February 3, 2013

  • Class Issues

    I have been neglecting my reading public.

    There are several reasons for this. I have been scanning photographs. All day. Most days. I live by the hum of the scanner. And I have been supplying...what would you call that? Emotional support.(Yes. me.) Yes, I can run to the store. Nancy's mother is settling in. We are learning about the effects of medications on the elderly. Most of her belongings are now properly stowed and her pictures are all hung.

    It has been a very busy week for Annie. Annie really would prefer that Nancy and I sit still in the same room: it causes her just all sorts of fussing and trotting when we wander off into different rooms of the house. So you can imagine what adding a THIRD PERSON to the mix has done to Annie's nerves. Ilah spends most of her time in her room (Nancy and I steadfastly refuse to heat the entire house to 112 degrees) but she does occasionally move around in there and every time she does Annie bolts awake, barking INTRUDER! INTRUDER! Oh, wait... She goes to Ilah's door 40 times a day and looks at her.

    On the other hand, neither Riley nor Annie are afraid of walkers, they just don't like them, so while I fall over Annie about six times a day, neither dog creates a traffic hazard for Ilah. In fact the biggest dog problem for the past few days has been the weather and not any additions to our home. Because it's COLD outside Annie cannot be out for more than six minutes at a time and while Riley does well in cold weather, he finds he must continually come to Cheryl to get the door open again. (The cold air blows in through the dog door, across the Conservatory and directly up Cheryl's back.) This is a bother. Sometimes he just gives up and takes a nap.

    We bought a new door for the other end of the house, with a dog door built right into it. We paid for the door. We started this whole process (Nancy started this whole process) in October. We almost got the door the beginning of January, but someone mismeasured something and apparently we have to start all over again now. I estimate they will install the new 'freeze the house on the other end' door probably in early May. Ours is not a house to be taken lightly. It doesn't seem to matter whether the plumbing is stopped up or the door needs to be replaced, there is something about the construction of this house that makes installers shake their heads and mutter, 'well, you don't see that very often...' Brickwork seems to be  constant obstacle.  

    We had an adventure. Well...someone had an adventure. Annie graduated proudly from her beginning dog obedience class (she was the star of the class, which I stress because it makes me feel better) and Tuesday we began intermediate obedience class. Our old friends Blue and Cain were there, and another problem dog had joined us. (We remain the problem class.) A barky, hyperactive (pedigreed) Schnauzer. Annie took one look at the Schnauzer barking and jumping and leaping and just generally being a puppy and she fixated on him and would not let it go. The trainer gave me tips for controlling my dog, but I apparently burned out my ability to focus on three different things at a time while still on the job. And while I was hoping to learn how to overcome this problem during our classes, it appears I won't have that opportunity: the little show dog is switching to a different class. 

    On the other hand, Annie remains very good about meeting strange dogs in the store aisles. We did a meet, sit and greet with a puppy husky while practicing our manners, to discover the husky was shopping and not attending our class. But we did very well.

    Annie has developed a new fetish. I don't particularly like it, but I can see the end result already. She had decided, for whatever reason, to remove the skirt from the Conservatory couch. Nancy reinstalled a recently removed section earlier this week: I now have two more. All the repair really requires is a staple gun and some patience, but I see skirtlessness in this couch's future. Efforts to curtail this sport have fallen on deaf dog ears because she only does this when I am not in the Conservatory. I believe this is another variation of the 'give me peanut butter in a Kong and put me in my crate' game, but it's hard on the couch.

    Yesterday she put herself in her crate, but there was a peanut-butter-in-the-Kong failure and she was forced to come out and act like an idiot until I figured out the problem.

    Someone (I have no idea who) told me their dog's favorite toy was a ball that comes with ears and feet. I needed to buy coffee filters from Amazon and they were about $5 less than the free shipping (and I HATE paying for shipping) so I bought a ball with feet and ears.

    Best toy ever.

    Or it was, until she chewed off both feet (slightly more than an hour) and then broke the squeaker (about two hours.) Now it's just another rubber ball which, when pinched, says, "whoosh".  It HAD a really, really satisfactory squeaker, but that broke (into some seriously choke-worthy pieces, I hasten to add,) and now it's no good at all.

    Of all of Annie's toys to date, the longest-lived and most satisfactory remains the water bottle-lined snake. It's gone blind, but otherwise appears impervious to terrier damage. That and the Kong. The Kong fills with peanut butter whenever Cheryl loses patience (which can be intentionally engineered, if need be) and this makes the Kong the very, very best toy. But the snake is second.

    The rest of the dog toys are dismembered bits of fluff that seem to retain a certain emotional value. Otherwise, our house is random colonies of fluff and stuffing with stray arms and legs strewn here and there. 

    Oh, yes: she still shreds, shakes and batters sofa pillows. They do not appear to be built to withstand dog abuse.