Spring Fever Reducer

Yesterday Mi, Raven & I went for a 2 mile walk on the bike trail towards Grant's Farm. It was SO good to get out of the house, see the sun shine, barely see any snow laying around and being able to walk on clear sidewalks again! The sky was blue, small critters and birds were peeking out from the trees and Linn creek was babbling along at a pretty good clip with all the melting going on this past week. There were other families, many with their own dogs, out enjoying some excercise. Raven has so much yet to learn about leash and walking etiquette. She finally was able to stop pulling and heel but not before giving Mi's arm a workout. She'll be turning 1 year next month and hasn't had any opportunities to have more leash training over the winter so for our first reintroduction I think it is promising. Eventually we'll get her to be less concerned with other dogs walking by and not feel the need to pounce and play with them! We're hoping we could meet some people on the bike trail maybe and find some suitable dogs for her to socialize with too if they are willing. We are also hoping the dog park is going to open by summer but I'm not sure how close they are to their fundraising goal for that to happen this year. She's made a lot of progress over the winter in maturing and growing out of the chew everything stages. She's completely housebroken unless of course one of us isn't really paying attention when she's trying to tell us LOOK let me out and get off the phone, etc. But that has become few and far between. We're even allowing her to sleep with Chase this week and not lock her crate. I figured this way she could choose if she wanted to stay in the crate, sleep on the couch or go up to his room. She chose to sleep with him so we'll see how that goes and readjust if necessary. Once I go back to work the idea of locking her all day again in her crate plus during the night isn't sitting well so this is one way of compromising. Mi cannot sleep with her in our room on the floor because she moves around a bit and her tags jingle keeping him awake. I would get used to it but he works hard and needs his sleep so I conceded this battle. I know Mi's being patient as it is with me letting her out of her crate at night period so we're all compromising really. Except Chase of course! -laughs-

Chase is still struggling with personal responsibility, organization, focusing on things not involving play, staying on task and taking care of his own responsibilities. I go back and forth with micromanaging him to making it soley his responsibility and neither seem to be working. This morning I was overly frustrated with his lack of getting everything done like feeding the dog, finding his house key and general shortness of tone when talking to me. I think I am just as guilty today of the tone issue though in that I have no patience nor tolerance but we will teach that boy manners and responsibility if it's the last thing we do. Which it just may be at this rate! -laughs- He's improved in many ways though so I should give a more balanced picture. He does the majority of the time speak and act respectfully but it's frustrating when it's intermittent and we know it's by choice which needs to change. I hate when he chooses to wear the wrinkled uniform shirt rather then the ones hanging up. Complaining about his shoes I bought and refusing to wear them opting instead to wear the worn out pair! It was like pulling teeth this morning getting him to realize that's over now that he wore the old shoes outside all weekend and they filthy from the mud he was tracking through. If I wash them I'm pretty sure they'll fall to pieces but I may try when he's not looking but he'll still only be able to wear them for play. I think he'll get used to the others if he just continues to wear them for more then 1 day at a time and then complaining I can't get them on without having to untie them! Oh jeez! Afterall he's the one that chose that pair of shoes when we went shopping a couple months ago and it's not like I can buy them without him trying them on and letting me know how they feel. Obviously as usual he's not all that observant even when directly being instructed to think about it! Can anyone tell I have PMS today? ;)