Day 260

Regular nail appointment was changed from 11 to 12 and for once in more weeks than I care to remember we were actually a little early. My problem has been I just seem to move so slowly in the morning anymore and it takes forever to get all the dogs checked in, exercised and then kenneled so we can leave. However, this new med I am on seems to be fixing a goodly part of the problem. Enough on me.

Sanity led the entire pack on a long, wild chase this morning. It was so wonderful to watch her really stretch out. Her determination to always be the leader is amazing. On a working level, the best part of that long run was that all the dogs were content to come in and kennel up when it was time for us to leave. Once in the shop, Sanity simply passed out and was so fast asleep she was snoring. When it was time to leave, I woke her, gave her time to stretch and then told her to fetch my cane.

Watching her doing what I have been considering "screwing around", Janene says to me, "You know, it looks like she is trying to use her paws like hands to pick your cane up."

I had never looked at what was going on in the way before. In watching Sanity, struggling with her front paws on and around the cane, I was forced to agree with Janene. It really did look as if she wanted to use her paws like I use my hands. When she finally managed to pick it up, instead of going for the balance point, she insisted on holding it by the hand grip. This grip caused her to drop the cane several times before she was able to swing it around and lift it, still using the hand grip, high enough for me to catch it.

Later in the afternoon when we went to work articles, I realized that she was actually doing the same thing with them. Curious about this strange trait I sent her to fetch a pan, a towel, a set of keys, a pair of shoes and a pencil. In every single case she first tried to use her paws and didn't switch to her mouth until she was totally frustrated with the paws results. She just keeps on doing things that remind me of my wonderful Charity. I just hope I can be as good an owner and trainer this time around as I was for Charity.

Tyler and the sit command. Right now he just glares at me every single time I tell him to sit. We are now in the "come within my line of sight and I will tell you to sit" stage of the training. Don stopped by and dropped off Bitsy's old dumbbell. This means Tyler will start his retrieve training sometime within the next couple of weeks. I will give the sit a chance to jell and will be starting the place command next. Once those two are well started we will move on to the fetch command. Sure hope he is more reasonable about it than Sanity. Please, no more fetch with my paws dogs for a while.