Good Report from Sitters

This morning, I picked Cabana up from the puppy sitter's. She got a pretty good report. The puppy sitters said that she had very good house manners, but she didn't like getting into cars. In the past week, I have noticed that Cabana has been hesitant to get into our car as well--maybe she hit her leg getting in one day? Part of the problem is that she BOUNDS into the car, rather than calmly stepping up into it. We have a Toyota Rav4, and she sits on the floor of the middle seats, not the far back--so it's not a high step up. I need to work on getting her to go in more sedately this week.

The other thing Cabana didn't like there was getting into her crate, whether at night or during the day. They said she was fine once she was in--she didn't bark or whine. But they had to push her to make her go in. I wondered if this might be because they have 2 other dogs and a cat, and maybe she didn't want to be confined when the other animals were on the loose. At our house, although I can't say Cabana is eager to get in, she does enter of her own accord.



Two days before I took Cabana to the puppy sitter's house, their cat had a litter of kittens! Now, at 5 days old, they are beginning to open their eyes. They were adorable mewling little things. Cabana even got to "meet" one of them--she sat very still and seemed highly intrigued. They've already got homes for all of them, so thankfully, there was no temptation on our part to take one off their hands!

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Tuesday Topics 17 - Dog of a Lifetime

I took this photo of Cabana in the gardens at the San Rafael campus when I picked her up this morning. It was so good to see her!

Today's Tuesday Topic is a subject that I keep skirting and coming back to, both in my blog and in my own mind. I might be beating it to death, but the sociology major in me can't seem to let it go without further exploration (although this is the ONLY thing I'm doing with my sociology degree).

Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer, says, "You don't always get the dog you want, but you DO always get the dog you NEED." I've been thinking about that statement this past week, while my family has been away and Cabana has been at the GDB kennels.

In looking back over my alone week, if my blog is any indication (and it definitely is), I can see what a whack-job I am! I'm SO overly task-oriented and industrious. I like to feel that I accomplished a lot in a day. If I don't get much done, then I tend to feel a bit frustrated and stunted.

Sure, it's good to be ambitious and active, but there needs to be a balance. And that's where Cabana comes in. Like Cesar Millan said, I DID get the dog I need because I need Cabana to slow me down, to make me go for long hikes in pretty places, to stop working and play a game of tug-of-war, to sit outside in my nicely drip-irrigated garden. She forces me to be a better, more balanced person.

So this made me wonder if that's what makes a dog become a "lifetime dog". That extra special bond that I've heard other puppy raisers and dog owners talk about, when your dog brings out the best in you. Is that the ineffable quality that makes the canine/human relationship even stronger? If not, then what is it that makes you feel more strongly about one dog than another?

I don't know if Cabana is my "lifetime dog", since I haven't had other dogs to compare her to (and also since she doesn't really even belong to us). But I do so appreciate the fact that Guide Dogs for the Blind takes special care in trying to match the right person with the right dog--so that hopefully, Cabana will not just be a guide dog but will become someone's "lifetime dog."

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Ready for Return

So, during my week of alone time, I reupholstered a second chair.


And installed drip irrigation in our backyard.


Planted vegetables in the huge puppy-proof RAISED planter boxes my husband made for me out of the lumber from our old deck. Includes 4 kinds of tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant, zucchini, okra, cucumbers, strawberries, basil and cilantro.


And did some sewing for my 'lil biz.

Now I'm more than ready for Cabana and the rest of my family to come home. I'll be picking Cabana up tomorrow morning. I liked the productivity that being on my own afforded me, but I do miss everybody. Looking forward to tomorrow!

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Jolly Good to be Home

She's baaacckkk!! Our handful of a whippersnapper puppy came home last night after the weeklong swap. The raisers who had Cabana were gracious in their assessment of her--but I'm sure it wasn't an easy week for them. That raiser had her wisdom teeth pulled and then had final exams during the time Cabana was there--stressful even without a high-energy puppy visiting. It sounds like Cabana didn't do well on tie down, which is to be expected because we rarely put her on tie down, and then only for short periods of time. And Cabana was a little overzealous with their pet dogs who weren't enamored of Cabana's overly playful overtures.



When we got home last night, Cabana was beside herself. She could not settle down and panted constantly. I think she could smell Persia and might have thought there was still another dog in the house. Outside when relieving, she sniffed every inch of grass, wondering what the heck happened while she was not here. Not only were there Persia and Woofers' smells, but we had also ripped out our old rotten wooden deck last week, leaving a big ugly expanse of dirt and trash.

I think that maybe the stressful part of the swap for the dogs is going back home, rather than going to the new person's home. Going to the new person's home is exciting because there are new people, new toys, new smells. But it's when they go back home that they realize that the rugs were pulled out from under their feet, and who knows when it's going to happen again?! And to top it off, Cabana returns to find there was another dog here in her absence, chewing her toys and sleeping in her bed! What the heck!

But today, we dove back into our normal routine. Cabana still seemed a bit weird and wired this morning, but in the afternoon, she crashed and slept a ton. I also vacuumed and washed Cabana's toys to help remove vestiges of Persia's scent. Tonight she seems back to her normal self.

I learned a LOT from the swap, and I will be putting my new knowledge into practice. I will keep Cabana on tie down more often, just so she will know how to behave when tied down. And I am working on getting her to entertain and settle herself better. Persia is so great at that, and I now see that Cabana is so NOT! Also, I want to work on Cabana's responsiveness to commands. When I would ask Persia to sit or come, there was not a second's hesitation--she reacted immediately. Cabana is slow to respond, and I sometimes still have to do a hand-placed sit with Cabana, especially if there are distractions.

For all my concerns before the swap, I definitely got the easier end of the deal. It helped everyone become better puppy raisers, particularly me, and better puppies-in-training, too. So it WAS a good thing--but we don't want TOO much of a good thing, do we? ;)

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