My Boyfriend's Back!!

Robespierre came home from camp yesterday!! He was gone for a month and Cleo and I were all alone batching it, and now he's home! Our little family is back together. Cleo is in camp all week so Robey and I have a few days of together time before they both start chess camp next week. Today's agenda: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".

On another note, we worked with a new dog trainer yesterday, www.doreneolson.com, since our original trainer, Gary-Don't-You-Dare-Call-Me-Dog-Whisperer, is off on an "adventure" for the next few months.

We were talking about how to get the dog to come even when she's interested in something else like, say, air, but I also got a fascinating and hilarious lesson in how to keep her from jumping on people. Here's how it works:

We keep Miss Puppy on a leash all the time because she runs like a cockroach and we can't catch her without something trailing behind for us to stomp on. When she jumps on someone we hustle her outside, holding on to the leash while closing the door in her face. She stays out for about ten seconds and then we invite her back in. If she jumps again we repeat the routine. Soon she's convinced that we're completely deranged, because when she jumps she's asking for attention and instead of giving her the attention she so clearly wants we're dumping her outside, alone, holding the leash so she can't even run into the yard and dig holes.

After a few of these loopy exchanges she resolves that she'd better not encourage us, so she stops jumping and then -- surprise! -- no more jumping equals no more being flung out the door, and lots of cuddling and attention while she sits and waits for hugs.

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My Dog Can Afford A Personal Trainer

We have a nine-month-old Tibetan Terrier puppy; we got her last summer a couple months after our Bichon Frise died. I thought I must be nuts for getting another dog so soon, as I'd had the entire summer to be gone all day without having to let anyone out to go to the bathroom. It took a while for her to grow on me, especially since she was so mouthy that I'd routinely wear her hanging from my arm like a bracelet; my neighbor commented that my forearms made me look like a cutter. Robespierre was pretty good with her but Cleopatra was terrified and with good reason -- the dog had an abiding fascination with our ankles and most of the time when we walked her we resembled a klutzy version of Riverdance.

When I got my first dog nearly twenty years ago I'd never had any pets other than fish, and except for when one of the fish jumped out of the tank and flopped around on the carpet, subtracting a good ten years from my mother's lifespan, they were about as exciting as actuarial tables. I was thrilled to have a dog, but I knew absolutely nothing about them; not only did I do everything in the book wrong, I even made up things to do wrong. Naturally, the Bichon and her younger half-sister were profoundly spoiled and ill-behaved. It's a good thing they were so cute and lovable or I'd have had to kill them. Bianca, the older one, never saw any meaning in housebreaking, and her tummy was so delicate that she threw up every morning, usually on my bed. It got to the point where I'd recognize her "hep hep hep" noises, and even in deep sleep I could grab her and run to the bathroom, where I'd put her front paws up on the toilet rim and she'd very cooperatively throw up in the toilet. To be fair, though, when I was pregnant with Roby and threw up at least once a day for thirty weeks, Bianca would camp out at the bathroom door with a worried expression; I told myself she was concerned about me, but actually she was probably just jealous that I got to lock myself in the bathroom and play with the roll of toilet paper.

So when Violet came along I swore I'd not make nearly as many mistakes, so I found her a personal trainer, Mr. Don't-You-Dare-Call-Me-Dog-Whisperer. He comes to the house and trains her to be a dog and me to be an owner. Now, instead of getting the "You Need to Exercise More" lecture from my own trainer, I get the "You Need To Exercise Her More" lecture from hers.

Will it work? Darn well better. I'm running out of shoes.