Slow Progress, But Progress All The Same

So, still not a lot happening on the blog, right? Well, what can I say... While I didn't write much while I had the cast on, I still spent a lot of time sitting in front of the computer. Feeling trapped, more or less. Now the cast is off, and I feel free - or at least freer. So sitting down by the computer just has no appeal right now, and even trying to write something short and quick (hah, like that's a skill I have!) feels like doing a tax audit... But I should be stronger than that, so here goes an attempt at an update:

Can you believe this nonsense?! Like writing about me isn't the best part of her day!?

First of all, my leg (not because it's the most interesting, but just to get it out of the way). It's not going too well... Some days I can walk OK, especially uphill for some reason, but it's not exactly an even gait and it's slow. Other days - like today - I can barely hobble out to the mailbox. Pain is one thing, if it were just about pain I'm pretty sure I could force myself through it. But the leg - or rather the joints - won't work right. I'm going back to the PT tomorrow, hopefully I'll get some more effective exercises and also a timeline of what I can expect...

I'm boooooored! We barely do anything!

With that out of the way, let's take a look at Monster instead. He's doing... Surprisingly well lately! Just yesterday we were out on a "things couldn't be going more wrong"-walk, where everywhere we turned we were faced with others out walking their dogs despite it being our usual (carefully chosen) time and route. A one point we were squeezed in between two JRTs, a German Shepherd, and some mix breeds, all three groups moving toward us leaving no way out. I wound up limping and falling down a slope through some trees trying to get away, twisting my ankle in a rather unpleasant way, and later I found myself wondering if I'd even had to do that. Monster had seen all the dogs approaching us, and hadn't reacted at all - not even when I forced him to turn his back on them, which is normally not a simple thing for him. And my attempts to find a more peaceful way home were thwarted at every turn, other dog owners apparently conspiring to cover all exits. The biggest scare came when we turned a corner (and I swear he must have been waiting for us, I scanned that street across a hedge and a fence before we got to the corner and there was no one there, clearly he was hiding to jump out at us!) and came face to face with a man walking a bike and three dogs (no idea of breed, they were slightly smaller than Monster and black, that's all the impression I had time for) coming straight at us less than ten metres away. And as soon as his dogs spotted Monster they lunged for him! And you know what Monster did? He turned right around and walked back the way we came, not a second's hesitation and no prompting from me! As the dogs passed growling behind us, Monster didn't acknowledge them at all... So we waited a little while, and turned back again (that was our way home, and with my foot by then on fire I didn't have a lot of options for alternative, longer, routes), and when we got to the corner we met a man with a Schnauzer who started bouncing on his toes when he saw us. So Monster turned away again! Third time's the charm, right? Nope. Third time we tried to get around the corner, the German Shepherd from earlier turned up. This time Monster didn't turn around (German Shepherds are one of his big problems), but we were still on the side street even though we had nearly reached the corner so I decided to stay and let him watch rather than try to force him away. The Shepherd wasn't very pleased with his audience and focused Monster with a hard stare and tense body all the way past us, and Monster did give a small "woof" and a bounce (causing the man to give a disapproving "oh" comment in my direction, which is kind of funny when you think about how Monster would normally have behaved), but that was all.

Well... He was nasty looking! Plus he was ogling me.

And that's surprisingly often how our walks have been going lately - far better than I expect...

In other news, I went to a sniffer dog lecture and workshop this weekend. That was a lot of fun, and gave me some interesting ideas for some more organized training in that direction - Monster knows to search for my keys, wallet, phone and some other stuff already, but now I have better tools for developing whatever I want. I've started on sniffing for marjoram right now - just to try out the techniques, not because I have a dire need for a marjoram finding dog - and Monster seems to be appreciating the better organization too. He wasn't with me in class of course (it's not exactly fair to him or to other participants to have him threatening bloody murder on everyone present after all...), but I had him in the car in the parking lot and during breaks I took him out. At first just to let him pee and give him a break from the boredom in the car, making sure the other participants were nowhere near and no dogs in sight. But I quickly noticed Monster was amazingly relaxed, looking at humans and dogs with some interest but no agitation, and performing beautiful BAT turns if something became too much. So the breaks became wonderful training sessions, walking around in the parking lot, along the road, around the club house and alongside the training field. Monster only ever reacted once, when we turned a corner and another dog - also reactive - went nuts at the sight of us. Monster did tense up and bark, but then happily turned away and left and when we walked back the same way just a couple of minutes later he had no residual tension. The progress I think I've seen in our home village seem infinitely greater out of our territory... I don't want to talk this up too much, who knows how much is temporary and how much is simply imaginary, but I will say I'm cautiously hopeful.

Hopeful of what? Infinite carrots?

And so you won't think I've become ridiculously and uncharacteristicly optimistic, let's close on a downer: first my car won't run for ages, when it finally gets fixed I'm still too sick to do much, as I start to get a lot better I break my ankle, and three days after getting the cast taken off, someone or something cracks the windshield of my car... This has been a long, slow, frustrating and expensive winter and spring. The windshield isn't fixable, the damage is far too extensive, so now the question is whether or not I should get a new windshield put in or just scrap the car altogether (changing the windshield is expensive, and poor Tin Can is probably not long for this world anyway...), and I don't actually have the money for either option. To be continued...

We don't need no boring car - we can RUN!