Tuesday

Sunrise painting the clouds, as the season progresses.  I love the time of year when the morning is cool but not cold, the afternoon is pleasantly warm, not hot, and it's light enough to play fetch or walk the dog both before and after work hours.

After I got back from workout with the personal trainer, I took Ember out for a leash walk.  She was so good about letting me put the harness on, she earned it.

Her manners were very good... did not lunge at the distractions when I opened the baby gate to go out the front door.  Did not pull but retained all the good manners she knew before about what we do to earn our walkies.

Good manners continued on our walk.  Fortunately, it was the eleven-a.m. hour, so not a lot of foot traffic in the neighborhood; not a lot of other dogs out and about... no pulling at the leash.  We took our time to allow sniffing.  Everything was going oh, so well.  That's usually when mommy misses something, and this time it was a biggie.  Someone had either dropped a plate of BBQ dinner on the grass, or somebody threw up... I'm hoping it was the former. I could identify beans and bread as the contents, so I'm probably right. 

Regardless, it was more than Ember's self-discipline could handle.  She resisted my attempts to divert her and proceeded to snarf the whole thing.  It is going to be interesting monitoring the output the next couple of days.

After we got home, we had another episode of interest in the garbage bin (I had put it back), and this time she got one of my Keurig pods and ripped it open inside her X-Pen, spilling the grounds around on the carpet.  She was not particularly happy being locked out of her pen while I cleaned up after her.  Sigh.  Haven't vacuumed yet (she's sleeping in her crate).  I have some human things other than that to take care of first.

Did my human things, then I thought I would try to take Ember on a short car ride that was not to the vet or the groomer, just to mail some bill payments.  

After all, one cannot go someplace fun, until one gets into the car to take us there.   Last Friday she had refused to get into the car when it was time for puppy class.  This afternoon the first attempt was also a no-go.  

Too many distractions in the garage.  And about that time the lawn mowing service guys showed up, so I took her back inside to strategize.  What on earth will I do, I mused, if she NEVER wants to get in the car again?  She's too big for me to man-handle!

After the lawn guys left, I tried again.  I succumbed to luring her with a glove from the trunk.  She jumped in to follow it when I tossed it on the back seat.

We got the bills mailed.  When we got home, lather/rinse/repeat:  Ember did not want to go into the house!  I took her through the back yard to get her inside.  But I had left the door to the landing (which also leads to the laundry room) open, and Ember took advantage.  First time she's been in the basement level!

You all know whose luxury suite is in the laundry room on that level!  It was bound to happen at some point.  Ember sniffed her way around the vast collection of junk in the big room.  I closed the laundry room door before she went there and went back upstairs to get her leash.  I gave in to luring: a trail of treats up the stairs, and we headed outside to chase balls.  

Came back in to supper "chow" and a chew stick while mommy ate her own supper, then bedded the furry one down with her mousse treatment applied.

There is a difference between "luring" and "shaping" a dog's behavior.  If you're in a hurry, luring might work better in the short run, but it doesn't help the dog make better decisions when they are on their own.  So... the training conversion was about a D- grade today for the human involved.

Life is still good!  Keep on a-sparkin'