3/5 – 3/18

Week 10: Tuesday we went to agility.  A woman with two children stopped by to see the trainer and Liezel did not know what to make of the small, squealing humans.  She did a little huffing while in the crate and barked at them while on the course.  I’m sure a lot of her reaction was based on my energy.  I’m always a little nervous with children around Liezel.  She has little experience with them, and the smallest reaction from her seems to generate huge reactions from parents.

On one of our walks I learned that Liezel does not like having someone behind her!  We ended up near the school just as children were getting out and two little boys started walking behind us.  Even though they were two houses away Liezel was not happy.  I actually stepped off to the side to let them pass so she could focus on the walk instead of them.  Once they were ahead of us, she was back to normal.

We lost power for 48 hours from Wednesday until Friday.  I love power outages!  Except…we were getting ready for vacation and DTE’s announcement that power would be restored Sunday night made me very nervous.  We were leaving Sunday morning and before then I needed to clean the house, do laundry, shower and dry my hair…and then, were we supposed to leave Liezel in the dark, with no heat Sunday at 3am and hope the power would be restored while we were gone?  The idea of my parents having to watch Liezel with no electricity was elevating my worry.  But then, voila, when I awoke Friday morning, the power was back on.

Saturday we went to Obedience.  There was a very strange energy in the class that day.  The trainer spent some time working with a woman who does not communicate well with her dog and often corrects at the wrong time and / or inappropriately.  I feel sorry for the dog and Liezel probably fed off of my energy showing signs of nervousness herself.  I wonder if everyone in the class feels sorry for that dog because everyone’s dog was “off.”  All dogs broke position at some point that day, including Liezel.  During one exercise I mentioned to the others that, “there is a really strange energy today,” and they all agreed.

Week 11:  My husband and I spent 3/12 – 3/17 in Aruba.  It was wonderful!  We returned Friday at midnight so we were able to go to Obedience on Saturday.  Aside from raised hackles while walking to the door, Liezel had no reaction before, during, or after class.  We are working on more difficult stays, and stays with distractions as well as using scent instead of sight.  The trainer commented to my husband that Liezel is making progress with scent detection.  We have been practicing at home by playing hide-and-seek and it’s apparently paying off.

Regarding my other New Year goals, well I can’t remember a single random act of kindness, and honestly shame on me because I know I won’t remember them, yet I don’t write them down.  So unless I remember any, there will be none counted for these two weeks.  The funny thing is, I can remember several that my husband did and he doesn’t even have this as a goal.

I most certainly kept up with the house cleaning because my parents stayed with Liezel while we were on vacation and I would not leave them with a dirty house.  Exercise and diet are a big fail.  All bets are off during vacation, but even the week before I really fell off schedule.  Spoiler alert: week 12 isn’t going much better.

To sum it all up, nearly three weeks have gone by in a flash.  I need to make some improvements in several areas, but Liezel is doing great and that’s what this blog is all about.