The puppy journey continues

 

We now have slashed hood fabric on a hood that does not detach from my "old" winter coat.  Hmmm.  What triggered Ember?  Similar to when she jumped up on my sister a few weeks ago.  I had tossed a ball for her; she brought it back to me and accepted a treat.

While I was deciding whether it was safe to pick up the ball to toss again, Ember out of the blue decided to jump up on me.  She grabbed hold of the hood and pulled on it.  I fled to the fence, and inched my way along it to the gate, eventually escaping through it, leaving her in the backyard alone.

I was shook up.  Walked to the mailbox, went back inside through the garage to recycle the junk mail, and re-opened the sliding door to the deck to call Ember back in.  She remained calm for a while, but then I made a similar trip around the house in just my sweatshirt to avoid a full-on tussle... over my microwave entree for lunch!  I got my lunch only after containing her in the X-Pen.  She calmed down to the piano music of DogTV, and after I had finished my lunch, she was ready to "kennel up" and take puppy nap #2.

Only later in the day did it dawn on me the trigger:  that hood is fleece lined.  She probably saw it as some furry animal (or one of her fleecy tug toys)!  Even before that thought hit, I had forgiven her, as long as we're both safe, that's the important thing.

This is the result of 3 days of confinement with little exercise.  Some because of the weather, but a couple of days due to mommy not being well.  Mommy was starting to feel better Tuesday and trying to have a "normal" day.  Normal is not to be expected.  The cold weather was causing a wet spot under the house overhang to freeze.  I finally decided a plumber is in order and as Ember napped, I wrote the first part of this while waiting for the 30-minute heads up call.

30 minutes does not give me enough time to extricate myself and Ember from a dog park run, so, that makes today a low-activity day, too.  Sigh.

Photo of a new fetch toy for "Bring Me" game in Recallers program.  Ember got to see it for the first time today and immediately got the right idea, but I've mis-trained her on this part of the game.  She will pick up the toy and immediately drop/toss it.  She then expects a treat.  When I try to extend the period of time she holds the toy, she gets frustrated with me.  That, too, may be a part of the triggering today, frustrated puppy!

The plumber eventually came between 3 and 4 p.m.  The verdict?  Remember this blog from 2022?  That's likely when this problem began.  To be made worse by the freeze/thaw cycles since.

I had a cracked pipe. The plumber had to carve into the wall to fix it.  It was not possible just from the inside, so there was cutting both inside and outside.  He ended up having to chip iced insulation to get to where he needed to cut the pipe!

By 5:30 p.m. he was gone.  It wasn't as expensive as it could have been, and it's not like I could delay having a leak in the drainpipe fixed.  Now I need to get the handyman carpenters out to finish the job by patching the wall and replacing whatever insulation needs replacing.  I also learned something from the plumber about how my house's insulation was installed... there wasn't a double wood piece, there was wood, then Styrofoam, then the insulation!  That explains a lot about the woodpecker problem earlier in the year, too, and the debris that was falling down from where they were trying to nest.

In any case, Ember was a very good girl, as her supper was delayed, and settled right into her crate... no craziness or barking.  During the plumber's visit I walked over every so often and gave her a cookie, for being good and calm in her crate.  You reward what you want to see repeated.

After the plumber left, I warmed up the ground beef to top her kibble, and she "licked the platter clean".  She went back into the crate while I ate my own supper and came upstairs to do my dental hygiene routine, causing her "last call" to be a little later than usual.

Life is good.  Spark on, my friends!

Sick day, learning day

 

Well, whatever this side-lined illness is/was, it was not Covid-19.  I still waved off on the opportunity to go to Zoo Lights with the pandemic 5 + 1.  So still a unicorn, never having tested positive for Covid.

Ember behaved as well as I might expect, given that it's been nasty cold outside as well as her Hu-mom not feeling well.  I slept every puppy nap over the weekend.  Ember has had no leash walks since Friday, when she decided to be stubborn about one neighbor's recycling corrugated cardboard boxes, left out for curb-side collection.  Sigh.  Mommy definitely did not feel strong enough to fight another such leash battle on either Saturday or Sunday.

We are still fighting the battle of hats and gloves.  I should not say "fighting the battle" because battles are like games to a labrador retriever.  When she gets one, I either bargain with her that it's "mine" and Mommy needs it if you want to go outside.  Or I ignore it to get her to realize it is a boring game.  However, if it has a tag to tear out, as the one glove did Monday... all bets are off.

In order to get away with the "boredom" gambit, I have multiple pairs of gloves and a few selections of hats.  That way if she swipes one, I can put on a different one and carry on.

One glove had such an interesting texture that she completely destroyed it.  Now I have only one of that pair.  So far, that's the only destroyed glove. She put a hole in one hat, but the hole can be covered up by rolling the band.  Sigh.  I'm still going to use the damaged one, though, because I can't buy a new hat or pair of gloves every week.  

Anyway, as you can tell, I'm feeling better enough to type up a blog now.  I was better enough and determined enough to make a grocery run today, which was expensive but necessary.  Tissues, TP, paper towels (paper goods have gone through the roof since 2020), then I also bought dishwasher detergent and rinse aid, fluoride rinse and floss, dog chew sticks in two sizes and pig's ears... these things add up in a hurry... and none of them are food!  No hat or gloves in this total.

My online coaching program (Recallers, Susan Garrett's flagship dog training program) is on sale again, along with several of her programs.  The one I'm looking at for later on, Homeschool the Dog, is a four-month program that I'd probably like to add at some point, but right now, the Recallers program is about all I can handle.  It has 40 games in it, lasts a year, and so far, we are only on "Day 9".  And we started in August.

The beauty of this program, though, is the claim that "even if you only get 20% of it right, you will have results".  And that is indeed what I'm seeing!  And if you have any interest, here's where you can find her current live session.

Life is Good!  Spark on!