Day 222

Sanity is 10 months old today. And that means she is another month closer to being a good working partner instead of the "you can't tell me what to do" girl.

With his new hair do and the fact that Sanity has just about totally knocked the bong out of him, Tyler is now able to be out in the yard with all the other dogs. Well, he is able to be out with the Tuesday dogs. I still won't let him out with the Thursday or Friday dogs. He doesn't need to know that part. Right now he does his best to stick with Sanity and do exactly what she does. He is also wearing a long string again to help him understand that he HAS to come each and every single time he is called.

Since the pans from last night's dinner had not been picked up, when we went in the breakfast room, Wrap immediately grabbed one and handed it to me. Sanity made a pass at the other and then changed her mind. I insisted she fetch it. She keeps trying to pick it up by the near edge rather than the far edge. This makes the pickup really difficult and so she doesn't want to do it. I insisted. She finally managed and sure enough, she doesn't want to lift up her head. Of course with the way she is holding the pan, lifting her head really isn't much of an option. I let her off the hook butI then turned around and made her fetch and hold that very same pan the right way.

Tyler got a dry food breakfast only this morning because I have been worrying about his not getting enough crunchy in his diet. Sanity got her little paper bowl of food and Wrap got her normal morning cookie. After finishing her food Sanity picked up the bowl and brought it to the kitchen. She then proceeded to try to start a game of keep-away with me. I don't do keep-away games. So we are back to arguing over how, why, when and where she is going to do this fetch. She was on the rug. I told her to sit. She sat and as she sat she spat out the bowl. I told her to fetch. She stood up, fetched the bowl and refused to sit and give it to me. I enforced the sit command. She spat out the bowl. I enforced the fetch command and she managed to fetch and sit. Of course, true to her current behavior she tucked her chin in and turned her head away. I wonder if this is the reason I go to bed at night so tired?

I had a doctor's appointment today. For the very first time Sanity went along. She did great. After the doctor's appointment I then had to go to the Lab for a blood draw. Again, she did great. She was very interested in everything and everyone. Walked around with her brow all wrinkled in that way she has when she is working hard to take in everything at once and do a major information brain dump at the same time.

By the time we got home it was time to exercise and then feed everyone. And now we are both too tired to do articles this evening. Guess I should have tried to figure out a way to have done them earlier. But missing a day every now and again shouldn't be too bad for the schedule.