hoofing it

 Spring is taunting us from behind a curtain of cold with a bit of freezing rain in the forecast. We are just below freezing today, yesterday was much colder.

A trip to Pet Valu was in the cards for Lupa today, and the first time riding in the truck. She did well in the truck and not too bad at Pet Valu. She’s still totally distracted in PV but did sit and sometimes gives me eye contact. There were even a few automatic sits. I felt that it was an improvement from our last visit a week ago. 

We picked up some cow hooves that I’ll use to make frozen dinners for her next week after her spay. It will keep her busy for a while to lick out the food and then she has the hoof to chew. They are pretty cheap (unlike everything else we’ve bought her). After her spay I’ll pay more attention to making challenging food puzzles for her meals - soaked kibble mixed with canned food frozen into the channels will give her something to do during her long convalescence.

The ladies at the pet store said they get lots and lots of puppies coming through but that they remember Lupa because of her unique coat. ha ha… the grooming is certainly a work in progress and I vacillate between thinking I can do it, to wanting to shave it all off. I’ll try not to be impatient as I do like her coat the way it is now. If it will continue to look good remains a question. After her spay I might try shaving part of her face - I’ve been scissoring it but I suck at getting a good result.

It’s going to be a challenge keeping her quiet enough for her incision to heel - she’s up and down and over every piece of furniture! Not sure how she’ll take to being crated for so long… I foresee lots of quiet training time!

So much work still to be done to make this little pup a good citizen.

We had Kari over for supper last night - a lovely visit for sure. She’s just down the road from us but seems to be out of our consciousness - we must have her over more often.

Awesome!

“bits of sunshine here and there”

“the dogs going crazy running in the field”

“tired dogs crashed out for the afternoon”

birthday celebrations

 We meant to have burnt sugar cake for our breakfast yesterday but with all the prep for having Jo Ellen and Don for lunch we breezed past breakfast time with just a hard-boiled egg for sustenance. We did have the cake for dessert at lunch and it was good :-) A sugar high followed by a crash had us all lolling on the sofa afterwards.

Lupa barked when they came and then at Don for a little while. I’m not sure what happened as I think I saw Lupa and Don visiting when they first came in. She might be starting a fear period. We were out in the village on Saturday morning - a few woofs at a jogger going by and then nothing. We even saw another dog out walking and she was silent. I saw them ahead of time so deeked down a side street about 15’ so we could be a bit further away.

We had a nice little visit with Kirsten and Shawn in the evening.

Lupa was 23 weeks old yesterday and 13.4 pounds. She’s turning into an Irish Wolfhound! I want her to stay small - she’s just a bit bigger than perfect size now and still has a few more months of growing. She and Adia play all day and she seems to hold her own, although I don’t let Adia hunt her. They get rambunctious and when Adia starts sending the furniture flying the play is aborted (by me). 

The vet office called today to remind us of Lupa’s spay next week. Gosh! How can we send a little puppy in for such an intrusive procedure?

Awesome!

“celebrating Carm’s birthday”

“moonshine green”

“a quiet morning after 2 busy days”

little shop of syrup

 With every day that passes I’m getting more fond of the little grey bouncing puppy. She’s only done one short walk in the village so today I took her up and down main street for 20ish minutes. At first she was all nose - so many exciting scents! - and walking every which way, straining at the end of her leash. Soon she would look at me when I said her name, then after a few more minutes she’d sit, and then eventually we had steps of loose leash walking by my side. 

There were lots of people and baby carriages walking around - only two teeny tiny barks! We even passed a dog that was tied up in its yard with not even a peep. A transport truck roared past us with not even a flinch. If you’ve been following her journey you’ll know what a success today was. Oh, she has a long way to go but the progress in such a short time was motivating :-)

More adventure awaited Lupa last night with a trip to Trudie & Leo’s workshop for an evening of maple syrup boiling. She snuffled around the huge shop looking for things to put in her mouth. A dead mouse topped the list for grossness, while countless tiny feathers were extracted from her busy mouth. I could have reconstituted a 2x4 with all the wood chips I removed.

driving the tractor

The fun didn’t end there - Pepper (the cat) came in for a while. There was a Mexican standoff then Lupa tried to entice her to play. Pepper wasn’t into it, perhaps because she doesn’t read puppy play invitations well. Or maybe because she’s a dignified cat that doesn’t want to participate in shenanigans.

Looking for Pepper

Near the end of the evening Carm brought her crate in so she’d rest (and I’d get to relax a bit instead of being on the lookout for about to be ingested gunk. She was happy and dirty and tired when we got home.

Our little German terrier found another mouse today! She’s got a good nose on her. Plus she’s super observant, she doesn’t miss a thing. This might turn out to be a bad thing now that most of the snow is gone releasing a million new smells. I’ll need some extra good treats outside for recall practice - I’m thinking hotdog might be a good start.

Yesterday in my ‘on this day’ photos from google were a few photos from 2 years ago. We had walked down the deserted roads to Trudie & Leo’s for a distanced visit in the huge and airy workshop. It was our first time venturing out - everything felt strange and scary during those first days and we were unsure about how careful we had to be. 

Today was Adia’s nail appointment. The groomer had covid last week so we were extra careful and did the work outside on the driveway and of course had our masks on.

Awesome!

“a bit of sun and warmth in the morning”

“a visit that didn’t require social distancing”

“Lupa taking everything in stride with no barking”

“successful steps on our walk in the busy village”

cuddles

 The freezingrain’ageton passed to the north of us (or was it the south?), sparing us from mm of ice. Instead we got rain leaving a muddy mess (even more muddy than before). We won’t be practicing ‘heel’ outside today.

It was supposed to be our last puppy class this morning but alas, it was cancelled. I’m not too sad about this as it gives us another week to practice so Lupa can shine in her last class. (not her last class ever but we’ll take a break until the weather is warmer so we can do the next set of classes outside). I wish the place I took Adia to before the pandemic hadn’t closed :-(

Yesterday’s outing was to the Pet Valu - no barking at people but a bit at another dog that came in. Unfortunately we were pinned against a shelf and couldn’t move away to give some space and more unfortunately the owners had it on a flexi-lead that they had no qualms about giving the dog full access to Lupa’s space - Lupa reacted badly to the intrusion. 

Earlier, on our way into the village to pick up 10 bottles of bubble bath(!) we saw a couple walking an adult schnauzer so we stopped for a chat. Lupa barked like crazy until I took her out of the crate and let her get closer. She was pretty wound up for a few minutes but did eventually sit and take treats. Overall I thought the encounter was a plus.

In the last 2 years of lockdown we haven’t been going out much (stating the obvious) so I’ve not been wearing my blundstone boots much, but with Lupa’s outings they’ve been on my feet more, and my feet have been excruciating. Coincidence? Maybe. To test I wore another pair of shoes and they seemed to be better. I’ve been wearing blunnies almost exclusively for 20 years so this is a huge blow!

Lupa’s ear has gone down :-( We had really hoped that at least one of them would stay perky.

She’s a bit of a poser like Spike was and has a solid enough stay for me to crouch down in front of her. I took the scissors to her face and she looks like a different(ish) dog! She was so shaggy.

We are starting to feel that she’s housebroken as she is asking to go outside all the time.

With the weather so awful, Lupa and I cuddled up on the sofa for much of the day - it's not that long ago that I would have been grateful for a few minutes of stillness and today I got a few hours worth.

Awesome!

“getting 10 bottles of bubble bath on sale”

“seeing a cute little schnauzer - here’s hoping that Lupa doesn’t get any bigger”

“Lupa cuddled against my legs on a cold wet morning”

“the perfect blend of flavours in the banana ice cream bar”

“geese down by the creek”

all quiet on the western front

 Silence filled the air as Lupa bounced around the Home Hardware parking lot this morning. Only one tiny bark when we first got out of the car and then quiet! QUIET! There was no barking! Even before she met people! She did get pets from 2 people: an older gentleman and a young mother.

I see from this photo that the scissors need to get busy tomorrow!

We’ll be virtually celebrating Spring and Silence tonight with a bottle of bubbles.

Today is the first day the mask mandate is removed so I wondered how many people would keep theirs on (we did) - I’d say less than 50% were wanting to preserve their health. It seems crazy to drop them now as covid is ripping through the population. 

Sure we are vaccinated and boosted but someone I know that also had the jabs is pretty sick right now. One wonders what would have happened if she had been unvaccinated.

In the midst of our virtual meet up tonight I hear the bell ring! Lupa rang the bell on her own to go outside for an immediate pee. Success!

Awesome!

“snow melting”

“no barking”

“sunshine”

“my puppy”

“Carm giving moral support during our socialization outings”

treated to soup

 It’s almost 2pm on Sunday… I’ve made a big batch of Grace’s mash, 2 loaves of bread are doing their final rise, a tray of butter tart squares are cooling on the counter, and the laundry has been started. (Meanwhile, Carm has done a sh&? ton of dishes and taken care of washing the dog stuff!). 

On the face of it, it doesn’t seem particularly remarkable except that I woke up wanting to go back to bed, and amazingly I’ve hardly been paying attention to Lupa! She hasn’t gotten into anything (that I can see) but has mostly been hanging out on the carpet just outside the kitchen. She’s becoming that ‘good dog’ that the pet store magician said she’d be.

There was a time, not that long ago (days?) that I couldn’t take my eyes off Lupa for a second. She’d run from one destruction to the next barely taking time for a nap. I was exhausted from standing up and sitting down constantly! My throat was raw from shouting ‘NO’. Gosh, I’m glad those early puppy days are over.

There were days in the first few (several?) weeks that we had her that I would have sent her back to the breeder, but if I was asked now? No way. We’ve both grown fond of the little scamp, maybe even Adia has too.

It’s grey and miserable outside. The brilliant white snow has receded enough to leave muddy trails for the dogs to investigate. It’s dreary. I was in bad shape when I got up and knew I had to do something, so, I put on my favorite music and lit the vanilla essential oils lamp. It helped. A bit. That and getting busy with cooking. I can’t say that I was meditative as I went through the steps but at least I was able to dodge the yucky feelings that were circling me like hungry wolves.

Today, at 22 weeks (5 ½ months), Lupa weighed in at 13 pounds.

The day is done and I’ll end my babble with this… Pat came over for supper tonight bearing a big pot of delicious cauliflower carrot soup. Paired with grilled cheese from the bread I made today we were almost too full for dessert. First dessert was a tasty banana cranberry loaf that Pat brought, second dessert was the butter tart squares that I made today.

I was so stuffed after this conicopea of sugar that I couldn’t finish my coffee.

Awesome!

“bread dough”

“the trick from internet for softening brown sugar worked perfectly”

sweet little puppy

Despite the miserable day with cold rain and wind, Lupa and I headed out to a puppy play date at ‘school’. There were 2 puppies from our class and a bunch of ‘new to Lupa’ pups. She barked a bit at first then got right into it.

It was puppy pandemonium. Lupa stayed on the fringe but did sort of participate and was mostly out from under my feet. I thought she did well. After the initial mayhem she went up to a few people for pets - she’s quite social with people.

I was able to call her to me several times and even got good sits, downs, and eye contact! She was a super star :-) I can’t believe that I wanted to trade her in. With some more work the barking should diminish and maybe even extinguish (hope hope).

Once home and after several minutes of play with Adia, Lupa crashed. At one point she followed me into the bedroom and literally collapsed onto the floor - that’s one tired puppy!

We booked a cruise!!! With Kirsten and Shawn!!! So excited :-)  very excited :-)

My friend Christina came by for a visit this afternoon - I hadn’t seen her since pre-pandemic so I was pretty happy to see her. She’s a good puppy socialization and training pal as she has lots of experience and enjoys it as much as I do. 

Lupa barked for a few minutes (?) in her pen when Christina came in - I left her there until the barking somewhat subsided (ha ha). After I let her out she ran over for a friendly greeting and there was no more barking. I think she was tired though as she fell asleep on my lap and when I transfered her over to Christina, she barely woke up and stayed cuddled up with Christina for a while. 

Lots of exclamation points and smiles in today’s post (I usually try to limit them a little bit) - I guess it was a good day.

Awesome!

“puppy play date!”

“getting a good sit from Lupa with mayhem around us”

“booking a cruise - it’s been over 2 years”

“this is worth many awesomes - Kirsten and Shawn booked the same cruise”

Adia & Spike two years ago today

geese return

 With temperatures reaching the mid-teens C yesterday the laneway has become a bit of a mucky mess… but hurrah! No winter coat! Bare grass! Old poops that had been buried in snow - oops, that’s not a reason to celebrate spring’s temporary arrival but I guess it goes with the territory. Carm is actually SUPER good at picking the nasties up.

The geese are back and hanging out on the partially flooded creek. I love the rackous sound and wonder what they are saying to each other.

Yesterday was puppy class. Lupa barked a bit but settled down well after the puppy play mayhem - she actually started to participate :-)  After that we did some practice of commands that we’ve been working on before another play time. The next set of practice were stays and I think she did remarkably well - in fact, there’s no way she could have succeeded 2 weeks ago. Then there was a final playtime before class ended.

I’ve signed her up for a play group on Saturday morning.

In the evening we went to Trudie & Leo’s for supper. Lupa and Pepper got to meet again - after a bit of running and chasing, Pepper cornered Lupa upstairs. Eventually, after no sound of her tags, Carm went upstairs to rescue her. After that she was a little more leary and Pepper was a bit more comfortable. At supper time Lupa laid on her blanket beside the table chewing her bully stick while Pepper watched from about 8 feet away. I consider that a huge success :-)

Lupa was good the rest of the time too. She was well distracted by sticking her head into her puppy visit bag to pull out toys and bully sticks. I might toss a handful of kibble in to make it more fun.

Today it’s grey with rain in the forecast. We’ll forgo an outing today - she’ll have 2 socializations tomorrow.

I’ve been struggling through huge amounts of anxiety and panic. It washes over me when I least expect it - a sickly nauseous feeling fills my arms and body with a terrible feeling and I have trouble breathing, it pushes me to the brink of tears. The best description I’ve heard says that it’s like the feeling when you slip on ice and you are in mid fall. Unfortunately the feeling lasts minutes longer than an actual fall and repeats intermittently. I’ve been really trying to monitor my thoughts but it’s not enough, I’ve had to resort to emergency meds almost every day for a few weeks now. 

sit and stay at the front door.

Tonight the pooches scored a huge turkey neck! Adia got the lion’s share, with just a few inches cut off for Lupa. We bought a case of 10 as we think they’ll be great for cleaning doggy teeth with the added fun of eating real meat :-)

It seems impossible, but we’ve been dealing with the pandemic for two years now - reading back in my blog, I laugh at my optimism of a short lived lockdown. Mask mandates are dropped on Monday - I think it’s too soon but hopefully I’m wrong. The crazy thing is that thru the whole pandemic we didn’t know anyone personally that got covid… in the last 3 weeks we know 5. Will I be removing my mask? I think not!

Awesome!

“Geese in the creek”

“Lupa quietly chewing her bully stick beside the table while we ate at Trudie & Leo’s”

“puppy class (mostly!)”

“Lupa climbing onto my lap for a mid-morning cuddle”

“poor Adia being a good big sister”

This is how I’ll always picture Spike

rivulets

 Rivulets of water snake down the laneway as spring makes an entrance and I imagine that trickles of maple syrup are filling my neighbor's sap buckets. It’s a yearly transition that’s more welcome than any other. 

Lupa has had 2 more outings since I last wrote. One outing yesterday to the Home Hardware parking lot. She met one person and got to walk around a fair bit. Towards the end I was starting to get her attention. I felt it was an improvement over the last visit. 

Today we ventured to the city to visit PetSmart. As expected she was distracted at first. She only barked a few times but she was spinning with barely controlled excitement. As we walked around the store, up and down the aisles, she improved. She even managed several short heels and some eye contact - I consider this a big win! And for more winning we met another puppy and that went very well. Not one bark!

There was a rack of doggie raincoats with the black and silver ones on sale! At home, with the tags off, I tried it on her again. It’s a bit big but will likely be perfect when she’s full grown. Anyway, she wasn’t impressed and seemed to think that it was impossible to move while wearing it. A tennis ball tossed down the hill was chased by a stiffly moving dog.

We are surfing cruises! That’s optimism!!

Awesome!

“Lupa meeting a new puppy”

“the music of spring”

“Northern Flicker in the tree by the feeder”

“2 robins in a territorial descent”

a spell was cast

 As the days go by Lupa is becoming more and more our dog. She’s getting past some of the puppy hurdles (chewing on everything and housebreaking) and becoming a good dog. For the first few weeks that we had her I had serious regrets and wondered if I’d ever be fond of her. I would have given her back if that had been an option. Today? We’ll keep her ;-) 

We actually wonder if the woman I met at Pet Valu was a witch, a white witch, and that she cast a 'good dog' spell on Lupa.

She’s showing signs of improvement and as the days pass I find myself growing more and more fond of her. She’s very sweet and happy to cuddle up with us. The days (weeks?) of angst have passed, replaced by optimism. 

We didn’t go anywhere with her yesterday (15cm of snow kept us off the roads), but today, after an aborted trip to Kirsten’s, we went to the Home Hardware parking lot again. I figure if I can’t get attention there, what hope do I have for an area with more distraction… She was wound up at first but we walked around for a while letting her sniff. By the time we stopped to chat with a random guy (who recognized Carm from working years), she settled right down. She’d sit, give me attention, not pull on her leash! She was great! Good feelings washed over me embellished with lots of hope. 

She’s just 21 weeks so I shouldn’t expect her to behave like Spike after his service dog training. I do tend to compare her with him, which isn’t fair at all; he was born a good dog but she has to work at it a bit. I miss him like crazy and sometimes feel guilty that my affections are transferring to Lupa. Maybe someday a time will come when I don’t cry for him every day. I still picture him lying at the bottom of his grave, lifeless.

Tonight we went to Trudie & Leo’s with her. A new house and a cat…

… almost time for bed but I wanted to share (overshare?) Lupa’s success at visiting Trudie & Leo. Aside from an intense interest in the cat, she was fantastic. For the first little while she wandered around sniffing until eventually she settled down with a bully stick. She was as good as I would expect from an older dog. 🥰❤🐈‍⬛ 

Awesome!

“online visit with Kirsten and Shawn”

“a bit of sunshine”

“everything Lupa today”

a great dog

 Kind words from strangers can turn your life around, or at least refocus it to what is in front of you vs the awfulization that I am sometimes prone to. We’d set up a meeting with Kirsten at the Pet Valu in the town in the middle. We got there early for some extra time (which we needed). Entering the store Lupa was barking and carrying on when she saw people - anxiety? excitement? I’m not sure. Once I got her a bit settled a woman came over to talk and pet Lupa. Lupa was all over her and loving all the pets, and coincidently, stopped barking at people.

Anyway, we were talking and I was lamenting on our challenges but this woman said that she was sure Lupa would turn out to be a great dog. And I looked at Lupa soaking up the attention of a stranger, in a strange environment and I realized that yes, I think she will.

Those kind, encouraging words from a stranger changed my outlook and probably rubbed off on the whirlwind as well.

I thought about how much easier our days are becoming - she no longer needs 100% of my attention for 100% of the day. I can get off the sofa when she’s sleeping and she doesn’t jump up before I’ve reached the edge of the carpet. Our trips out of the house seem to be doing some good and the more consistent training that she’s getting is starting to pay off.

She’s learned to sit at the door when she comes inside while I take off her leash and remove my boots (and now my coat) before finally getting a little treat. She’s gotten good at this. She is running into her bedtime crate now. She’s not chewing on absolutely everything.

And then there was yesterday’s puppy class. Our instructor was amazed at how much better she was doing - Lupa was like a new dog, able to pay attention and do most of the exercises - last week she could barely sit, let alone stay with eye contact. She was interacting with the other puppies much better. I was amazed and very pleased with her progress. I’m not sure how much the CBD has to do with her transformation, but I suspect it’s helping, especially when away from home.

We had a short outing with her today where she got to meet a nice lady and also sniff around the parking lot and sidewalk around the hardware store. Was she focused on me? Rarely, but it was still a positive experience.

Pat was over for supper last night - Lupa barked like crazy when Pat was getting her coat off but once I let her go, she ran over to Pat crying with excitement. So barking = over excited. For that we need to train a calm down cue. How do I do that?

And one other thing: in the last week or so her bladder seems to have matured - she no longer has to go out every 15 minutes for an hour or two after her breakfast but can now go 2 whole hours at a time. Well, night time is not as great. BD (before diarrhoea), she was sleeping through the night - now she has to go out once in the middle of the night. I don’t know how to break that habit.

!!!! Lupa just rang the bell to go outside for a poop!!!! I was in the livingroom and actually heard the ring. This is a huge breakthrough!

A photo from last year of Spike cuddled up in the summer quilt on our bed popped up today, prompting a couple of tears, but also the motivation to take down the coloured lights and garlands. That, plus a changeup of pillows and sofa blankets has switched us from winter to spring. Optimistic? Perhaps.

Awesome!

“Lupa trying to play with the other puppies”

“hearing the bell ring”

“the summery smell of fresh strawberries”

matchy matchy

 The other day (I think I mentioned that I might do this), I created a database to track Lupa’s training progress. As I thought, this gives me better focus and motivation to spend the time with her. I could still improve.

Saturday we took Lupa into the village for some more exposure. We parked at Home Hardware and I walked her around the parking lot. There were some people walking around which made her bark at first, but gradually she settled down a bit. We need to do this often.

I’ve been giving her a little bit of CBD every morning which may or may not help.

We’ve had freezing rain, snow, and a glorious few hours of 14C with sun. Tendrils of spring are littantalizing us with what is to come. In some ways it’s been a very long winter, but on the other hand short. I’ve spent much of the time grieving (shouldn’t that be over by now), and the rest running after a little hellion! It’s getting better though - I’m not saying NO a few hundred times a day, maybe it’s only 30 times a day. I was sure I’d lose all other vocabulary I was saying it so often.

I’m still not cooking much - last night we had a pot roast (in the instant pot) with instant mashed potatoes and canned green beans. Hardly gourmet fare!

I don’t know if it’s because of what’s going on in the world or grieving, all compounded by the time of year, but I’ve been struggling with almost paralyzing anxiety and feelings of doom. Waves of the sickly feeling wash over me, almost buckling me at the knees. It seems to come out of nowhere and I can’t seem to work my way past it. I’m still taking CBD every morning, but it’s so bad that I’ve gone back to my big gun meds. They help a bit, but it takes adding THC to dull the awful feelings.

My obsessive need to match things had me surfing on Amazon for silver grey reflective para cord. It arrived a few days later and after a trip to the hardware store for a leash clip, I had it spread out on the floor, measured and ready to braid.

It took a few passes before I really got the hang of dealing with three 10 foot long strings that were being backwards braided, but once I did the cords transformed into a lovely silver leash for little Lupa!

Awesome!

“a warm springlike day!”

“I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.”

― Doris Day

first trip into village

 This morning I gave Lupa a few drops of CBD oil soaked into a treat. The plan was to take her somewhere today and I wanted to stack the odds in our favour. After lunch we drove into the village for 10 minutes of walking around looking at things. It was her first time going for a proper walk and overall I think she did well.

Oh sure, she was straining on the leash trying to smell everything but as our walk continued I was able to get her attention back to me for short (micro short) periods. She barked at a dog across the street - we now know her threshold distance is far. We’ll do a walk or other adventure every day this week and see how that goes. Maybe she’ll be better at school next week.

And that’s it! I’ll post this before I forget :-)

Awesome!

“the whiteness of the earth is a stark beauty”

sent to the principals office

 Again, yesterday I wrote in the afternoon (when I wasn’t stopping Lupa from getting into trouble), and as night fell last night, instead of finishing up and posting, we had a virtual visit with Olaf and Steph. Which was a better use of my time than the babble that I post here!

So this was yesterday (Wednesday):

I was sitting here on the sofa, Lupa beside me tuckered out from her big trip to Pet Valu, or at least I thought she was chilling, as it turned out she was trying to eat the corner of my tablet… I swear!!!

Today was sunny with very little wind - the perfect day for a drive: destination Pet Valu for some socialisation with Lupa. We lucked in with our timing as there were 4 ladies to ooh and awww over her :-) One of the ladies had bred and shown collies for 30 years and was just starting out with cavalier king charles spaniels. She made a nice comment about Lupa’s conformation (and was kind enough to refrain from gasping over the fact that Lupa looks like she’s ½ something other than schnauzer!). They all loved her colour and rough coat. She lapped it up :-)

Lupa and I walked up and down the aisles with some ‘this way’s to get her attention. It went much better than the last time!

We picked up some raw dehydrated food to hand out as a ‘go back to sleep after your morning pee’ snack - maybe she won’t be so starving and will sleep longer before her breakfast. Of course I’ll have to start slowly with introducing a new food - yikes! She’s fully transitioned to kibble now and her poops seem good. It’s hard for me not to give her chicken hearts and all manner of treats, but I must remain strong and take my time. (on edit: I messed up and fed her something weird at school and she’s shown some poop problems).

Puppy class is tomorrow - I hope she can focus better than the last time.

And this is today (Thursday):

Puppy class was an absolute nightmare. Lupa barked for the first 5 minutes then was totally distracted the rest of the time. While other puppies were practising sit and down, Lupa was standing and straining at her leash. Forget working on eye contact, I couldn’t even get her to look my way. During the off leash parts she either sat under my chair or lunged at other dogs. Not social at all. The instructor says the barking is due to anxiety and thought we might want to check with the vet for some anti-anxiety drugs for now. Hmmm… maybe I should try a low dose of cbd? It works for me so maybe it would help her during stressful situations.

I did come home and have a frustrated, missing Spike cry, then gave myself a shake and started building a training plan database. It was something I could do to make me feel somewhat in control. I’ve never been good at doing things I’m not good at and honestly, Lupa is not an easy puppy.

Awesome!

“Lupa sitting quietly (for a moment) in the store”

“chicken shwarma”