Today's Cloud

I'm bummed. I'm not even going to pretend this is about Monster, I'm just going to hijack the blog for a personal pity party.

U-huh, what else is new?

For some idiotic reason I put my reader in a far too shallow pocket and of course inevitably dropped it... Try reading from this:

Dead...

Well, alright, you can read the three top lines. But it's not like that can get you through a book.

I've had my Iriver Story for... I don't even know, since they were new or something. Years, anyway. How am I going to get by without it!?

Oh god, how am I supposed to get by going home for a month without anything to read!?! This is a disaster.

(The HDs are on sale right now... I still can't afford one... Let's see how long it takes me to steal from the money set aside for bills to buy a new reader... I'm guessing not long...)

You know... You're kind of pathetic, Mom.

Oh, I know.

Today Monster and I have been spending some time on focus and attention, hanging out in the somewhat sunny Sunday weather and trying to ignore all the neighborhood activities. I've basically only been asking him to focus on me, although sometimes also requesting some fairly simple behaviors. About 50% of the rewards were play rewards, getting him pretty worked up...

I'm gonna get you!

All the same, it seems to me that it went pretty well. In spite of screaming children, hammering neighbors, passing bikes, barking dogs, and whatever else was thrown at us, he did mostly pay attention to me. On occasion he'd react to something and look away, but he'd quickly return attention to me. He also seemed to be enjoying the training itself, not just the rewards.

This... Is... MINE!

Monster is absolutely hilarious to play tug with (as long as you don't mind the odd scrape or bruise...), he'll growl and stare and tackle and really fight for the tug. At the same time he has pretty bad control, and has zero confidence in his grip so he keeps shifting. Inevitably he either loses the tug completely or grabs something else entirely, to his confusion.

Wait... Why is the leash in my mouth!? Are you trying to trick me?!

I usually let him win, he's just too adorable to disappoint.

Let me?! Hah! Just wait until I get my breath back...

Alright, I admit it, he is a little strong. Not to mention inexhaustible. I've managed to tire him out once in his life. When he was a puppy, perhaps five months old, we went into town one morning and hung out in rush hour with traffic, noises and hurrying people all around us. When we got home from that he went strait to bed and took a nap. That's the only time he's had enough, from either mental or physical activities. Don't get me wrong, he's not a stressed out basket case. He'll go lie down if I'm boring, but he'll always check first if we're going to do something else. Tracking, training, playing, hiking, learning, new environments, new people - nothing wears him out.

OK, I won. Let's go again!

I wonder what he could achieve if he had a better owner... Well, we'll never know, because I'm not giving him up!

Today's Cloud

Monster has been kind of off today. The great development of him focusing better on me when we're out, his commitment to keep trying in training rather than shutting down, and his general good mood has been nowhere to be found today. He's been very disengaged in training, putting his head down and looking away from me. Outside, he keeps his head in the bushes sniffing various messages from the neighborhood. He hasn't pestered me once today to do something with him.

I guess it's allowed to just not feel like it once in a while...

Hang on...

And as I was writing this, Monster went and fetched a tug rag and demanded I play with him. All is right in the world again!

Today's Sunshine

This is kind of weird... At first I was going to say that there hasn't been anything today to tell you about, going over in my head the various disappointments and pure snoozes. Like just before I sat down to write this, Monster and I were out on an evening sniff'n'pee (he does most of the work), and on our way back home we were followed by some furry monstrosity or other (some sort spitz dog perhaps? looked like a moving pile of fuzz anyway). Monster checked it out a few times, no reaction. Dull, right?

Right?

Wait, are you asking me?

That's amazing! Not only that, but moments before, less than two minutes before, we'd had a bad meeting. We were rounding a corner and met a woman with a baby carriage, a lab, a dachshund and a schnauzer, maybe ten feet away and moving in fast. I had to drag Monster off the side of the road and into a patch of nettles (thank god for the cold weather, that wouldn't have been fun in shorts and sandals), with him pulling against the leash and bouncing to see all the way. And just a minute later we are exposed to another dog, and Monster is just fine with it... Not so long ago, he would have carried a bad meeting with him all day.

I started this blog to keep track of developments, as even for normal people it's easy to loose sight of the big picture, and my brain is more scattered and confused than most people's. Clearly it was a good decision, if I'm just going to shrug off a success like this as a snooze!

It wasn't a snooze, it was bloody awesome!

Hear, hear! I totally rock!

You totally do, Monster.

Today's Cloud

Today was food day, meaning we went to stock up on Monster food and then spent some time dividing large frozen chunks of meat into smallish chunks of meat with a saw.

Mmmm, meat popsicle...

Unfortunately today was a windy day. A very windy day. Which resulted in me getting covered in meat sawdust from head to toe...

So gross!

I like it! Come here and I'll help you get clean...

Today's Sunshine

On a walk today I decided to try to teach Monster to prance, as in run in a bouncy trot with stiff front legs. He does a few steps like that on his own from time to time, so I simply tried to provoke that and capture it. A few hundred feet later Monster could prance beside me on command...

I love this dog, he's just amazing!

All right! That hypnotism class is finally starting to pay off!

Today's Cloud

I don't really have any complaints. Again! Today has been a very good day, from start to finish. On our walks Monster has been attentive to me, performing very nice heels, stops, recalls, etc (I've even been working on recalls with just a drag leash today, but don't tell the neighbors), at home he's been very playful and energetic but not in an obnoxious way, and I've already told you how great he did in training.

So, no cloud today!

Not. So. Fast...

What's that, Monster? You think I suck at taking direction in training, doing the exact opposite of what I'm told, misunderstanding instructions (no, I'm not doing it on purpose, stop saying that!), nodding my head and then repeating the mistake I was just warned against, forgetting what I'm supposed to do, dropping your treats, clicking too late or for the wrong thing, and generally making your training much harder than it needs to be?

Now you're being mean, Monster. But I suppose you may have a point or two... Or several.

Damn straight!