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!