Rain, followed by Rain, and The Bladder of Steel

Alright, its been at least 4 weeks now that we've had nice weekdays. Nice and sunny, rain here and there. But it seems for the past month, when the weekend has hit, all we get is wet, wet, wet. Pour pour pour, drizzle, drizzle, drizzle. Odd bouts of DOWNPOUR. I have about 2-3 hours to finish the fence off completely, but NOOOOOO, it just can't stay sunny enough for those couple of hours on a day when Jerrad can help. It's a two person job. Oh, and because its rainy, there's no point doing a big clean of the house either. Muddy paw prints and wet dogs shaking themselves off will ruin it fast. I've been relying on the wetjet a little too much! Ugg, if only the rain could come when I worked. It would make things much easier.
Well, rain be darned, we decided to head out today anyway. We went down to Clover Point, and although we'd usually go to the dog-park there, we decided to take a trail instead. We had Cheryl and Peter with Suhki and foster-to-adopt Fala there with us, and walked as a nice (well, mostly nice) pack.

Our pack kind of went like this:
Beckett -the daddy who was peeved about being on a leash
Lemon -the tired. Chow has been keeping her pooped
Suhki -the happy-go-lucky
Chowmein -the curious
and Fala -the shit-disturber.

Fala sure is a spit-fire female. Telling all those big dogs off. She got better as we went along. All she needs is more walks with big dogs, to learn that she doesn't have to boss them all around. I'm not quite sure if she's a super-bossy girl, or if she's not used to being restricted by a leash and getting frustrated over boundaries. Or both. For dogs not used to being controlled, leashes can definitely piss them off.

Anyway, back to Chow. For being a little on the frightened side at the lake yesterday, I was figuring she would need some extra confidence boosts today, but she did AMAZING. She has learnt very quickly people are good to her, and whenever anyone passed she was quick to dart in for a scratch -she's perfect height to hit wandering hands as they pass by-. When someone would stop to talk to us she'd get the silly-puppy-wiggle-bum and happy smile as if she knew they stopped to say hello to her exclusively.

She's walking well on leash, though near the end was getting confident enough to start pulling me towards interesting things (not needing me as a body guard is good, but so is good leash manners!) She met multiple dogs, and was fine, sometimes interested, sometimes laisse-faire. She was also oogled by quite a few people.

"6 months? For adoption?" was a frequent reply I got, as if people were stunned dogs that young come into rescue or something. (Oh the pups I could show them!) I need to find my adoption bandanas --or remember if I got adoption bandanas, or just general bandanas. Can you say brain fried?

Chowmein's confidence is gaining in other ways too. She now jumps into the car eager to go somewhere. She rides excellently, super quiet, okay to be left in the car for a few minutes while you run in somewhere. She doesn't look cautiously about before getting out of the car either now. I guess she figures she's safe enough with her pack and people. She's still a gentle, somewhat cautious dog all the way around, but she's so quick to warm up I don't think it'll be an issue when she goes to her forever home.

The one thing we are still working on is: PEEING ON LEASH

Chow seems to have a bladder of steel! She is crate-trained for night-time, and we have a process that if she doesn't pee first thing in the morning, its back to bed for 30-45 minutes. Then try again. We go to bed approx 11:00pm, and the first pee is roughly 7:30. Usually she pees before 9:00am, and then she's got free range with supervision for the rest of the day.

Today, took her out at 7:30, nothing,
took her out at 8:15, nothing,
took her out at 9:00, nothing
---gotta be happening soon we think!--,
take her out at 9:30 -nothing,
take her out at 10:00am, nothing.

By now I'm going 'did Jerrad miss something?' Did he miss her pee cause hot dog Chow hasn't peed since about 8:00pm last night! But, I've been doing this process for awhile with pups, and it works, so I don't want to ruin it and have her pee indoors (then she knows she can escape peeing on the leash!)

Finally, at noon, we got her to pee! And with tons of rewards we are working on a 'go pee' command. For a sixth month old pup, or any dog really, that is a REALLY long time. Still, it might seem harsh, but it paid off this afternoon even. "Go pee" at the park, and she went pee right away, and she even went poo on the leash for the first time this afternoon too. (She'll usually wait until we go to daycare during the week.) Small victories. Tomorrow, I betcha she'll pee much earlier.

And that's how it works: No pee, no play. Once you pee, you get your long walk, your trip to the dog park, your wrestle session, my attention. So, peeing where you're supposed to pays off.

PS: We only bother with the morning pee. After that, she's not in a crate until nighttime again. Once that first pee is set for the day, she knows she's not getting out of it for the rest of the day. And usually, she only pees once in the morning, and once around the 7:30-8:30 pee break marker. I wonder if she'd go more often if she had the yard. Probably not. And she's not as bad as Xena (Shep x Karelian bear dog) I fostered awhile ago. Xena went ONCE a day. Even with the yard. The only way she'd go twice is if we ushered her over to her little pee spot and left her out for about 10 minutes with the door closed and us inside.

Some dogs!

Tomorrow if its still a rain fest, we're thinking about heading up island to slog through some wet, grimy trails and see if we can spot whales at the beaches. Should probably work on some more high-trafficked areas, but what fun is that!

One wet, muddy crew, out for today. And most likely, one wet, muddy crew out for some adventures tomorrow.