Day 242

What a brat! Miss Piggy figured out how to open one of the food bins at some point during the night or very early this morning. She must have eaten at least 12 cups of food from the looks of the bin. See I know I was very careful to make sure it latched when I closed it last night. I've been through this with Wrap and she was getting the bins open when I forgot to make sure they had latched. This taught me to close the door, push to engage the latch and then check to make sure it really was latched.

So now Miss Piggy is waddling around here with a big belly and in no condition to do anything other than run outside to potty a whole lot. The food bins are now snap bolted shut. If she figures out a way to open the bolts I'm not sure what I will do.

While Miss Piggy was busy stuffing herself outside another interesting battle was raging. This is the evil tree rat and one of the combatants.

This is the fearless leader with a ground crew to back her up. See her climb. Up and up she goes to wage battle in the sky.Can you even believe what you are seeing?Yes, that really is the evil tree rat on the underside of the tree trunk and, yes, our brave and fearless squirrel hunter is higher up the tree than the squirrel. High above the ground the battle rages.At this point our fearless hound is about 20 feet off the ground.

And now we will take a break in the story to hear a word from our sponsor. Just kidding. Bet you are wondering just how the fearless hound manages to get back down to earth without getting hurt. Actually, it is pretty easy. I call her and she comes. And now back to the story.


I just called her and what you are now seeing is the beginning of what I call the high turn.
And now she comes at a run.This is what I call a reliable recall, how about you?

Later in the morning I did get to work Miss Piggy aka Sanity on articles. She is working with three metal now. Two taboo and one correct one. The articles are being placed in a row with the correct article at 9 o'clock and the two taboo articles at center of clock face and 3 o'clock. Each time she went straight to the pile and started slapping the articles around, grabbing them, spitting them out, flipping them and finally selecting the correct one and returning. At this point I am only stepping in to correct when she either stops working all together or insists on coming back with a taboo article.

Since Callie, the Newfie, is also working only one step behind Sanity, it is worth noting that her way of showing her uncertainty is to go to the pile and start walking in circles around it. Around and around and around until finally she will stop next to the correct article and then she just freezes. A correction happens and the next time she is just fine.

Each dog has her own way of showing just how uncertain they are about what they are currently doing. It is worth noting that this morning lesson was outside and it was pretty darn cold and windy.

Tyler continues to struggle with his step lessons. His entire attitude being that of "Please, oh please, don't make me have to think about what I am doing." This too, shall pass. During the lessons I had all the dogs stay outside and Tyler was in a kennel run with a Maltese, a giant Yorkie and an Italian Greyhound. By the time it was time to come in they all pretty much had it with him. He just went from one to another pestering and teasing and generally making a nuisance of himself. He is doing just fine.

When evening rolled around, Miss Piggy aka Sanity was still looking oh so firm and fully packed. That being the case she got a whole 1/4 of a cup of food for dinner. You should have seen the look on her face when I put her pan down.
"That's all? Come on, where is the rest of my dinner?"

Later when it was time for the Monday evening class, she groaned all the way down the stairs, flopped on the bed in the corner and proceeded to fart her way through the class. Working articles for the second time about all I can say is that there was less of the goofing off behavior and more attention to what she needs to do.

And finally the day was done.