Let go and let's have fun.

The other day my puppy wanted to play with me, he kept bringing me toys and putting them in my lap to throw for him. As soon as I'd reach for it, he'd grip it, take it away and whip it around, sometimes hitting himself on the head with it. I'd recline again and he'd bring the toy back and put it in my lap with his mouth still on it and looking at me with longing eyes to play with him.

God is funny that he put into my head, "see what you do with your problems, you want me to take them and throw them far far away from us, but as soon as I reach for it you grab it away and whip it around, often banging yourself on the head with it. I'll recline back and when you're truly ready to let go, then we can really play".

My puppy is like that too, once he remembers he can let go and I'll throw it, he brings it back and lets go sooner the next time, and each progressive time he brings his toy back to me until he's done playing. He has lots of fun when he remembers to let go and let me be part of the game.

Thanks God for being part of the game.

Proud mummy?

So Drake was really awesome in class on Saturday, he really impressed me (and the trainer) with his ability to stay (sit, stand and lie down positions) with distractions, and distance. I'm very proud of his accomplishments and how far he has come in his training.

So is this general glow what it feels like when your kid accomplishes something beyond what you thought they would be capable of at that age and they just amaze you?

On another note, I have an urge to go snow tubing. One of my co-workers keeps mentioning it and it sounds like a lot of fun, and apparently there is a place about 10 minutes from my home. Thing is I don't have snow pants, or kids to take. Maybe we'll borrow some by convincing friends it's a good idea to take their little one(s). Either that or the neighbours have a 7 and 9 year old who would probably enjoy it. Here's the place: http://www.ski-lakeridge.com/

Pendulum

Well Drake, my hyper little puppy, was actually very sweet and kind of cuddly last night while I was watching TV, normally he tries to jump on me and head butts me in his exuberance, but last night he sat beside me on the couch in the basement (the only one he's allowed on) and occasionally put his head on my lap. This morning he was being sweet to, until I went to iron my pants and he ate my lunch. Well I suppose it was partially my fault, I forgot to put a lid on the container and left it on the counter, you just shouldn't do that with tuna. So he knocked the container off the counter and of course it fell open part down, he pushed it across the kitchen floor slowly licking up the tuna as it came out bit by bit from under the container. When I saw this I said "Draaaaake" in the discipline tone I use and he went straight to his crate for a time out and stayed there until I finished cleaning up. I hope the kitchen doesn't smell too much like tuna since I didn't have time to pull out a mop and thoroughly clean the floor (sorry honey, but now you know why it smells if it does) the dog continued to "clean" the floor after I'd finished so I probably didn't do a very good job.

Adventures in dog training

So I've decided to blog a little bit about the funny things our puppy does. Firstly I should mention that at least in some training books dogs can be generally categorized into 6 different personality types, and although like people your dog will have traits of all of them, one will dominate. Drake is known as a joker, and was voted class clown in his puppy training classes, so it's not just me who thinks he's a nut.

Last week when I was home sick Drake was playing with his towel by taking the end and swinging it around his head, now he does this probably a couple of times a week, but I thought it was funny that day because he did it facing me the entire time, it was kind of like he was dancing or performing like little children do in gymnastics with the streamers on a stick.

Drake also often chews his toys while lying on his back and holding them to his mouth, similar to how a baby might hold a bottle. He also sometimes tries to play with 2 toys at the same time, always a ball and something else. Last night he learned control over the ball and was playing with it between his paws around the floor like soccer (football for the non-North Americans).

Lately Drake's not been feeling well, he's not eating, well not eating his food anyway, he ate my oatmeal then drank a lot of water, I bet that made him uncomfortable as it was instant oatmeal (Peaches & Cream) and he ate about 5 packages of it. He also ate one of my cell phone manuals, so he's been barfing over the weekend, strangely unlike most dogs he doesn't eat that, just everything else, including poo, tore his dog food bag of the new food we're trying and ate that, so we presumed he liked it, but he hasn't eaten much of it since, although I'm sure manuals are quite filling.

Drake loves to play with empty 500 ml water bottles (about half a quart for the Americans) we can use those to entice him to do just about anything, including bedtime which he doesn't like because he'd rather be up playing, but we try to keep him on a reasonable schedule so he's not up barking to play in the middle of the night.

Well that's all I can think of but there's pretty much something weekly, if not daily that he does, so you'll probably hear more in the future.