Done with the bodysuit

Oh, look, Ember's nekkid!  Honestly, this is 14 days since surgery, and overnight she got one of her hind legs out of its leg-hole in the suit, and so she was hampered walking outside to do her business first thing this morning.  I unzipped and let her walk out of it, and now I have a nekkid puppy!

The paper she's shredding?  Oh, yeah, it's one of those things... she showed interest in the tissue I'd just blown my nose on as well as the paper towel I'd just dried my hands on.  I will hand these things to her and allow her to investigate.  She can easily shred them as tissue paper is pretty fragile.  She generally decides this is boring and does not ingest the paper.  

Speaking of ingesting, I should mention that I've seen proof that's what she did with some of the bandages she stripped off me yesterday.  My faith in the cast iron stomach of the lab was only reinforced, as it went right through.  Aside:  I was fascinated by the delicacy with which she would approach the bandage removal.  She would gently slide her canine tooth under the bandage, avoiding actually biting me, and pull the plastic strip off.

The bitter spray recommended by some readers in response to Ember's chewing on furniture arrived this morning.  I sprayed the leather couch, liberally, while she was napping.  

After puppy nap #1, Ember went back into that room and was sniffing away at it.  Licked a couple of times, too.  So hopefully that impressed her as a reason not to chew on at least ONE piece of the furniture.  If this seems to work well, I'll move to the legs of the dining room chairs and table next.

Outside my kitchen window this morning, a visitor of the avian variety.  I called Ember but she can't see out that window, and quite naturally the bird hopped off before we got out onto the deck.  I could still hear him chirping, and I spotted his red feathers in the branches of that evergreen behind the fence.

I refuse to retell the harrowing story of Ember's morning walk.  Naw, I'll tell it anyway!  But if you are one of those managers who prefers only to know that the ship made it to port, and not about the storms crossing the Atlantic, skip down past this section.

The storms crossing the Atlantic

It all started because of the harness not fitting any more.  I tried to adjust it to the biggest this medium harness could be, and nope, time to order the next one.  I'll be changing models to the tactical one my son uses for Carl.  But while I was on the site ordering, I also ordered the next size of up the Easy Walk harness I used to call her "new" harness.  Choices, I shall have choices.

Now let us start our walk.  Ember was full of beans, due to having to try on her harness three times and then my opting to just go with only collar and lead.  I avoided taking her along the way of the ant colony.  So far so good.  

We were later than usual starting out and there were several other dogs out walking with their humans.  I kept us back, and we were doing a lot of "if you pull, Mommy stops".  This can be frustrating for both puppy and human.  Well, surprise, if the attraction is strong enough, Ember CAN drag me a few steps if she so chooses.  This happened at a couple of key points Friday morning.

We were doing well, thought I, when we spotted a car backing out of its garage.  Ember went into a sit, and I fed her treats while we waited.  I could see ahead that the house where the car was pulling out had left their trash at the curb, not in the big tubs most of us have, but in plastic bags.  Red flag, right?  But Ember has historically been pretty good about "Other people's trash, we leave that be".

Today, two ladies were walking toward us while we did the "sit and wait" for the car, and they went by, complimenting her behavior.  Mommy swelled with pride.  But then, mommy was not braced for Ember's burst of energy toward those garbage bags, and especially not for the sudden release of... the leash coming off!  

Mommy landed in the driveway the car had just vacated, on her butt.  Her glasses flew off, and the leash in her hand ended in an empty clip!  Fortunately, the glasses did not break, and I could collect them and put them back on my nose.  Fortunately, Ember was engrossed with the garbage bags and did not notice she was without the tether to mommy.  Fortunately, it was the clip that came undone, not the breakaway collar!  

I was able to walk calmly up to Ember.  "Thank You Susan Garrett for the Collar Grab game."  I calmly took hold of the collar and snapped the leash back on.  I did not attempt to give her a treat (one, she was doing something she should not, that I did not want to reinforce, and two, she was engrossed in that activity that she should not be doing).  What I did do was take hold of the garbage bag, remind her that this was "other people's trash" and that "we leave this alone".  Good news:  she did not tear the garbage bag, so no garbage escaped to become litter!

She did let go, and I admit to using a lure to move her a few steps down the sidewalk to regroup.  I thought about heading straight home, but I was mechanically intact, and Ember was calm at this point.  We walked on.

Two blocks up the road, I could see another hazard.  A couple of giant mushrooms, which not knowing, I would assume to be poisonous, right at the edge of the sidewalk.  I opted to direct our walk across the street to the other side.

What did I not know about the other side?  Well, that some predator (who knows, cat, fox, other dog) had dispatched a squirrel, leaving behind a tail that could be seen, and some entrails that I did not see until later.  This was key point #2 where Ember dragged me a few steps to get to the squirrel tail and proceeded to chew it up and ingest it.

As she was occupied thus, a lady who had on previous walks asked about how to approach Ember approached from the north, on the side of the street we were on.  I called out to her that this was not a good day to approach, as she found this squirrel tail.  I was babbling about how some other animal had dispatched the squirrel... and... enter stage left (west) a big black dog (Carl's size, maybe bigger?)  Big dog was in an e-collar, but no human or restraint other than that collar was visible.

Now I don't know about you, but I do NOT trust e-collars.  With sufficient motivation, a dog will override their training.  The walking lady saw the two dogs.  She wisely opted to cross the street (back to the mushroom side).

Ember noticed the other dog.  The other dog was very aware of Ember.  Interesting to me:  neither dog went all bark crazy.  There might have been a single bark from Big Dog as we left.  Ember did not bark at all.

I spoke calmly to Ember and encouraged her to come back toward the north "with mommy".  I was a little hesitant to use food lure, lest Big Dog be lured as well.  When we got as far as the next driveway, I went ahead and used the "search" command to direct her movement toward home.

Not done yet!  We were still three blocks from home.  We crossed the street to find a grandpa starting a smoking old truck across the street, while his granddaughter mounted one of those disk swings hung from a tree in their front yard on our side.  (I'm assuming grandpa / granddaughter, but the relationship might have been different.)

Approaching from the north (on our side) was a jogger.  I took Ember a few steps down the sidewalk to the West and put her in a sit to wait for the jogger to pass by.  Survived that challenge, the jogger went straight south.  But I was nervous about the swinging child.  At this point, Grandpa came over to ask if I needed help.  I explained that this was a lot of distraction for my six-month-old puppy.  Anything he could do to help?  Should he approach, or go away?  I mentioned I was concerned about the swing.  He got the granddaughter to back off for a while, so that we could walk the sidewalk past their yard.

And the ship made it to port

Bottom line, we got home in one piece, but I'm sure my heart rate was way up there!  Ember collapsed on the kitchen floor to rest while I used voice to text to tell this tale, or most of it, in the notes and comments on RunKeeper.  With the usual mis-spellings that drive me NUTSO!

Ember is now snuggled in for Puppy Nap #2, after being mentally challenges by ItsYerChoice, and physically exercised by some ball toss (we lost both balls in play, one under the fence to next door, the other under the deck) and some Ember solo racing around the yard.  She is so thrilled to be off leash in the back yard again!

Life is good.  Spark on!