked the prize away in a cupboard or drawer.  We will use this training venue again.

After a successful morning walk, during which we found and retrieved her rabies tag (it went missing on Friday's adventures, but I didn't notice until this morning), I had a calm puppy on my hands, starting to snooze on the kitchen floor while I prepared and ate my own breakfast.  Then I put her into the crate for her puppy nap #1 while I did human stuff, including the task of reattaching said rabies tag to her collar.  While I was at it, I also attached the tag that says which brand and number of microchip she has.  I'm waiting for the mail to bring me her license.

This evening is the annual baseball outing sponsored by my financial guys.  I'm taking my son, his wife, and her parents along this year.  We all like baseball, and this is the local minor league team.  Ember will need to be tucked in by 4 or 4:15 p.m. for the timing to work, but that's not that far from her normal schedule.

Here's to a good Saturday!  A calm and confident Saturday.  Some good activity and training for my little fur-buddy.

Life is good.  Spark on!