Obedience Class

We've had Chuy almost two weeks, and we have been learning how to be good dog owners as she is learning to be a good dog. She has already learned how to sit on command and is mostly house trained (although every time we say that it seems she has an accident).

Neither one of us have ever trained a dog how to walk on a leash. I kinda just thought you put the leash on, she would start walking and then realize when she hit the end of the line that she needed to stay closer to me. Not the case. She runs ahead, runs behind, runs to the side. Chuy strains on her leash so hard I would get really worried that she was going to hurt her neck. Apparently this is not as easy as we thought it would be!

So I started reading. Everyone agrees a dog in training should be on a harness so the neck is safe, so I got one of those. But then everything was geared toward a dog that pulled forward- you should stop until she stops pulling. Chuy pulls occasionally, but most of the time she is behind us, sniffing, stopping, and recently, sitting (usually in the middle of the street). So I didn't know what to do. I tried waiting out the stops while keeping pressure on the leash- but the stops just kept getting longer. I tried keeping her on a super short leash so she couldn't get too far away, but that just seemed to really anger her. We got to the point where she wouldn't come in the door anymore.

What to do? We went to the library and checked out three dog training books. We signed up for obedience class. We can't make the first one, so the trainer said we could come in that day and have a make up class.

We walked in and went to the training area, where Chuy promptly pooped. Luckily, that was not indicative of how the session went. Turns out it was a private lesson, which was great. We asked his all our questions and he really helped with everything from jumping up to eating and even walking.

As we should have guessed, it turns out the problem was us. Apparently have been using our clicker all wrong. We had phased out the treats way too early and now she didn't trust us. We are now way more consistent that clicker means treat every time, and even in the 15 hours since we went to the class things have improved dramatically! She wasn't walking because we clicked it every time she walked forward, but never gave her a treat.

Now we have homework, and her next class will be on the 17th- we hope for even more improvement!

Chuy

This week we went to pick up our new addition to the family- a little 7 month old welsh terrier. So far she's everything we hoped for- she likes to play and is full of energy, but she still likes to cuddle with us on the couch. Even in the past few days, she's had a lot of new experiences- meeting dogs and little kids, walking on a leash, and riding in a car!

Andrew's Birthday

It was Andrew's birthday this Friday! He has finals this week, so we couldn't do too much that was exciting since he studied most of the weekend. We made a curry together out of one of our favorite cookbooks, and then we ate cake and opened presents. Last year my mom got me cake decorating tools, but I haven't had much success- the frosting has to be very stiff, and I always make it too runny, but this time I finally got it right. I decided to stick to straight lines to make it more likely that I would have success- here's the outcome!

Ice

I thought when I got married my life would get a lot easier on Mondays. No more having to spell my name my name slowly at the airport, car rental, hotel, etc. I was pretty used to it and had a whole spiel: "B, as in 'boy,' A (pause to make sure they write it down), L, A, Z like 'zebra,' E." Once I got married I thought it would be easy- who doesn't know how to spell "Ice?" Common word, one syllable, no ambiguity...or so I thought.

As soon as I got my ID changed I learned that "Ice" is not much easier for people. They don't want to believe it is actually a last name, and they really don't like to start words with the letter "I." They would much rather it start with a consonant and their finger will hesitate over the "I" key as they start to type. They want it to be almost anything but Ice- Rice, Tice, Bice. I usually have to spell it, repeat it, and nod yes when they ask, "Really, Ice?" Oh well. At least they don't mispronounce it once they get it!

The plus side of this is that the name is very memorable. Most of the time once someone gets it, they remember it from then on, so most of the LAX Avis counter and the South Bay Marriott knows me on sight!