Happy Monday!...

I hope everyone's weekend was good. Today was noticeably cooler and less humid, but the week will be a hot one. It must be mid-summer or something!

Chili went to the vet at the HSMO to get her leg checked out. She got really agitated as we approached the building. I think she was really worried that I was returning her! : ) I assured her that was not the case as we proceeded to another part of the building to see the vet. It turns out she just got a really bad scrape and it should heal with time and Neosporin. We stopped off to watch some friends play softball on the way home.

She will be starting obedience class at HSMO on Thursday. They have four levels of Family Dog classes and I'm starting her out at level 1. She already knows some basic commands like sit, stay and come but she selectively listens and obeys so some refresher training should do her good.

We made a trip to Petsmart yesterday to get doggie food and some sort of pooper scooper. I found a really great soloution to the poop issue: Dispoz-A-Scoop bags. You simply scoop the poop, push down on the frame of the bag, and the bag seals up. It keeps my hands away from the mess! I am finding out that a dog in a pet store is like a little kid in a toy store. They want to be in anything and everything!

We may have made a breakthrough on playing with toys. I bought a rope tug that has 2 rings of dried meat around it. Chili made quick work of one of the meat rings and when she showed interest in the second, I took it from her and went outside with it. She followed and we managed to do a game of keep away and tug-of-war for a while. She also did pretty good at fetching it, though she didn't bring it back to me. I think the trick is to associate the toy with food. I'm sure the obedience trainers will have good tips for this as well. This had been a real frustration for me and if we can get this going, it will make me really happy.

Another real problem I had over the weekend was more emotional and mental. My pre-dog life was "chafing" at the new routine this dog has brought to my life. I think I was experiencing something of a post-partum doggie depression similar to what some mothers experience after giving birth. I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated and oddly sad at times. After our play time last night it got better. My outlook is as sunny as the sky this morning.