Sunday
was fine. We spent the morning killing time really. I got
up early with the dog again, but it meant I got to sit in the backyard
in the cool early morning air reading the newspaper while Mr. Dog
snuffled around the yard. At 11:30 Liz took the girls to their
birthday party and me and the boys departed for our fishing
expedition. We picked up some sandwiches and went to Horn Pond in
Winchester.
We didn’t catch a thing. Not even a nibble.
Well,
Gabriel caught a fish, but it was too small so they had to throw it
back. Maybe “Caught” is the wrong word. “Found” is
better. It was lying on the beach. It had died several days
before. But I told Gabriel it counted because after all, what is
“catching” a fish but finding it? Still, it was only three inches
long and although it had already done us the service of dying ahead of
time, state law forbids keeping a fish of that size. So the boys
tossed it back.
The
whole idea of fishing didn’t really catch on with the boys. I was
perfectly content to sit on the bank focusing on the bobber but they
got restless pretty quickly. I think they don’t have the patience
for it. So after a couple of hours we called it day. We had
changed locations once and had no better luck at our new spot. We
really only spent about 30 minutes at each of our sites. I didn’t
want to force them to fish so acquiesced to going home. When I
had planned the event I had imagined that they might like to go climb
trees or something while I continued to fish. Maybe I should have
let them go enjoy themselves while I tried harder to catch a
fish. I should definitely have done that. I think we were
running low on water and drinks and it was starting to become
unpleasantly hot out.
Anyway
we came home and I did some chores for a while until the girls came
back. They had a good time at their party. Chloe was eager
to hear about the fishing.
I
took Peterman on a walk and it turned out well. He walked with me
like he was supposed to! That is, he didn’t heel or anything but
he stopped struggling and fighting the leash. He seemed to give
in on the whole idea of the walk. It was much nicer than the last
time. We met a bunch of girls playing basketball who had to stop
their game to pet the puppy.
I
slept terribly last night. Fortunately I was already kind of
awake at 4am when Petie started whining to go out. I took him out
and he pee’ed right away! Good dog! Then I put him back in
his crate and returned to the hard work of sleeping.
He kept whining and crying. I assumed it was because he was lonely and wanted to come out.
I
eventually went down and banged his crate with my open hand and told
him “No! Quiet!” He would quiet down for 30 seconds and
then start crying again. I eventually decided I would take him
outside AGAIN in case he had to go #2. I wasn’t happy about this
because it was amazingly humid and was, in fact, raining. Let me
tell you it was pretty miserable at 4am to be outside in the rain.
Peterman made a bee-line for the grass and left a giant poo behind!!
How great!! This whole time he was doing just what he was supposed to and I was wrong! What a good dog!!
After
lots of praise I returned him to his crate and went back to bed.
He was quiet for the remaining 90 minutes of the night time. I
got up at 5:45am and fed him before taking him outside again. He
didn’t produce anything on this trip, but I don’t mind taking him out
for 10 or 15 minutes after he eats every morning.
So I’m wiped out today but I know that Mr. Doggersons is coming right along and is picking things up really well.
I
think he’s ready to start his training this week. I think I’ll
take him for a walk every evening after supper to get him more used to
the leash. Then I want to start on the basics like, “sit”,
“stay”, “come” and “down”. Right now he’s pretty hit-or-miss with
“come”.
I guess that means he doesn’t get it yet.
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