Average Morning

John woke up with one of his headaches this morning, before the 5:00 a.m. shih tzu visitation, and went downstairs. A little while later, I heard the jingle signalling I would soon have company. Right after that, Dottie and Flower scratched at the bed. He would have passed her when he went downstairs, but she sometimes gets confused. She acted disappointed that he wasn’t there — for her to antagonize, I think.

When he came back up, she started barking. I think she just thinks it’s a game. She seems like she enjoys it, but then after he gets up and goes downstairs, she’s afraid of him again (if anyone can solve this puzzle for me, I’d appreciate it!).

I didn’t have any cottage cheese for their dry food, so I decided to give them a little bit of applesauce. They all sniffed it and then walked away, but Flower came back a few times, and then finally licked it. All three of them eventually ate a little bit of it.

Leash Phobia

I have a very strong to desire to get one of the dogs walking on a leash by the end of John’s vacation next week. Since I want to record our progress, and since I think he is probably better at being firm, John attempted to train Flower, while I worked the camcorder. She fought like crazy. I admit that it looked like torture, but all he did was stand there holding it, while she thrashed around. A few minutes later, Houdini slipped out of her harness and ran. After a few attempts to hook the leash back to her collar, we gave up and let her go inside. Cesar would say that we shouldn’t have let her walk away on her terms, but sometimes it’s just too much work to get our way.

We had put leashes on Dottie and Candy, so they were up next. Dottie and Candy “sort of” walked around, talking a few steps and then stopping, a few steps and then stopping. After several minutes, John took both of their leashes and coaxed them around the backyard, with them doing the same thing. No one would call it an actual “walk,” but it’s a few steps in the right direction.

John offered Dottie and Candy hot dog pieces for rewards after our session was over. He sat down by them on the porch, and each of them came up and took them from his hand. Flower kept her distance, watching the goings-on.

The girls all kept their distance for a while. Since John is the bad man with the leash, they waited until he was out of the living room to once again be approachable.

That makes me sad, because I know he wants to be close to them, and I think he is approaching them in the right way. If anyone has any suggestions regarding getting these little ones to walk on a leash, I’d love to hear from you.