Archive for ‘June, 2018’

It won’t always be like this

Over 7 years ago, when I was in the throes of caring for Karl … 8 months of cancer, not cancer, what is it and the last 3 months outside several times in the night … I thought to myself: “it won’t always be like this”.

And in the last year with Bear and particularly, the last 6 months when he needed help getting up and down and all that went with that, I thought to myself: “it won’t always be like this”.

With both Karl and Bear, it was a fear of what I knew was to be the inevitable loss, but also a wondering if I could physically and mentally go the distance. And even in the not wanting the loss of each of them, wanting “normal” life. But I knew “it won’t always be like this” and that helped me continue on caring for and loving them until it was time to let them go.

So, now … a puppy! Such joy, such love, such cuteness. So much heart healing.

So much attention needed!! It is sometimes nearly overwhelming even with all of the tools at my disposal: crate, pen, work from home …

It won’t always be like this. That makes me both glad and sad. Puppy time is so fleeting! If not for the notes I kept when raising Karl, I would have forgotten many puppy details. My vivid memories of life with Karl are of grown up Karl.

I am so thankful I kept notes. I also bought my first digital camera before I even brought Karl home so I have a LOT of photos. And of Bear. And of Bob and Auggie.

But back to Emmett and puppy days.

Monday, it will be twelve weeks since I brought him home. He is a bit over 4.5 months old. He is looking like a small version of the grown up dog and less like a baby dog. Pee and Poop is happening outside and all of the constant watching and dashing outside is done. Oh, there is still a LOT of puppy in him, but he has outgrown 2 collars and 3 harnesses. The nighttime pen barely contains him. The crate that fits in the Jeep is almost too small. His puppy teeth have been replaced by his permanent teeth!!

Gah!! My baby is growing up.

My personal challenge is to enjoy every day and to be the best human I can to my canine and feline companions … to lead and teach and yet allow them to be dog and cat. To look forward to grown up Emmett while enjoying the remaining puppy time.

There are days when I’d like a time out!! I said that today in the grocery … this is smallish town Montana and I’ve shopped the same grocery for 16 years so there are conversations in the checkout … and walking to the car, I thought … if I had a day without Emmett I’d likely miss him so much that I wouldn’t enjoy it.

Puppy days are intense and full and fun and funny. I love it and I am so grateful I get to experience it with Emmett and Auggie. Auggie remains THE MOST TOLERANT cat! He deserves a medal. I use some of Emmett’s crate time to give Auggie some one on one, but still. Auggie has accepted the changes in our lives and routine better than I could have imagined.

I tell Auggie: “It won’t always be like this!”

The other thing that won’t always be like this is the weather. We have had a perfect Spring and early Summer. Rain and sun and mostly moderate temperatures. The local organic farms, including my own CSA farmer have had wonderful growing conditions in spite of snow on the ground longer than normal.

But we are approaching that time when it is likely to suddenly get hot and dry … and maybe smoky from fires.

So, like puppy days, I am enjoying pleasant days while we have them.

It won’t always be like this.

A very good week

It was a good week all around: work, Auggie and Emmett, weather and food. I have zero complaints!

Emmett is 18 weeks old and has been with Auggie and me for 10 weeks – Unbelievable!

We continue to work on less wrestling, more snuggling … a work in progress!

And in other training news, we started attending a training class at a spot not too far away headed by Will and Andrea Brunz. Will is a Karen Pryor Training Camp alumni, does continuing education and referred me to Laurie Luck’s Smart Dog University site. (with the many videos on clicker training). I am incredibly fortunate to have someone of Will’s expertise and experience to guide me in my training of Emmett AND to have great classes so that we also learn to do things at different places and with a variety of distractions.

The first session was too exciting to do much except absorb the smells and sounds. There were 3 other dogs, all over a year old and all large dogs. All well behaved and nice people. Emmett was beside himself wanting to say hello. Much like the video when he watched the deer, he sat with tail wagging and whole body wiggling. As things got going he walked around but was not interested in treats or the click … too much happening and too much to sniff. Toward the end, we were able to do a few things but primarily I was thrilled that he was so confident and interested – no fear or reluctance at the other dogs or the horses.

He barked at the horses and Will showed me a technique to help him learn not to bark at them. As soon as Emmett stopped for an instant to draw breath, click-treat. I.E. reward the cessation of the unwanted behavior. As we continued, the barking slowed and then I was able to get Emmett’s attention and we turned away.

Normal (adversive) training would have me saying “NO!”, and forcibly turning him away. One of the benefits of the positive reinforcement is that there is almost immediate understanding of the desired behavior – stop barking marked by clicker and reinforced by a treat. With the adversive technique, “does she mean don’t look at that thing, don’t bark, turn around ??? – what is No and what is Ok?” Communication is both quieter and succinct with positive reinforcement (operant conditioning). Everyone is happier with everything and we progress faster.

The technique of marking the instant the undesired behavior stopped was a light bulb moment for me. I’d read about shaping behavior but it was like it didn’t click for other things we are working on: jumping up, grabbing clothing, getting too rough with Auggie. So, a new tool in my training tool box. For jumping up, I was standing still and then click/treat when Emmett sat but he was getting the idea that to get a treat, he jumped up and then sat. So, I changed to click/treat in that moment before the jump which in a few uses, stopped the jumping. I will need to keep watching but there is much improvement.

We went to a second class yesterday and because weather was a bit iffy, we were the only ones there. Emmett was excited as soon as I pulled in to park so good memories. He sniffed around, looked at the horses, some boarding dogs in adjacent yards barked and he sat and watched for a bit and then ignored. We were able to go through the things we learned and also start the official “loose leash walking” and prelude to “walk at heel”. Will explained all the steps and it makes so much sense to me. We are at the beginning but Emmett did the first part very well and we will continue practicing that this week.

I can read and watch videos, but there is nothing like having someone observe, correct timing and technique and explain the progression of steps. I am beyond thrilled. Both Emmett and I have fun, learn and come home ready for naps!

Other items:

The CSA vegetable haul keeps getting better:

The weather alternating between warm sunshine and soft rain has provided perfect growing conditions.

The Fuschia agree!

The view from the road home is spectacular.

A very good week.

***In honor of “Father’s Day”, some photos of Emmett’s father: Connor. Connor and Emmett have very similar markings. I think Emmett will be slightly smaller. Connor is 51 pounds. I’m thinking Emmett will land at 45-48 pounds.

Early June: continuing education

This photo …

It was taken at Flathead Pet ER last Sunday. All is well.

Emmett started with diarrhea Sunday morning, which turned into the squirts getting worse and worse and then some blood so off we went. He was not lethargic at all so I suspected something he ate, but I don’t fool with that kind of thing!

Short story is that was the conclusion and meds immediately got things under control. He had a few squirts after we got home but slept through the night and had no issue with light meals of rice, chicken and pumpkin the next day. We continued through the week, gradually reintroducing kibble.

I am so grateful that we have such a nice pet ER. Coincidentally, the ER vet this round was Dr. Becky Jessup, wife of my regular vet Dr. Scott Smiley. She could read his handwritten notes on Emmett’s vaccination and well check exams :)

Emmett was stellar!

Things started a bit rough. I went into the clinic without him – I always do that because especially at the ER, who knows what might be going on. I’m especially thankful for this habit this visit. Because of his age, even with Dr. Smiley’s records … they immediately told me to touch nothing … they needed to rule out Parvo, which is highly contagious. I understood but it disconcerted me to say the least. A tech came to the car, took a swab and said it would be 10-15 min.

Emmett and I sat in the back of the Jeep and watched the comings and goings at the next door Equine Vet Center. He was calm and interested and shortly the tech came out with the negative for Parvo news. Even though I was 99.9% sure that it could not be Parvo, I had one of those delayed reactions so sat and cried a bit, holding Emmett, who licked my face. Gah.

Then … some difficult things for other animals inside. I was so fortunate that a young woman I know, was there with her dog. She’d had to put down the dog’s sister about the time I had to do the same with Bear. We shared the current ER experience and a few tears. Through all this, Emmett was sitting beside me and eventually lay down with his head on my purse … that is the view in the first photo. He mostly relaxed, sat up when people went by but did not seem at all bothered or anxious. We waited nearly an hour to see the vet and all went well with that. We got the news that a normal recovery was expected, got our meds, paid the bill and came home. Total door to door time was 4 hours.

I didn’t work on Monday. So many things from the ER experience were on my mind and I had not slept well even though Emmett and Auggie did! Anyway, took a day.

For training, we continued but no click-treat for several days until I knew things were really stabilized. This was enlightening because I did “good boy” vs treats and good behavior continued. I also used the crate a bit more as well as the bedroom pen for at least 1 daytime nap.

The best training advance this week is the Emmett and Auggie play. It has become calmer and there are many times when they are in the same area or pass by each other with just a nose touch and no wrestling. Great progress and I am so happy about this! I think Auggie would like to snuggle with Emmett, but Emmett is still a bit wiggly if Auggie gets very close. Auggie is persistent, though as in CATS ARE PERSISTENT!! Also, one evening, when Emmett got to the “overtired/rambunctious” stage, Auggie did something, Emmett yelped … so that gave me some extra confidence that Auggie will say “Enough!” when it needs to be said.

So, Onward!!

I am unsure if it is Auggie’s example or just Emmett, but Emmett feels that he should see what is on top of anything he can get to. Currently, I am doing a low key “off” … but, it is so cute I have a difficult time enforcing…

The lupins, the lupins!!!

I get such a kick out of the serious observation from Beardog Point. Emmett sits “at attention” and watches. Maybe Karl and Bear have been/are whispering in his ear about the duties of the dog in the fambly Summers!

CSA Week 4 – such bounty in NW Montana … the FIRST week of June!

And the wildflowers: a double Mariposa Lily

After a week of sunny and warm-hot (HOT to Auggie, Emmett and me!), we had a whooshy, thunderstorm-y cold front on Saturday. We all love the cool down!

Yea.

The week in review: Emmett, Auggie and Springtime in Montana

I thought about titling this post: What I learned this week.

Boy, I have a LOT to learn.

Earlier in the week on Instagram I wrote that Emmett was in the puppy equivalent of the terrible twos. In retrospect, I got lazy in my observations and training and so allowed the natural progression of boldness to take over rather than me working with it. It took a timeout (for me!) and some rehashing in my mind of what I was doing to shake this out, regroup and move forward.

Oh, and one overreaction to Emmett chasing some deer … not far and right back to me but it surprised me. I made the rookie mistake of repeating his name which only serves to teach him that he can ignore his name. *sigh*

So … future moments of “oh this looks far more interesting than you”, result in me turning, running and sing-songing happy sounds. Emmett follows. Yea – I AM the most fun!!

Still working on toning down the intensity of the Emmett-Auggie wrestling matches but it gets better every day – particularly inside. Emmett KNOWS he is not supposed to be too rough but sometimes puppy-brain gets the upper hand. But as I move to intervene, Emmett backs off and sits.

Leave it: I can now put a treat on the ground or in my open hand with the words leave it and Emmett leaves it, looks at me: click he gets the treat. We’ll work at this level with the treat closer and closer.

Down: so happy with down. Emmett does it when I ask to calm for Auggie interaction and has done it with public distraction.

Sit is solid.

We’ve practiced the leash lightly. Tomorrow a new harness arrives. Emmett grew out of the first, also out of his first collar!

For the record, Emmett was just under 8 pounds when I picked him up 8 weeks ago. Today he is 24 pounds.

Yes – Emmett has been part of the family Summers for 8 weeks! 8 weeks of fun and games and learning and joy.

Meanwhile: Operation Fuschia for the front porch

On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon

Emmett LOVES to help with the watering…

And we stop and smell the Lupins!!

A beautiful Sunday!

See you later!