Mommy needs a nap, too.

Tuesday was a trainer day for me.  Ember was 11 days post-op and doing very well.  

Tuesday morning's walk was 3/4 of a mile.  We're getting closer to the distances we were walking pre-op.  I think the longest we went was 1.19 miles, toward the end of July.Today we played two rounds of "ItsYerChoice", one with the banana after my workout with the trainer, the other after puppy nap #2 with chicken livers.  Ember ate both breakfast and supper from my hand, but she accepted regular kibble.  In between she spilled the leftover breakfast kibble all over the floor, when I set down her lunch "salad".  It surprised us both!  Later I picked up all the spilled kibble and put it inside the bigger crate.  

Having determined I was trying to move too fast to the "puppy gated community" thing, I am taking that effort more slowly.  Preserve the furniture, even though it is awkward for me, living, for a while.

In the afternoon, I dropped the leash in the backyard (still attached to Ember, but it's just following her around the yard).  I played the first round of ball chasing with her since the surgery.  She was panting after... we have to take this a little slowly, too, to get her into condition.  I am thinking that at some point I'm going to have to wean her off the whipped cream lure for crate time.  My putting medium value treats and kibble into the big crate is part of this attempt.

A couple of nights I had skipped the "last call" outing because Ember was asleep when I went down to put in my eye drops.  It is clear that she can handle the longish overnight time in the crate.  

But that "last call" is like a special bonding thing.  I didn't think I wanted to cease doing it.

Consequently, I went down in the 7 p.m. hour on Tuesday to let her out.  While we were out in the back yard, she came into the reward zone off my right hip, so I gave treats. I was thrilled. She repeated this behavior throughout the back yard as I walked, but when she started playing with the garbage can and I kept walking, it triggered another biting incident.  When I tried the protocol "freeze", she bit my legs, instead of my hands.  When I tried to stroke her, calm her down, get her to let my hands go?  Only partial success.  When I protected the hands by wrapping my arms around my body to "make myself a tree", she went after the legs.

I finally ended up tossing "search" treats to distract her so I could get myself inside and close the sliding door.  I washed and bandaged my hands and observed the blood had smeared onto my shirt when I wrapped my arms around my torso.  Once I was patched up, I let Ember back inside. She was all appeasement face. I was pouty.  

Susan says analyze and make a plan for what you would do to make sure this doesn't happen again.  What could I have done differently?  I could have not been in a hurry to head back inside.  I could have let her take her time in the yard, let her keep playing with the garbage can as reinforcement for walking in the reward zone, until she got whatever energy she needed to expend used up.   

Wednesday report

We had rain overnight.  I snuck down at 3:45 a.m. to turn off the sprinklers that were scheduled to start at 4 a.m.  Then I went back to bed.  I have been shorter on the sleep hours the past week, and felt I needed it.  I had put out a rain gauge on the deck last night after putting Ember to bed, and it had half an inch in it when I got up late and went downstairs about 6 a.m.

A biting episode almost straight out of the crate today.  Tuesday night I had been wearing pajama pants (sweats) when I went down for "last call".  Wednesday morning, I had on a pair of fresh jeans.  I started to connect dots with the triggers of changing to shorts from earlier in July.  I vocalized better Wednesday morning, with a loud "Ouch!" in a higher pitch, so it would sound more like a puppy's yelp.  Ember seemed to go "heads up" when I did that, and we got past the bitey episode.  

I got her outside to take care of business, and then started the Jewish mama "eat, eat your breakfast" drill.  You have to eat at least enough breakfast to satisfy mommy before we can go for walkies!

Then there was the first walk of the morning.  Started out with her digging at "her" anthill.  I figured we might be safe, since it was muddy.  Surely the ants would not be so attractive.  I can hear you laughing on the other side of the screen.  I was wrong.

Then we got to not quite the halfway point of the walk when she saw an aluminum can before I did.  I was not fast enough to stop her from picking it up.  It was one of those mini-soda cans, and she started heading toward home, reversing direction, prancing proudly with her prize.  She stopped after two houses and settled down to destroy it.  Tossing "search" treats did not distract her.  Offering "cookie" with a collar grab did not work.  I decided to save this battle for another day and started picking off the fragments she had already chewed off, and gingerly placing them in my back pockets, avoiding cutting myself on their edges.  Eventually we got past that delay, and got home, about the same time spent as a normal morning walk, but less distance.

Some photos from Wednesday morning.  Cat watch, from two angles.

I would like to mention some of the positives, even while I've been whining about progress we aren't yet making.  With our exercises asking her to strengthen self-discipline, Ember is choosing not to charge at the cat.

However, she does still put her paws up for a better look.

This paws up "looky-loo" isn't just about the cat, it's everywhere.  See what's on the window ledge?  Is that a tennis ball?

Ember likes "big toys" like the empty garbage can (yes, this is the same one from several weeks back in the last teething period).  She also likes grabbing the end of the garden hose and dragging it up or down the deck stairs.

As Susan would say, the more I learn, the smarter my dog becomes.

Life is good.  Spark on!