Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Quality

I almost didn't get this done. I came back from a bitter cold walk with Rocket, made myself some mac and cheese and bbq  pulled chicken, fed Rocket and then settled into my electric blanket and the TV.

Rocket not beign a stuiped animal, has learned that the best place to be is not on the quilt but under the quilt and he will burrow under if forced, it allows him to be surrounded by warmth and he and I like it better that way. I get all the benefits of electric blanket warmth as well as warm dog comfort. The dog figured out the wonder of being under the covers his first winter, I have been trying to convince the cat of that for six years to no avail.

I don't know if the cat is just that dim or his fur is just that thick.

Today on the Dog Spy 2000, I saw that the reason Rocket is so good beteeen six and noon is because Rocket is asleep between six and noon. He doesn't start passing and fussing and  peeing until at least a quarter to two. And then he's bouncing off the walls. The Prozac is  working but I need something with a slower release,something that might cover him for longer than six hours.

Today he peed on the bedding I left for him in the crate and then he pulled the sodden fabric onto the floor, ostensibly to steep, the plastic  floor of the crate being impenetrable and lacks the capacity to become as satisfyingly saturated as the hardwood floor.

Leaf Me Alone

A better weekend than last.

I went to the Raleigh Christmas parade, found it very similar to the one from last year, except this year instead of one or two helium balloons there were no helium balloons! Due to a worldwide shortage of helium. Instead we had an air blown  beaver. Merry Damchristmas!

I also raked the yard the old fashioned way - I would have vacuumed it but the leave coverage was too deep and I don't want to burn out my mower motor doing something stupid I could do by hand. The mower is pretty green but nothing is as green as a rake. It should be about reducing our carbon footprint, not making our lives easier. At least until we can vacuum the yard without putting the mower at risk.

I on purpose didn't get all the leaves up because the canopy is still pretty full on it and there is no point to expending  the time and energy and the creation of blisters, of getting the leaves all up, only to have more fall. I'll be more careful when the leaves have all fallen and then I pull out the mower and really clean everything up.  Until then, I'm not going to put the effort into it.

My plan proved its worth in a few hours

I mean, whats the point?  The city will come along and take the leaves but I don't know when that will be done next.I guess it gives me time to get this layer up and to the curb. The backyard is on its own, the leaf coverage will make for very nice mulch.  I bet the weeds that make up my front yard would also appreciate the layer of mulch but sadly, they don't rate the same care as my vegetables. Sorry weeds. And also, the neighbors don't have to deal at my mulchy back yard the same way as they have to deal with the leaves that escape from my front yard and colonize their yards. I'm just as much of  a leafe blown victim as they are - The hipsters haven't raked any of their hateful eaves from their hateful tree at all BECAUSE ALL THEIR LEAVES ARE IN MY YARD, ON MY DRIVEWAY AND ON MY PATIO.

I think I'lltake the dog out to pee. IN THEIR YARD.

Made with #Pixlr # - http://pixlr.com/mobile

Made with #Pixlr # - http://pixlr.com/mobile

Friday Cat Blogging

Bar Dog II

Rocket and I went to our second Cause for Paws fund raiser at The London Bridge Pub and Rocket tied with two other dogs for third place for Cutest Dog! He got the adulation of dozens and I got a neat tee-shirt!

Poor dog, by the end of the evening he was  just about zonked out! He spent the day at Daycare and so he hasn't really slept all day - he needs his beauty rest if he is going to be at the best at da club into the evening hours.

Such a good boy though and we had a great time.

Here he is checking out the competition

He took this "selfy" after I became suspicious that someone had spiked the water bowls!

Here he is at the end of the evening, totally chill waiting for the announcement of the winners. No stress here, note his total confidence in himself.

Got 'er done

The sum total of my accomplishments for the day:

Ta Da!


whispered as to not tempt fate: thedogwasdryallday

He makes up his own challenges.

My new project is going to be getting the Spring tablecloth off the dining room table and getting the Autumn tablecloth on. Thus far I have been unsuccessful in this. I plan on getting this done before I put on the  Christmas tablecloth. I am ever hopeful.

Over the weekend I tilled up the gardens and winterized the outside of the house. I even took the hoses to the basement and stored them more or less neatly, better than last year when they spent the winter on the floor.

Monday I vacuumed/raked the living-room floor and swept and vacuumed the dogs room. I have made the executive decision hat he isn't going to be shredding anything else. It's messy and makes trash and I think he can play with his toys just has energetically and not make such a mess. But on the other hand, he doesn't play with his toys unless directed to do so and according to Dog Spy, sometimes the only thing he will voluntarily interact with during the day is cardboard.

Maybe instead of completely removing the boxes, I could limit his toy boxes in the future to only larger, hardier boxes that don't fall apart as quickly; additionally, boxes don't roll under the futon and disappear  into the land of the gone-and-forgotten-toys

In today's Dog Spy it was reiterated that Rocket Loves the Window. A Lot. Perhaps more than he loves me. He also wants his futon back, badly. Which is unhappy making for me.  Today, I watched him clearly spending time investigating chairs and how they are arranged there, and I  know that he will move on to more active experiments with them and that way lies educational destruction of private property and him getting himself back on the futon without my input.

My plan was to tart up the bedding in the crate, but I don't think its going to soft and cushy and up off the ground enough to make it as attractive an option as the futon. I fear if I don't physically remove the futon from the room ( really not an attractive option for me) I do not see him him ignoring it to spend the majority of his day in the crate.

On the futon he gets access to 1. Light,  2. Warmth, 3. A Good View Out The Window.  He's spends more time looking out his window than an old lady in a New York based sitcom. I can't deny him what little pleasure he makes for himself. Also,  my chairs work better when they not broken.

Today he peed once, but with great vigor.

New Day for Doggy

Going into Day 6 of Operation Dog Spy, I made some changes to Rockets environment. I removed his beloved ottoman, covered the futon with chairs and moved the crate from one side of the room to directly under the window.

So instead of spending his day like this

He spent his day like this

He also had quite a few spells where he found himself inside the crate but didn't seem to understand why he was there.

He spent much more of the day in motion, I ended up with many, many more shots on Monday than I had the previous days. He didn't sleep as much and seemed to spend much of his day trying to figure out ways of getting a better view out the window. Challenge is good, keeping moving is good but I am a little afraid he was pacing, which is not good.

For Tuesday, I am taking some pity on the poor guy and I moved the crate back to its original location so that he can access the window easier. He really, really seems to need to get to it easily  for his doggy happiness and I do not want to take that away from him. I am already keeping him off his futon and the couch (only with permission and a 10 count wait) and the my chair (without me)  so he is feeling the pinch of  New Rules as it is. I don't want to overwhelm him.

Monday evening I took some of the behaviorists advice and started to teach him the names of his toys. I am sure he all ready has named these toys but I am teaching him the English names of them as well so he can be multilingual and get into a really good doggy secondary school. Today we started with Squeaky Toy

Squeaky is  sturdy rubber and shaped like a football and so far has held off being destroyed .We like Squeaky. Today I named it officially and showed it to Rocket. Then we played "Hide and Squeaky" and I tasked the dog to find the named toy. Every time he found or at the very least looked for it, he got a treat. I tried for "Bring me Squeaky", but this was a little outside what he was ready for so soon. I settled on him looking for and finding it with as little help as possible.Another task was having him Sit and Stay in the kitchen while I hid the toy, we were only some what successful with this but he showed improvement by the end of the game.

We spend the next week naming and playing with Squeaky until really recognizes that toy as Squeaky. Next week we name another toy and spend a week with it. Eventually we will name all the toys and he will have developed a little vocabulary.

Today he peed the floor twice.

I hate everything.

Very depressing weekend. I had to make the very painful choice to not send  out cookies this year. I really, really enjoy this project and it kills me to not be able to do it this year. I'm just too poor to be both Aunt Cookie and Santa. I just can't

I had made two batches and then got a bill and I called it quits. I don't buy "things", I feed myself and the animals and the car. I have not as much as CoL pay increase in years but at the same time, everything else has gone up in price and its not fair. Even worse, Rocket doesn't seem to like my cookies, I fed him a couple and he didn't seem to understand how to eat them. My house is filthy and the kitchen is filthy and the wasps are back and I make no progression in anything ever.

The dog won't stop wetting the floor and I'm transitioning him back to being crated all day for the first time since last summer and this is not the progress I wanted to make, its moving backwards and I do not believe that it is going to stop the peeing, its just going to change where he pees and now I'll have a dirty dog as well as a dirty crate.  I had to remove his ottoman out of the room and move the crate to the area in front of the window,I am hoping this will make him a little happier about his new lifestyle. I also made it so he can't get up on the futon while he is in the room for any reason. I put him in the crate while I went to church and he was miserable.

We are as one in our misery. At least we share that.

Friday Cat Blogging

Did list

Things I  did instead of writing an entry:

- Took the dog on an abbreviated walk
- Made some hard choices about the annual dog cookie bake-o-rama
- Vacuumed the front yard of leaves in the near dark
- Put a lamp back together after the dog knocked it over chasing the cat, did not kill dog.
- Vacuumed up broken light bulb, cursed dog and cat.
- went to  the really nice holiday open house held at my favorite nursery, bought only one thing.
- went to Wally World, bought more than one thing
- Remembered to put out trash and recycling.

I spy

I have found an exciting new hobby. Some  people cook,some clean, some put tiny ships into bottles.I spy on my dog. I'm doing this to widen my knowledge base of dog behavior while also trying to figure out what is triggering Rocket to freakout and thus be able to make this behavior stop. And I've been curious as all hell about what he does all day.

I borrowed my fathers game camera and set it up in the office and waited to have the answers of the cosmos dropped in my lap.  What I learned:  Rocket sleeps a lot. He spends the early part of the day curled upon the futon but then he  shifts to the hassock  and spends the majority of  his day curled up there in front of the window. His day is punctuated by looking out the window and changing sleep positions.

I have not captured a freak-out or any obvious triggers. I know that possibly he is alerted by the phone ringing, but it doesn't cause behavior problems. I have also not captured when he pees - which he does one time each day or what causes a fully potty trained dog to do this

The behaviorist  came Tuesday evening and gave me a lot of good ideas, some I'll put into practice A) feeding him in the office room, B) spending more time myself in the office room with him, 3) Initiating a lot of new rules for him to remind him I am the Alpha,  C) Making sure he is always"below" me ,i.e when I am on the lounge which is somewhat shorter than the couch, he must be on the floor or on the actual dog bed in the room, D) He can be on the couch when I am on the couch or elsewhere but he must earn the privilege to be there,  E) Getting him new toys to cycle out with the old toys so he will actually have some interest in them. F) Teaching him dog tricks to bring us closer and give him more to do and make him more tired both physically and mentally.

He also had some ideas I am not going to do. 1) put him into a different environment in the house and  2) cover up his window so he can't see out of it.  I have mulled over moving the crate to block his access to the main window and moving his hassock to the other window as a possibility though.

From the images the camera has captured I know Rocket spend hours and hours either directly in front of tthe big main window or watching it from the futon and he seems fine with this. I don't want to cause waves in a calm sea by changing his whole world! I think he likes the warmth from the almost all day sun and he seems to really enjoy watching the neighborhood go by as entertainment and stimulation.

However,almostall day light and warmth is also available though the other window but there is much less to possibly over stimulate him. Although my spying has not uncovered evidence of this as yet.