New Dog, Old Tricks

June 30, 2007. Could this be the actual start of summer? Time will tell. It has turned into a very pleasant day today. It is sunny with some cloudy periods, mild temperatures and a light wind. All in all, it pretty nice day.

Last night Tom and I did a 1 hour 4.5 K walk and then repeated it again this morning. The plan is to do another tonight and then keep up the two a day walks during our time up here.

I kept Tom up most of the night because I wasn’t feeling well. We went to bed at midnight and then I had him up at 2:30 AM. When he opened the door I went straight out in the bush and didn’t come back for a bit. Tom got worried and squeaked for me and I returned. We crawled back into bed.

At 4:30 AM I had him up again and was pacing frantically back and forth in the kitchen. He put me on-leash this time and took me out for a pee, but that wasn’t the problem and I couldn’t tell him what it was. He shut all the doors so I couldn’t get out, I tried and tried and tried, but I couldn’t hold back. I had a little diarrhea on the floor. It continued most of the day. It was the change in water from city water to lake water, but I’m fine today.

I went over and visited Perry and Teri and didn’t bark today. I like them now that I have gotten to know them. Problem was that Tom didn’t know I was there because I wasn’t barking, so he squeaked for me and I came home.

I am really good on our walks on the road. If Tom hears a car coming, he tells me to come and I do and then sit down beside him while he holds my collar. When the car goes past, he lets me go again. It even worked when a bicycle came past today.

Later in the day, I got to meet Joanne who came to look at the cabin next door. They owned it last year and sold it earlier this month. I barked at her at first, but was very excited to see her. Later her two sons, Scott and Paul came by on bicycles. Tom was lying down so I barked to warn him. I also wanted to go see them, which I did. I just went up and barked, and they weren’t afraid of me.

A couple of tricks I learned all by myself today. I discovered that I can open the back screen door and get outside, so now I do that when I want out, instead of bothering Tom. I also love sitting out on the deck where I can see everything and today I discovered that on one side it is low enough that I can step down off of it. However, that leaves me with the added problem of not being able to get back in without Tom’s help. So, just by trial and error, I discovered that I can also open the back screen door from outside and get back in the cabin.

I wish I could say I was the first dog to do this, but, apparently, Tom’s other two dogs when he was younger (Scamp and Misty) could both do it as well. But, he did tell me that it took them quite awhile to figure it out. We have only been here two days and I have done it already. Here I am a veritable circus dog already.