It seems Mississippi’s progress goes a little something like the hustle. There’s lots of steps forward and lots of steps back. She continues to get better on walks and she’s way more mellow at home most of the time. She comes inside almost every time we ask her. She lets us sleep through the night and she lets us watch some tv at night as long as she gets belly rubs. She’s getting really good at asking for belly rubs and back scratches. On the flip side, she still sometimes barks up a storm for no reason (well, her reason is usually boredom or frustration) and she still tries to eat things she shouldn’t. She still occasionally tries to burst our eardrums when passing a dog in the car.
I am swamped with work right now so she’s been in doggy day care all day for two days. She loves it there. I think she loves Roxy’s more than she loves us. I don’t really blame her. She’s just not cut out for web development work. It’s so boring. Roxy’s has all those dogs and people to play with all day long. After day care, she’s a very happy pup. Before daycare, she’s bored and antsy. I tried to let her out in the backyard this morning as we got ready but she just ran back and forth from the front to the back, barking up a storm. We have to bring her inside when she barks. She’s got to learn that barking means you come inside. Then Tom tried to take her for her morning walk and she started barking ‘right out of the gate’. He had to bring her inside, let her cool off for a minute and tried again. The second time around I think they got as far as the driveway before she started up again. She didn’t get a walk this morning.
I had a conference call this morning and I knew she was going to bark up a storm so I took her in for a half day of day care. I know day care is the best option for her but I still feel guilty dropping her off for someone else to take care of. I’m still not able to admit to myself that my day job does not fit in with her 1 year old lifestyle. She’s so much happier wrestling with other dogs than having to be quiet at home with no one to play with because mom has meetings and work.
Yesterday I picked her up from Roxy’s and we walked all the way home. She was fantastic. If she started walking ahead of me, she’d slow down and wait for me to catch up. This behavior got lots of treats and praise. She didn’t bark at a single dog and didn’t try to jump on a single person. She got a little riled up around other dogs but she kept her cool and thus got lots of love and treats. At home she was sweet as pie and she was pretty tuckered out by dinner time.
I am going to have to face up to the fact that if I plan on keeping her at home on a work day, I’m probably going to have to get up early and take her to a dog park. She just has way too much energy in the morning. It’s a bit of a drive and there aren’t very many dogs in the morning. I’m hoping it’ll work. We’ll see. If there aren’t other dogs, I can at least try to work on her walking with me off leash.
Bees. Mississippi loves hunting and eating bees. She snaps at them until them are on the ground, then carefully eats them. They probably taste sweet. She moves from bee to bee, one after another. She’s so obsessed with them that I could probably wave a whole roasted turkey in her face and she wouldn’t come away from the bees. I can’t keep her out of the yard, so I just have to hope she doesn’t get hurt. The other night she was making loud gagging, coughing noises. Could be bees, could be from eating something else. I don’t know. All I can do is try to keep her away from stuff that’s bad for her to eat. I just have to hope she’s as good of a bee catcher as she thinks she is. Maybe she’ll get stung a couple times and change her mind about the bees. For now, I’ll just keep my eye on her.
I’m starting to think that maybe she wound up at the OHS because of something she ate. She had a very long scar down her belly which I assumed was a spay scar. Now I’m thinking maybe she needed something removed from her belly and the previous owners couldn’t afford the surgery. Maybe? Who knows. The scar runs all the way from her sternum to her tail.
We start a group class at the Sellwood community center next week. I am hoping she can remain calm during class. She’s getting better at being around other dogs without barking up a storm but it still happens pretty regularly. I’m also going to try to start bringing her more places. On days when she’s at home with me, I’m going to start taking her to Mocha Momma’s and attempting to sit out on their patio for a few minutes at a time. I’m hoping once she gets used to being there, she’ll be able to hang out with me for a whole coffee, maybe even hang out while I do some work. Then who knows, someday she can come with us to other places that allow dogs. A couple of pints with our doggy on an outdoor patio sounds divine. Someday little girl, someday.