8/4/06 Closed the Puffinalia Store and am prepping for Ravensdale. See y'all when we get back!
7/30/06
I started taking the pups to obedience classes at Puppy Perfectors in Seattle. http://www.puppyperfectors.com/novice.htm. Mani cruised through Novice Level 1 and Novice Level 2 by attending one class of each. Next time he will start in Level 3. He's such a bright boy! It's good for him because we're getting a controlled environment to work on his heavy dog distraction issues. He historically has been very intensely dog distracted on walks. It's getting better, though. One day at a time.... =)
I love getting eye (or headfall, as it were) contact from him more and more! You should see the instructors' dogs! They're amazing with the eye contact. And were taught with positive methods, so there's hope! <grin>
The one thing Mani does in an hour-long class though, is lay down to show me he's bored. Fast, short lessons work better for him, and he, like Cassie, is VERY treat motivated!
Cassie has so far attended one Level 1 class and needs more work at that level. That's ok. She is very confident at home but she pretty much knows the commands already for Level 1, but we want to build her confidence up before she goes to Level 2.
Oh, the dogs and I travel to and from class by Metro Bus (one dog at a time). They are both wonderful on the bus. Except for having to pull their feet back from the aisle, they pretty much flop down and rest for the 40 minute ride. Mani gave one soft woof yesterday, (I don't know why), but then settled down. The bus drivers smile at them a lot. =)
I have experimented some with getting them used to the Gentle Leader headcollar with my guys, and Mani seems to not like it very much. I think a great deal of his dislike is that I fiddle with the snap behind the head too much, due to not wanting to snare his hair in it. Cassie seems ok with it, but I'm training her on her regular collar, so don't know if I'll move to the GL if it's not needed.
And Cassie chose last week to begin her puppy-blow. Her mat-spots so far have been behind the ears, armpits and behind the elbows and knees. Wasn't that considerate of her?
Mani is over the worst of it, thank goodness. His mat-spots are behind the ears, belly (which I think I'll have a strip shaved from again!), armpits and the inside of his front legs. He also is a twig magnet, which, unchecked, causes tangles. That said, I can go days without attending his coat and then have a 45 minute session and have him more or less good as new.
4/23/06
Just checking in to say that Cassie and Mani are doing very well
together. Mani is MUCH happier having somebody to have the zoomies
with in the back yard and Cassie is doing well with her big brother.
She's about 14.5 lbs to his 22.5 lbs and almost as fast as he is. In
fact, she often catches him because she's smarter about cutting corners
and laying in ambush. She also grabs his tail. She's a tough cookie,
though she also has an *incredibly* sweet personality. LOL!
Mani loves getting chased by her, too. He slows down and eggs her on.
Of course, he goes into chase mode, as well. Their favorite game seems
to be "Ive got a stick/toy/ball and you can't have it" which leads to a
chase which ends in a tumble/wrestle. Really really cute to watch and
nobody seems to get hurt.
If the chase game stops, one dog or another will egg the other on into a
chase by nudging the other dog with a stick or toy. Very often each dog
will have one end of the stick/toy/ball in their mouth. Especially
funny with squeaky balls! They nap near each other, often touching
backs or sides.
They still have their "moments" over chewsticks, toys or bones, and
this leads to timeouts. The barking in the house leads to timeouts if
it gets out of control and they refuse to take it down to a lower
decible level. Short (5-10 min) timeouts seem to be a resonably
effective method to help the dogs regain some self-control.
They're giving my husband and me a lot of laughs and getting me out of
the house more during non-work hours, which is a good thing for all of
us
I'm still struggling with teaching them to walk on a coupler leash
without wrestling each other. (I have the Sporn adjustable coupler leash, for the record.) They are still being walked separately.
As a step toward coupler walking, my husband and I are doing brief
sessions of walking them on separate leashes, but near each other and
correcting for lunging/jumping towards one another. This is really a
tough hurdle for us all. What it means is much more walking in the
morning for me, since I have to do separate walks. My day starts very
very early due to this and I'm absolutely beat by evening. Letting them
play (hard!) in the back yard after work is eliminating the necessity
for the evening walk, which is good, because I'm pooped by then and have
to block out time to groom Mani, who is still in puppy blow.
Regarding puppy blow, the really BAD part seems to be letting up. He
still gets a few tangles and one or two mats each day (more if he's
really been roughhousing), but the table sessions are going faster and
less hair is coming out in the brush. His outer coat is feeling
slightly harsher and is longer and looks really pretty when the breeze
blows through it.
Cassie hasn't started her blow yet and only takes about 20 mins under
the dryer. Mani takes MUCH longer to dry!!!
They do, however, get pretty muddy/messy, which at times is a pain.
Especially after they've both had baths, like yesterday. LOL!
But happier, less stressed out/lonely Mani makes it all worth it. And
Cassie is a cutie pie, which allows us to easily forgive her
transgressions with the kitchen floor, etc.
4/9/06 Cassie's new full name is Kizmet's Korintje Cassia, CPI,
EAX. The CPI is for "Chief Perimeter Inspector, EAX is for
Escape Artist Excellent. That's right, this lovable little
monster has found a raised area in our backyard fence (behind the red
twig dogwood >sigh<) that we didn't know about and even if we
did, wouldn't have expected a cat to get through, let alone a TT, but
she did. Right into the neighbor's yard! We saw it
immediatly, caught her and went out to Home Depot to buy fencing and
wire to repair the section. We'll be inspecting the
entire perimeter and making repairs to any other areas we may find.
She's figured out a few other ways out of confinement inside, and we've shored those up, too.
As to the part of the title that concerns remodeling, well.... We
have really cheesy contractor grade vinyl flooring in the
kitchen. It's as old as the house, no doubt and the
Incredible Ms. Cassie found an area that was lifted and did what dogs
do. She pulled at it. So there's now a corner where
the vinyl surface has been ripped away. Amazingly, I have found
the pieces that she pulled up. I'm sure Mani has given her some
assistance, too, but seeing as he never did this when he was an only
pup, I can only suspect that Cassie started the game. While we
were at Home Depot buying fencing product, we also checked out
flooring. We're probably going to go with Pergo.
Welcome to my TTerrorist world. Really, though, TTain't bad.
4/1/06 The pups are doing really well. They do a fair bit of vocalizing and
wrestle constantly, but they also seem to be figuring out that we're in
it for the long haul.
Today they both had baths. I spent over 2 hours getting Mani's
coat back into shape (brush out, bath, blow dry). He had a lot of
knots and a couple of major matted areas - one on his neck and a big
patch on his left hip. We have just about all of it cleaned
out at the moment. It's amazing how when you split down the
mats and pull them apart, it's usually a teensy little knot -
maybe 1-2 mm that is the root of the problem that is causing all the
havoc in the coat. In college we had a chapter about this called
"Anatomy of a Mat" - and it's all true. Marci has recommended
some coat conditioners which I will have to mail order because the
local PetSmart and PetCo don't carry them. >sigh< In
the meantime, it's T.H.E. Stuff and Stazko spray.
Cassie did not enjoy her bath, but wasn't given a choice. Well it
was just a wetdown and cream rinse and then water rinse plus
blowdry. No shampoo because I wanted to keep the experience
short. She's a wiggle worm, not resigned to her fate like Mani
was at her age. Had to watch her carefully to ensure she
didn't get out of the tub or jump off the table. Found that
I could blow dry her ok if I let her snuggle up to me. Didn't
insist that she lay down or anything. She, like Mani, got
lots of praise, silly songs, and dehydrated liver to ease the stress.
Then, I took a well deserved rest. Watched Frazier on the
tube. Went to check on the pups, who I had put in the kitchen,
and this is when I found them peacefully hanging out on the same
bed.
I'm not very happy with my (in)ability to focus the Olympus digital
camera. Once I have $ again, a newer Sony may be in order.
But after buying Cassie, it will be a while before I can afford
toys.
3/30/06 Can't believe Cassie's been here almost a week.
She and Mani are working out the pack hierarchy still.
Mani has a tendency to body-slam her to the ground a lot outside. It's getting better inside.
I tell you though, with the body slamming skill Mani and Cassie
exhibit, I wish I could teach them to roller skate. They could
star in their own Roller Derby team. LOL!
My theory with Mani's behavior is that he's jealously guarding Don and
me as "resources."
Gotta convince him that he will get no less love because we have a new
family member. I also am not too worried about this pack-order
stuff because Mani doesn't show real aggressive stuff like lip curls...
just bratty boisterousness. His vocalizations don't sound angry
or aggressive either as a rule.
Somewhat complicating matters is the fact that Mani is
in heavy puppy coat blow and is basically a mat factory right now. We
spend an hour or so each night at the grooming table working out as
much as we can. Saturday, I will try to clear him up and give him a
bath and heavy cream rinse. He's pretty dirty and a dirty coat will
tend to mat more.
And the behavior is getting better inside. After a little
"discussion" over who gets what chewie, they tend to mellow out and
settle down. The one picture here shows them at some distance
from one another; I've seen them much closer and getting along.
Tricker is working out meals and exercise/training schedules.
We'll leave that discussion for another post because I'm tired right
now and have to go do other things. Stay tuned. =)
3/25/06 My name is Kizmet's Korintje Cassia, but you may call me Cassie.
The lady who owns my mum and dad called me The Bratt. I just flew
in from Florida (and are my paws tired!) Now I live in a place
called West Seattle with 4 really funny looking dogs (Mom and Dad call them "cats") who don't really
want to play with me, Mom, Daddy and a new boyfriend named Mani.
Mani is so much bigger than me! (The lady who owns my mom and dad
in Florida says I'll probably grow up to be under 20 pounds.
We'll see.) He knocks me down and stuff, but
I'll show him. I won't always be littler than him, and Mom says
I'm a total sweetheart. I'm giving her my sweet feminine act
quite a bit and showing how very gentle a girl doggie can be. I am
a bit of a tomboy though, as you can see by how quickly I got my face
and paws all muddy. LOL! I also like to step in my
water dish, which cleans off my paws very nicely.
I'm not really smiling in the second picture. Mani was rude to me
(I'm not that kind of a girl!) and I was snarling. Mom says it
looks like I was grinning at him, tho.
I hope I get to know you well, and Mom and Daddy say there will be lots of pictures uploaded to the critter gallery site.
Woofs and kisses!
3/23/06 Ms. CassiePup (a/k/a Kizmet's Korintje Cassia) is arriving in Seattle
tomorrow night. She goes through 3 timezones and a bit over of 6
hours of flight. She's gonna be a tired little thing, I
bet!
3/19/06 Re: Mani
He's doing pretty well, considering the E-collar is
not something he's very happy about. He gets around quite well,
except he refuses to go up the steps to the house from the back
yard. He goes down them very well. He's getting spoiled and
loved a lot. Showing the effects of not getting his nice long
daily walk, but we're supposed to keep him quiet for a few days.
He's snoozing as I write this.
Re: New Puppy
Looks pretty sure she'll be arriving at SeaTac next
Friday night. I'll be off Saturday and Sunday and Don will be off
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to help acclimate her and Mani. We're
pretty excited (and more than a tad apprehensive) about the further
TTerrorist invasion, but it should be good for Mani once we work out
the routine. My incredible dogsitter is not raising the rate
right away, but only if it takes significantly longer to care for the
two than for the one pup, and then will only raise the rate by
$3/visit. More than reasonable, to my way of thinking!
Re: Meds
Well, I'm on day 3 of the replacement med for
CFS. Playing with dosages and figuring out what works best for me
and will still allow me to sleep at night. Still pissed I
couldn't get the Provigil covered by Regence, but what can I do?
Nothing. Doctor and I both tried our best, but they won't cover
it and I won't pay $500/month just to stay awake for a career that I
don't really love. This one is only $10/month.
Re: Ravensdale
It's looking like I will probably have somebody I
know from the TT list come out to care for Mani, Cassie and the cats
in-house next August. She has stellar references and only asks
that I pay her airfare out (it is her way of getting to travel a bit
and see different parts of the country), which is not much more than
kenneling would
cost and much much better for the furkids. She'll even tend to
the TT coats, which would cost another minor fortune if I had it done
at a boarding kennel. I'll prolly spring for an economy rental
car for her, too, so she can do a little sightseeing and can cope with
any (heaven forbid) emergencies. All told under $500 for peace of
mind while I'm away.
Re: Work
They treat me pretty well, all things considered,
but I'm pretty bored. I am a fast worker and end up having far
too much time on my hands, but don't really want to take on another
attorney. The good news is that so long as the work gets done,
they don't seem to care if I do some web surfing. I also am
getting paid better than I was at the last job and there are less mean
people, so boredom beats the stress of Perkins, hands down. Just
wish I had a good on-going project to do when everything is caught up -
including filing.
Guess that's about it for the moment. Pictures of Cassie are up on Mani's gallery site and more pics of everybody will be forthcoming there.
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