Six days until we get hitched!

Last night I emailed our 35 wedding guests with final details for Vegas.  We've decided to have the Pre-Nup party (the night before the wedding) in the gorgeous suite which Hank managed to book at the new Cosmopolitan hotel.  It has a wrap-around terrace and looks ideal for entertaining.

Our idea is to hold a BYOB party there, taking the pressure off people who don't like nightclubs and don't want to waste money on overpriced bottled beers.  It also means we can have kids there, if their parents want them to stay.  We'll even get to load up the ipod and play our favourite tunes for our guests.

After the machine gun shooting, all-you-can-eating, Mystery Solving, roller coaster riding, Atomic History learning and Hofbrau drinking of the day, we'll have a safe haven for relaxing in the evening.  I'm so excited and grateful to Hank for finding this wonderful room for our wedding night.  My future husband rocks!

We're getting on that plane this afternoon so the blog may go quiet for a while.  But rest assured there will be plenty of updates to follow!

The dog-gone dog is gone

With the trip to Vegas approaching, we took Tock back to board at Celtic Acres Farm for ten days.  

I have such mixed feelings after abandoning him there for such a long time, but strangely they were not the feelings I'd expected.  

I didn't feel relieved to be released from Tock's demanding exercise regime and explosive diarrhea.  I also didn't feel guilty for abandoning him.  I felt something totally and utterly unexpected.  As we released Tock into a huge outdoor farm pen, he was greeted by howls of delight from his former breeding partners, and I felt guilty because I knew that in ten days time we would be coming back to take him away from them again.  

We would take the big stud back to a place where he was just another small dog in a big city.

I can still hear the yelps of happiness from the other huskies when they saw Tock.  And Hank put it all in perspective when he said, "of course Tock is happy in there, he's with his bitches!"

A day later I find myself wondering: does Tock miss his DC home?  Does he dream about his blanket and pillow, his red spotty bowl, his doggy back pack, RFK stadium and the Washington monument?   Does he remember Kosmo and can he even recall the squirrels we chased in Stanton Park?  In his happy tail-waggy world, does Tock ever spare a thought for his adoptive parents?

Somehow, I doubt it.  

It was hard enough to leave the dog.  It will be harder still to bring him home again.

Tough love teaches an old dog new manners

Tough love is what a dog needs.  This is my mantra.  But when Tock looks at me with those big eyes....  Ah, man, it's hard.  

Today's training activity is to encourage Tock to respond immediately to a single command to "sit" before I clip his leash to his collar for a walk.  Usually I ask him to sit, he prances around a bit, whines ever so slightly, gestures towards the door with his head, turns his back on us, looks away .... All very evasive.  The sitting itself often comes only when we tug his collar upwards, by which time he has cunningly also elicited a lot of extra human attention.  

It's the same struggle every day, three times a day.

So I'm trying something new.  If he doesn't sit immediately upon command, I'm walking away for three minutes, ignoring him completely and typing a bit more on this blog entry. 

So far, he has ignored me three times. You could be here a while.

I'll try again. 

Four times. 

Each delay costs me three minutes of my life.  He can also smell his lamb chops defrosting in the kitchen, which probably doesn't help focus his mind. 

12:43.  Must hold out for another two minutes.  Hold out, girl!

12:44.  Crikey, this is boring as well as agonising.

12:45.  Go, go, go!

.... Ah, rats! Five times, now.  Alright, dog, that's fifteen minutes of my life!

He looks so bloody miserable, why doesn't he just give in and sit?  He knows the command; he sits for his dinner, or when being petted by children and he always sits when he knows he has done something wrong.

I think we have adopted the world's most headstrong hound.  A former stud.  Wow, the ego!

12:47.  Come on Tock, I want to get outside in the sunshine.  Do the right thing and sit, pesky dog!

Uh-oh!  Unintended consequences!  Tock's gone into his crate and when I stand in front of it and call him, he is ignoring me.  I'M THE ONE WHO DOES THE IGNORING HERE, BUDDY!

13:01 Eight times now.  We are not making any progress.  Can dogs really be this stubborn?  Isn't that a human trait?  

Should I just give in? What if he needs to pee?  Yikes.

*****  

FINALLY, I got Tock to sit at 13:34 after goodness knows how many attempts. I ended up luring him into the back yard to sit there.  Outside of his territory, I suppose it stung his pride less to submit.  

The best time to train this hound seems to be late afternoon when he's really hungry.  That's the only time he responds to food incentives rather than exercise incentives.  Exercise incentives are difficult to make immediate enough for him to recognise as a reward for "sitting".  But when he is hungry, oh yeah, there's everything to play for.  Look how obsessed he is with the treat ball in this video, to the point that he ignores my offer of a walk.

Today at 5pm I waited until Tock had stopped begging for dinner and then made him sit while I fed him raw chicken liver pieces by hand, one by one, and I stopped feeding the minute he ceased to sit.   This has certainly improved his sit reflex already.  Kosmo's owner has kindly agreed to get some  training treats for Tock from Petco tomorrow - the tiny treats you can feed repeatedly without making your dog fat - so with a bit of luck he will learn to sit just in time for Vegas, and his stay back at Celtic Acres Farm.  

And when we pick him up from the farm in March, it will all need to be taught again!

Husky, again

You must be bored of hearing about Tock, who is still dominating my life.  Yesterday we met yet another DC husky (an aggressive female - Tock's kinda chick!)  whose owner reassured me that huskies calm down after about 6 years of age.  I live in hope as last night I was so tired I fell asleep with my head on the dining table. 

More Police Officers continue to approach me to befriend my dog every single day than I would usually speak to in a year.  So many strapping young men in uniform ask me about Tock that I wonder why I never invested in such a man-magnet when I was single.

Of course, like every day, yesterday had its "Tock tribulations". I went to meet a friend at the Natural History Museum after Tock's lunchtime walk, and was away for 3.5 hours.  When I got back Tock had released explosive diarrhea all over the hallway, but at least we had gated him out of the carpeted areas.  I kinda saw it coming and was mentally prepared:  he'd been eating grass on his morning walk (often a sign of dog indigestion) and over the last few days he'd begged me to open the patio door a couple of times for "emergency evacuations".  He hates the boxed-in patio so it was clear something was wrong.  I'm keeping a closer eye on him today and he is currently tethered in front of the house while I sit on the stoop and type.  It's a lovely day in DC and Tock seems happy outdoors, plus this is a good way to socialise him to dogs walking past, without him being able to assault them.  And if he should get explosive diarrhea again, it won't hurt the shrubbery to receive an early layer of manure. 

The End is Nigh

Like my fellow Brits, Americans often seem surprised that they have a poor reputation overseas.  On Sunday I saw something that goes some way to explaining the reputation Americans have acquired.

I truly wonder how this overly-vocal minority of the US population can be not only so blindly religious, but also have enough money to buy not one, not two, but five RVs and customise them with an insane message about the end of the world starting on May 21st 2011 (NB not 2012, as previously advertised).

And then the same set of people find time to drive along the Mall, advertising this "good news" to tourists and locals alike. It's certainly a different kind of "good news" from that told by my Christian friends in the UK.  I suppose I should get rejoicing and remember to make Hank use up all his Annual Leave before May 20th.

And I'll be sure to tune into FamilyRadio.com on May 22nd 2011 for an update.

Why Valentines Day is great if you're single!

Invented by Hallmark.  An excuse to inflate the price of red roses.  A reason to bump up the cost of a fixed menu in a sleazy restaurant.  Another chance for society to take a swipe at the broken-hearted.  Yes, all of those things it is.  But Valentines Day is also a good opportunity for us to remember how much love there is in our lives.  Not just from spouses or partners, but from our parents, our siblings, our friends.  And... dare I say it ... our crazy pets!

Today's blog is dedicated to my darling Hank who has made my new life in DC absolutely wonderful.  I gave up a lot to be with him and he makes every minute of it worthwhile.  

I am the happiest lady in the world.  If this is as good as it gets, baby, that's absolutely fine with me!

And for those of you reading this blog who are single and maybe looking for that special someone, Valentines Day is the best night to get out there.  Don't hide at home with a hot water bottle and a tub of Haagen Dazs.   Go to a bar and see who is not draped over the arm of another person.  I guarantee you, that person is single.  How many other nights of the year can you make that assumption?

And, as I mentioned in my entry on the Secret of a Happy Marriage, you can be sure that good relationships only come along when you are absolutely happy with being single:

The right way to adopt an adult dog

I have learnt that there's a correct way to introduce a rescue/adopted dog into your home - and through sheer ignorance Hank and I managed to do it totally wrong.  On Day One, we inadvertently let Tock establish his dominance in our home, by letting him cross the threshold before us (that first day and, yep, every day since) and by letting him off the leash the minute he came indoors.  Today I found a good website on adopting adult dogs and everything they say makes excellent sense.  We did none of it! It seems we were too friendly and emotional, too quickly with Tock and that's probably why I'm sporting a slight black eye after he "muzzle punched" me for wiping his back paws unguardedly on Day Two.

I'm attempting to re-establish my dominance.  Before our midday walk, I nudged Tock out of the way to exit the front door before him. Boy, did he kick off about that!  I thought he was going to explode, trying so hard to get out of the door first.  But I managed to get one foot out before he darted around me, and apparently, that is enough, at first.

The second advantage I have over Tock is a credit card and access to Amazon.com.  His doggy backpack arrived yesterday and Hank loaded Tock's flanks down with with two heavy jars of pasta sauce (I know!) before jogging him over to Lincoln Park last night.   The dog came home exhausted and apparently hadn't chomped on any other dogs, for once.  Today, I replaced the sauce jars with rubber hot water bottles (less banging against Tock's elbows) filled with cool water, and took Tock for his midday run.  The backpack has certainly leveled the playing field.   Weighed down by around two kilos of wobbly water, the dog now has an athletic disadvantage similar to my asthma - and he can even carry the poop bags for me!

Thank you all for your words of encouragement about Tock.  I am grateful for the advice of Jake and Ian who do such good work with retired Greyhounds, an equally demanding racing breed.  I do believe that Tock will stay with us for the duration but I'm still taking each day at a time, for my own sanity.   There have been no more peeing, pooping or barfing incidents since we gated Tock out of the high-risk indoor zones and he has mellowed out in the house and stopped chewing things since we gave him the Kong and sprayed the bitter yuck.  I feel like every day is a new challenge but he has a wonderful temperament, makes no noise, smells good (for a dog) and never tried to jump gates or come upstairs.  And he is wonderful with children - utterly adores them, always sits when they pet him and wants to frolic about with them.  He is the perfect dog in so many ways,  if we can just find that balance....

Yesterday Tock drew blood when he attacked a timid bitch in the street, after seeming to want only to sniff her.  We consulted the breeder who advised that he can be a bit of a bully with weaker females.  Well that also explains my shiner.  Dogs can sense weakness and understand inferiority at a level imperceptible to humans.  This will prove a real challenge for me, an unemployed little nobody with not much to show for myself these days.  Perhaps the dog can sense what is happening to me and thinks I'm just another weak female.

I am not.

Think I'll take him for another run before dinner.  This time, I'll get both feet out the door first.