Off to the farm today

I know there hasn’t been a whole lot out of me lately but things have been a bit crazy around here and I’ve just been focusing on getting some work done so I can enjoy the weekend. There really haven’t been all that many new developments with Ayla. She broke the 80 pound mark on the 10th which is significant of course.

She’s mostly behaved herself this week although there have been a few times when I really wanted to strangle her. Yesterday I took her for a walk with me to the local grocery store which is about 5 blocks away. I actually feel this is a distance which is just a bit too far too walk but still too close to drive but I’m pretty sure that’s just the American in me. lol Since Ayla was awake and seemed to be full of energy, I figured this would be a good opportunity to wear her out a bit so I could work during the afternoon (for a change), without having to run downstairs every 10 minutes to take something out of her mouth. She was great during the walk there and gave me no problems at all, not even pulling on her leash once. But on the way back she either got a bit warm or tired or both and started jumping around, trying to grab the leash in her mouth. Unfortunately, she also ended up with my hand between her teeth and managed to chomp down on the vein right between my thumb and index finger – you know the one in that webbing there that hurts so much if you squeeze it. So I was a little perturbed about that although I knew it was an accident and I was happy that she behaved herself for the most part as we walked the rest of the way home.

When we got home, I started cooking lasagna and Ayla stole an onion off the counter. I told her I really didn’t think she wanted to eat that and I think she may have squeezed a little too tight on it and got a little taste because she actually didn’t play keep away when I asked her to give it back. (That is her new all time favorite game by the way lol) Everything was going fine until I placed an empty apple juice bottle on the stairs to take it to the cellar where the storage crate for it was and accidently knocked it over (no, that was no the dog’s fault). So I was cleaning all the glass up and Ayla could see me doing this – thankfully the stairs are blocked off by a baby gate or there’s no telling what might have happened. And then she decides now would be a good time to go in the kitchen and steal one of the wooden spoons off the counter and run around the house with it. Needless to say I was not exactly amused. But I have come to the conclusion that maybe, in her own way, she is trying to distract me from the things I don’t like doing or that clearly agitate me by trying to get me to play with her. And if this isn’t her purpose, well then she’s just the least intuitive puppy ever…but maybe that only comes with age lol. As I think about it, she really does start a game of keep away almost every time I am doing something that requires clean up or that gets me grumbling to myself….but how I will explain to her that a distraction like keep away is not what I really want and it tends to put me in a worse mood I still need to figure out. 😉

In other recent developments, Ayla has gotten significantly better about walking down the street on her leash this week. I’m not really sure what caused the change but in the past few days, she has barely done it at all. On Monday (I think it was Monday anyway lol), I put my foot down with her about the jumping wildly to get the leash and then trying to play tug of war when she did get a hold of it. We left the house for our morning walk, got about half way down the block and she was going so crazy that I turned around and brought her home. We waited at least 15 minutes and then I tried again. That time we didn’t even make it off the front porch. So I brought her back inside and we waited another 20 minutes and then tried again. This time, there was no pulling, no leash grabbing, nothing…and that evening I think she also was very well behaved, only taking the leash in her mouth so she can feel in control too. 😉

Then on Tuesday, we had some struggle again but I read on the Internet somewhere that when they pull you should generally just stop and wait for them to finish and when they are calm again, you continue on. So I started to apply this technique (although we have tried to before but never got anywhere with it) and apparently it’s making an impact because hubby was even remarking yesterday that whatever I’d been doing with her in the morning was clearly working. WTG Ayla 😉

So anyway, I’m hoping we have some decent weather this weekend. It’s grey and overcast here and raining on and off…but the weather does say it’s supposed to be nice this weekend and so far it’s almost always been sunny when we’ve been at the house so I have high hopes again this time. And since it’s my birthday on Sunday, I think I deserve at least a little sun 😉

Have a great weekend!