I figured Terrible Tuesday was an apt name for a follow up to Bloody Sunday. I should have learned my lesson by now that *if* you take a kid to urgent care you WILL get sick. And TA DA.. Guess what has happened? The Sore Throat of Doom has descended upon me (as well as the facet nose, oozing eyes, and mucusy cough, but whatever). I should know better than to go into an Urgent Care well and come out well. Oy.
On Sunday afternoon I got bored (well not *bored* exactly, but close enough) and started
clicker training the dogs. I must admit the theory sounds kind of bizarre, but oh my goodness! It's working! It's like lazy super fast dog training cool stuff. The dogs have always been fairly well mannered, but ever since Timmy (Yes, Killer the Beagle -
the thumb eater) I've been a bit afraid of the dog's mouth. It probably doesn't help the issue that I have to go to the hand specialist tomorrow to get the thumb looked at since I still can't grip with it.
This has led to a good amount of just flat out ignoring the dog. Not really on purpose, just... One of those things that happens when you have your thumb crunched by a dog and then you get paranoid of the dog, ignoring happens. So subsequently, some minor bad behaviors started creeping in - more outside barking, not coming as quickly when called. Things you might expect when you ignore a dog. (Go figure right?) Anyhow. Instead of just getting rid of the poor Beagle (who is really blameless in the thumb eating incident) figured I should just get over the paranoia instead. The Beagle, especially, LOVES it. He bolts to attention when he's called now. He can *almost* bark on command. (It's about 70% there, with the theory that if he does it on command he won't do it as much other times.) He pounces to the ground to down.He dives into his crate when asked to. But best, he's lost that *crazy* look he's been having, probably from being ignored too much. Not as much crazy look, not as much paranoia = more time out.
Bear, the actual puppy, is a bit more lazy about his approach than Beagle. He has picked a few things up, but he kinda sorta lopes places like a giant, black polar bear with nothing in particular to do. He *may* come hastily if the treat is super good, but mostly he'll amble over when he's ready. He's the laziest 7 month old puppy I have ever seen.
Hopefully I can get some pictures soon of them both doing something cool. We're working on Speak (barking on command), Leave It (ignoring whatever it is they are sniffing), Down (mostly for Bear because he's lazy and won't do it on purpose) and whatever other random things we can come up with. Maybe something like get your bowl or something useful.
As a follow up from Sunday, the Boy is no longer breathing like a Helicopter, but is instead a moody ball of steroid crying mess. He's not eating yet either (ie today he's had a cut up apple, half a banana, and 1/4 of a small slushee from Sonic - it's 3 pm.), which has me concerned because usually steroids make people eat like raving loons.
The kids want to clicker train the cats, but we're tried a few treats and can't find anything they really
want which is the first step of the battle so once we do it'll be easier. May try hot dogs next time we have some or something like that, but since we have so many cats, it may be a little harder.
