Human and Feline stuff

The photo here is my bold Prisoner, who wandered all the way up to my bedroom on Tuesday while Ember was at day care.  Doesn't he look comfy?

December 2nd was the final day of the trial for termination of parental rights of the biological parents of my foster grandson.  I have not gone to any of these proceedings, mind you.  My son was one of the witnesses on the final day.

It was an interesting experience, although a difficult one to live through for those most closely involved.  My DIL was a mess.  She has bonded so deeply with this child!  

They were sequestered from the trial because  DS was to testify.  They did get updates from the lawyer for the state, who made the motion to terminate.  My DIL's mom sat in the gallery for the whole thing and took copious notes that she was not allowed to share until the trial was over, also due to that sequestration.

Now it's in the phase of waiting for the judge to issue the court order(s).  Meanwhile, "the kids" (as I call my son and his wife) are not discussing any of what went on in court in front of FGC, to protect him from the emotional whiplash that comes from such things.  After the judge issues court orders, they will begin to talk to him about the future and next steps.  

Expectation is that they will continue to have him with them while things proceed but best case it will be a year before they can adopt him "for reals".  They will have more decision-making authority during that year, since the plan will be for permanency.  It is my hope that the orders will come, and the next year will be one of hopeful waiting and expectation, full of bonding and the continued building of trust!  I am so proud of this couple, taking on a child with the challenges that come of childhood trauma, and doing a fine job of it.  I will look to their guidance for when I can share clear photos showing his adorable face.

From the rear, me, FGC and DS at the dog park May 2024.  Imagine the child about six or seven inches taller now!  He's been with them for over a year now with only a couple or three-week interruption.  

Other human news, I have an eye appointment next week to see about the laser procedure to take out the scarring that has formed around one lens since the last cataract surgery.  My older sis has agreed to drive me for this appointment which I assume is just the assessment for suitability.

Sad human news:  said older sister messaged me with a photo of the obituary notice of a dear friend from my childhood.  This gal and I had been Brownie Scouts together, 65 years ago or so.  Her mom and my mom had been leaders in our scout troops, or cookie chairwomen, depending on the year.  They took a candy making class together.  In that last decade before I retired my gal friend and I had worked on the same project, she as a business expert, me as a technical coder / team lead.  In the process of reconnecting, she shared a recipe for peanut brittle that her mom and mine had learned in that class and I made it that year.  It was a wonderful memory for the taste buds!  Anyway, the memorial service isn't until January, so I have time to hash out the difference between the day/date it said in the notice (it says Friday January 3rd, but the 3rd is a Saturday).  Cancer sucks.

But life is still good.  Spark on!

Not a fan of the telephone

 

I never was a fan of the telephone.  I hated calling up stores and asking for stuff, making appointments, etc.  This dates back to childhood.  Nobody was more surprised by my reticence than my mother, who was a lady tiger with her telephone.  But there it is.  I'm a "be patient and it will get done" sort of a customer.

BUT!  And as Lynda always says, it's a big butt... I ran out of one of my meds this week.  The status in the pharmacy app kept saying "We are working with your doctor".  But I ran out.  Completely out.  Of my morning eye drops.  Not today, but Wednesday.  I put off calling until Ember was off in daycare Thursday morning.

I got a human on the other end.  They told me they had been faxing my doctor for ten days and never got a response.  I called the eye doctor's office, and they never got a fax from the pharmacy.  They promised to call the pharmacy and get it straightened out.

I waited four hours.  The status in the app did not change.  I called the pharmacy again, for a human status report.  They didn't have a fax from the doctor's office yet.  They had received a new fax number from them via voice mail.  I called the doctor's office again.  They had "only just received" the fax from the pharmacy and would "get a response faxed right away".  I was in wait mode again.

I find this exhausting.  Socially exhausting.  OK, neuro-divergent, anyone?  

The eye doctor's office did call me back to report they had sent the authorizing fax back to the pharmacy.  The pharmacy did not call me back at all, but after all, they have an app.  Right before I was due to go pick up Ember from daycare, I checked the app.  By then, the prescription was "ready to pick up".  I got Ember, and we took a longer than usual drive home so I could pick up the drops.  Phew!  Friday morning, the bottle of drops was in my drawer and ready for use!

Other random days

Wednesday's afternoon practice car ride with Ember took us through the coffee shop (Scooter's) drive thru, and while it was the 17th of February that was "Random Acts of Kindness" day, I was surprised by a random act in my favor!  The car in front of us paid for our coffee and dog bone!

Friday morning's weirdness began when I woke early and chose to pay bills online.  I have "two factor" authentication, where the bank texts me a code on my phone to log in.  The text did not come.  I did a "try again" and it did not come.  I switched to a different authentication method, which worked, and only later noticed that my phone had "No Service" in its message spot!

This continued.  I messaged (the internet was working) my family members who tend to check up on me in the morning via text message or sometimes call that my phone was not connected at the moment.  We are so addicted to being connected, at the same time as we have trouble connecting with our next-door neighbors these days!  Imagine back in the day if your phone went "offline"!  You didn't have an internet for a backup!

When I went to drop Ember off at daycare, the bars were there, I had service again, even 5G service.  And the service remained when I got home.  Whew!  Back in business!

Friday afternoon our temperature gave us a head wave over 20℉.  I went out on poo patrol in the backyard.  I had avoided this duty during the past four really chilly days.  I managed to fill 8 poop bags, that's two a day, so I figure I got the usual output covered.  LOL... measuring poop to determine the health of your dog... it's one of those things.

Friday was a court date for the foster children.  Bottom line, son and DIL still have their little guy at least through the next court date, which is a week and a half away.  This dribbling out a week or two at a time may seem agonizing, but I figure every day this boy gets with the dependability and stability of living with them, he gains from it.  He's safe, he's fed, he's encouraged in his schoolwork.  I ache for the kids and all the uncertainty that swirls around their young lives.

With that, the weekend begins

Saturday morning at 5 a.m. my blog editing was interrupted by a whimper from the crate.  Since Ember is not a very vocal pup and I was already dressed and up, I just dropped everything to go down and let her out of the crate.  Sure enough, she turned her nose up at the "morning treat" I offer when letting her out and went right to the door to be let out.  Straight down the steps, no dawdling!  It took her a long time to come back.  When she did, she was carrying a large chunk of ice from the yard.

She carried it into her X-pen and proceeded both to lick it and to crunch on it while I dished up her breakfast.  She seems in a fairly quiet mood this morning, only chasing the ball down the basement stairs once, and hopping up on the couch to watch an old Murder, She Wrote episode with me.  She stayed on the couch while I made my oatmeal and ate it.  I washed the pan and made her a crate treat, so she's down for puppy nap #1.

I noticed on Friday that the light at the top of the basement stairs had burnt out.  I can't remember how many years it had been since I last changed that bulb.  It might have been the first compact fluorescent bulb I ever installed in the house.  It is an awkward space.  As I age, I am more cautious about ladders and such, too.

I had a crated puppy Saturday morning, and this is the task I took on.  I got the step ladder out of the garage, and wedged it into the landing space, and carefully climbed up and down.  Let's see... once to take off the shade.  Second time to unscrew and discard the old bulb.  Third time to put in the new LED bulb.  Fourth time to put the shade back on.  So, yeah, four times up and down that wedged in ladder.  But there is now a fresh new bulb in place.

Ever wonder just when changing a lightbulb became "a project"?  Yep, about this time of life.

I hope this bulb lasts as long!

When Ember gets up, the plan is to drive out to a cabin where "the kids" and foster grandchild are staying.  It's in a state park a few miles up the road.  It's not as bitterly cold as it was during the week, and I'm hoping the roads are clear and dry.

Life is good.  Spark on!

It came early!

The new X-pen arrived on Saturday morning!  Ember has been released from leash in the back yard!

I put it together before I let her out of the crate after puppy nap #1.  She seems a little bummed to be prevented from her destructive ways, but I feel better, knowing she can't electrocute herself with her gnawing on those conduits behind the unit!

When it started to sprinkle raindrops, we came back inside, and we didn't even last through "lunch".  There is no keeping her out of the basement now.  Now it is the puppy who is determining what to eliminate from my junk.  She found my old triathlon training gear, including a bike helmet that has LED lights in it and a rechargeable battery.

Safety concerns had me prioritizing getting that particular item away from her, and several other things got sacrificed in the process.

As of now, the casualties include a yoga mat, my Suisse exercise ball, a couple of CD cases, some 3.5-inch floppies, a cord that used to connect a Zip drive to the old computer via a printer port... you know, the general "I haven't used this in ten years" collection of stuff.

It took considerable patience to wait out some of her energy and entice her into the crate for puppy nap #2.  I proceeded to shift almost everything from the big open room into what used to be my son's basement bedroom.

Here's what's left... the tube from the ancient computer but not the tower, keyboard or peripherals.  

In the bedroom:  Mt. St. Omigawd South.  At least there is a closeable door to that room.

Meanwhile, the cat will have to have an escort all the way to the laundry room door (but I was mostly doing that anyway, due to needs to feed, water, and clean the litter box).

I warned "the kids" of all Ember's misadventures of the past few days, and they are still up for the dog-swap on Sunday.  OK, then!

Sunday morning

The great dog swap began about 10 a.m.  Before that, Ember had a session of carpet tearing on the basement stairs, but pretty soon bored of time apart from her Mommy, who just plain didn't want to watch that stuff.

Ember came back up to have her normal routine time leading up to Mom fixing her own breakfast, then tucking Ember into her crate for Puppy Nap #1.

While puppy was napping, Mom washed dishes by hand (waiting on a part for the dishwasher).

Ember got released from the crate about 9:40 a.m., and was dressed in her harness before "the kids" arrived with Carl.

I'm hoping that Ember is napping for them at appropriate intervals.  Just now I have Carl napping on my big bed, because he's a big boy and doesn't chew on everything in sight.

Instead, he never misses an opportunity to bark at the pesky squirrels who tease him mercilessly.  Ember doesn't bark at squirrels, she just silently watches them, and if they get too bold, silently charges at them.

Carl was quite happy to play with Ember's toys, but didn't quite get the concept of some of them being "inside toys", so he migrated about three of her plush ones outside, for Grandma to retrieve and let him know this toy is for inside only.

Ember had to learn about the hose not being allowed inside, Carl is learning about iguana, hippo, and foxy not being allowed outside.

I played ItsYerChoice with Carl, and the initial phase with him wasn't as hard on my hands and arms as Ember's first attempts at it.  He licked, and he pawed, but he didn't bite.  He did surge toward the cheese, but when I folded my hand over it, he respected that.  He caught on to the concept in the first round.  Good Boy!

Meanwhile, the kids took Ember to Carl's closest dog park, the one they call "Friend Park" to wear her out a bit before taking her into their home.  

It took some doing to get Ember into the truck, apparently, but there she is, looking content to go for a ride with these people.

At Carl's "Friend Park", adoring the mythical son.

DIL reports that she recalled to her name, and gave no trouble leashing up at the end of the park visit.

The kids had brought me an extra baby gate so I can keep Ember out of the basement until such time as I can get the door replaced.  It's a real nice one, that has a human opening gate in the middle.  My son installed it while his wife and I supervised the two dogs in the back yard.

The plan is now for me to ferry Carl back over to their house around 3 p.m.  Foster kid for respite is due to arrive around 3:30 - 4 p.m., so the two dogs will have a second opportunity to play together if I hang around to meet the boy.

Since there is the possibility of this turning into a fairly long-term arrangement, I for sure want to meet him.  He should know there are extra grown-ups available.  He already met my DIL's parents, at the last respite weekend.

Life is good, in Emberville/Carltown.  Spark on!

Weather and such

 

Thursday about 4 p.m. the first front blew through.  I was out "picking up the dog toys" and was carting the puppy pools back to the garage.  That gusty wind that leads the front was blowing strong, and it slammed the gate shut.  I unlatched it, and it slammed the gate open, then as I was putting those pools away, the wind shifted and slammed the gate closed again.  Adventures.

It's raining.  We shall see tomorrow how much we get, but as I type I can hear the thunder rolling over.

Friday morning was a little hectic, and I didn't get the rain gauge checked until I came here to update the blog after supper!  It showed half an inch.  I do not know how much of that was the rain overnight, and how much might have been the automatic sprinklers that I left run for the ten minute cycles through the stations this morning at 4 a.m.

Here is part of the Friday morning hectic contribution.  Ms. Ember had been worrying at the bottom step's carpet again, so I put her into her X-Pen with her toys while I was whisk-brooming up the fragments of carpet and padding her teeth had dislodged.

This was more than Ms. Ember could handle, and smarty that she is, she managed to move one end of the X-Pen panels and slip out.  But that wasn't enough for her.  She also nudged the part next to the couch, and managed to place herself ON the couch, inside the X-Pen with her toybox and the waste baskets.

Sometimes I don't know whether to be amused at her cleverness, upset with myself for not doing a better job by her sooner, or what!  Guess I'll just have to keep on loving her and doing best I can, one day at a time.

In any case, that meant taking time during puppy nap #1 to add two panels to the edges (thankfully I had two extra panels I could use).  Ember's containment system is made up of not one, but two eight panel X-Pens.

Friday morning was also puppy class over at Zoom Room.  I have three more classes already pre-paid.  I have not scheduled another private session, but need to do that soon, or my prepaid set of those will expire!

Ember was a rock star this morning, if I must say so myself.  I replaced the suggestions of the trainer in charge with the Susan Garrett versions of them.  So when the class was asked to play "the Name Game" that only required the puppy to make eye contact with you to get rewarded, I used solo recalls, since her name is also used as her recall word.  And when it came time to practice the "heel" position, I used the "mama's hip seam as your personal pez dispenser" to walk her "at heel" in circles, while a couple of the other pups were still working on luring into the by your side at a sit position.  Finally, when they asked for a practice of "middle", I used Susan's "sound" (it's not a word, it's a noise, kind of like a trill, but it means the same thing as the class use of "middle").  She tucked herself between my legs, as desired.

One of the staff commented on how well she was doing this morning.  Considering some of her problematic class sessions, this one was a real ego boost for her mommy.

Which is good, because Mommy has been super frustrated by trying to provide video clips for the online classes.  After a couple of teary sessions, I came up with two good clips late in the day.  Solo Recall and Tug.  Welcome to my back yard.  The camera is propped up at the door of the elevated playhouse over the sandbox.

Life in Emberville remains good.  Spark on!

Sometimes the only thing for it is pulling weeds!

Thursday morning was a bit on the "exciting" side in Emberville.  Mildly, mind you, not as in total emergency.

Let us begin with "I slept well".  That's always a good start to the day.  I did the cat chores, then I let Ember out.  

I fed her "chow" when she first came out of the crate.  She was plenty hungry, having last eaten her supper around 3:30 - 4:00 p.m., before Alicia came over.  I gave her a "last call" about 8 p.m., so the bathroom needs hadn't kicked in just yet.

I put down kibble after she finished the 1/2 can, and she indicated "out", so we went out in the 5:30 a.m. darkness.  I could tell that she did her business and approximately where in the yard.  It is one of the most pleasant times of the day, in terms of temperature, and the moon and stars are out, so we stayed outside for a while.

Then I had this bright idea to go hunting for that plop in the dark with my phone flashlight.  OK, you experienced dog people, you can see it coming now.  In my hunt, I managed to put my foot in it.  Literally.  Squish!

Shined the flashlight down, and my eyes and nose confirmed it.  There was still enough solid left on the ground for me to do my best to pick it up and discard it in a poo bag.  Which I did.  With my brain trying to figure out "what do I do next".  Wiped the foot on the grass, best can do, but you all know running shoes have lots of nooks and crannies in the soles.

The plan became:  entice the dog into her X-Pen inside and change shoes, setting the offending one in the garage for later cleaning.  Here comes the excitement.  I started executing this plan.  There was an old pair of now dried shoes in the garage, and I put them on.

But Ember has a long memory.  When I let her out of the X-Pen and she saw those shoes on my feet?  She did what she used to do whenever I would change shoes or pants or put on a jacket or sweatshirt!  

This is the first rip she put in the shoe.  

Then when I told her "We don't chew on Mommy" and tried to show her it was me, she moved her mouth to my pantleg, then gradually up, eventually lightly holding onto my hands.

What to do?  I opted for "show her this is Mommy"!  I reached down and untied the shoe, then removed my foot from it.

She dashed off into the X-Pen with the shoe in her mouth.  I closed the gate and calmly decided to just clean up the blue shoe right now and let her have the older shoe.

Sigh.  

Once I was back in the blue shoes, the chewing on feet was over and done with.  We did not go on a leash walk Thursday morning.  We did go play chase the ball in the backyard.  We played a little bit of tug, too.  And inside we played a bit of "ItsYerChoice" with cheese.

By the time my breakfast was interrupted two or three times to distract Ember from the stair-step, and she was behaving well and put down for puppy nap #1, there was nothing for it but to go pull weeds (top photo), put away the toys, and consign the now unusable right shoe to the garbage.

Sigh.

Clearly, we still have work to do with desensitizing Ember to mom changing apparel!

Life is still good.  Spark on!

Shopping the closet

 

When you don't get the laundry done between personal trainer appointments, you have to improvise.  This morning (Tuesday), I went on a "shop the closet" expedition and ended up with this eclectic outfit.  The shorts are from a Buffalo Run, years past, and the shirt from a Boston Athletic Association 5K, also years past.  I'm amazed at how fast those years do pass.  But the good news is that 1) I still had these items, and 2) They fit again!  Actually, the shirt is so oversized that it would have fit me even at my peak in March, but the shorts, not so much.

Running shorts are really not ideal for my workouts with weights, but both of my usual "bottoms" are currently in the washing machine.

Emberville Tuesday

I had not even attempted to put the harness on for a couple of days, so we had no leash walks since Friday.  I am working at the IYC version of what happens when we choose to use our teeth to communicate with our human.  This morning, something clicked in her puppy brain, and she did not try to bite me, but accepted the cue to stand, and stood there (granted with a treat in her mouth) while I clicked the belly strap on.

Then during the walk, I didn't even have to say "leave it."  She sniffed and walked right by a discarded plastic wrapper.  Magic?

Another element of the formula is her food.  I'm starting to feed her canned food as part of her "chow".  Trying out a couple of different flavors and textures.  When I put this chow down, she gobbles it up and licks the bowl.  As opposed to the kibble, which she will eat, but she's not enthusiastic about.  

Yet another is that we spent time out in the backyard as it started to get light, got her chasing a ball or two, so that she got exercised enough to "take care of business" before I even tried to put the harness on her.

I am not sure exactly which pieces of the incantation of behavior on my part are resulting in this peaceful morning, but I'm grateful. 

I went off to my personal trainer session, the only one this week, since the trainer has a track meet Thursday morning.  When I came home, Ember and I played some training games, and even though it's cooler than Sunday and Monday, it's still pretty doggoned warm out there.  The lawn mowers came after puppy nap #2.  When they finished, I took Ember outside for some exercise in the backyard.  

We had our biting incident of the day, after I attempted to do a solo restrained recall.  We were putting the toys away, she was still on leash, and I bent down to tie my shoe.  She redirected her frustration to my hands, and although I was "better" at following Susan's bite protocol, I had again neglected to take some things into account.  When this puppy is hungry, she gets bite-y!  And it was 3:30 p.m.  She normally gets fed between 3 and 4.  Add to that her extreme dislike of the leash-centric restrained recall.  

I escaped with a single new bandage, and I proceeded to feed her the "evening" meal.  She ate the half can of dog food down to licking the bowl, then also ate a cup and two thirds of kibble after.

When I heated up my own supper around 5 p.m. I set aside a small plate with about half an ounce of ground turkey for her, but Ember lost her rights to it by putting paws up on the counter and stealing a lick of it.  I hated to do it, but she had made a choice.  Then I put her to bed with her peanut butter bone.  This dog is not going to starve because of the missing bite of turkey.

Life continues to be good.  Spark on!

 

Some like it hot

 

This is mommy's favorite tug toy!  It's one that Ember has good purchase and an easy way to avoid getting her teeth on Mommy!

It's soft on Ember's mouth, and ventilated when mom tosses it for a retrieve.  Slowly, between the two of us, we are learning to play tug and learning how to end a game of tug.  This particular toy, with hand loops on both ends and that ventilated soft plastic in the middle, makes it suitable to both tug and fetch, so that the reward for Ember letting go ("Thank you") is for Mom to toss it for her to chase.

This other tug toy has a problem.  A loop on one end (braided rope) is what Ember generally chooses to hold.  The tassels on the other end are not easy for Mom to grip.  And the middle is just a little too thick for Ember's six-month-old mouth to grip.

So not as good for tugging and tossing.

Can you tell I'm developing opinions about the various toys we try out?

Then we have "toys on the cheap".  There is more than one way to recycle.  This way is called "repurpose".  That's a milk jug she's chewing on and it cost me nothing.  Well, I bought the milk inside it for $2.88 and the jug came along to hold it.  I reuse milk jugs, plastic pop bottles, toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls.  

We are still under heat advisories here.  Yesterday it topped out at 103℉, and so far today, it's already 98, on its way to a predicted 101.

Now that Ember has poked holes in the second puppy pool and resisted my efforts to fill the pools with water, I'm not putting a lot into that particular heat relief.  

The "thou shalt not mess with mommy's bandages" version of "ItsYerChoice" went well this morning.  I only had to put the treats up once.  

The "let's see if we can get you to accept mommy's hands in gloves without showing your teeth" effort is just beginning.  You see, someone on the forums for others studying dog training with my mentor suggested trying wearing gloves to prevent her messing with the bandages... and I got the giggles!

Remember the first few weeks of having Ember?  How she stripped my garden glove and buried it?  It was "cute" as a puppy but would not be so cute if she did this to a workman or at the vet's office, for example.  My avoiding wearing gloves and whipping them away from her has not helped her become desensitized to them.  In fact, that turned it into a game and reinforced the undesirable behavior.  So that's on my list of "things to work on".

My list is growing, but so is my confidence that these things can be dealt with.  I just have to work on me being patient and consistent!  Believe it or not, with the whole house pretty much transformed into a limited space for the dog, and limited places for me to sit, it is easier to establish clarity of what I want Ember to do, and for her to do it.  I must introduce challenges gradually, not all at once.  I do believe that has been my biggest problem, trying to push her too fast because I'm the one in a hurry.

I'm already noticing things like her conscious avoidance of getting her teeth on my hand when tugging, and her conscious avoidance of running into me with a body slam when she's racing around the yard.  When she finishes such a sprint and skids into a sit at my feet... that's awesome.

Life is good in Emberville.  Spark on!

Saturday adventures or not

 

Let us begin with the glory of sunrise, over the neighbor's roof.  Ember had slept through the night.  I was still holding out hope for the lake outing with Carl, his paw-rents, and the other side grand-paw-rents.  I mainly wanted to give Donna and Bob a hug over their lost birdie.

The Prisoner was in fine fettle, having spent the night inside, and ready for his own outdoor adventures.

He's alert, keeping an eye on the sliding glass door to the deck, lest Ember decide to "come say hi".  Ember, in fact, has grown leaps and bounds in the area of "let the kitty get away".  We don't see the big "grooming" sessions anymore.  I don't know how much of this is Prisoner getting his licks in, how much it is Ember knowing Mom will defend the cat, and how much of it is she's just learned it's not all that exciting.  She will still chase him up onto the rail, but then she lets him be.

Ember, meanwhile, was examining the reconfiguration of a "gate" at the bottom of the stairs.  She quickly figured out the towel situation, managed to slide the gate section enough to retrieve a towel, and of course it all fell apart.  While she cooled her heels outside for a bit, I got some empty milk containers from the recycle bin and used them where the towels had been.  This lasted even less time than the towels.

The milk containers became chew toys in short order.  But she did not violate the gate.  My next configuration involved lashing the one end of the "gate" to the newel post with the 18 foot long line. Might as well use it for something, right?

In any case, I don't remember the exact order of events related to the reconfiguration and my thoughts about going on our usual morning walk.  But Ember did not wish to cooperate with getting her harness on.  I was "done" with dealing with teeth and decided to play "ItsYerChoice" for the harness.  You don't want the harness on?  OK, you have chosen NOT to go for a neighborhood walk.

Instead, I took her out in the backyard for games of ball-toss and a little bit of tug with the air-bumper.  She got her exercise, then was wiped out and ready to nap by 8 a.m.  This was about the time (a little before) we would have to leave for the lake adventure.

Given the behavior, I decided to forego the lake trip.  I messaged my DIL that we weren't coming and why.  Secondary, I think since this is Carl's first off leash outing since his injury 3 weeks ago, he really doesn't need Ember distracting him from his own fun.  

I chose instead to reconfigure the X-Pen to protect the rest of the furniture and give Ember a more open "play area".  One that I can gate off when needed.  Here she is, chilling in it, with the "door" removed.

Note the big crate is inside the X-Pen.  She seemed quite content after her nap to chew on her chew sticks inside the pen.  I left it open to let her adjust to it, and when it came time for puppy nap #2, I put her to bed in the big crate, inside the pen.

But before we got to this point... I got a text message from my youngest sister.  Typically, there was no forewarning:  "Just an FYI, I am in Lincoln.  Would love to meet Ember if we can figure out a time that works."  This is my extroverted youngest sister's style.  Very opportunistic, not a plan ahead kind of gal.  Often when she shows up, I'm already fully committed or fully exhausted, one or the other.

Today, I welcomed it.  Ember loves having people come and fawn over her, and I'd just deprived her of the opportunity of a lake trip (although she didn't know that).  I texted back that anytime between then and noon would be fine for a visit.

Thankfully, my family are big on making dogs keep their paws on the ground to get attention.  Jen (sister) also helped me with a few restrained recalls, some of which turned into tug games or fetch games.  I still need to find a more consistent way to deliver the layered training that is supposed to be part of the purpose of this game.

Ember slipped a tooth off the toy and got my hand, so the game ended with me bandaging up again.  She's starting to understand that tooth on mommy in tug ends the game, so I could tell it was not intentional.  I can tell she's being more careful, but she still sometimes has those "oopsies".

We came back in and demonstrated the IYC game with cheese.  Jen told of the therapy dog at her workplace whose handler can put a treat on her nose.  The dog then flips the treat up on cue and catches it in the air.  Awesome, but we are not at that level.  Yet.  Maybe someday.  Or maybe not.  

Jen looked into Ember's eyes and saw some of what I see:  a dog who really wants to be a good dog, just still figuring out all the rules.

I got caught up on family happening... and sis left to go visit her youngest son and his girlfriend at their new apartment.  Always good to get sister-hugs.

Ember and I had our lunch salads, and now she's down for puppy nap #2.  You know, we really needed a quiet day today!

Life is good. Spark on!

National Dog Day treats

I should have sent one home with Alicia to tempt Benji with.  These came from the Zoom Room, in honor of National Dog Day.  Pastries baked for canine consumption.

Oh, well, if they are still viable on Saturday, I can take them with for our possible play date with Carl.  One is already gone, having been fed to Ember 1/4 at a time.

On Wednesday afternoon, I took Ember for her private session.  I had their trainer hold her for the restrained recall first session.  She did pretty well, I fumbled a few of the mechanics.

Later in the afternoon, when Alicia came over for our weekly visit (which we had skipped for two weeks due to the craziness of the start-up of the school year), I had Alicia do the same.

On Thursday morning, after I got home from my own personal training session, I figured I'd try the "solo" version of the restrained recall.  I fumbled the long leash badly and ended the session with it mainly being "getting familiar with the equipment".  I removed the long lead and we played ball chase, a little tug, etc., and did some straight recalls, without the restraint.  She was plenty motivated.

As far as the training games are concerned, Ember is doing well!  As far as getting bored and wanting to tear apart my house and furniture... eh, it varies.  On Thursday morning, I had put up the baby gate in the upstairs hallway, but Ember just plowed it over.

Wednesday's damage that I patched up with duct tape and gated off.

Thursday, after plowing over the gate, she continued on the path of destruction.

Below is what she did on Thursday morning, photographed after she went into her den for puppy nap #1.  This is after I cleaned it up a bit, removing the fragments of duct tape and carpet padding.

Sigh.  Carpet is 25 1/2 years old, stained from prior pets, etc.  I deferred doing anything about this scenario until after my trip to the trainer.  When I got home, I put the gate back up when I went down to let Ember out after her puppy nap #1.  We played our usual game of IYC with the banana bits she was going to get.  

A little while later, she headed up and was whining at the gate.  She pushed it.  I heard it starting to slip, and I called her down to me.  She came!  She did not push the gate over!

We went outside and played.  She got good and tired. She did not go back upstairs again while I fixed her salad and fed it to her.  I cooked my broccoli and ate it topped with cottage cheese.  She lay quietly.  She did not go back upstairs while I cooked a half dozen eggs.  Oh, we did go in and out off and on through this entire time period.

She went quietly into the big crate for puppy nap #2 on Thursday.  In the quiet after she did, I decided to use the muddy mat from the back door that I had to remove from that spot, due to her chewing on it.  I just put it over the top of that mess.

I am still madly in love with my puppy, regardless of the chaos.  I can clearly see she's learning, and maturing, and making better decisions in some areas.  She came charging up to me in the backyard, and instead of jumping up on me, dropped into a pretty sit!  Love it!

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking!

A rainy day in Emberville

 

That's what Sunday was, a rainy day.  Ember is not a fan.  Rainy days are when she's most likely to have a potty-training failure, and she did on Sunday.  One of each variety, despite my practically forcing her to come outside in the rain.

She also likes to drink from the downspouts when the rain is providing a fountain there.  I checked the rain gauge that I tucked into the rock bed in the front.  We got a tenth of an inch over the course of the day.  

Monday report

On Sunday afternoon, I had tried out the "big crate" for Puppy Nap #2.  Ember went in OK, and came out OK after, but when it came time for "bedtime", I just felt she'd feel comfier in her little den, so that's where she slept overnight.  

Monday morning, I put the baby gate up at the entrance to the family room.  Remember the leather couch?  We got the business outside taken care of.  Then there were a series of things going on.  At some point, I took the gate down, as the idea was to do some "spot" training back there.  Many adventures, but the bottom line, in the end was that she's not ready to be left with that couch... it is way too tempting for her!  She managed to start ripping the back cover off!

I got her away from that and put the gate back up (again, many adventures to get there), and proceeded with the day.  The new harnesses were delivered late Sunday, and I worked on fitting her in the "easy walk" one.  Oops.  Sorry, Barb, it's too big.  The good news:  used the chicken livers and the context of "ItsYerChoice" game training, and did not end up with any new bandages (yes, I did wear the sleeves, recognizing the risk).  But in the end, determined I'm going to have to drop a size for another "interim" harness.

I did not take Ember on a leash walk before the puppy nap.  I had hoped to do so, if the harness fit, but it didn't.  Instead, we played ball toss in the back yard, three different sessions, in between training sessions inside.   

I'm working to train her to go to a specific "hot zone", although I call it her "spot" (so far) to her.  I have two of them, one in the kitchen, and one in the family room. In the kitchen, it is a folded-up towel.  This is one of my "dog towels", downgraded from being a "swim towel" in its past life.

After I took this photo I observed that Ember has trouble putting all four paws on it, so I unfolded it to make it easier at this stage.  Once she's reliable on these "spots" I intend to invest in a raised dog bed to be her "hot zone".

In the family room, it's "Carl's blanket", also folded up.  The general idea is to call her to you, and when she gets all four paws on her "hot zone", click and treat.  Continue treats while she stays on it.  Walk away briefly.  If she stays when you walk away, treat her again when you come back.  The theory is that she stays until you release her with another cue (like "search" or a pure release work, like "break").

Or I send her off with a "search" cue, and if she comes back with all four paws on the spot, click and treat, praise.

We're on the third day of playing this particular game.  I've still been holding off on the restrained recall, and I've been sort of skipping ahead to find games that I think are going to be high value for home good behavior.

I went and got Ember out of her den about 10 a.m. and tried on her medium sized harness again.  I had played with adjusting it, since finding out the large one is "too big" for her.  Somehow, I ended up with what looks like an OK fit, and we went out walking in the neighborhood.  Oh, it felt so good!  Not the pull that comes with just collar and lead, nor the pull that comes with the top-connected harness, either.  Just re-direction, and a sedate walk.  Saw another dog-mom with a young-un in training, headed down the opposite direction on the other side of the street, and we smiled at each other.

She was happy and so was I, but I still need to gate off the family room, as even after coming back from the walk, when I took the gate down, she headed right back to go after the couch where I had made repairs!  

The guy came to clean out the dryer vent, something that comes with belonging to the subscription service, every two years.  Last time they did this it increased the speed with which my clothing actually dried.  Funny about that, maintenance is good for your home and appliances, just as it is for your car and your body.

I scheduled a private training session at Zoom Room for Wednesday afternoon and talked with the trainer about the plan to have her help with the Restrained Recall game.  I also signed Ember up for another Puppy Plus on Friday.  We've missed three weeks, due to the spay outage, and they have changed their class schedule.  I have five classes prepaid at this point, and three private training sessions.  Once these are used up, it is my plan to take that particular expense out of my budget.  

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking!

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!