Week 12, Days 4-5

Week 12, Day 4



Saturday was Week 12, Day 4 for our little J.J., and he had a very good, very busy day. He continued on his streak of no accidents (hurrah!), and continued to get better at his pack walks. Despite his desire to chew on the tendril of evil which clips to his collar (his leash), we're still making progress with walking.

That afternoon/evening, Sherri came over to keep me company, since Sam was working all day and had a gig in the city that night. We fed the pup and put him out in the yard for a couple of hours while Sherri and I went to eat some tasty fish at Red Lobster. During dinner, Sherri and I decided to depart decorously and divert dollars towards delivering delicious doggie treats and dainty doggie toys to one deprived, demanding dog.

Oh, and capture a couple of captivating treats/toys for a couple of capricious cats.

(Isn't alliteration fun, children?)

When we came back, J.J. was overflowing with puppy enthusiasm. Literally. So we put him on a leash and took him for a brisk walk together. We then crawled into Sherri's car with J.J. and drove over to her house to introduce J.J. to Grandma K.

It was a good trip all around. J.J. rode excellently in the car (with the help of a treat or two), and when we got to their house he ran rampant in their backyard. J.J. was particularly fond of Grandma K's pant leg.

I wish we could have stayed over longer, but unfortunately I take after my father, and mosquitoes absolutely love the taste of my blood. Finally, the number of bites I was getting forced us to go back home, but J.J. did fairly well when all is said and done!

He rode equally well going back, and once we got him back in his pen, he went straight to sleep and slept most of the night until Sam got back.


Week 12, Day 5



Some days you wake up and not only do you know that everything is going to go your way today, but then it actually does. You get the girl, you get the job, you win the lottery--great things to make a great day.

Sunday was not that day.

Upon completing our pack walk and breakfast, we put J.J. out in the yard so that we could go to church. After church we had lunch with Sherri and Grandma K, which was quite delicious. We came back, took care of the dog, and relaxed a little bit before heading out to play D&D with our local group at about 3 o'clock.

We were a bit flummoxed as to what to do with J.J. while we were gone. On the one hand, it was supposed to be in the mid-nineties that afternoon, and we don't really have a good source of shade yet in the yard for the puppy. Plus, it had also been two days since the puppy had had an accident, so that was encouraging. On the other hand, we'd never left J.J. by himself in the house yet, and it would be about three hours before we could come back and briefly feed him and let him out to do his business. We didn't want to put him in his kennel, because we want him to only associate the kennel with bedtime, not with being punished or loneliness.

After extensive deliberation, we decided to go ahead and leave him in his pen inside the house, sans kennel. After all, we figured, it was better to have to clean up an accident than to end up with a heat-stroke-suffering J.J.

We had a fantastic time playing, and at about 5:30 took a dinner break so we could come back and take care of J.J. Unfortunately, J.J. couldn't last that long, so it took us awhile to clean up, feed him, and put him out in the yard.

However, it wasn't that bad I suppose, and we ran back to the group to finish up our session. When we returned home at about 9:30, J.J. was uber-excited to see us, as he had spent most of the day by himself. We immediately took him out for a rather long walk around the neighborhood, before coming home to play a little bit before bed.

One of the things we've been working on with J.J. is to not bite humans. He can chew on any toy he wants, but humans don't qualify as chew toys. J.J. bit Sam while they were in the back yard and managed to draw blood, so Sam flipped J.J. onto his back and held him down in the yard until he finally submitted. It took about 30 minutes or so, during which time J.J. constantly squirmed and tried to bite at Sam, but eventually J.J. relaxed. I must confess, watching it was very difficult, but Sam said it needed done. Afterward, I cuddled with J.J. for a little bit when they came back in, and then it was bedtime.

Everybody was glad for bed.

Now, if only the puppy and I can survive our fist rainy day together....


Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
--Roger Caras