Puppy walking

2007-09-15T15:38:00.000-04:00

The last post, September 15, 2007.

I started posting on September 10, 2005, so it's a nice two years almost to the day for me to finally post the last post. On Thursday, I got the phone call I've been dreading from Guide Dogs. They have decided to take Rockwell out of the program and they wanted to offer him to us as his puppy walkers first.

His quarterly updates were always positive and he did make good progress. However, they also talked about his high anxiety levels and how distracted he could be. In the end, it was his sensitive nature that decided them against continuing to train him. They would watch him progress and then watch him slide back. After months of this, they said, "why are we making this dog do something that he really is not suited for?"

When I got the phone call on Thursday, I knew right away that this was why they were calling. Peter and I had talked at length about whether we would take Rockwell if he flunked. We took Uma back, when she flunked due to "food aggression" back in 1991. But when we got Rockwell, it was just to puppy-walk him for the year and then we wanted to be dog-free for a while. And I had decided to puppy-walk because I was missing Uma so much after she died, the Summer that Rockwell was born. But I didn't want to replace her with a "forever dog".

Anyway, after they called, I said I wanted to talk to Peter about it and would call them back on Friday. When he got home from work, we talked and I cried and we felt guilty. We worried about abandoning Rockwell and whether he would be loved. We fretted over whether we might have caused him to flunk. I asked some close friends for advice and they suggested that we should let Guide Dogs find him a home because that had been the plan all along.

On Friday, I talked to the very nice woman at Guide Dogs, I asked her about whether Rockwell might do some other "work" because I think that dogs do like to work. She said that they had spent almost a year training him to be a guide dog and now, if he was sent for some other training, it would be the opposite of everything they try to teach at Guide Dogs - don't sniff, don't run, don't do this and that. A sniffer dog, for example, would be trained to run around and sniff everything! So they thought it wouldn't be fair, especially to a sensitive soul such as Rockwell, to send him for yet more training. And I agreed.

I asked about their selection process for sending failed guide dogs out to be pets. They have a long list of people who would like these wonderful dogs and so they peruse the list and select the right family and then invite them to come meet Rockwell. Once the adoptive family shows up, they grill them some more and watch the interaction and see if it meets their satisfaction. Only then, do they agree to part with the dog. Plus people do pay for this dog so it's better for them financially than giving him to us for free.

So that's it. Rockwell is going to have a new family and he will get to be someone's great pet and I wish him well. We may never know what happens with him unless we by chance see him in the future. So I'm sad and I feel bad that he didn't become a guide dog. But I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes. Thanks for reading and offering your support over the year - I have been introduced to a whole new world of dog people and even made some cyber friends because of this blog, for which I will be always grateful.

And here's one last photo, that I never dared post until now, because guide dogs are NOT allowed on the furniture!

All the best, Julia.

2007-07-13T09:54:00.001-04:00

I was going through my iPhoto library and finally marking photos with keywords. I did all the Rockwell shots and found that I had over 1800 of them! I "only" posted 480 to Flickr for the blog. Yikes.

Here's one I don't think I posted, taken the first day he got here. He would go into his crate voluntarily and pass out after playing. So sweet.

2007-07-13T08:47:00.001-04:00

I checked the mail yesterday and there was Rockwell's next quarterly update!
Still not ready for prime time but doing well. It sounds like his trainer really likes him and I am happy about that too.
(Don't forget that you can click on the image and see a larger one at Flickr.)

2007-06-29T13:08:00.000-04:00

June 29
Still no quarterly update but I expect it soon. A neighbour who watched Rockwell grow up and read the blog thinks she saw him working in harness out in Manotick the other day! She had gone out there to check out the new Giant Tiger store and saw a yellow Lab-ish looking dog being trained. He was in harness and she said he looked beautiful and very smart, although apparently, he was sniffing the shelves.

In the Ottawa Citizen a few days ago, there was a story about the 600th graduate of Canadian Guide Dogs in Manotick. It was accompanied by a lovely photo of Opus, the 600th grad. I couldn't find a link to the story with the photo in the Citizen but did find a link through Google News.

And if you are craving pix of puppies (especially yellow Labs) like I am, go here for a lovely slide show.

2007-04-19T13:02:00.001-04:00

At last! We have received this quarter's update on Rockwell. This time, I decided to scan the update so you could see how it is presented. I am so pleased that Rockwell is doing well. I hoped he would learn to settle down and mature and it seems he is working on that.

If you cannot read the update (you have to click on it to go to Flickr and then click on "all sizes" at the top), then let me know in a comment and I will write out the update in a blog entry.

2007-01-08T10:17:00.000-05:00

After the last entry, I got a real thrill when the genuine Allen and Endal posted a comment on this old blog! I know I've said it before but apparently not to everybody (sorry Norah!) but "Dogs with Jobs" was one of my favourite shows on tv and this episode my absolute favourite. I don't know if they are making any new episodes and the schedule moves around so much (like network tv) that I never know when anything is going to be on, but every time I see an episode, I stop to watch it. That is how I have seen the episode with Allen and Endal so many times.

After Allen posted a comment, I replied and then went to his link on Blogger and thus to Endal's own website. You have to go - there are so many wonderful photos and stories. Make sure you click on "Puppies in the house", as Allen's wife Sandra does puppywalking, the page called "Just for fun" for the fun photos, and "Out and about + traffic lights" and scroll down to the golfing shot at the bottom.

I realize now after looking through Endal's site that he is a real celebrity over in the U.K. but I also think of both Allen and Endal as celebrities, not just because they were on tv but because of their exemplary partnership and the way they have overcome huge obstacles with humour and grace.

2007-01-05T16:31:00.000-05:00

January 5, 2007

I got Rockwell's quarterly update today! Of course, after I read it I felt both proud and anxious. I am worried about his lack of confidence. I wonder if it came from being bounced around a little in his early days (he was eleven weeks when we got him). I worry that I gave him a complex. Sometimes. :) I feel like a parent, in other words. Here it is:

"Rockwell has recently had a change of handler and is being allowed time to adapt. He is fairly well settled in kennels, though at times can be boisterous and vocal in seeking attention. He is eating well and is in good condition.

Rockwell is always keen and eager for his training walks, and travels well in the training van. He is adapting to his new handler fairly quickly, though his leash behaviour can, at times, be quite erratic, mainly due to him being easily distracted, particularly with dogs and noises and also because of his level of anxiety and low confidence.

A calm, consistent approach is being adopted, and encouraging him to relax and listen to the handler. We are slowly seeing improvements in his overall behaviour, but much more is needed.

Rockwell has been introduced to wearing the harness and is learning some of the basics of Guide work such as stopping at all down kerbs and avoiding obstacles. He is also learning directional and control commands.

We look forward to continuing with Rockwell and we are hopeful of more improvements. Thank you for all your hard work with him during the Puppy Walking phase of his life."

Well, as I said - both proud and anxious at the same time. I hope they will give him all the time he needs. I know he is smart enough. Maybe like Endal on Dogs with Jobs he just needs to find the right master and his confidence will appear.

2006-12-31T11:18:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

I have not received an update for Rockwell but a few people still stop by this old blog, to see what might be happening. I thought I'd reward them with a photo of Rockwell that we took on his first day with us. He's still thinking about us and this place, from the looks of it.

But in fact, he settled in well enough and was very accepting of us and our routines, especially given that he had already lived with one family for a few weeks and then was uprooted to come live with us. And given his "issues" with regularizing his poop schedule. Poor little guy.

It's a big world out there, Rockwell. And we're waiting to hear how you're doing.

2006-10-17T14:22:00.000-04:00

I was making comments on Jenny's blog about progress reports and wondering if I would see one before Christmas, as they are supposed to be quarterly. And then I got one in the mail yesterday! So I thought I would post the news and a few puppy pix from last September, when I was having a hard time posting pix with Blogger and so later went to Flickr. (Don't forget that you can click on the pix and go to Flickr to see them in a large size.)

The report says Rockwell is mixing well with his kennel mates and is enjoying the free time playing with them. He has had many sessions of obedience, playtimes and free running to get acquainted with the folks at kennels. It also says "Rockwell is showing to be a bright, responsive dog but at this stage is still quite insecure and anxious, probably due to the recent changes of handler, routines and environment." That made me feel like I wanted to run out to kennels and give him a big old Mom-hug. "Don't be anxious, puppy!" I would say. I am sure it is better that I am not there and that he has professional dog people to work with him.

The report mentions that he can be "quite vocal for attention at times". Since I wonder if I am partly deaf from his barking that I tried so hard to ignore, I can relate there! They also say that his behaviour on leash is erratic, as sometimes he is very attentive to the handler and then he rushes off to do his own thing. Does that sound familiar! I think I was developing whiplash from those sudden changes of direction. Then they wrap things up by saying he is an affectionate and fun dog to work with and he shows some positive qualities at this early stage. I too always found him to be affectionate and he even seemed to enjoy being hugged, something Uma never did.

It's kind of a mixed report but as they say, it is early days and much can happen with the right handler.

Here is Rockwell in September of 2005. As you can see, he was already a pretty big boy and I wonder sometimes if we had got him when he was only 7 or 8 weeks old, would that have made any difference to his behaviour? He is looking out the door to the garage and wondering what Peter is doing out there, but content to just watch. Later he would go exploring.

Here again, he was content to sit and watch the world. Such a sweetie.

2006-10-10T17:29:00.000-04:00

I turned the calendar to October and there was a sticker, reminding me to give Rockwell his heart worm medicine. It's funny though, since he has been gone, the one we've missed has been Uma.

Uma was born on October 31, 1990 and we got her to raise for Guide Dogs on December 13, 1990. We sent her off to school in January of 1992 and she flunked out and came back to us at the end of May 1992. She passed away on June 17, 2005, three days before Rockwell was born, although we didn't know that at the time. She was one of eight puppies in the U litter and we were given the option of how we pronounced her name. We chose to say it like "Yuma". When she came back to us after she flunked school, we couldn't think of any other name to give her and indeed, she just always was Uma.

Uma came to work with me every day after she had her first basic immunizations. Rules were not strict at Guide Dogs - they were still deciding how to do things, after having only been in operation a couple of years here in Canada. Unlike Rockwell, she could amuse herself for hours under my desk and only chewed one client's purse. She did however like to chew paper and especially cardboard and so all the R-Kive boxes in my office had chewed corners with Tabasco dripped down what was left of them. Other than that and barking at a few of my regular clients for reasons only known to her, Uma fit right in to my work life and went absolutely everywhere with me in her little red and white jacket. When she failed school and came to live with us as a regular pet, I continued to take her to work although she couldn't carry on with me to the registry offices and other places we used to go.

When I went to school in England, Peter stayed here to work and he and Uma became best buddies. She turned 5 years of age in the year I was away and really came into her own as one of the world's best Labradors. In fact, this is what I hope for Rockwell, that as he matures, he will grow to be a really great dog too. Then, Uma continued to give us her best for the next almost ten years.

Her birthday was Halloween and every year that we had trick-or-treaters, we would tell the kids it was her birthday and the next year that they came around, they would chorus, "Happy birthday Uma!" I'd humiliate her by putting a tee-shirt on her but she refused to wear hats of any kind. She did however have a substantial wardrobe of scarves - the cotton cowboy kind - in a rainbow of colours and those she wore proudly, perhaps remembering the first year when she would wear the guide dog jacket. We would always put a scarf on her when company was coming and she quickly learned to connect the two, waiting by the door for hours after we put a scarf on her.

This is the first Halloween in 16 years that we won't have a dog to greet (or scare!) children at the door. Rockwell did a great job last year and I will miss a furry friend this year. Maybe our friend Logan from across the quad will come again and keep us company.

2006-09-21T13:41:00.000-04:00

I feel so irresponsible since Rockwell went to school. I don't have to look after anyone but myself (if you don't count Peter that is and really, he is able to look after himself, unlike a puppy). It reminds me of when I was going to school full time as a student. I rented a room and all I had to do was feed myself and do laundry. I didn't even have to vacuum my room, as someone else would do that once a week, not that there was any dog hair to vacuum. Which is another odd experience around here - to be able to walk down the hall with the hardwood floors and not see any dog hair, gently swirling against the baseboards, rolling into little tumbleweeds. With a few brief hiatuses, I have had 16 years of dog hair that reappears right after you vacuum it, no matter how frequently you vacuum. I still see dog hair and that will continue until I have done a few more vacuumings where I get more ambitious in my reach. But it is odd.

And boy, is it quiet. I really don't miss the barking that I stubbornly called "his invitation to play" but I do miss the little jingle of his tags as he pads around the house, the noises as he climbs the stairs so he can sit in companionable silence with me while I am sewing, even his wake-up scratching every morning. I hope he is enjoying his new experiences at kennels.

Instead of "holding hands" we're "holding paws".

Those are some blissed-out ears!

Here's the second-last photo. He's too busy sniffing all the great other dog smells in the car to cooperate with Peter.

One last look, and he was gone.

2006-09-19T10:50:00.000-04:00

We've already had an update from Guide Dogs. It turns out that Rockwell just had a weekend to enjoy himself with other dogs in a casual setting and now he is going into kennels for training! He went to a nice family with two other dogs on Friday and they really enjoyed having him. He got to play with other dogs and have people tell him how cute he is. And now there is a vacancy in kennels so he will be going there Tuesday to start his formal training.

Now, the first little while in kennels is a big adjustment so it is like a honeymoon period for the new dogs The trainers and others at kennels will be playing with Rockwell more than working and he will have a good chance to settle in and get comfortable. During this time, he will of course be assessed regularly to make sure he is happy. Those folks at the Guide Dogs really love their dogs and I am content that Rockwell will be there. In fact, over the weekend, I worried that he might feel anxious because he was in a new setting but my worry was for nothing. He is such an outgoing little fellow that he seems to fit in wherever he is. I am so pleased.

Now as promised, some photos. Peter set the camera up on a tripod and used the remote to trip the shutter.

I love this one - it looks like Peter is showing Rockwell something he should know about on the computer.

The television is on and I am in my usual pose - prone on the small couch.

I reach over and Rockwell licks my hand.
There are about 15 of these in a series and it makes for a nice slide show but I won't inflict that on the blog reader.

Peter has moved the kennel to the garage for the next morning and Rockwell is wondering where his house went. He really seemed to like this location for the kennel, better than the first place I put it, in the dining room.

When he was a wee small puppy, he would often squeeze between the couches and under the table in the corner. He hadn't done that in months but for some reason, he went into the corner on that last evening.

2006-09-18T10:00:00.000-04:00

It's been a week since I blogged and Rockwell has been gone three days. I already miss his little happy face greeting me when I come home, his utter joy at mealtimes, the ears back and snorgling in his corner at the front door, the affectionate way he would lie at our feet in the evening.

I've been wondering how to write why he went back a week early without me sounding like a whining weenie. But I think I'll just write the way it all transpired and leave you to judge. I think I have enough perspective now to do that, and it was perspective I lost for a while there.

Over a month ago, the pattern of our lives changed a bit. Peter was home on holidays and then bereavement leave, instead of going to work every day. We knew Rockwell would be returning to Guide Dogs fairly soon. It seemed pedantic to make him walk properly all the time when he'd be really working soon. So I started to slack off. I let him bounce around at the end of a long leash because he seemed to enjoy himself so much. We kept up the strict no-human-food rule and the other rules but we didn't impose discipline while we were out. And then it started to show.

It got incrementally more difficult, day by day, for me to insist that walks be done my way. And then Peter went away for over a week. He had a business trip he had to do. I also started teaching for the Fall session - only mornings but it was a change. And the week that Peter was away, Rockwell really stepped up the lie-in-the-road-and-won't-come-home behaviour. It got so that I dreaded going outside the house with him because I knew I wouldn't be able to get him home without a struggle. But I had to take him out, four or five times a day.

Soon, the constant anticipation of a confrontation four times a day was making me doubt my sanity. And then of course, I'd say to myself, "it's just a dog! You can do this!" But it's amazing what a little negative brain chemistry will do to transform one's thoughts from normal to despair. And then I'd say to myself, "Peter's coming home in 4 days (or 3 days), and I have an appointment to see Sheila on Monday (the day Peter got home)". And I soldiered on. On the weekend, I enlisted the help of my friend in need and neighbour to walk with me and Rockwell so he would be a distraction and I could get Rockwell home. It worked but even so, Rockwell would still tug at the leash and lie down at the end of the walk. But on my part, it was a huge amount of moral support just to have to company.

One morning, as I stood outside while Rockwell lay in the road and I waited for good behaviour (knowing that I could not make him do what I wanted), another neighbour snapped this photo of the two of us with his cell phone. It might look amusing at first glance but what I see is me, trying not to have a breakdown in public.

And yet, when we finally did make it home, he showed me how submissive he is, so I know he was not doing any of this for any bad reason.

And then, we'd spend the afternoon in companionable silence, with me sewing and him looking out the window and keeping me company.

When Sheila finally showed up Monday morning, I broke down and cried and said I couldn't do this any longer. Even though I knew Rockwell would be going into kennels while we were away during the last week of September, I asked her if she could find some place for him to stay in the meantime. I felt like a total loser for asking and I felt like a failure, having come this close to the end of his legitimate stay and then bailing. But I just couldn't take it any more, the constant dread and anticipation of confrontation. So I bailed.

Sheila bless her heart said she understood completely and she would make arrangements. We both agreed that Rockwell could really benefit from a more stimulating home, somewhere with other dogs and more people. And in fact, that is where he is now - somewhere where I hope he is whooping it up. We also agreed that I had been handicapped in my year with Rockwell because I didn't have a large secure yard and I didn't have a car. I had thought I would be able to cope without a yard and a car and I did for most of the time, but they would have made the difference at the end.

So there it is - the good, the bad and the ugly. Of course, I know that Rockwell thrived under my care and that I taught him a lot of good things, including not to be afraid of loud noises and not to be nervous about small things. I probably took my volunteer job a little too seriously but then, I do that with the rest of the things I do in life too. I probably compared him a little too much with his predecessor Uma and he was a totally different personality. But he was a little too rambunctious and boisterous for me and I guess it just wore me down. I am also not very good at asking for help when I should but I'm getting better at that.

In any event, I wanted Rockwell to succeed in his ultimate task, which is becoming a guide dog, so I think I did the right thing in asking him to be placed somewhere else until he goes in for formal training. He is a smart dog and very outgoing and personable. I am so anxious for him to end up being a proper working dog. I will get updates from Sheila from time to time, telling me of his progress through school. And they will let me know if he is going to graduate and when. I just won't be able to visit with him once he's in school, so I will have to rely on second hand reports.

And I don't think I will be taking another puppy for several reasons. One reason is that I discovered I was allergic to dogs, more than I thought I was. I had become accustomed to Uma's dander so that I didn't really notice it any more. But when Rockwell came to stay a year ago, my allergic reaction caused me to get sick with one virus after another, about every month or so. Two other reasons are the yard and the car issues. Anyway, I think that's enough explanation for now. Later, I'll post some more photos of our last evening together, after I get them out of Peter's computer where they are now.

This was our last morning together, and Rockwell is under the table, getting his chest scratched one last time by Peter.

And here I am, giving him the last hug goodbye. Even though I've asked for them to come get him, I'm already tearing up and starting to miss him.

2006-09-11T15:10:00.000-04:00

Rockwell is going back to Guide Dogs this week - probably Thursday. I will blog about that later but for now, I have some nice photos.

He really enjoys the human contact and I was petting him when I realized I had the camera and so snapped this photo from a close angle.

As I scratched him, he moved his head around so all areas might get some attention.

Finally, he gave a mighty yawn of the variety we call "face-cracker".
We shall miss these quiet moments.

2006-09-07T13:43:00.000-04:00

Something new, something (really) old.

I got home from work this morning and when I went upstairs to change, I saw something that looked like white plaster lying on the carpet. It was a smattering of tiny chunks of what looked like drywall. I picked up a few pieces and couldn't figure out what it was. I asked Rockwell but he looked as mystified as I was. He also looked completely innocent. I looked up, expecting to see a hole in the ceiling. Nothing. I looked into my sewing room and nothing looked amiss. Then I looked into the guest room and saw on the floor, the tiny pillow on which had sat a tiny, plaster figurine of a Labrador puppy. It was only the size of the palm of your hand but it was completely gone except for these tiny plaster crumbs, some of which were also on the floor in the guest room.

I turned to Rockwell and pointed and said, "j'accuse!" but he didn't even flinch. He had completely forgotten that he had eaten this thing. And so my precious puppy figurine is gone. So now I have to decide, do I close all the doors upstairs again whenever I go out? I think the answer must be yes. And what else should I do? I don't know.

The "old" thing was the refusal to come home after I decided the walk (outing) was over. I took him out for our usual second walk of the morning and this time, I spent an hour sitting on the bench by the commercial complex. Quite a few people stopped this time to pet him and talk to me and so he had a LOT of company and stimulation. He'd get up and find something the chew on, I'd haul him out from under the bench from time to time, people would pet him, and there was constant movement from people coming and going and cars driving by to cyclists. Finally I got up and he walked quietly and nicely with me until we got back into the neighbourhood. And then he lay down. So each time he lay down, I gave him the command to sit-stay and waited. And waited. Then I'd ask him to "come" and he did for a bit and then he'd lie down again. It took us 30 minutes to cover the distance I walk in about 3 minutes at a leisurely pace.

I don't even mind looking like an idiot, standing outside, waiting for my dog to exhibit good behaviour. What I mind is not being able to MAKE him do what I want him to do. I mind that he has not made the connexion between my saying "good dog" and him actually walking in the direction I want. And I am mostly annoyed with myself because I let this thing happen and then escalate to where I cannot walk him at all without it being a constant confrontation. So during the 30 minutes it took to walk home, I told myself that this was a remedial lesson for both of us. In the end, I still had to physically put his feet under him and rush him to the door before he could lie down for the third time in the driveway. Argh. I am hoping I can fix this over the weekend so I'll be outside a lot, if you want to get a hold of me.

2006-09-05T17:43:00.000-04:00

I was just thinking about having to get new shoes this morning, as I was sitting at my desk at school and looking down at the navy pumps I was wearing which had cracks across the soles. I walk to work wearing running shoes but change into "good shoes" once I get there. Therefore I hadn't noticed the cracks in the soles until I was sitting, looking right at them. And they are huge, structural cracks. So just now, I went to get the mail and there was a flyer from Naturalizer and what did I see on the cover but a woman walking a yellow Lab! Ack. Is this fate or what?

Yesterday was a mostly unpleasant day because I am feeling sorry for myself that Peter is away and I have no back-up for Rockwell's rambunctiousness. I had to endure several outings with him - I can't call them "walks" because very little actual walking is done. There's some galloping, and much pulling at the leash, and some sudden darts at right angles to go smell something interesting or have a poo. Very little sedate walking. And with all this feeling sorry for myself, I was starting to count the days when Rockwell might get recalled.

Then I got over myself. I went to work early this morning which always sets a good tone for the day for me. When I got home (I'm only gone 2 hours), Rockwell was nice and subdued. I don't know what exactly he thinks when he is left alone, but I have the impression he thinks he's been abandoned and is resigned to his fate. Then when I reappear, he is so relieved. So out we went.

This time, I let him go where he wanted but made it look (to him) like it was my idea (that's the theory anyway). My aim was to go over to the public bench by the commercial building not far from the house and sit there. For as long as Rockwell wanted to. I think he really enjoys just being outside and I am always trying to drag him home. So we went and sat and sat. And watched people and talked to some. And Rockwell lay under the bench and ate dirt or gum and sometimes he watched people. A big highlight for him was when a chocolate Lab was walked by with his people.

Finally, Rockwell got up and put a paw on my lap and I asked him if he was ready to go. And off we went. We made it as far as another bench in the park before he decided he wanted to hang out some more. So we sat there. And finally we went home. I think we sat on benches for over 45 minutes before he had his fill of outside.

I think I might be "spoiling" him by not imposing discipline but I really can't do it. I convinced myself earlier of his delicate spirit and I am not going to be the one to break it. I am sure he is tougher than I am allowing but I don't want to be the one to find out I'm right. So he is here for maybe another month and he's not going to get much work but I won't worry about it because I know he's going to get plenty of work when he goes to school. And because he is intrinsically a good dog, a little indulgence won't hurt him.

2006-09-04T09:05:00.000-04:00

Here is Rockwell from September 16, 2005. If you go back to the archives of this blog and read about him then, it's all about poop!

2006-09-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

I couple of weeks ago, I was tagged and wrote about 5 odd habits Rockwell has. They weren't really that odd and other dogs I know have them. Since then however, I was reminded of one other odd thing he does. It is so odd that I don't even know what he's really doing and I sure don't know why he does it. I've seen him do this inside and outside so I can't narrow down guesses in that way.

What happens is that he suddenly stops dead in whatever he is doing and immediately he whips his head around to look at his bum. Sometimes he sits down so that he can maneuver his nose as close to his bum as possible. But mostly, he stands there, twisted around and it looks like he is listening, rather than looking at his bum! I thought for a while that the stopping and listening might have been triggered by an insect buzzing around his nether regions but I haven't been able to see one or hear one myself. I do know he is intensely interested in insects. I have also thought it might be a fart that startles him like that! However, I know I have heard him fart before and he didn't do this odd little thing.

Any guesses?

2006-09-03T11:51:00.000-04:00

Since Rockwell got here a year ago (September 9 to be exact), I was motivated to go back and look at the first batch of photos from his first day here.

I saw this one and decided to post it because we have since done so many photos on the stairs. On his first day, the upstairs was a whole big unknown world and he was actually a little afraid to climb those stairs. Plus he was such a little guy!

2006-09-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

The last couple of days, I have been wearing things with long sleeves and Rockwell has been taking every opportunity to grab the end of a sleeve and hold it in his mouth. He doesn't really chew on it (which is a good thing) but it certainly hampers my movement. I was thinking this morning, as he did it again, that he has missed the cuffs all summer long! When he first got here, it was in September. As a small puppy, he would grab my sleeves every chance he got. He would also go for the tabs attached to zippers and anything else that looked like he could suck on for a while. Since he stopped doing this in the summer, I just thought that because he turned a year old in June, he was growing up. I guess then that the only reason he hasn't been pulling on sleeves since May is that there weren't any!

2006-09-01T13:22:00.000-04:00

I was sitting at the computer and heard some unusual breathing noises. I glanced left at Rockwell on the stairs and saw why. Then I couldn't believe that I actually sneaked the camera on and took a picture of him and captured the reason why!

If you click on the photo and make it large at Flickr, you'll see the real bend in his nose.
After the first flash, he turned over and I got this photo.

And then he flopped again and I got the final one of this series.

2006-08-31T12:31:00.000-04:00

I'm trying an experiment with the barking. For the last week or so, every time he barks at me for whatever reason, I jump up, grab a toy, and say "Speak!" Then when he barks a second time, I give him the toy and say "Good Dog!" Then there is a mad bout of "Speak!" and "Bark!" and "Good Dog!" and he gets a slightly confused look on his face. But he keeps barking and I make sure I say "speak" before each bark and then praise him for it. After a few minutes of this really loud silliness, I say "finish - good dog" and go into another room and do something. He usually only barks at me when it looks like (to him) that I'm not doing anything, like sitting at the computer or reading the paper.

This way, when he barks, he gets to be a good dog and when he doesn't bark, he's a good dog. And when he does bark, it seems to him like it might even be my idea and he gets a little play out of it and then it's over. Anyway, this morning, we did this again, and when I said "finish" and went into the kitchen, he lay down and hasn't got back up again to play (yet). It's kind of a lot of work on my part but the potential pay-off could be very rewarding.

2006-08-29T18:42:00.000-04:00

When I took Rockwell for his long morning walk yesterday, he deked off onto the grass to have a second poop of the morning, something he often (always) does. This time however, there was something IN the poop. It was lighter coloured than the poop and had a funny consistency. I picked it up and when I got home, after dumping it in the toilet, I kept the plastic bag on my hand and fished out the foreign object and swished it around in the water. I think it was a small cellulose sponge! It was in three pieces but the large triangular piece had the consistency of a sponge and kind of looked like one too.

I keep a small sponge on the edge of my tub so when we shower, the water doesn't leak out onto the floor. I ran upstairs and it was still there. So I can only think that he got it from the house where he spent the weekend. I'll try to remember to ask Sheila if they are missing a small sponge over there. A dog will be a dog wherever he is.

2006-08-28T09:09:00.000-04:00

We humans had a lovely weekend - our first without Rockwell since we got him. We visited and played golf and had a family reunion. Unfortunately, Rockwell isn't talking about his weekend. We dropped him off at Guide Dogs on Friday morning. He pulled me all the way into the kennels, so excited was he to be there. Then when I handed the leash to Rob, Rockwell turned to pull away from him and it looked like he was saying "Mom! Don't go!" Not really but sort of. Anyway, he knows Rob and the kennels by now so I wasn't worried about him. And of course, is IS their dog and they look after him better than I do even, I suppose.

When we returned on Sunday afternoon to pick him up (we were earlier than agreed), he hadn't been returned yet by someone who had taken him into their home for the weekend. So I was glad that he didn't have to spend all the time in kennels. While we were waiting, the kennel-guy for-the-weekend had a 9 week old black Lab female under his arm and I got to pet her. When they are that age, they are such sweet babies, you could just eat 'em up. We went for coffee and when we got back, Rockwell was there. The kennel guy said that the people who had had him for the weekend enjoyed his company and liked him very much. Their only non-positive comment was that he was "a bit excitable." Since he was jumping up on us in greeting, we said we understood. However, later I wondered is perhaps he had peed in their house in his excitement and maybe that's what they meant. I may never know but I'll try asking Sheila when I see her on Friday. I hope he didn't but it's a possibility. Oh well, it's not my dog!

After we got him home, he seemed a bit subdued. That's the word I think fits it best. He was happy to go out for a walk and happy to be with us and he submitted nicely to my petting him all over. But he seemed a bit detached. Then he went into his kennel unasked and lay there for a while. I think he was tired from being in a new situation more than anything. When he barked at me this morning as I sat at the computer, I knew I had Rockwell and not some other dog! All in all, I think this was good for all of us, to have a little time apart before the final time. It makes us appreciate him more and gives him a sample of what is to come. I am so hoping he will pass and become a real working dog - I don't want the experience of being in kennels and hanging with different folks to put him off. And so far, I think he is doing well with his life experiences.

2006-08-22T12:48:00.000-04:00

What I find frustrating about Rockwell is not him so much, as my own inability to figure him out. After all this time, he still stops in the middle of a walk to tug on the leash in what I used to describe as a "temper tantrum" but now believe is only play. Everything is "play" to this dog. If you scold him or raise your voice, it is interpreted as boisterous play! So he never gets told he is a bad dog because he wouldn't understand what that meant, plus he would jump up on you and bark happily because he thought you were playing. Which is what I mean about it being frustrating. He doesn't operate by regular human rules and he doesn't behave like my old dog or like other dogs I know. So I have to invent the wheel with him. Which I can do but I am telling you, it can get tiring.

I would be very interested in getting progress reports once he is in kennels for good, just to know that the professionals are making headway with him. I don't think they like to keep interacting with the puppywalkers once the job is done, however. And I understand that because they have a bigger job to do after all. And I know they don't want the puppywalker to visit the dog while it is in training either, because that is just a distraction. But I'll see if they will tolerate a phone call or two from me, every now and then.

Rockwell is going for his spa weekend this Friday and we'll pick him up Sunday after I've had a welcome few days apart too. It will be good for me to not have the responsibility of his care for a couple of days. Sometimes I think I take it all a little too seriously but it's in my make-up to do that.

Here he is, in mid-bark. I am at the computer and he wants my attention and he is barking very loudly at me. Too bad there's no sound.

2006-08-19T16:49:00.000-04:00

Getting ready to go out for our evening walk, while waiting for Peter, I bent down and pressed my forehead to Rockwell's and petted the sides of his head. He made that adorable noise down in his throat that I now think should be described as "snorgling", thanks to www.cuteoverload.com. Thanks to Peter's fast camera work, we have at least pictorial evidence of it. Look at how far back those ears are! And he never moved the whole time I was petting him. He may be a terror some times but the prominent note in his personality is "sweet".

2006-08-16T10:14:00.000-04:00

I was tagged first by Laura and I am going to follow her lead and write about five crazy habits the three of us have and leave it to you to guess which of us has which habit.

One of us likes not only to chase his tail but then he goes up the stairs in a circular fashion while holding the end of his tail.

One of us likes to try to grab the tags on his collar and then when he finally has them in his mouth, he will walk around like he is leading himself.

One of us loves to watch dog shows on television.

When one of us gets loose accidentally, he runs around in circles like a demented thing.

One of us likes to admire himself in the mirror.

Okay, I guess it's not hard to figure out which habit belongs to which "person" (sorry Peter!).

2006-08-15T09:48:00.000-04:00

For the first time, I caught Rockwell with his paws up on the kitchen counter. I had made myself some toast with a cheese slice on it and had left the wrapper for the cheese slice on the counter. I had taken the plate into the dining room to eat while I read the paper and that's when I heard the suspicious noise from the kitchen. Rockwell was just sniffing the empty cheese wrapper but it was startling to see him up there, as he has never indicated he is willing to risk jumping up before. I said his name "ROCKwell!" with a certain tone of voice and he got right down. I thought he knew it's a Very Bad Thing, to stand up and put his paws on the counter but I'm not so sure any more.

We have had any number of good smelling real food items up on the kitchen counter and he has never jumped up. But in retrospect, I think someone has always been in the kitchen. This time I had left. I might have to "set him up" by leaving something up there and then having a pop can with a few stones in it ready and tossing it if he does jump up when he thinks I'm not looking. In the meantime, better not be leaving anything out!

2006-08-14T13:42:00.000-04:00

Update:

This is what he looks like now, after I walked him, shall we say "thoroughly".

2006-08-14T11:29:00.000-04:00

I talked with Guide Dogs this morning about leaving Rockwell with them when Peter and I go on a little holiday-business trip at the end of September. I gave them the dates and was told that it was possible they might be doing intake of puppies then so I should be prepared to leave him there for good. Of course, it's still possible their schedule won't permit it - a lot depends on what dogs are graduating and what dogs are ready and how much room there is in the kennels. But it creeps up on you awfully fast - as Jenny knows.

Here is Rockwell barking at me, just this morning. I think he is bored - he had Peter at home all last week and we had guests on the weekend. And now it is just boring old me. I'd better take him for a walk to tire him out.

Here is what he looks like under the breakfast table when he has had lots of fun and people to play with him. That was NOT taken today.

2006-08-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

Another pictorial essay. We all know that Rockwell is NOT allowed on the furniture. Right? And in fact, he doesn't help himself to it and never gets up by himself. But sometimes, when we are sitting on the couch, he cannot resist becoming a lap dog, even if he is 70 pounds worth. What I find fun and interesting is that he seems to apply the one foot on the floor rule from the old days of television censorship. As long as he has his hind feet on the floor, he is not really up on the couch. At least, that's what we humans tell ourselves.

It looks like he is asking to climb into my lap here, being a little tentative.

Now I have rebuffed him and he is protesting my lack of generosity.

I am demonstrating the fact that he has learned not to bite down on the hand that feeds him.

Finally, he settles for an over-all cute shot.

2006-08-10T10:16:00.000-04:00

Things have been pretty quiet in a way lately. We had my parents over for the weekend, along with my sister and her husband -- and we didn't take a single photograph! I can't believe it. So for your amusement here are a few pix of Rockwell taken recently by Peter.

Even though Rockwell is over a year old, he still loves to chase his tail.

Here, he has started to spiral up the stairs while hanging onto the end of his tail.

I like this action shot, as Rockwell is about to launch himself off that step and onto the photographer.

In this series, Rockwell and I were jockeying for position.

I'm listening to instructions from the photographer, as to where to place my feet. Rockwell is listening but not to instructions.

I've got him squashed in an ankle vise grip and he's twisting himself to get away. His skin is still loose and wrinkles up in nice big folds when you play like this. It also looks like he's missing a front leg but it's just behind my right leg.

2006-08-05T15:37:00.000-04:00

I try to watch all the working dogs shows on television. There is a Canadian series called "Dogs with Jobs" and there are shows on PBS and elsewhere. I learned that for dogs who do search and rescue, an important thing for them to be able to learn is to place their feet deliberately. I have seen dogs being trained to do this by walking on horizontal ladders and not letting their feet (or themselves) fall through. Apparently, knowing where each of its four feet are is not a natural thing for dogs. I write this to conclude that Rockwell may never get to do search and rescue, should he be unable to work as a guide dog. Every time we are sitting down and he wants to get close to us - which is to say, all the time - Rockwell steps on our two feet with every one of his four feet. He seems to have no idea that he is stepping on my bare toes with his callused and rough toes and claws and no matter how much I complain about it, he doesn't understand that he should try NOT to walk on my feet. And then of course, he gives me one of his sweet looks and I forgive all.

Speaking of working dogs, the Westminster Dog Show was replayed recently and even though Rockwell watched it when it first aired in February, he made sure to watch it again. It's too bad but a photograph simply does not show the intensity of how he watches other dogs on tv. We still think he thinks the tv is a magic window.

2006-08-01T11:23:00.000-04:00

Today was a PW supervisor visit. It is SO hot out there ("how hot is it!?") that we went to Bayshore again where it is air conditioned. [It is just past 11am as I write this and the temperature is at 31C and the humidex at 44C. Phew.] Sheila thought we might see some other puppies there and sure enough we did. There was a yellow Lab in training, two black Labs and a black standard Poodle. We successfully avoided each other physically, although all the dogs did make eye contact at one point or another. Sheila was so proud of Rockwell - when she gave him the command to "leave" the other dog alone, Rockwell did and continued on in a straight line.

The most fun we had was when we walked into the Bay, near the make-up and perfume section. She had chosen that section of the store because the floor there is a highly polished dark glassy tile and some dogs balk at walking over it, like it was water or something. I predicted Rockwell would just glance down at it, at the transition and then continue nonchalantly - and he did! However we turned one corner and were walking down an aisle when he spotted three female mannequins wearing only underwear at the end of the aisle. He stopped and stared and then barked at them! We started laughing quietly and he barked again, with his hackles starting to go up. He obviously saw them as people - but NOT people.

Just as the MAC makeup guy came out to see what was going on and I was explaining to him (Sheila was over by the mannequins, explaining them to Rockwell), Rockwell sat down "plump" on the floor and stared up at the mannequins, inviting them to play. It was the most adorable thing we've seen in a while and the MAC guy loved it too.

Rockwell rode up and down in the glass elevator and was not bothered by any of it, not even the fact that the elevator "talks". He walked up and down the open stairs and everything else we asked of him, with professionalism. He still tried to snag Kleenexes if he saw them lying on the floor and his chase reflex is high when it comes to bits of plastic blowing across the floor, so we have to work on that. But we were proud of him. Sheila says he might even be called into training in as little as two months, depending on what other dogs are doing. My little puppy is growing up!

2006-07-29T09:12:00.000-04:00

Sad news - Peter's mother passed away on Tuesday and we had the funeral on Thursday. It's especially difficult because Peter's father also passed away a month ago, so the summer has been sad and uncertain. I think Rockwell and Peter have become closer because of Peter's raw feelings and somehow, Rockwell seems to know something is going on.

Last night we were sitting around and Rockwell was as close to the two of us as he could get. All our feets (as the Manolo would say) were together so I took this little group shot.

And Rockwell can't resist toes.

A little while later, I glanced down at Rockwell and he had both arms wrapped around Peter's leg. It looked even sweeter in real life but the photo gives a good approximation of what I saw.

2006-07-24T21:23:00.000-04:00

Today, we had to travel down to Kingston and near Napanee. Peter's mother is very ill and a visit could not wait. I wanted to keep him company so we simply piled Rockwell in the car and headed out. I called my parents who live on the way (in Kingston) and they graciously agreed that I could stay for the day with them. My Dad is very allergic to dogs so I thought we should just hang out at a mall but they said, "nonsense" and insisted I bring Rockwell along to their apartment.

Rockwell loves riding in cars and if one pulls into the driveway, he leaps out of the house and into the car without a by-your-leave. We draped the back seat with an old sheet and he is looking out the rear window, wondering why we aren't on the road yet.

Driving down the highway, I held the camera out at arm's length to take his picture and he pulled back just in time for the photo to catch his ears, catching on the seat.

While Peter drove on to near Napanee to sit with his mother, my parents took us out to lunch. We sat at a sidewalk cafe and I gave the camera to Mum to take his photo when he popped his head above the table.

After much licking of the pavement under the table, he settled to watch the world go by (mostly).

At one point, I gave my Dad the leash and got this photo of Rockwell with his tongue hanging out, hauling Dad along the sidewalk as if his life depended on it. Dad's hand is only a little bit blue from having the circulation cut off by the leash.

Finally, I got this little portrait of my folks with Rockwell.

Peter had a nice visit with his mother and I got to be grateful for the great parents that I have.

2006-07-21T14:02:00.000-04:00

Sock Retrieval:

I preface the photo essay with a few comments. All summer long, I never wear socks. Except this morning I wore them to the gym and then, because they didn't get much wear, tucked them into my gym shoes for next time. Rockwell hasn't seen Mom's socks since April and so was inevitably drawn to them. When I saw him sitting on the stairs with something white hanging out of his mouth, I could tell by the set of his ears that he knew he was in the wrong. He therefore did not protest at all when I removed the offending object. Look at those ears in the final photo - he couldn't get a scolding looking that cute.

Discovering where my sock went.

Posing at the start of the sock extraction.

It was very easy to open his mouth - my knuckles aren't white or anything.

You can't be mad at that face!

2006-07-21T08:06:00.000-04:00

The other day, Peter called to me from the downstairs powder room and said, "there are rocks in the toilet!" I followed him in there and he pointed into the bowl. "You can't see them all the time but after you flush, they sometimes creep out." I look and see a few pebbles where the pipe disappears into the recesses of the commode. "Well," I say, "stick your hand in there and fish them out." "No way!" "Yes way! I keep the toilet clean. Those rocks just aren't getting past the trap."

After some discussion where he didn't even want me to put my hand in there, I go get a couple of paper towels and start fishing out rocks. These are pieces of gravel about 1/2 inch or more in diameter. They have obviously been digested by Rockwell and then, due to their weight, not been able to make it past the trap in the toilet. I end up pulling out almost a cup full of the things. I'm guessing that Rockwell has not necessarily been on a recent rock-eating spree but that they have been accumulating quietly all year and we've only just noticed them now. It was however, an impressive haul of rocks.

2006-07-17T22:12:00.000-04:00

Our condo corp is replacing all the windows in all the units. Today was our turn. By 8:30 am we had all the window coverings down and the spaces in front of the windows cleared for work.

Interestingly, I had just decided to move Rockwell's kennel into the living room, from its first home in the dining room. After I moved it there on Saturday, Rockwell seemed to really like the new spot and went in and out of his home regularly all day. What they say about real estate must be true for dogs too - the most important three things are location, location, location!

While the workmen were busy ripping out the windows, there were bits of insulation and debris everywhere and we thought it was safer to keep Rockwell in his kennel for the duration. I think Peter is reaching for the remote control here.

Rockwell endured the kennel all day long, never barking, keeping a close eye on things, snoozing when it got boring. In short, he was a model prisoner. We gave him the occasional ice cube to keep him happy and took him out for a walk now and then. But it was 33C outside, with a humidex of 43C (91F and 109F) so he was actually happy to come back in where we kept the air conditioning going despite having windows out temporarily.

The only hitch was when the workmen discovered that wasps had infiltrated the window in my sewing room. They are replacing the windows which are as old as the houses - about 25 years - because of things like leaks and cracks. Obviously, the wasps had found an opening and taken advantage of it. They said they saw about 50 of them fly out when they started to remove that window and they stopped immediately. No point in falling off the ladder while flailing away at stinging insects. So we called the condo corp and asked them to send an exterminator a.s.a.p. because the house would be open to the elements. That was in the morning. By 4:30 no one had showed up so I called them back and they said that Orkin had been unusually busy with wasps and bees this Summer. They usually get them in the Fall but there have been so many this Summer, they are overrun with business. Anyway, the workmen put the old window back and hopefully it will not fall out overnight if there is a thunderstorm. I am also hopeful that Orkin will show up tomorrow so they can finish that one last window.

This is the bay window in the dining room. Apparently the new windows are so much better insulated and installed than the old ones that they say I won't freeze like I used to at my computer which normally sits in the bay. I'd like to move it anyway but don't have a new location chosen yet. Maybe Rockwell will advise me.

2006-07-16T12:40:00.000-04:00

More Lessons (for us):

Last night, we had two people over who Rockwell hadn't really met but they have two dogs of their own so they understand about dogs. We sat out on the patio for dinner and I left Rockwell in the house because you really need to focus all your attention on him when he is outside or on a leash and that kind of takes away from enjoyable conversation. At one point, Carmen went into the house by herself and when she came back out, she commented that Rockwell was such a good dog. He had tried to jump up on her but she asked him not to and then ignored him and he lay right down on the floor and stayed there. This was a contrast to when the two of us were in the house and then Rockwell wanted to play all the time and wouldn't listen to me.

A little later, Jerome went into the house alone and when he came out, he said the same thing! That is, that Rockwell seems better behaved when I'm not there. Jerome asked Rockwell to go back up the stairs and wait on the landing and so he went. And he didn't try to follow Jerome outside later. Peter wondered if we are doing something wrong in raising Rockwell but I opined that it was simply because Rockwell doesn't know these people very well and he was being a little cautious, a little circumspect. I thought (if I am right) that this was probably a very good thing. It shows he does have respect, that he does pay attention and that he should be successful when he goes off to school. We just get to see him at his most relaxed and carefree, even if it does make me crazy sometimes.

2006-07-16T12:31:00.000-04:00

Where does the time go? I invited some friends over for dinner on Saturday so had to do some prep work Friday and just didn't get to blogging until today. On Saturday, I asked Peter to take Rockwell for a nice long (albeit HOT) walk so I could vacuum. I had finished the vacuuming and was just about to do some dishes when the phone rang. It was Peter and he said, "come quick. The dog is loose in the park and I need you to bring some kibble! Turn left when you get to the park and head for the sandbox." Ack! I grabbed some kibble and ran out the door, remembered I should have the dinner whistle too, ran back for that and then out to the park again. As I ran up the path into the park and turned left, I saw Peter slowly walking toward me as Rockwell, collarless, bounced around him in mad circles. Between us on the path was an elderly Chinese woman who seemed to be laughing as Rockwell bounded toward her but was obviously terrified of the rambunctious dog. I stopped and blew three times on the whistle (the signal for lunchie, lunchie) and Rockwell whirled and raced toward me, bashing into my knees when he got to me. I asked him to sit before I would give him a kibble and even in his excitement at being FREE, he actually sat for a second. I gave him a kibble and he took off toward Peter again, pausing to jump on the poor Chinese woman.

After a few back and forths like this, Peter football tackled him and got the collar on him again. We tried to console the poor lady who Rockwell had taken such a shine to but really, she was still smiling even if she wasn't interested in patting Rockwell now that he was under control. It turned out that they had had a really nice walk all the way around Centrepointe and Peter was pleased with Rockwell's behaviour. It was SO hot (at that point, about 38C on the humidex) that Peter decided to walk back to the house using the path that goes around the perimeter of the park. The park was full of people playing soccer and they stopped in the shade to watch them. When Peter went to get going again, Rockwell stopped dead and did that wriggle with his head and the collar (NOT on the tightest hole) slipped right off. Then he was LOOSE! Peter said he decided the best thing to do was sit on the ground and phone me and sure enough, Rockwell didn't run more than 30 feet from him. He just kept loping in circles and sniffing under the bushes and around trees. He wouldn't come over to be caught but he didn't run away either. So it was pretty interesting.

2006-07-13T10:28:00.000-04:00

It feels counterintuitive to just stand there, waiting for good behaviour. Especially when I WANT Rockwell to DO something and he's not doing the thing that I want. And especially if I am frustrated in what I want to do, such as get home after a walk. It has taken me a long time but I have learned from Rockwell that he is simply not going to do something just because I want him to. And he is not going to do it if I get upset either because any attention is good attention. So there I am standing out in the road, waiting for him to get up so I can praise him for being on his feet. And once he is on his feet, then I run to the house and he runs with me because running is fun. Whew.

Really - you cannot MAKE him get up just because you WANT it. We recreated this series of pix but it is pretty much what happens most mornings.

Flopping down in the shade like a sack of wet noodles. Impossible to move.

I thought I might be able to lure him along with the stick he'd picked up.

He's up and running!

So near and yet so far.

2006-07-10T16:06:00.000-04:00

I wonder if I just had an epiphany? I have been trying to get Rockwell to understand that when he bites too hard on me, it hurts. You know - the play that dogs do, putting their mouth around your hand. I don't want him to learn that mouthing is necessarily bad - I would prefer he learned to have a very soft mouth on human skin. Just now he came over to see if I would play and my hand ended up in his mouth. When he put a little too much pressure on it, I said "OW!" And he responded by saying "ARF ARF ARF!" Really loudly. So I said "OW" even louder and it degenerated into a shouting match. Which was when I suddenly realized that "ow" sounds an awful lot like "bow wow!" Hmm. So now I have to think of another word that doesn't sound like barking. Not "ouch", that's for sure.

2006-07-10T09:05:00.000-04:00

Peter's away for a couple of days so I didn't have him for back-up. I was taking a shower and didn't think to close the bathroom door. Suddenly, there was Rockwell, pushing his nose in where it didn't belong, trying to lick the water coming from the faucet. I tried shooing him away and he'd appear at the other end of the tub. He would stick his whole head under the shower curtain and seemed to really be enjoying himself. I tried to give the command "leave" but I fear I was laughing too much to sound dominant. Mostly, I wanted to rinse off as fast as I could before he got completely soaked or jumped right into the tub with me.

Finally I finished my shower and went to grab the camera which was thankfully just down the hall in my sewing room. I wanted to get a snap of Rockwell before I towelled him off. He may look cowed here but I assure you, he was not.

Then I asked him to sit up so I could get a better photo and this is what I saw. What a dog!

2006-07-09T09:50:00.000-04:00

The other day while I had the vacuum out, I decided to keep on going down the basement stairs and so on, into the laundry room. Usually, when I am vacuuming, Rockwell attacks the attachment used to clean the wood floors (as he does with the Swiffer) but he stays clear of the beater bar attachment that I use on the carpets. Because I was vacuuming wooden steps and heading to a tile floor, I left the beater bar upstairs. As well, since the baby gate came down months ago, we have been keeping the basement door shut but he hasn't seemed that interested in heading down there anyway.

So there I was, vacuuming in the laundry room having left the basement door open, when suddenly I see Rockwell peeking around the edge of the stairs at me. He looked pretty cute but I spoke to him and warned him that he shouldn't come down any further. Of course, his curiosity got the better of him and he slowly made it around the corner, sniffing very tentatively as he went. I noticed too, that he kept his hind legs as far back as possible, stretching himself out so he could get a sniff of what was coming but hanging on to the floor with his back toes "just in case". He even goes into this pose outside sometimes, when he is faced with something unusual and thinks he should keep his options open for making a quick getaway.

2006-07-06T09:10:00.000-04:00

I've blogged before about how I think Rockwell is a "sensitive soul". I have been observing him of late with that in mind and I believe that he is certainly sensitive about his own feelings but I am not sure he understands that we humans have feelings too. Instead of the temper tantrum, lately he has been simply lying down in the road if he doesn't want to walk in the direction you want to walk. That's amusing for perhaps the first five times but then it gets old. When you're walking and this happens and some other person comes along, you have to pretend you agree with them when they say "isn't that funny" when all along, you are annoyed because the dog will not listen to you when you say "come." But if you get all stern and say "come" in a way that says "I mean business" he doesn't understand. Punishment simply doesn't work on this guy or even the threat of it. Every bit of attention he can get from you is play to him, even if you are trying to pick his limp form up to get him on his feet so you can continue your walk home. So this is still part of the learning process for me - how do I get him to understand that I want him to do something, knowing that he does not respond to "bad dog". For now, I get him up and walking again by running either toward him or away from him, depending, and making a game of it. Then he jumps up and leaps around me in fun. Then I keep on running all the way to the front door so that we are home again. But this is one dog you cannot bend to your will and not out of dominance or even willfulness on his part. No, I fear if you bend him too much, he would break. So it's a delicate balancing act.

2006-07-05T11:23:00.000-04:00

I actually and finally started my novel yesterday. I am following The Marshall Plan for writing my first book and it is stimulating all the thoughts that are needed for an idea to become a book. I am still at character development so I can break away easily to do other things without losing the momentum of writing a scene but I can see that blogging might become light if I get carried away with the writing. On the other hand, blogging is a great excuse to procrastinate! So you never know.

A while ago, Peter gave Rockwell an ice cube to chew on because it was so hot. Suddenly, Rockwell has discovered his favourite treat. Now, when you go to the freezer and rattle the ice cubes in the metal container, he appears instantly at the kitchen door, waiting for a treat. When you give him a cube, he grabs it and runs under the dining table to eat his treat in privacy. And he eats it like he chews on stones only because it is ice, it actually gets chewed up and he swallows the little icy bits. Unlike Uma who would often abandon the cube to melt into a little puddle to be stepped in later.

Here, he didn't even think to close his eyes when the flash went off.

There he goes, running around the end of the table.

And finally, he gets to enjoy the ice cube crunch.

2006-07-04T09:06:00.000-04:00

Long weekend, things to do, no blogging. Anyway. Here is how you hold a dog's nose so a second person can get in there and clean those ears. And as usual, he closed his eyes when the flash went off.

Rockwell is much more resigned to the ear cleaning that when we started. And the ears are in fact totally clean now so I am mostly administering the anti-fungal agent. We do this first thing in the morning and then the day is clear. Actually, we're only doing this first thing because Peter is on holiday. Otherwise, we'd clean the ears when he got home from work because he leaves so early.

Peter called to me the other day and said, "Rockwell has discovered he can get a drink when I'm in the shower." So I went in there with the camera.

2006-06-30T08:26:00.000-04:00

Good point from Lileks today about keeping an eye on your dog for the next few days. Our fireworks are tomorrow and his are the 4th but it's all fireworks.

The fireworks have begun. Occasional detonations up and down the block. Jasper hates them. He will not leave my side. Thunder he can take; my guitar playing unnerves him not. (Which makes him unique.) The sudden screech of a bottle rocket, however, makes him nervous. Last year on the fourth I put him in the garage, but that wasn’t good enough – he tried to get into my car, as I discovered the next day when the sunlight hit the scratches.

This is his worst time of the year. Unexplained large ambient noises without context: dog hell.

2006-06-27T19:11:00.000-04:00

Today we went to the vet so she could check out Rockwell's stinky ears. Now that I have decided to put him in the back seat when we're driving, he seems more settled. He can move from side to side and look out the windows back there, as well as glance through the windshield to see what's coming in that direction. I also don't have to struggle with him trying to climb into the driver's seat - not that he wants to drive, necessarily. I just think he is trying to see out of the left side of the car.

We're getting some of the tail end of that weather they've been getting on the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. and it poured while we drove to the CGDB. Miraculously, it let up as we got there and we didn't even get wet running into the building. We met another puppy waiting for the vet. Her name is Queenie and she is also a cross like Rockwell but turned out quite red in colour. As we waited while Queenie was being looked after, two kennel guys kept coming and going from our hallway. At first, Rockwell leaped up every time one appeared and strangled himself on his collar, causing my biceps to increase by another 1/4 inch. Eventually however, he settled and just sat as they went to and fro, as long as they didn't make eye contact with him of course. But, being kennel guys, they know better than that!

When it was our turn, I explained to the vet that I had been cleaning his ears for over a month and for the last two weeks or so with diluted vinegar. She approved of that because with a yeast infection, you want to acidify the environment to keep the yeast from growing. I explained how I had been cleaning with a cotton ball soaked in vinegar and she approved of that too, except for the fact that I wasn't getting deep enough. So she proceeded to show me how to clean with a Q-tip. Well. I have always been warned away from Q-tips by vets who don't trust lay folks with pointy objects. I was quite pleased that she felt confident enough in my abilities to give me this instruction. She also showed me how to work a cotton ball if I didn't feel right with the Q-tip.

All the while she was doing the cleaning and application of the anti-yeast meds, her assistant Rob stood there calmly holding Rockwell's nose. I'll try to get a photo of Peter holding Rockwell that way, because that is what is going to start happening tomorrow night for the next two weeks. I told Peter he would have to do the holding and he was okay with that. As a vet, she is so accustomed to handling dogs that they just become calm around her and don't fret about her poking in their ears. So I have to immediately develop that same calm (and so does Peter) and we will be able to handle Rockwell nicely for the duration of his ear cleaning and medication.

We also talked about how you can over-clean dogs' ears so that they become too sensitive and get worse. I used to do that with Uma's ears until I learned to leave them alone. So I'll do this stint for two weeks and hopefully Rockwell will not only be none-the-worse but better for the ordeal.

2006-06-25T11:39:00.000-04:00

Who's been drinking??

I can't believe we got this photo! Rockwell had his head tilted waaay back to look at me behind him. Then when he straightened up, one of his ears was inside out and his tongue was hanging out the side he'd been tilted toward. And then he closed his eyes just as the flash went off. So no, he has not been drinking but it sure looks like it!

2006-06-22T17:58:00.000-04:00

On Monday while I was out teaching, we had a brief but powerful thunder, lightening and rain storm. We lost power twice in the classroom but while it was on, for fun I tracked the blob on the radar on the computer terminal in the classroom. Peter was at home, alone with Rockwell when it hit. Lots of lightening and thunder, maybe more than Rockwell has ever seen during the day time. At one point, Peter turned around while he was in the kitchen making himself a sandwich and there was Rockwell, lying close by his feet. Peter chuffed him up and said, "let's go look at the storm" and so they did.

Once Peter showed him there was no reason to fear the storm, then Rockwell was fine about it too. The rain just came in torrents and lashed all the windows.

At the end, there was a huge lake in the parking area but it slowly drained.

Exciting weather aside, Rockwell's ear has reached the point where I will take him to see the vet at CGDB on Tuesday. Sheila said I was keeping the yeast at bay with the vinegar but it wasn't going away. On this note, may I recommend you go visit this wonderfully written vignette of dog ear cleaning? With pictures and everything. Thanks Gwiz!

2006-06-21T10:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Solstice, the first day of summer. More notably, Rockwell turned one year old yesterday. And I didn't even blog about it. Well, in my defence, he didn't know either.

We went out with the PW supervisor yesterday. You may recall that we were planning to go back to Westboro and have a coffee at one of the dog cafes to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately, it had rained off and on that morning and Sheila said she was tired of getting wet so we were going to Bayshore instead. Well, it's a nice big indoor mall and he'd never been so away we went.

On the way there, we stopped at a light and a cab pulled up beside us. Rockwell stared out the window at the cabbie and finally the driver waved at him. At that encouragement, Rockwell climbed up my chest and tried to get out the window at the door jamb. It was funny but I was left covered in hair and slobber. At Bayshore, we started in the underground garage area where pigeons flew and cars and trucks made loud, rumbly noises. Unfazed by any of that, Rockwell freaked out over a moth and later, over some dandelion fluff. We decided he's a detail man.

Once he settled into wearing his jacket he did his golden boy routine and made us both proud. He saw his first escalator and didn't turn a hair at it, preferring instead to be interested in a cookie crumb at its base. I was directed to travel up the escalator and out of sight and then come back down, to test his reaction. He was quite interested when I disappeared at the top and as I came back down, his tail started to wag slowly as I got closer. Once I got off the escalator however, I was ignored! We also walked into a washroom and Sheila took him into the large handicapped stall and he just sat in the corner when asked.

Bayshore has lots of different floor surfaces - from stone to marble to tile to carpet and Sheila noticed that at every transition, he put his nose down to examine it. This is something they encourage in a real guide dog so she was quite happy to see it. We walked down one long hallway where the floor was striped at frequent intervals by a different colour stone and he stopped looking at each stripe after the first two. Then when we arrived at a court area with a different floor, he looked at the transition as we crossed it.

Finally we had coffee at Second Cup, to celebrate Sheila's birthday which is coming up on Thursday. Rockwell by then was tired and he persisted in licking the floor, trying to chew gum off the underside of the table and trying to get the shim out from under one table leg. We finally gave up, put the lids back on our coffees and called it a day.

2006-06-19T10:40:00.000-04:00

I have finally figured out how to clean Rockwell's ears - I can't believe it takes me this long, sometimes, to figure things out. First, I lured him into the bathroom and shut the door. Now I have a captive audience. Then I soaked a cotton ball in the diluted vinegar solution. This way, I don't have liquid spraying all around AND I can warm up the solution a little because I am holding onto the cotton ball. I put the cotton ball in the entrance of the ear canal and just gently massage the ear from the inside. This way, the vinegar goes into the ear canal but is unnoticed by the dog. After a minute, I pull the cotton ball out and it is covered in dirty ear wax. No pain, no fuss, no vinegar anywhere but where I want it. Oh Rockwell still flung himself to the floor and tried to hide but I wasn't trying to dribble liquid from a squeezy bottle into his ears so the process was far simpler.

2006-06-18T10:29:00.000-04:00

We decided that we should get out early for a long walk, before the heat and humidity drove us inside to enjoy the air conditioning. Since all three of us were on the walk, I decided to allow Rockwell the freedom of the expandable leash and he romped with abandon. It was fun to watch him lope along and play with discarded plastic water bottles. Even if I do want to harm those people who toss their trash like they don't belong on this planet - grr.

My theory about ignoring bad behaviour was reinforced recently by an encounter with a middle aged little dog named Casey (I think he is a Lhasa Apso - is that right Kathleen?). Rockwell bounced over to Casey and wanted to play but Casey actually turned his back on Rockwell and ignored him completely. Within less than a minute of being so severely ignored, Rockwell had abandoned the attempt to make Casey play and was lying on the grass, chewing a stick while Kathleen and I continued to talk. A while later, Rockwell tried to get Casey to play again and this time, Casey growled and snapped at Rockwell. This only encouraged my puppy! He bounced all around Casey, oblivious to the fact that the attention he was getting from him was negative. Then Casey gave him the cold shoulder and Rockwell left him alone. Very interesting.

2006-06-17T09:56:00.000-04:00

I think I am caught in the difficult place between cleaning Rockwell's ears TOO much and not cleaning them at all. I found with Uma that when I cleaned her ears, the mere act of poking around in there would serve to irritate the ear canal and make matters worse. In the first few years, when her ears would get stinky from yeast, i would get in there and clean and then I'd have to administer the anti-yeast medication we got from the vet. Eventually, I just left the ears alone and after that, she never had a real problem. They might get dirty looking sometimes and smell a bit but they never flared up out of control.

With Rockwell, I was asked to clean his ears and since, you know, "he's not my dog!", I did as requested. Now I am going to water down the vinegar solution even more and try to stay away from the ears. Much to HIS relief I am sure. Boy, he just flings himself to the ground when he sees me coming with a cotton ball! Then he rolls on his back and twists his head so I can't get at the affected ear. Poor guy, but that's my job - to be his "mom". In fact, I remember when I was a kid and my own mother would clean my ears out. I was so relieved when I declared one day that I was old enough to clean them out myself and she agreed with me. Not that she didn't do a good job but it's a whole different thing when it's your own ear that you are poking with a swab.

2006-06-15T13:48:00.000-04:00

Having a leisurely week here. Still putting vinegar in his ear. It looks nice and clean but smells a little yeasty by the end of the day so I'll keep at it until that goes away.

Rockwell has always done this - pressed his nose against objects. I have tried to capture it on camera but it doesn't always convey how interesting it looks in reality.

This first shot shows how his muzzle is squashed on the carpet. His eyes are open too which negates naysayers who think he might merely have fallen asleep in that position.

In the next two photos, he deliberately closed his eyes just as the flash went off and the shutter opened, so it looks like he might be asleep, but he is not! In fact, he picked his nose up and then put it back in a slightly different position for the second photo.

I have speculated that he likes the feel of the carpet but he also presses his muzzle against the glass top on the coffee table so I really don't know why. Maybe it's just me but I find this so fun and fascinating. Maybe I need to get out a little more.

2006-06-13T09:14:00.000-04:00

We had another busy weekend. A friend who Rockwell has never met came to stay for a couple of days and he immediately adopted her into our pack. I really think he is happier the bigger the pack. She was very tolerant of him and even helped me with his stinky ear. As is the way with most lop-eared dogs, one ear is smelling yeasty and I have been keeping it at bay by cleaning it with a dry cotton ball twice a day. However, I really noticed it when Betty was here, probably because I became extra conscious due to having a house guest. One morning, she suggested I try a diluted solution of vinegar and water and I had to slap myself up-side the head. Of course! I only have herbed vinegar that I made myself so when I was done, he smelled, as Betty said, like a salad, but I think the ear is improving already. Anyway, it can't hurt him and it may keep me from having to take him in to the vet.

2006-06-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

If you made him sleep in this position, I don't think he would thank you.

And yet he often squashes himself up against the stair rails for a snooze.

2006-06-08T10:56:00.000-04:00

Another take on the Dog Whisperer, this time from Dooce.

2006-06-07T08:04:00.000-04:00

That was interesting. I have been working on the "ignore the bad dog" technique for the temper tantrums and while slow to catch on, I can see that it does work eventually. In fact, the behaviour I don't like (pulling on the leash with his teeth, playing tug-of-war) only escalates into a tantrum when I focus on the dog and tell him "no". If I just turn my back and wait, he eventually stops because he isn't getting any attention (it doesn't seem to matter whether the attention is positive or negative to him).

This morning when we got back from our walk, he was still wound up from playing with another dog along the way. So he went into his mad-dog-dash-around-the-house-and-kick-up-carpets routine. The only thing is, Peter was trying to sleep. He's been up for 24 hours on business and this play makes a lot of noise. I tried for a second to shush him (literally by placing my finger on my lips and saying shh like you would do with a human) and that was acknowledged by even louder barking. So I picked up my breakfast and walked away into the kitchen. In a moment, he came to lie in the kitchen doorway and look at me. I kept my back turned and eventually, he sighed and lay down in the hall! Success! Not fast success but success!

Also, I learned that when Rockwell has slobbered big white globs on someone and I try to point it out so they can wipe it off, I shouldn't say "you have dog goop on you" because that sounds just like "dog poop"! Sorry Robert.

2006-06-05T22:10:00.000-04:00

Tonight, I finally took Rockwell to school with me. I am exhausted. But it was a qualified success.

Peter is away overnight and so I thought it was now or never to take Rockwell to work because I've been saying I'll do it but haven't and he's almost a year old already. I packed his small kong, water bowl and a bottle of water from home in my backpack, put him in his jacket and off we went. Things were going well until he spotted what sure looked like a ball of horse manure by Centrepointe Theatre and went for it. I couldn't think what horse poop was doing there but that's what it looked like.

We got sorted out and continued over to the college. I picked up my folder at the continuing ed office in one building and then proceeded to the building I teach in. He was pretty darned good this whole time. When I got to my classroom, there was one student there already but Rockwell didn't seem to want to rush over to smell her so I was happy with that. A few other students started showing up and he was very interested in them but I coached them not to speak to him or make eye contact. That worked pretty well and he ignored them after a while.

I had brought the blue nylon leash and roped it around the leg of the desk so he wouldn't wander off. I put his water bowl under the desk where he wouldn't knock it over so easily and set out his kong. As students arrived before class started, we talked about him and his future and he lay there just as good as gold. I got two pictures before things -- changed, shall we say.

Soon I was lecturing and he got bored perhaps and started chewing on the leash. That's another reason I didn't tie him up with the leather leash - it would have been chewed through in minutes. He did manage to fray the nylon one but it wasn't too bad. So I undid him. It turns out he was more interested in chewing the leash than in being free. It took him a while (after I took the leash away) to realize he could roam around the room.

I asked the students to try to ignore him and not make eye contact and they were very good about it. He went from student to student, sometimes pausing to lick at bare toes or sniff a backpack but the students were very cooperative and he just wandered around without getting into anyone's lap or anything (except for one girl near the end of the session who had him as a lap dog for a moment). He found a paper clip and chewed on it until I took it away. Some other times, a student reported that he had found a tic tac or some gum but I let him have those. At one point, he stood up at the back of the room where the windows are and put his paws on the windowsill so he could watch someone walking by.

So I say it was a qualified success because he didn't lie at the front of the class the whole time, snoozing at my feet. But the students were charmed by him and he didn't pee in the room so while we are both exhausted by the experience, it was pretty good all around.

2006-06-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

In anticipation of the big mattress move tomorrow, Peter took down the railing on "Rockwell's stairs". First, Rockwell had to inspect where the railing had been.

Then he had a long look over the edge.

And finally he gave us a look.

2006-06-04T12:23:00.000-04:00

Photo today unrelated to the blog - except for thematically.

Taken out on the patio the other day. Rockwell had found a stone to chew and wanted to lie on my feet to chew it.

We had a house guest last night, an old friend of Peter's who raises and trains horses. He was at the Carp Fairgrounds for a big horse show and consequently smells strongly of horses (to the dog anyway). Rockwell greeted him like a long-lost brother and set to licking his shoes until it got annoying. We left the shoes at the front door and Rockwell proceeded to try to get on this poor fellow's lap and chew on his shirt too. Then, banished to the floor finally, he lay on this guy's feet the whole time. This morning when he was in the bathroom, Rockwell camped outside the door until he could see him again. We're just glad he was understanding about it, as he has two dogs of his own and really loves them and the horses. As far as Rockwell was concerned, it was an entirely successful visit. Now we just have to introduce him to horses and he'll be in heaven.

2006-06-02T09:42:00.000-04:00

Sigh. I am so bored. Why must I lie here on the stairs all the time?

All right - I shall play with my toy.

If I roll it down the stairs, will you fetch it for me?

2006-06-01T10:21:00.000-04:00

An interesting look at the Dog Whisperer from different perspectives.

2006-06-01T08:04:00.000-04:00

This morning we happened upon a dead baby bird, lying in the grass. As I stood by this small casualty of a cruel world, I watched Rockwell sniff it, move around, sniff it again. I wondered (briefly) if I might see some spark of compassion for a fellow traveller, a sign that this dog had some human qualities that we humans so pathetically look for in animals. As I watched, I saw him bend his front legs and angle his nose toward the ground and boom! He was down and rolling on the dead thing. Sorry, but Rockwell is a dog through and through.

2006-05-31T16:48:00.000-04:00

Nothing new to blog about. It is so hot and humid that even Rockwell recognizes the benefits of air conditioning. We go out early for our main walk of the day, before the heat hits. I was sitting here blogging about sewing when he came down the stairs with a bone hanging out of his mouth and gave me a look that says, "Mom, I'm bored!"

2006-05-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

The tantrums continue. This morning as we left the house, Rockwell was fine but we passed a mother with a small child. I am not good with kids' ages so I guess this one was maybe four years old? Anyway, something transpired between them and the kid started wailing and the mother was pulling him along. I looked back at her as Rockwell was hauling me off to a particular patch of grass and mutual sympathy and understanding passed between us.

Later over at the reflecting pond, Rockwell decided he would play tug of war with his leash so I stood there and ignored him. And stood there, and stood there. At one point, he decided he needed a better purchase on the leash so he let go and re-grabbed but since my back was to him and since the leash was attached to my wrist which was also behind my back, he actually bit me on the bum as he went for the leash! Of course, I am not wounded except in dignity. It took him a while before he gave it up and decided he would rather have my attention than play with the leash.

I find it interesting that before I decided to go with the depriving-him-of-attention ploy, I felt exhausted mentally and physically when he pulled a tantrum. Now I am tired physically because of all the pulling and trying to maintain my balance and position, but I don't feel bad mentally. I am not despairing, I don't feel bad because I'm fighting with him, and today, a passerby thought it was "cute" so I don't feel bad about how it looks either. Although, as you know, it is NOT cute. Anyway, I am happy to continue on this path for a while. And I still think he will out grow it.

2006-05-28T07:59:00.000-04:00

Rockwell is still learning cause and effect but he already amazes me at what connexions he does make. For instance, when he is lying on the hardwood floor, he will gently push the Kong away from him and watch it roll in an arc across the floor, stop and roll back to him. Then he will push it again and watch it again. He will do this until he pushes it too hard or it gets stuck somewhere. I don't know if other dogs do this but I find it fascinating to watch.

This morning we walked over to the city hall and walked around the large reflecting pond. The fountain in the middle wasn't on so the water was very still except for periodically around the perimeter, where water jetted into the pond just under the surface. This made a disturbance on top of the water every 10 feet or so and Rockwell stopped in excitement at the first jet he saw. He wanted to go into the water to investigate but I didn't allow that - he is not supposed to go swimming as a guide dog. So we watched the water for a while and then I moved him on to the next jet, where he was excited again to watch the water. By the time we reached the fifth or sixth jet, he was all blase about it, having at least figured out that this phenomenon was normal for this pond.

2006-05-27T10:23:00.000-04:00

We all went for a walk this morning and stopped at the end to talk with our neighbour who had his hanging plant stolen from right outside his front door. If the folks in this hood who read this blog see a peach coloured hanging basket somewhere else, let us know! Anyway, after that excitement, Rockwell was nicely tired out and after breakfast, he lay under the table and chewed his bone on my foot.

I didn't realize how filthy my sneakers were until I saw this photo. Sorry.
Then we were in the kitchen doing the dishes and spotted this scene and just had to preserve it. Look at that paw.

2006-05-25T13:51:00.000-04:00

Another lovely weather day - currently 24C (75F) and sunny. Our morning walk was very nice. If all you think I do is walk with this dog well it's not entirely true. I also sit and commune with him and we sew together and blog together and watch tv together and occasionally go to the pub. But the morning walk tends to be where the action is for the day!

I decided to walk around some of the strictly suburban loops that open onto Centrepointe, like Pinetrail and Mapleview. You turn off the main road and onto these subdivision roads with no sidewalks. The only traffic is people leaving their driveways to go to work. And some school buses. I used to walk there with Uma when she still could walk and it's very quiet, lots of bird song (Rockwell stopped to look when a robin whistled for him) and lovely, well-tended gardens. I guess I haven't been with Rockwell until today because I thought he should have traffic around him to get used to it.

We left at about 8am and I packed a lunch because I thought we might be out there for a while, based on the previous two days. I was determined to keep him out as long as possible and look for signs that he might actually want to go home. [But I'm just kidding about the lunch - we were home by 9.] I kept him moving but let him look at things as we went by. A couple of times, I let him stop to sniff a post. Eventually when I saw his tongue start hanging out, I turned for home and got no quarrel -- until we were actually in sight of home. And then he grabbed the leash in his mouth and started dancing around. I tried to get it from him by jerking it out of his mouth but that didn't work. I remembered the thought from yesterday (expressed in comments!) that maybe ignoring the bad behaviour had an effect. Amazingly, I turned my back on him, crossed my arms on my chest like Stanley Coren suggests (I saw it on his tv show once upon a time) and looked up. He stopped pulling! I waited and started forward again and he went for the leash. Stop, look away, ignore the dog and he stopped pulling. Of course, I realize this may not work tomorrow but I'm pretty happy about it today!

2006-05-24T13:38:00.000-04:00

I had a good visit with my PW supervisor and we discussed the hissy fits, as she calls them. First of all, he's not the only dog having them so that's a relief. Secondly, she thinks not having a fenced yard may be a factor. The other dogs having tantrums also don't have free-run play time in a yard and they might be getting cranky when their only outdoor time is on a leash. Thirdly, she agrees that it may have something to do with the dog not getting what he wants. I want to go home and he doesn't - tantrum.

I'm going to work on being more assertive in not putting up with tantrums. And we're going to look for a fenced area where Rockwell can run around. She said there was a public school near here that gave permission for a guide dog to use the yard as long as it was wearing the jacket. High schools don't usually have a completely fenced and gated yard so I'm going to look for the nearest public school and see if I can get permission for Rockwell to romp on the weekends.

Finally, we went for a walk in Westboro where there is plenty of distraction including lots of people, kids, dogs, street food vendors, and Rockwell performed like the star he can be. So that was really successful too. With the break on the weather and my new-found optimism regarding Rockwell, I feel much better.

2006-05-24T08:39:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to develop a theory of Rockwell's bad behaviour. It's only the one thing - where he goes all "mad dog" on me and refuses to listen. He usually grabs his leash in his mouth and then dances away from me, pulling me around and around in a circle. I'm not sure if this is the same thing as his "mad dog" in the house routine, where he runs around, kicking up carpets and barking wildly.

This morning, I thought I would walk him someplace new and thought about the government buildings that used to be the Nortel buildings. They're all surrounded with nice new sidewalks and he's never been there before. I thought it would be a chance to test my theory that he goes "mad dog" when we turn for home. He was very good for the first 15 minutes. Then, I walked him back out to the main road and asked him to "sit" which he did, very nicely. I don't think he knew where he was although we could see the park from where we were. Then he grabbed the leash and we were off. Not physically, because we ended up crouching on the corner of the sidewalk for the next 5 minutes, but mentally. He wouldn't let go of the leash and I persisted in saying "leave" and trying to jerk it out of his mouth. That didn't work very well. I grabbed his collar and held on to it on both sides of his neck and said "sit" and "leave", depending. All I got in response was mad barking and growling and pulling away. We ended up on the ground with me hanging onto the loose skin around his neck and him on his back but still fighting, with passersby looking askance at us but thankfully not saying anything.

So I'm thinking, it's not the location, it's not turning for home, it's nothing I said... I finally give up and try to head home with him bouncing around at the end of the leash. Because he likes to bounce around in circles, it was difficult. I'd stop every moment to straighten myself out and then we'd continue our bizarre progress. However, this morning, the sun is out and it's warm so I wasn't despairing at least. Suddenly, he stopped misbehaving. I carried on walking and he walked right beside me. I didn't have to get angry (I had stayed remarkably calm before) and I didn't do anything like try to distract him. He just stopped misbehaving and walked calmly all the way home. Whew. So that's why I'm working on a theory - leaving it to random chance like that is not my first choice.

2006-05-23T15:29:00.000-04:00

Okay, that was better! We went out for our LONG afternoon walk. This time, I brought treats in my pocket (just kibble), the temperature had doubled (from 7 to 14C, 44 to 57F) and the sun was out so I was in a better frame of mind at least. Rockwell might have still been a bit subdued from this morning's fiasco, I'm not sure. I was determined to keep his attention and did for most of the time. At one point, we were confronted by someone walking a Shitzu type puppy so I took Rockwell way off the path to one side and asked him to sit while they went by. He mostly sat but did lunge a bit. After they were gone, I lead him onto the path again and then asked him to sit and when he did, I gave him a single kibble.

Every now and then on the walk, I would stop (unexpectedly I hoped), ask him to sit and then give him a kibble when he did. Unfortunately (or maybe just coincidentally) near the end of the walk, I got a phone call and while I stood talking, he lay down - a good thing. However, when we went to get going again, he grabbed the leash in his mouth and did the tug-of-war thing that resulted this morning in the struggle. This time, I snapped the leash out of his mouth and right away said, "SIT!" and he did. Then I took a step away from him to the end of the leash and said, "come!" and he did. This seemed to distract him and we did this another three or four times, working our way down the sidewalk. Finally, I decided to try walking normally and we got within sight of the house before he lay down in the street and refused to move.

In our little subdivision, there are no sidewalks but there also isn't much traffic. When he plopped down on the pavement, I let him lie there for a moment and then went to the end of the leash, called "come!" and hauled him right onto his feet and kept on moving until I hit the front door. As you can tell, this afternoon's walk was not an unmitigated success but -- I've had worse.

2006-05-23T09:32:00.000-04:00

Well, that was one of the more tiresome mornings I have had in a while. We had almost completed our circuit of the park when Rockwell started one of his I-don't-want-to-go-home tantrums. I had anticipated it and when he showed signs, I turned around and headed to the picnic table by the ball diamond where I sat on the bench for a while, thinking he would forget about it. Wrong. It was cold and windy and not sunny so I wanted to go home. I thought he should obey my wishes because I am supposed to be the boss. Also, it is my goal to get him to actually listen to me so I tried heading home again. And there we were, struggling, when this woman with the two Shelties comes along and feels she must lecture me about how incorrect I am in handling my dog. I try to get away but Rockwell isn't having any of it so I cave in and listen to her lecture. Oh she meant well but it helps to be humble and you can't be humble if you think you know it all. She didn't know me or him or our circumstances or the fact that even though we were having this power struggle, we had vastly improved over the Winter. So I had to be humble for us both. Of course, humility doesn't work with obstreperous puppies.

Anyway, she grabbed him by the collar to make him sit and he flopped on his back on the ground and she tried to make him sit and he jumped on her so I was secretly happy. My bad. Eventually, she went away but then Rockwell still didn't want to go home. By then, I had made it to the next bench and was sitting there, wondering how to get home when the by-law enforcement officer drove by in a truck. He stopped to let me know dogs weren't allowed in this park. I feigned ignorance by saying I thought the by-laws had changed with city amalgamation. I didn't play any cards about Rockwell being a guide dog puppy because he wasn't interested in giving me a ticket. Plus I was embarrassed I had no control over this dog so I didn't want to say I was supposed to be training it. Good grief. And I had decided I NEVER wanted to go to the park with Rockwell EVER again so it didn't matter.

Finally, I called Peter to vent even though I knew he couldn't help in any way, being at work and all. My venting on the phone seemed to put the fear of god into Rockwell because after I hung up, he walked home with me on a short leash as good as gold. I have been ignoring him since I got home and he has been lying to the landing looking subdued. He knows something is wrong but I don't think he connects it with his bad behaviour in the park. We will have to go for another working walk today (and every day) so I shall try to be more boss-like. And now I will go sit on the stairs with that dog and he will make me forget all about bad behaviour.

2006-05-22T10:43:00.000-04:00

Another shot from the coffee table series. "Bad dog!" Yeah, right.

2006-05-21T10:55:00.000-04:00

When we woke up this morning, the rain was thumping on the roof but I thought we should go for a walk in the park anyway. By the time we actually made it out the door, the rain had almost stopped and for most of our walk around the park, we had no rain at all! Timing is everything.

Here, we have just entered the park and made a left, heading West around the path. The wind blew down some tree blossoms on the path.

Peter took a short cut across the grass and looked back to catch us walking on the path near the subdivision. He's looking across a baseball diamond and seagulls are standing around on it. The park has at least two diamonds and at least three soccer pitches (I don't know why I can't count them and remember how many there are).

There's a large ornamental pond in the park and it is designed so that it looks like a stream feeds into it. This is a footbridge that crosses the marshy area leading into the pond.

The pond supports a surprising number of birds. At least one nesting pair of Canada geese have goslings and I think I have seen two families of Mallards.

Here's that big puddle I was blogging about yesterday.
And now the sun has started to come out!

2006-05-20T10:23:00.000-04:00

I've noticed that Rockwell loves to be outdoors. Even when there is a houseful of people, he will go out for a walk without hesitation. This morning, we had to walk in the rain and still, he appeared to love it out there. It has been raining steadily for over a week but we have been lucky and our morning walks in the park have been dry. Not so this morning. So I put on my wellies and my GoreTex jacket and hat and out we went.

We usually pass quite a few people but today I only saw two Chinese women with a little dog. They were carrying umbrellas and had them braced against the wind. The tiny dog (some kind of miniature poodle looking thing) was dressed in a jacket and was not on the leash. He was obviously an old dog and while he glanced at Rockwell, he otherwise ignored him as we went by. Actually, "went by" is a misnomer because I had to haul Rockwell off the path and make him sit on the grass as they went by so he wouldn't leap on the poor little animal. I tried to point out the other dog's good behaviour as an example to Rockwell but didn't have much success.

Near the end of the loop, there is a large puddle that stretches across the path. If it hasn't been raining for some hours, the puddle disappears but it poured last night and the puddle was as big as I've seen it in a while. Since we were wet already and I had Wellies on, I decided to walk Rockwell right through it. It was a few inches deep and I splashed as I walked through. Rockwell stopped to watch the splashed water in fascination and so I splashed some just for him. He didn't quite make the connection between the water that moved and my boots making it move but I think he will the next time.

Since we were near the end of the walk (and he knows it) he decided he wanted a big branch that had blown down in the night and when I said, "no," he had a little hissy fit. These are the "attacks" I described despairingly over the Winter, when I thought he would never obey me. He still has them from time to time but today, I managed to snap him out of it pretty quickly. However, after he knew I had won that battle, he just lay down in the grass and refused to move. The immovable object confronted by me, the irresistible force. After I allowed him to lie there for a while, I got him up and walking by appearing to head back in the direction we had come and he followed me, even when I turned around and headed home. Hey, I got him in the door the other day by saying "lunchie, lunchie" so I am not above trickery.

Finally, we have a couple of photos as evidence of how Rockwell loves to lick the coffee table after we have had food there. His tongue isn't out but trust me, he's inhaling those molecules.

2006-05-18T11:57:00.000-04:00

Since the gate at the top of the basement stairs came down, I've been interested in what Rockwell might do. It turns out that he is so used to being barred from the stairs that, after his initial curiosity was satisfied, he has no interest in going down there.

Here is what the stairs look like from the top. They are wood and so they are slippery. Peter and I have each fallen down them on occasion (not so much in recent years!). When we first moved in, our Lab Uma fell down them twice and thereafter refused to go near them. Even when her toy would bounce down to the bottom, she would just lie at the top and moan about it. When we got Rockwell, we imagined him sliding down the stairs too so we put up the gate. And it isn't just the falling down part we were concerned with - the basement is a nightmare of junk and we worried about a puppy getting into the wrong stuff.

When the gate came down, I simply shut the door which is on the landing, to prevent access to the junk-fest. Rockwell went down to the landing and lay there for a while - I think because it was cooler on a hot day. Lately, it has been cool so he doesn't even venture down there. One day I was down doing the laundry and I heard him creep down the first set of steps and I got this photo of him standing looking down the rest of the steps.

When I heard him start down the steps, I called out and said, "Rockwell, STAY!". Not his best-obeyed command but that's the photo above - him staying as I asked!

2006-05-17T13:00:00.000-04:00

Our big adventure today was getting Rockwell's blood tested prior to starting heartworm medication in June. The CGDB had set an appointment for 11:30 today so I called and reserved a rental car for 10:30am. Because I was only renting it for 2 hours, they don't offer pick-up so I biked over. It is only 5 km away and I made it in 15 minutes total time (13 minutes on the bike at 23kph). I felt like I'd busted a lung to get there because I didn't want to be late but it felt good to be out zooming along and not just puttering on a bike as I do when I get groceries. I locked my bike to a sign post and drove back home where I outfitted the back seat in a sheet for Rockwell. Because I had given myself 2 hours for the rental, I didn't feel rushed.

I decided to go early and we left the house before 11. He is so good in a car and I don't worry about him while we drive, which I appreciate. When we got to the kennels, there was no other dog ahead of me and so they saw Rockwell right away. Someone lifted him onto the exam table and then put him in a headlock. The vet stuck a needle in his arm and drew blood. Just when she got the minimum amount of blood that she needed, Rockwell squirmed out of the hold and they were done. They gave me the heartworm stuff and some worming pills, filled out his health card and we were out of there.

Rockwell very obligingly peed before getting back in the car and we drove home. I dropped him off at the house, took the sheet out of the car and drove back to the rental place. Once paperwork was finished there, it had started raining again. Eastern Ontario has been under a low pressure cell for a week now and I had been hoping the rain would hold off while I was on the road but you can't have everything. So I biked home and got a little damp but it just added to the sense of a mini adventure.

This photo is from the weekend, after my sisters and kids had gone home. Rockwell has collapsed at my parents' feet.

2006-05-15T09:08:00.000-04:00

My parental units came for the weekend and Rockwell was thrilled to see them again. Actually, they were pretty happy to see him too. Mum thinks he has calmed down a bit since the Big Snip and I remembered that the PW supervisor also said the adult dog food would help him to calm down too, so it could be a combination effect. Of course, this morning he did the freak-out, run through the house and kick up all the carpets routine, something he hasn't done in weeks. I think it could be because they left yesterday and afterwards, we just sat around and moped and watched tv. It didn't help that it rained all day either. So by this morning he was revved up and ready to rock and roll. I lured him into his crate by tossing the small Kong into it and saying, "where's your toy?" I had done this only once before but he learns fast and I was surprised he fell for it this morning. I doubt he will go for it again.

There were a few quiet moments during the weekend.

2006-05-11T20:59:00.000-04:00

It's interesting what will perturb a puppy, and what won't. Last night when I wasn't here, Peter noticed that Rockwell was asleep upside down in the hall as he often is. He was close to the makeshift baby gate we had attached to the railing at the top of the slippery basement stairs. When Peter was in another room, he suddenly heard all kinds of banging and crashing and ran to see what was going on.

Rockwell must have caught a leg or some body part under the gate and in trying to extricate himself, he ripped it right off the railing. It had been attached by nylon zip ties so I thought it was pretty secure. Apparently not! Anyway, Peter checked him all over and there wasn't a mark on him. Plus, during the struggle and afterwards, Rockwell didn't cry or bark or vocalize at all. He was unfazed by what could have been a traumatic experience.

In contrast, yesterday morning we went for our walk and as we passed by a neighbour's house, Rockwell spotted two of those large 10 gallon water jugs sitting outside on the step for pick up. You'd have thought we were being invaded by aliens. Bark, bark, bark! If that were not enough, this afternoon, one of those extra large, buzzy house flies got in the house and Rockwell acted as if it were on a personal mission to freak him out. He tried to catch it but when it was in another part of the house entirely, Rockwell was still jumping at the slightest sound and whipping around to look at his own bum. Funny, but really.

2006-05-11T08:43:00.000-04:00

All that yellow is the result of whatever the two maple trees in front of the house drop every Spring. Some kind of tiny blossom. Yesterday, I was standing in the driveway talking with a neighbour and Rockwell decided to see how many of those flowerets he could lick off the driveway before I changed my location. This morning, I saw the result. His poop was as big as and looked just like a horse's. You know how horse poop is all full of oats and the chaff that they eat? That's what his looked like - all full of bulk from the blossoms. And it was a two-bagger.

2006-05-10T10:44:00.000-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!

2006-05-10T10:41:00.000-04:00

The Big Snip Part V
Since the operation last week, I have had more success in getting Rockwell to leave people alone. When we meet up with people in the street, his first reaction is to lunge at them in hopes of planting a big wet one. Now, I ask him to sit and after about a minute, he actually does sit and remains sitting while we talk. Then after another minute, this person who we met can reach out and pet him without suffering too much puppy attention. Sometimes the mere act of reaching out to him can get him up on his feet and lunging but more and more, he listens when I ask him to stay seated. It's amazing. Don't get me wrong - it's not perfect and there's still a lot of work to do. But it's a great start.

Now that I take him for a proper walk around the park in the mornings, he leaves me along for a longer time while I work on the computer. However, after a while, he still gets bored and comes over to harass me. He sits right next to the electrical outlet where my computer is plugged in and barks at me. When I go to shush him, he flops over on his side, kicking the carpet over and resting his head perilously close to the plug. Then I either cave and take him out a second time or chase him away and upstairs where he can look out the window for a while.

2006-05-08T09:39:00.000-04:00

There may not be a single cause but this walking in the park first thing in the morning seems to have helped with regulating his poop schedule. Now he goes right after breakfast, as soon as we enter the park. Of course, then I have to carry the poop all the way around with me but, I’ve had worse. Some people don’t pick up at all (shame!). Some people do pick up but they act as if it is radioactive waste and throw it away in the nearest bin outside. I prefer to take it home and flush it because that’s where poop is supposed to be dealt with - in the sewage system. If you do this twice a day, every day, it quickly becomes an easy habit.

When we got home, while we were still in the parking area, Rockwell suddenly focussed every ounce of his being on a spot in someone’s driveway. I looked but it wasn’t until the mouse moved that I saw it. It was just a deer mouse with a white belly and it looked lost somehow, trundling back and forth, looking for something. Rockwell was entranced and followed the mouse visually all the way around the perimeter of the housing unit, sitting in one spot where I asked him to but shuffling his bottom every so often to keep square to the busy little mouse.

2006-05-05T09:23:00.000-04:00

The Big Snip - Part IV
I suppose the saga is pretty much over but anyway. I was thinking about taking a photo of the afflicted area but it really does look too awful for a blog. It’s the Betadine that was spread on the incision that makes it look as bad as it does, I think, and they shaved the area too so it just seems worse than it is. In spite of what they said at kennels, he seems to be paying his wound no attention at all. He even did his ablutions this morning and didn’t go past washing the important part.

Instead, here is a photo of his face where the other dog gnawed on him a little. Some scabs formed and when they fell off, so did the hair.

So now he has a bald spot on his face along with the other thing. Poor guy! At least he is not vain. He may admire himself in the mirror but this bald spot doesn’t seem to bother him in the least. I know it will grow back and you don’t see it much when you look at him face-on. Let’s hope this will be the most he ever has to endure.

2006-05-04T17:01:00.000-04:00

The Big Snip - Part III
After Rockwell got home, we went back outside to work on the patio and finish the lawn work before it rained. Then I had to return the rental car. While I was away doing that, Peter was alone with Rockwell and took him for a short walk, figuring one was due. It wasn’t until they were back in the house that Peter noticed Rockwell had peed on the landing of the stairs. He must have done it while we were outside working. Poor little guy - he was obviously dehydrated when he got home and drank a lot of water. And when you gotta go, you gotta go. We blame ourselves. It took a whole roll of paper towels to sop it up - good thing I’m planning to replace that carpet one day anyway!

2006-05-04T14:31:00.000-04:00

The Big Snip - Part II
There probably aren’t any more Parts to the saga but since I started with “Part I” I thought I would continue.

I picked Rockwell up at the kennel at about noon today. He was being kept apart from the other dogs in a small examination room. I met up with the kennel guy and he gave me instructions for post-operative care. They used dissolving stitches, not glue and the kennel guy told me Rockwell had been licking at his stitches. so he gave me some bitter stuff to put on the stitches. I also still have Uma’s old cone so I can use that in a pinch. Our talking in the hall started a dog barking and that’s when I realized it was Rockwell barking. The kennel guy opened the door and Rockwell started to come out, not subdued at all. I hoped he would greet me like a long-lost but just then, the resident cat ran into the exam room and Rockwell turned right around to run after him. Maybe if I’d been chopped liver, he might have paid me more attention but I was pretty much ignored.

Rockwell finally agreed to come with me and when we left the kennel building, he had a very long pee and looked relieved. When we got to the car, he ran for the grass first and had a giant, dry poop. Obviously, he’d been holding it all in while he was away. He was happy to get in the car and sat most of the way home with his bum on the back seat and his front legs on the floor and his head between the seats. Once we got home, he preferred to sniff around rather than greet Peter like a long-lost also. You want them to love you and miss you but really, it’s better if they don’t get overly attached. Now he is peacefully snoozing after having had quite a lot of water to drink. We’re supposed to keep him quiet for a few days - shorter walks, no rough-housing. I think he’ll be just fine.

2006-05-03T07:30:00.000-04:00

The Big Snip - Part I
Today’s the big day. Well, not ‘big’ as much as traumatic. And of course, the trauma started early because Rockwell can’t have breakfast or even water before the operation. I know he feels confused but I feel bad eating my breakfast while he is (literally) gnawing on a bare bone under the table. I took him for a walk in the park (not a metaphor) and he actually pooped for me without even anything in his stomach. I will never understand his pooping schedules.

2006-05-02T09:43:00.000-04:00

Since the weather is stunningly beautiful, I decided to make a little change in our morning routine. Normally, I get up and shower and then I feed Rockwell and then we go out in the yard for his first pee (and sometimes poo) of the day. Then I have my breakfast and before I can have my coffee, he is barking at me to go OUT. This morning, I got dressed to go for a proper walk (when you’re in the yard, you can wear any old thing) and right after he had breakfast, I put his leash on and we went out into the park. I decided to use the short leash, even though I planned to let him sniff around because I wanted him to know I was in control.

As soon as we got to the park, he actually had a poop, which was rewarding in itself. :) I picked it up and we continued slowly around this internal path. Half way around, there is a large pond where geese and ducks like to hang out and I made Rockwell sit and just watch them until I felt he had grown accustomed to the distraction. There was a woman doing tai chi so I made him sit and watch her for a while. About three quarters of the way around, there is a ball diamond with a picnic table behind home plate so I sat down and Rockwell sniffed around.

Then I saw it before he did. A woman was out walking her brace of Shelties. They were off leash and she was walking quite slowly toward us. She spotted Rockwell then and called her dogs to her and they walked obediently toward us. Rockwell spotted them and started to whine a little. I got my hand in his collar and couldn’t make him sit. The woman stopped a ways away and commanded her dogs to sit, which they did, making a perfect picture of obedience. She asked from a safe distance if they could “say hello” and I said I would rather not as my dog would go ballistic and I’d never get him to listen. She actually understood and continued on her way and we exchanged further pleasantries from a distance. She said her dogs were 9 years old and I explained that he was only 10 months old but that he was losing a certain part of his anatomy tomorrow and then he might listen after that.

So the walk was very nice. I mostly got him to listen by being quiet when I said things like “leave”. I got to stand by him while he sat and watch the world too. He failed to listen at all when the other dogs were there but I expected that. And I so enjoy the early morning that the work with Rockwell was more than worthwhile.

2006-05-01T09:34:00.000-04:00

I was thinking as we went on our first, shorter, poop walk this morning, that it depends on where you see us, whether you think I am walking an unruly pup or a well-behaved dog. Before he pooped and when he was in the grip of the urge to poop, Rockwell nearly pulled me off my feet with his need to get onto the grass. Of course, this doesn’t happen only at the moment he has to go but for a few minutes before then so there is a lot of pulling and hauling and “no! no!” from me. FInally, he assumes the position and produces a prodigious amount of poop. It was a two-bagger.

After that, he listens to me again and stays on the path and we walk along nicely for a minute. Suddenly, I spot another dog coming toward us and I put myself into the ready position for dog wrangling. Sure enough, Rockwell spots the other dog and goes ballistic. I finally have to put the poop bags down and just hang onto him until the other dog leaves the vicinity.

On the last leg, coming home, I have him on a slack leash, Occasionally when he sees a squirrel, I just have to gently twitch the leash and say “leave” and he continues to walk nicely. That’s when a neighbour passed us in his car and didn’t stop to chat because he knows Rockwell goes bananas. Rockwell must have looked like the angel he sometimes is - little did Robert suspect what had just happened a few moments before.

2006-05-01T08:39:00.000-04:00

It’s been a few days. I had end of semester things to do like the final exam and marking papers. Rockwell had a visit from the PW supervisor on Friday. We discussed his sensitive nature and possible over-eagerness to please. We don’t want him to burn out. We agreed that we should take the summer slow and work on letting him know it is okay to relax. I know I have lots of fun photos of Rockwell in all poses of relaxation! But when he is out even just walking, with nothing else, he tries too hard.

We went to the Home Depot to walk around and I had him to begin with and he walked like a little angel in his jacket. Then I gave him to Sheila and she was so pleased with how well he is behaving - I was just grateful there were no other dogs at the Home Depot! He saw so many people that he didn’t feel the urge to jump on all of them, and so left them all alone. At one point, when I was walking behind Sheila with Rockwell and observing them, I told her, “I’m such a proud Mama!”

I also got a phone call from the CGDB folks and they have booked Rockwell’s appointment to be neutered. That’s coming up in two days. Apparently, they have really improved anaesthetics so that’s not so rough on the pups any more. And they glue the wound back together so the pup doesn’t even get to worry at stitches and so doesn’t need a cone. I just have to find out if he stays overnight - I wasn’t clear on the details.

We finally got to sit out on the patio again, after a couple of weeks of cold and rain.

After a while, Rockwell got to be too distracting, so I put him inside for a bit. He was not amused.

2006-04-26T09:30:00.000-04:00

One new thing that we’ve been experimenting with and about which I have not blogged, is leaving him loose in the house. Rockwell doesn’t get left alone much but there is one afternoon where I have to be out and I still don’t think he’s mature enough to take with me. So every Thursday afternoon, I have to outwit him and try to get him into his crate without him defying me by collapsing like that sack of wet noodles. The last time I tried to put him in the crate, it was an epic battle between the irresistible force (that’s me) and the immovable object (that would be him). I won that time but it wore me out.

So on the following weekend, Peter and I left the house for about an hour and left Rockwell sitting at the front door. We said, “we’ll be right back!” and shut the door. I do that when I go get the mail if it’s raining or something and I don’t want to take him out for all of 2 minutes and get him wet. So this time, we came home and there he was, sitting by the front door! We looked everywhere and there was no sign of what we like to call “death and destruction”. Nothing chewed, no sign that he had sat on the couches.

Since then, we’ve left him alone on maybe three difference occasions and it seems as though he just waits by the door. The last time, Peter said he opened the front door and Rockwell looked like he had just been awakened out of a good snooze. So while we will, of course, continue to take him as many public places as we can, it looks promising that he can be trusted to be alone in the house without doing any damage.

2006-04-25T13:38:00.000-04:00

Nose comparisons:

September 30, 2005

December 30, 2005

April 25, 2006

It started dark, then it went practically pink and now it's getting darker again.

2006-04-25T08:25:00.000-04:00

After several months hiatus, I find myself blogging about poop again. You may recall we had a difficult time regularizing his poop schedule. He never did poop like a puppy - directly after eating - but he ended up going three times a day - once in the morning first thing after being let out after breakfast, a second time in the morning on our long walk and once, right before bedtime.

When he got back from the overnighter at the kennels, we started switching him to adult food (it’s been a week and will be another week or more before we finish that). A couple of days after we started the switch, I noticed that he wouldn’t even poop first thing in the morning. Of course, by then my parents were here for the weekend, so I wondered if it was the upset schedule. This morning, he didn’t poop either. Of course, it was raining pretty hard and I wanted him to poop and get it done, so maybe that was why he didn’t go. You just can’t ask dogs!

Another thing I only noticed on Sunday was that he’d been chewed up by the other dog in the kennels. When Shona brought him home on Wednesday afternoon, she mentioned that when she picked him up at the kennels on Wednesday morning, he was all wet around the face from where the other dog had been playing with him. I noticed that some of his fur was stiff with spit (or so I thought) but it wasn’t until Sunday that I was really giving him a good go-over that I saw that the stiff fur was due to some scabbing. Or at least, it looks like scabbing. I didn’t want to pull at the fur too much, for then he would have bald patches on his face and how unattractive would that be? He also seems to be scratching somewhat more than usual.

Now I feel like a worried mother. But mostly, I just want him to poop twice a day like a regular dog.

2006-04-22T11:24:00.000-04:00

Happy Earth Day!
My parental units are in town and Rockwell is delighted. The more the merrier as far as he is concerned. Yesterday was sunny and warm so we sat on the patio. We’ve taken down the fence because it wasn’t sturdy anyway, plus the lawn was damaged over the winter where he peed all the time. So we have to keep him on a leash while we sit outside. Here Mum has him on the expandable leash but it looks like she was fishing and caught something.

Dad had Rockwell on the line at one point, when Rockwell decided to take off after a bird and Dad almost got jerked over sideways onto the lawn. But he hung on.

This morning, Rockwell was so happy to have more people in his pack and he followed my mother around like.. a puppy! Here he is, wrapping himself around her ankles.

Then he noticed me taking pictures and rolled over to display himself in all his glory.

While trying to have breakfast, he crawled under the table and lay on each of our feet in turn. Here he is getting up close and personal with Peter’s feet.

Ah the bliss of more people in the pack!

2006-04-20T08:23:00.000-04:00

This morning, we started switching Rockwell over to adult dog food. He was weighed while he was away and he now tips the scales at 70 pounds! They say that’s probably going to be his ideal adult weight so we will try to maintain that. Since we only feed him dog food and since we measure it, weight gain should not be a problem.

The switching schedule lasts two weeks! Who’d have thought? This morning I gave him half a cup of the adult food and one and a half cups of the puppy chow. I didn’t think he’d notice but he ate it a bit slower than usual. He didn’t pause or sniff at it or look at it but he was slower. Now he has crashed out again in the hallway so I think I’ll make our morning walk a little shorter than usual.

This photo is from last night, when I discovered him twisted up like a pretzel, sleeping in the hall.

2006-04-19T16:59:00.000-04:00

Rockwell’s home! And pooped.

Apparently, while it is good that he has a keen desire to please, he tries to do everything in a hurry and if he keeps this up, he may burn out. So our task for the summer is to show him that he can take life slower, take it easy. Don’t worry - be happy. We’ll chill and be low key and hopefully, he will follow suit. I think this should be manageable, especially as the summer heats up and we all start to move at a slower pace.

One thing I will start to do more than I have and that is to go out with him wearing the jacket and then just sit and watch people go by. Shona said that she did that today at a mall and after a while, he just lay on his side and snoozed. For the first bit however, he wanted to greet and jump on every soul that went by. Before anything else though, he is going to sleep all day tomorrow to recover from his night in a kennel with another dog!