The Weekend(+), And Today

So. Skipped the blog again. There's a surprise! And I really don't feel like blogging right now (my bed is singing a siren song), but let's just get something written down - that way I'm more likely to return tomorrow, I suspect.

This weekend Tilly came to stay with us again. She's still injured and needs to stay calm, but she's not in much pain so she doesn't want to stay calm. Her presence this time unfortunately led to a lot of stress and a lot of inactivity. Not great, and there were some tense moments when she wanted to take her general annoyance out on Monster. And Monster became quite frustrated after a while and started a lot of bad behaviors, like charging the fence when people walked by and barking his head off at the neighbors. Bad behaviors, and unfortunately they didn't go away when Tilly did...

Anyway, not a lot done on the list of things that should be done (can't remember it right now): very little walking, no training. That kind of thing.

Today was slightly better, although not great... We started off better than we finished, you could say. We've walked about two and a half hours today, and we've also done some training. I tried the "do as I do" on our walk too (so typical me, to rush things), it's really proving to be a lot of fun! I can't say it's working well yet, but at least it's interesting. Monster seems to have grasped that there's two parts to it, first the "watch me" and then the "repeat". He'll watch (usually), but as for repeat that's not so sure... Some things seem to be a lot easier, things I do with my hands or when I get up on things work most of the time. But for instance when I tried to head butt a chair back, he ran up to the chair and started pawing and biting the rug under the chair. That was weird, and it took me a couple of tries to realize that he's not watching what I do with my head: he's watching where I look! So when I bent to put my head against the chair, I was looking at the floor... Interesting... He also (and this may be related) has shown no tendency to map his body against mine and repeat things like lying down or spinning around, rather he's focused on the parts of my body he's used to taking cues from: face and hands... We'll see how it goes!

And tomorrow is Baking Tuesday, so I'm not sure I'll have anything to tell you then either. Fingers crossed...

Oh sure! Who needs to make an effort when we can just hope for luck...

Tuesday Of Shame

OK, these post headers are starting to feel ridiculous... But, whatever, more to be ashamed of! Obviously that must be a good thing, then?

I think you're starting to lose the plot...

• Walks:   ... I don't know! I've been pretty good at remembering to keep a record of at least our walks since I started these posts, but today I couldn't even manage that. Tuesdays are a bit special though (more on that later), so I think it's just because of that. I'd say somewhere between 1h and 2h, closer to 2h but no more than. Something like that.
• Exercise:   0. Again, Tuesdays are a little "special rules apply", but since I've been slacking so much all the other days that's not such a good excuse!
• Training:   Well... We did try out the new "do as I do"-thingy with The Kid as an interested audience, but that's about it. Five minutes, probably...
• Planning/preparation:   0. Again.
• Other:   And this is where we get to why Tuesdays are special. Every Tuesday belongs to The Kid. I pick him up right after school, he eats a snack in the car while we talk about our plans, and then we go home and bake, bake, bake! We spend all afternoon and most of the evening baking, always something new and usually something a little advanced. Whenever something is resting, proofing, baking, cooling, etc, we focus on homework. Monster has to take a back seat, this is The Kid's day. Ideally I make sure Monster's had a full morning, but lately this hasn't been going so well... Now, Monster loooooooooves The Kid. Just seeing him sends Monster into raptures of joy, so it's not like he suffers and sulks on our baking Tuesdays. Plus The Kid likes Monster too, so usually he gets a few minutes of attention here and there (would probably be more if I didn't insist that hands have to be rewashed whenever they've been in a dog's mouth!) and we often get to have a little "show" where we show off any new tricks Monster may have learned lately, or something old but with The Kid as handler, and the like. But still, they're a back seat day for Monster. Not today, though. The Kid had a bad headache and was really tired. After less than an hour baking he was crawling around on the floor wrestling and playing tug with an ecstatic Monster. So while I did the baking The Kid and Monster played (and no one did the homework). It's maybe not the most impressive activity, very little learning and no organization what so ever, but on the happiness scale it's a bullseye! And while I think it's good for Monster (in general he needs to be physical with people other than me, plus he's pretty careful around The Kid - who's twelve, so no one panic about fragile children, OK - and he develops his "play nice" skills), it's also good for The Kid. A couple hours of relaxing Monster therapy and his headache was gone.

That's just how awesome I am!

So, not a great day (obviously, we're not really having any of those lately) but all things considered not a disaster either. I guess.

Monday Of Shame

... and then some. I'm tired and cranky, let's just get this done:

Yeah, that's the spirit...

• Walks:   1h 40min. And barely that.
• Exercise:   Nope.
• Training:   No clue... We have been doing something, but I have no idea how long we've spent on it. At a guess... Maybe half an hour? I got a recommendation to check something out called "do as I do" training, it's really interesting and quite fun to do too! You really, really need better organization put into it than I managed to scrounge up though. But google/youtube it! The science behind it is fascinating, and I think the practical effects on a reactive dog could be very rewarding (in general, it's not reactivity training). Put simply, you teach your dog to copy what you do. And I won't try to put it not simply, since I don't have much of a clue myself. But check it out from better sources than me!
• Planning/preparation:   10min. However long it took to read a little about the above training method and watch a couple of videos... Maybe ten minutes? Yeah, let's go with that.
• Other:   0. I don't even remember what I'm supposed to put under "other"?

In my defense - and I realize trying to defend myself severely undercuts the purpose of showing off my shortcomings, but when did I ever manage to stop myself when I knew I was doing something wrong and/or stupid - Tilly's stomach didn't like her new medicine, and we wound up having to run outside repeatedly all night. Not a lot of sleep, you could say... But then again, I chose to have a dog knowing full well that I'm responsible for his well being every day. Not just days when I feel great. Still. I'm going to bed now.

Me too. You're not the only one who was up all night, you know!