Puppies 2/07

Puppy break!

Puppies, they're not. They're dogs, now. A year and a half, 90 pounds, but still lovable.We went back to class. The first week went great for both dogs. I think they were really happy to be back!

We made some tiny forward steps socially. Nyah was really good with the other dogs and she even made a friend. Ellie took the jumps that she used to be scared of. Mom relaxed - better than last year, anyway.

On the other hand, all the skills they've been doing at home for 6 months (flawlessly, I might add) the skills I was eager to see them do under pressure, disappeared in class which probably means Mom's not mastered social leadership and still has lots of social confidence to grow. So, Good Citizenship class is next.

And now, more than ever we are the special needs remedial class ... mostly because Ellie is either perfect or perfectly zoned out. Ok, Ellie ALWAYS has to relieve herself in class and she won't focus until she's done and it doesn't matter if she did it before we left. She gets nervous.

We've failed heel for 6 weeks running (both dogs) and it's so annoying because class is the only place they don't heel so it's really hard to practice when they heel all week long until we get to class.

So, for the next six months instead of avoiding distractions, I guess we have to go looking for them. And I thought I was doing that. At level -1 maybe. Do you have any idea how out of character that is for me? Only God could bring me to the place where I am willing to go looking for conflict (things to aggravate my dogs) so I can teach them to behave, so Mom can practice commands and they can practice listening. If anyone would have told me two years ago that I would be doing this, I would have said, you're crazy. Will it actually happen? We don't know. Stay tuned.

You'd have to be there to appreciate how we manage to totally humiliate ourselves every week for five weeks running. So why do we keep doing this? Dedication? Addiction? Good question. But we always learn something. If my dogs listen in a closed space with ten other dogs and owners, they'll listen anywhere or that's the theory, anyway. The better they listen, the more places and situations I can take them, the more freedom they have, the safer they are, and the more things we can do without Mom having a heart attack. Some dogs are good listeners and eager to please. Some dogs are independent thinkers...If nothing else, Mom will master patient persistance.

On the positive side, the medicinal effects of companion animals has been proven (to lower blood pressure, etc.) I've been walking almost two miles almost everyday that I wasn't doing two years ago. The kids feel like the house is alive again, despite the interim between kids and grand kids. Either positive or negative depending on how you handle it, animals can help you grow leadership and responsibility. The down side, I have a returning medical issue and a heart murmur this year that I didn't have last year. "Just wear and tear," the doctor says. Funny! But assistance dogs might come in handy.

Alot of the people who volunteer to work with animals are burned out on people, or that's what they'll tell you. But maybe God just made them that way, better able to relate to creatures than to people or able to build bridges between man and God's other created critters in a culture where most of our lives are spent mostly with Man in man-made environments.

God uses people and God uses animals in odd ways, sometimes. But everyday I grow more convinced that He's still the source of it all.