first day of school

 Wednesday… It’s going to be a long day… I have an irritating headache...it’s only 10:30 and Adia has been ‘canned’ for the second (or is it the third) time today; Lupa the same. Oh, for a few minutes of peace!

We’ve done a bit of puppy socialisation over the last few days: on Monday, Marie from across the street came by for the afternoon and yesterday we had a trip to Pet Valu. She loves people and will gladly crawl into laps. We didn’t get to see other dogs yesterday though but tomorrow’s puppy class will rectify that. I hope she’s good. I’ve always had the ‘best in the class’ dog and I’d like to keep that up!

brief interruption: Lupa was standing by the front door asking to go outside where she peed and pooped! It was a definite ask. No bells though. Adia is still locked up; Lupa is lying on the loveseat. Oh bliss!

---------- and that was yesterday. Somehow the time got away from me and with a headache and canna cookie any creativity that I may have had vanished.

This morning was as I’d feared. After having 4 dogs who were the smartest in the class I now had a dog that barked like crazy and couldn’t listen to me at all. It was humbling and perhaps had a whiff of karma thrown in. The first 5 minutes were awful but I tried not to stress about it and fed lots of high value treats when quiet. Finally she was mostly quiet and could sit on the floor watching. Oh, she had no attention span and ignored everything I tried to do with her… I consider it a win though.

And this afternoon, after being outside for a while Lupa was playing in the house and then ran over to the front door. Took her out and she had a little (loose) poo! That’s not the first time she’s asked for the door - she’s learning! It was 2 weeks yesterday that we brought her home so I don’t expect miracles... I’m not saying she’s a genius (she’s not), but she’s no dummy either. Maybe the bell will be in her future.

We had snow last night and into this morning - enough to screw up the roads, but not too much to keep me from driving to ‘school’. Luckily the class is just over 5 minutes away (even at chicken speeds).

Awesome!

“good puppy in the pet store”

“puppy zoomies good… grown rhodesian ridgeback zoomies, not so great in the house”

“thank goodness Adia is quiet and relaxed in her crate!”

“learning not to bark at the puppies in her class”

“that moment when she sat down in class and gave me eye contact”