Alanna Risse:: art, bees and gardening in Portland

Below are images of art I particularly liked at July’s First Thursdays in PDX. I’m still finding my way around the Pearl so which galleries I visit really depends on how I get lost. I seem to always be able to find Everett station and I always like at least 2 or 3 of the gallery shows there.

Jen Prokopowicz at the Tyson Gallery
328 NW Broadway #116
Everett Station Galleries
Portland, OR

Jen Prokopowicz

Jen Prokopowicz

Justin L’Amie
PDX Contemporary Art
925 NW Flanders
Portland, Oregon

James Lavadour
PDX Contemporary Art
925 NW Flanders
Portland, Oregon

Jessica Bonin
The Life
625 NW Everett Street #107
Portland, OR

Rachel Gregg
The Life
625 NW Everett Street #107
Portland, OR

Amy Stein
Blue Sky Gallery
122 NW 8th Avenue, Portland, Oregon

Mississippi is frustrated this week. She’s been home with me since Monday morning and she’s going a bit stir crazy. We went to class last night and she wanted no part in it. I realized that class just isn’t going to work out. My beliefs about training are too different from the teachers and Mississippi doesn’t have any fun at all. If she’s not having fun, she’s not learning and I’m miserable trying to cheer her up and motivate her the whole time. The clincher was an aggressive dog in class last night. I don’t know what the hell it was doing there in the first place. Last night was the first time it’s been in our class. All during class it kept lunging at other dogs. This is supposed to be an advanced obedience class and this dog is trying to rip open the throats of any dog that comes near her. Mississippi did pretty well just ignoring the dog but towards the end of class things got ugly. We were practicing our sit stays and Mississippi decided the quickest route between point A and B was the open door to the left of us. The teacher had propped it open just before we started our sit stay practice. As I went to grab her leash, she got too close to kujo and the dog went for her. She kept backing up but the dog kept coming at her. I was finally able to get her out of there. 10 seconds later the teacher was telling us to get into another down position. Mississippi and I were both very shaken up and I decided Mississippi had the right idea. We headed straight for the door and I don’t intend to go back. It was nice getting to go on walks with other dogs, I’m sad we’re loosing that, but I am just worried the class is too frustrating for her and we are loosing our relationship over it. When I go on walks with her outside of class, she sits at corners without asking. In class she wasn’t sitting for nothing.

So, my quest is to get her into a fun, fast paced group class. Fun being the operative word here.

If last night wasn’t stressful enough, Mississippi found a cat in her yard today. It was ugly. She is so hard to grab hold of and the cat was having trouble finding an escape route. Mississippi got paw smacked and the cat finally got enough of a leap to get over the fence. I could really use some quiet time, I wish Mississippi thought the same.

It was been wonderful and terrible having her here all week. She spends part of her day just wanting to be near me and part of her day trying to deconstruct the house. This morning it was the bathroom rub. She is so responsive to our little agility training in the back yard and as long as I keep her occupied she is an angel. But there is much work to do and I feel bad that she has to spend so much of the day just moping. We’ll have to take her to the big dog park this weekend so she can have some proper doggy fun.

On a happy note, it was great fun introducing Mississippi to the sprinkler. She was terrified at first, hiding behind me and getting all jumpy. She eventually got up the nerve to approach it and had fun biting the streams of water. Since she doesn’t show much interest in her baby pool, this will be a fun way to get her to cool off. I think she thinks the water beads are like flying bugs, and catching bugs is one of her favorite past-times.

I just set up a five week class with Happy Go Lucky in an “Out and About” class. Sounds like it’s much more up Mississippi’s alley. Back to reward training! Sorry for the experiment Mississippi. I just assumed all modern day dog training was reward based. I should have known better with all those Caesars out there. I gave it a good go with the community class, back to the treats! Yay! I’m so excited to start training again.

Chicago (Cops Kill Cougar on North Side)
9″ x 12″
Oil on Canvas

Ideas for a series have been rumbling around in my head for a while. I keep coming back to the same general ideas year after year. Now that I have sent in my entry for New American Paintings, my burden has been lifted and I feel free to paint whatever my heart desires. I was putting too much pressure on myself to continue with the bee series when I really needed some fresh ideas to get me excited.

As I walked home this morning thinking about my ideas for this series, I kept saying “Yes! Yes! Yes!” to myself and I quickened my pace. I couldn’t wait to get into my studio after work and get down to some real work. I’m starting several small paintings, I did three tonight. This one, entitled: Chicago (Cops Kill Cougar on North Side) is a scene from a cougar shooting that happened after a cougar was found wandering a busy Chicago neighborhood. The second is of a deer road kill and the third is of a tornado.

I love painting again. I feel energized and I want to get to work. I have so much to do at my day job over the next few weeks but I’m going to make time to work on these little paintings. I think working in a smaller format will be good for me. I need to feel like I’m making quick progress. The large paintings have been so hard for me to resolve. It seems the more I work on them, the farther away I am from being done. Time for a fresh perspective, a new approach, and some fun with paint.

I feel so relieved that I got my mojo back. I’m ready to find shows, I’m ready to paint my heart out. I’m ready for First Thursday and First Friday. Bring it on Portland.

Just for fun…

We got back to Portland on Friday night and picked Mississippi up from boarding care. She was ecstatic to see us, but once home she didn’t want any affection from us. She went to bed really early and seemed really exhausted. I think she was relieved to be home. We didn’t hear much about how the week went at boarding care, but we knew she had eaten a pencil earlier that day, which probably means she was frustrated.

Saturday she was back to her affectionate self and we took her to the giant 8 acre dog park in Vancouver. She did great. She played nice and she came when we called her. She had a great day and she was ready to leave when we asked her to. She was well behaved at home and just seemed content to lay in the grass. She’s been getting up at about 6:30 which is when Roxy’s starts their day, so not surprising that our lovely late morning clock has slipped a bit. Since we are used to the east coast time zone, it’s been fine. From talking to other dog owners, I’m learning that we have been pretty lucky to get her to sleep til 7:30 or 8. Sunday she had a pretty good day too, she barked a little and Tom said she was picking on dogs at the dog park. And I guess when they were leaving the park, she started wrestling with her leash, usually a sign she is frustrated.

Last night she put herself to bed at 9:30, pretty unusual, she’ll usually stay near us until we go to bed but she went right into our bedroom and went to sleep by herself. She was up at 6:30 this morning and dieing to go to Roxy’s. She eagerly waited by the side door. At 7 I decided I’d take her in to Roxy’s and work downtown today since I have a lot to catch up on. I took her to the back yard and asked her to go potty, she did, and came back in, all ready for her leash and to get in the car go to Roxy’s. It’s unusual for her to just go potty in the yard and then come right back inside. Usually she needs to check all her sticks and poke around for a while. She paced and whined in the car on the way to Roxys, she was so excited she couldn’t contain herself. She rushed for the door and was all beside herself to be there.

About an hour later a got a call. She had been harassing a dog that didn’t want to play. There were altercations and Mississippi had to be isolated. I took the bus home and picked her up. She was so wound up when I picked her up, she was wrestling with the leash and it was really hard to get her to sit. I learned that as the week progressed, she stopped doing her commands which is probably another sign she was frustrated. Sounds like she got more and more rambunctious as the week progressed.

It doesn’t surprise me. We’ve only had her for 2.5 months now and I’m sure she is still insecure about what home means. She had no idea how long we’ be gone and I bet every day got a little more frustrating for her. It was a big challenge for her to be away for so long. So I’m going to stay home with her a few days and just wait for her to feel a little more secure about her home again before trying day care again. We have class Wednesday night and we’ll just keep practicing our walks and commands. Today she is barking like crazy, ahh, just like the good old days. Some of her behavior has reverted back a month of so.

It was sad to have to leave her for a whole week so soon after adding her to our family but thank the high heavens we had Roxys looking after her. At least she got to be with people she knew and dogs she likes to play with. There is no way I could have left her at a place she wasn’t familiar with. Don’t worry Missi, we won’t leave you for more than one night for the foreseeable future. Hopefully next time we have to take a trip without you, you’ll know in your heart we are coming back. We’ll always come back for you, even though you pick on other dogs, bark, jump on people, throw tantrums, and destroy our stuff. You are family. Someday you will calm down. Until then, we’ll just keep working on it together.

Hello artists. I am taking a drawing workshop in Portland Oregon at OCAC on July 18th and 19th and enrollment is low. The class is in danger of being canceled if they can’t find more people. If you were thinking of taking a class this summer, please consider this one. It is a two day brainstorming session where we will experiment with different mediums and ideas. We’ll be drawing like crazy for two full days. You can check out some of the teachers own work on her website. See the letter below from OCAC about the state of the class and an opportunity to save some money on tuition.

Hello!
I am writing to you because you are registered for the upcoming workshop with Nicole Gibbs, DR707: Drawing Water From an Empty Well. Enrollment for the workshop is unfortunately low, and we will have to cancel it unless we get at least two more students by Thursday, July 10. Since I’m sure you want the workshop to run as much as we do, I am writing to ask for your help in spreading the word about this unique workshop to any friends who may be interested. If your friend registers and is new to OCAC, you can take advantage of the Summer Special discount we are currently running:

*SUMMER SPECIAL* Introduce a friend to OCAC and you each receive 25% off your tuition! Simply register for the same summer 2009 Studio School class or workshop and write “Summer Special” and your friend’s name on your registration form. Then, deduct 25% from the tuition for that class or workshop, and have your friend do the same! New student must not have taken a previous class or workshop from OCAC. Discounts cannot be combined and does not apply to studio fees. Discount does not apply to Art Adventures. Limit one discount per person per course.

Here’s the information about your workshop (also attached as a poster). Please forward it to anyone you think might be interested.
Drawing Water From an Empty Well: An Idea-Generating Workshop
DR707 • JUL 18-19 (2 sessions ); SAT/SUN 9:00AM-4:00PM ● TUITION RECEIVED ON OR BEFORE JUNE 30: $185 ● TUITION RECEIVED AFTER JUNE 30: $205 ● STUDIO FEE $25
There are multiple times in an artist’s practice where the inspirational well seems dry- whether trying to find confidence at the outset of a new body of work or breathing fresh life into a familiar subject, medium or process. The visual artist’s equivalent to “writer’s block” represents a time when any direction is possible, often bringing excitement and stimulation as well as doubt and paralysis. This workshop is designed to provide an improvisational toolkit to overcome droughts in your art-making practice, or just to add a new burst of inspiration into a practice that is going well. The workshop starts with associative word exercises, journaling and quick sketching. Then the real fun begins: using a wide range of traditional and nontraditional materials, students will create quick individual drawings, some of which will use music as inspiration. The result will be 50-100 drawings that will act as a reference for materials, techniques, gestures and forms from which to draw future artworks. Prerequisite: Basic drawing skills and an inquisitive, open-minded attitude. Location: Drawing Studio

NICOLE GIBBS, INSTRUCTOR
With degrees in painting, art history, ceramics, and sculpture under her belt, Nicole has developed a multi-disciplinary practice utilizing a wide variety of techniques and media. Experimentation with and unusual usage of materials is of particular interest to her, and the outcomes of her explorations have taken the form of drawings, ceramic sculpture, mixed media installations, time-based work, and collaboration with dance professionals. Post-baccalaureate Certificate, OCAC; MFA, Ohio State University

We’ve survived the week with Tom’s family. It was a fun time. We went to the Zoo, got pummelled by waves, relaxed on the beach, played skee ball, visited a friend, and ate too much. We are hanging out at the Philly airport, very tired and missing our dog. We’ve got a long day of travel ahead of us. We only hope Mississippi will be forgiving and let us go to bed early tonight. I hope she still loves us. We spared her from a lot of tiny, groping hands this week.

The MoMA will be hosting a retrospective show of Tim Burton’s artwork November 22nd, 2009 through April 26th, 2010.

This major career retrospective on Tim Burton (American, b. 1958), consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton’s career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from his earliest childhood drawing through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects. The opposing themes of adolescence and adulthood, and the elements of sentiment, cynicism, and humor inform his work in a variety of mediums—drawings, paintings, storyboards, digital and moving-image formats, puppets and maquettes, props, costumes, ephemera, sketchbooks, and cartoons. Taking inspiration from sources in pop culture, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as a spiritual experience, influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics.

See the MoMA’s calendar for more details.

Do you need any branches systematically stripped of their bark? Mississippi is just the craftswoman you are looking for. There might be a few chew marks on the finished product but she does a pretty bang up job for using nothing but her teeth and claws. She’d make a good Amish dog.

Yep, it’s been a while. I post all my apple photos to my flickr account though the magic of my eye-fi card but I’ve been too busy to do multiple blog posts every day so the doggy won over the apples. She’s generally more interesting I think. Anywhooooo, here’s a photoey blog post for you. I’m 9 apples behind schedule. 159 apples down, 197 apples to go. Getting close to the halfway mark!

Apple 159
Bored at work, surfing the Mayo clinic website and decided Tom needed some multivitamins. Might have all been an excuse to take a break from work.

I picked up some pink ladies and this one in particular is about as good tasting as an apple can be.

Apple 158 - Getting ready for our trip to the Jersey Shore (Joyzee Showah). We will be spending the week in a house on the beach with nearly all of Tom’s family. That’s 25 adults and children give or take. That’s a full house.

Apple 157 enjoyed with a coffee from Half and Half while working at Flickerbox Norte.

Apple 156 enjoyed all sliced up with a nectarine.

Enjoyed Apple 155 as I watched my new 3 quart crock pot simmer away. I made white bean and bacon soup.

Apple 154 was for a needed energy boost before attempting to bathe the doggy.

Apple 152 and 153. I don’t really garden organically but my garden sure looks like I do. If organic gardening involves over planting and letting the bugs and the dog eat their fill, then I’m on my way!

Apples 150 and 151 - Trying to take some chances on new paintings.

Apple 149 planing tomato starts from seeds.

Apple 148 was eaten while drinking beer and watching Dexter.

Apple 147 was in a sandwich with prosciutto and cheese at the Living Room Theater in Downtown Portland.

Apples 145 and 146 were eaten after I triumphantly solved our overheated bedroom problem. We’ll see if it does us much good when it starts to really heat up around here.

Apples 143 and 144 have no back story.

Apple 142 was smothered in caramel and peanuts from the Picnic Basket in Cannon Beach. I hate to admit I didn’t quite finish it, but I gave it my best shot. It took a couple days of effort before I finally gave up.

Apple 141 was picked out of all the lovely apples at New Seasons near NE Alberta. It was so fricken hot that day. I think I was just wandering the planet aimlessly.

Apple 140 was eaten while I work, work work.

Jeez, my dog is nuts. All afternoon on Sunday she was a giant brat. she tried to steal kitchen towels when we cooked, she tried to get into the bedrooms to find things to get her in trouble, she barked up a storm every time we let her into the backyard, she was impossible to walk on a leash, she was just generally full of piss and vinegar yesterday. She ate my broccoli right out of my raised beds. She used to be very good at staying out of them, now she thinks she has free reign of my vegetables. We had such a lovely morning too. We took her to the giant 8 acre dog park in Vancouver and she came to us when we whistled for her. She was so happy and she had such a great time with the other dogs. Seeing her running full speed to join back up with us was the greatest feeling. By noon yesterday I was convinced we had the best dog ever. That quickly changed once we got home from the doggy park.

After an afternoon of her shenanigans, you’d think she’d be all tuckered out and ready for a quiet night. But last night she woke up three or four times and barked like crazy. Might be opossums or a skunk in the backyard, or maybe she’s just plain nuts. Getting woken up in the middle of the night by her crazy loud barking is just painful, and if I had a bad heart, it would have been downright dangerous. She scared the crap out of us.

This morning she had no interest in the backyard. She wanted so badly to go to doggy day care, she just sat by the front door and stared at me. I don’t even think she was in the backyard long enough to relieve herself and I hate bringing her down there fully loaded, they have enough poop to deal with. This is so unlike her, she loves the backyard. The first thing she ever wants to do when we get home is go in the backyard and make sure all her sticks are still there.

When I picked her up tonight, Tristan said he saw blood coming from her back left paw. I gave her a peanut butter kong to try and settle her down and I tried to look at it but she doesn’t want me to mess with it. It looks like one of her claws got caught on something, the blood is between her toes. Maybe she pissed one of the other dogs off, she has been so extra bratty the last couple days. The pads are a bit swollen on that foot but she isn’t limping. She probably just pulled a nail while scratching her neck. This morning she also had another one of her hiccup fits. She’s just been getting physically worked over the past few days between the bee sting and all the doggy park excitement. And I think the Benadryl gave her a case of acid butt because she was afraid to poo Saturday night. it was really sad to watch her whimpering and running around the backyard hoping if she picked a different spot to poop in, the pain would go away. I think she just maybe needs a day of very little excitement. I’ve got to do a webex demo tomorrow morning to show all the work I’m doing and keeping her quiet during the meeting is going to be challenging. I’ll have to get some extra special kongs ready for her.

Uggg, I’m having one of those moments where I feel overwhelmed and frustrated and I feel like her progress is being undone. I blame myself for not taking her on more walks. She has got to understand that pulling just isn’t going to work. We have another “advanced dog obedience” class on Wednesday and the thought that I put her in an advanced class is laughable to me right now. I blame myself for having too much work right now. I blame myself for not finding enough for her to do. I blame myself for knowingly getting a teenage border collie. I try to tell myself that she’s going to mellow with age and that every other person with the same breed says the same thing “Yeah, those first couple of years were painful.” I think about how ironic it is that if we have a kid, Mississippi will be older and mellower by the time the kid becomes hyperactive terror-on-wheels age. I might get some satisfaction out of it though, seeing her getting tortured by a small child could be sweet revenge for all the pain she’s been putting us through.

We leave for New Jersey on Friday morning. When I initially booked a week of boarding for her at Roxy’s, we were in a very painful period with her. The thought of having a week long dog break sounded so amazing. Now the thought of leaving her for a whole week sounds so terrible. I love my little monster. And although I know she’ll have a nice time with all her buddies, I think she’s going to be upset at our being gone so long. I hope she forgives us… I hope she wants to come back to us. Maybe she’ll decide life at board and care is more fun than our boring house. I never thought a dog could make me feel so guilty. Sheesh, and she’s so bratty.

Mississippi found a bee that refused to go quietly. I was in the front yard when it happened and she came running up to the fence and barked at me. I figured she thought I was an intruder so I just said “what the heck you yellin’ at me for.”I went about my business thinking she was just being her regular vocal self. When I went inside a few minutes later, she had come in from the back yard and was laying around all puffy faced. It didn’t seem like she was too uncomfortable, she just wanted some love. I gave her a bowl of ice, snuggled with her in my lap, and called Tom to pick up some children’s Benadryl. It was easy to feed it to her. She licked a taste of it off my fingers and we mixed some up in some canned food. She gobbled it down. The swelling only lasted two or three hours and it doesn’t seem that itchy. She looked like Scooby Doo for a while there.

I mowed as much of the clover patch as I could, hoping to lower the number of bees in the yard. So sad for me. I loved having so many bees around. The clover was too enticing for the bees around here. And Mississippi was very good at hunting and eating them. They probably taste like nectar.

She was begging to go outside again within a couple hours and when we finally did let her out, she bee-lined for the clovers to go find herself another bee. She didn’t seem to learn her lesson. I guess we should get an epi pen. Although her reaction wasn’t that bad, I just feel safer having a pen around the house in case she has a stronger reaction. I wonder if they make dog sized epi pens or if I just have to get one from a regular doctor. It’ll be good to have one around anyway, I also like to mess with the bees and I also am worried that I’ll need an epi pen someday. Safety first!

I just found out about a restaurant on Alberta street that serves dogs! How cool is that? They have three menu options for your pooch and lots of garden space. I wish Mississippi was ready for this.
Tin Shed Garden Cafe.

Why stop at one restaurant. Portland loves pooches. My friend recommends Lucky Labrador for it’s nice patio and plethora of happy dogs.

Want more? The Portland Pooch website has a big list of all the dog friendly restaurants and pubs in Portland.

Mississippi clearly thinks she’s in the driver’s seat.

Mississippi and I were thrown into the fire last night at an advanced dog obedience class. Though she went through 6 weeks of training, there were some basic commands we never got to teach her. Everyone else in the class had taken the beginning class from the same teacher so we were at a disadvantage there. They were all used to doing a specific set of commands which were a little different from what we’ve learned, and they are used to the group environment by now. We need to get some basic commands down to keep up. We’ve been teaching her to stay by extending the sit or down command until we release her with a ‘thank you’, but we’ve never used the hand signal or the word ’stay’ with her. She’s gonna need that one. The ’stay’ hand signal that they were using in class last night will prompt her to shake your hand. She also doesn’t know ‘heel’. She knows to keep eye contact with us and to stay at our side, but she only knows “come on, let’s go’ and ‘this way.’ I also like to use “where’s mom’ when she gets distracted and looses focus. I’m sure that one’s a common textbook phrase, right?

In an ideal scenario Mississippi can walk on a slack leash. That ideal environment is a stretch of sidewalk in front of our house about 50 feet long. Our last trainer encouraged us to just work on walking her in a more controlled space before trying to take her out into the world with all the crazy distractions. It’s been a great way to train her to walk by our side and try to ignore other dogs, bikes, cats, etc. On longer walks, we have to constantly remind her that she should be watching us and not running amuck. She is gradually getting better at passing by other dogs without having a conniption fit. The word ‘better’ is relative here.

Last night at the very beginning of class, we went outside for a walk together. Us and 6 other dogs in a new neighborhood. Yikes! Mississippi has a hard time concentrating around other dogs and an even harder time concentrating in a new environment with plants and birds and smells and squirrels. She tugged the whole time. She would sit at the corners for me, but only after some coaxing. We don’t touch her butt to sit. In fact, at corners, we often don’t even have to say a thing, she just does it. It’s something we are proud of, but last night I had my hands all over her trying to get her to do my bidding. The teacher kept telling me to help her into her sits. She also doesn’t know how to “finish” so that was just a mess. We’ve gotta work on that one this week.

The teacher mentioned I should get a training collar. I told her I had a harness, I just didn’t expect we’d be outside walking so I didn’t bring it. Once we were back inside the gym, she offered a choke collar for me to use for the rest of class. I try not to pass judgment on other dog training techniques, every dog has different needs. But I definitely don’t want a choke collar on Mississippi. I graciously declined her offer. Enough said.

Once we were back inside the gym, she did pretty well anyway. She just needs some time in the outside world with other dogs, to understand that training is training, no matter what distractions may be around her. That was one big thing we missed from her first trainer. The classes never had more than two other dogs. This was a great start for her because she had such a hard time being around other dogs, but now that she’s getting a little more used to it, she needs exposure. She knows how to do it, she just needs practice.

She had some very fine moments in the gym. We wove in and out of all the dogs and she just stayed focused on me the whole time. She also did well sitting very still while all the other dogs took turns weaving around us all. I got her to lay down and wait while I crossed the gym, then called her to me. She started a little too soon but I figured being in a new, exciting environment like that, she did a great job.

One thing I was not expecting was that the trainer does not teach with treats. By now Mississippi is very conditioned to work for treats. I know it’s something she’ll eventually get weened off of, but for now, I can’t expect her to learn anything new without some sort of major pay off in the form of food or extreme praise. I was sort of amazed that the rest of the dogs were trained without treats. Where’s the fun in that? I love the way Mississippi looks up at me with anticipation of a big pay off. I don’t want that to end. It keeps her eager and excited.

I’m looking forward to the practice in a group setting every week but I feel like the philosophies of this class might be too different from what we’ve been doing. By the end of the class, Mississippi was understandably frustrated and was very ready to go home. Still she certainly needs to learn some patience, so I think as long as the classes are fun enough for her, it’ll be good to test her like this. I’m going to continue to bring her treats and her clicker to class and use them as I see fit. This week we have to work on heel and finish. and some other maneuvers that the rest of the class knew but we hadn’t done yet.

Once we got home, I had to leave her and rush to the airport to pick up Tom. I gave her a kiss and a nice carrot to munch on and when we got home, I smothered her with love. I was a little worried that she’d be bummed out at how frustrating the class was, but of course, she’s just a dumb lemonhead and she was happy as a pig in a mud puddle. I hope the class works out for us. She could make great progress over the next few weeks. And then…. the beach?!? Camping? Please oh please.

We’ve had Mississippi for over two months now. It’s been a whirlwind. She’s definitely our dog now. She’s not afraid to tell us what she thinks of us. The other day I was sitting in what she now considers to be her chair and she tried to push me out. Why can’t we just get along kid? Every day we’re learning to be better dog owners. I have to remind myself that she can’t understand English so I need to show her my love, not just tell her. Sometimes that’s all she needs, just a scratch and a hug. I need to remember that when I get frustrated at her acting out. Most of the time however, she needs excitement. She’s now been going to doggy day care pretty regularly. She’s so much happier now that she can rely on some sort of excitement every day. On the days where I have tons of work, it’s the only thing that’ll keep her happy. Before I was a dog owner, I wasn’t a fan of dog day care. Now that I own a border collie/lab, I completely understand. Even on the weekends with both of us around, she wants more. Humans are so boring. I don’t think I realized how boring I was until we got Mississippi.

Each night she sleeps at the foot of our bed. Sometimes she gives a disapproving snort when it’s time to go to bed. If we stay up and read when she is tired, she seems to give another kind of disapproving snort that the lights are still on. In the mornings, when she can wait no longer for us to get up, she gives her tags a loud shake, then prances around our room, making weird grumbly noises until we give her a good scratch. She looks forward to the sound of the coffee grinder as a sign that the morning is starting and she enjoys her morning romps around the garden. She gets her bowl and a practice walk with Tom in the front, then off to day care. On days when she says home with me, it’s a torturous 3 hour wait until it’s time to go to the dog park and she gets a few short practice sessions each day on her commands. In the evening, it’s time for more scratches, some tug in the backyard, or an “after school kong” in the grass.

Things are going well for all three of us. She is an adorable doggy and I hope she loves us as much as we love her. We’ve had no major disasters. She hasn’t torn up the house or destroyed any priceless heirlooms. We had just two accidents in the basement since we got her and those have stopped now that she’s “taken over” my studio chair downstairs. Before the chair was there, the basement seemed like a perfectly reasonable place to relieve oneself. She was just never down there to understand it was part of her castle. Now we can occasionally let her be down there by herself. Though Tom’s music equipment makes me nervous. For all we know, she’s got plans for hocking his stuff on eBay.

Mississippi, thanks for being the best dog ever. Now please stop barking at the neighbor Andy, stop taking my socks, and please try to pull less when you are about to go into the dog park. And please don’t kill the neighbor’s cat or get hurt eating bees. Please just stop eating bees because I love them and want them to live. Please continue to get better at coming when we call because we’d love to take you to the beach. Thanks for letting us eat dinner in peace. Thanks for letting us sleep until 7:30 or 8. Thanks for your cute smiles. Keep sitting in our laps when we sit on the floor because I really love that. And please continue to be a big weirdo, because it’s really cute.

Speaking of bees… No wonder she is a bee hunter….

There is plenty around me to inspire me. What has been lacking were the matches to set them on fire. I have to be the one to strike the match.

I’m trying to strike some matches today. Little ones because I am swamped with work, but I think it’s the little ones that are going to prove to be the most important to me. I am always going to be busy with things outside of my art practice. I have got to make something every single day. To my credit, when I opened my sketch book this morning, I found a surprising number of sketches that I’d done in the last couple of months. Work is happening, just not at the pace that I like. I need to start neglecting my husband and dog a bit. Start saying no to movies and start holing up in the garage. I’m got so many ideas swimming around in my head, I need to get them out or they are just going to fade.

I like to search for disaster related images on google and gather them up. This weekend I thought about taking images and putting band-aids on them. A simple idea but one that feeds what I’m interested in; a sort of morbidly humorous look at the destruction of the world. So here they are, my sketches for today:

I’d like to get in the habit of posting something every day, to start talking about my work again in a public arena. I’m falling behind on the apple blogging, so maybe another project is the last thing I need. Maybe I should shoot for 4 posts a week about art ideas. I just know I need to start engaging in the world again when it comes to my art practice. I need my art blog to have something to do with art on a more regular basis.

It seems Mississippi’s progress goes a little something like the hustle. There’s lots of steps forward and lots of steps back. She continues to get better on walks and she’s way more mellow at home most of the time. She comes inside almost every time we ask her. She lets us sleep through the night and she lets us watch some tv at night as long as she gets belly rubs. She’s getting really good at asking for belly rubs and back scratches. On the flip side, she still sometimes barks up a storm for no reason (well, her reason is usually boredom or frustration) and she still tries to eat things she shouldn’t. She still occasionally tries to burst our eardrums when passing a dog in the car.

I am swamped with work right now so she’s been in doggy day care all day for two days. She loves it there. I think she loves Roxy’s more than she loves us. I don’t really blame her. She’s just not cut out for web development work. It’s so boring. Roxy’s has all those dogs and people to play with all day long. After day care, she’s a very happy pup. Before daycare, she’s bored and antsy. I tried to let her out in the backyard this morning as we got ready but she just ran back and forth from the front to the back, barking up a storm. We have to bring her inside when she barks. She’s got to learn that barking means you come inside. Then Tom tried to take her for her morning walk and she started barking ‘right out of the gate’. He had to bring her inside, let her cool off for a minute and tried again. The second time around I think they got as far as the driveway before she started up again. She didn’t get a walk this morning.

I had a conference call this morning and I knew she was going to bark up a storm so I took her in for a half day of day care. I know day care is the best option for her but I still feel guilty dropping her off for someone else to take care of. I’m still not able to admit to myself that my day job does not fit in with her 1 year old lifestyle. She’s so much happier wrestling with other dogs than having to be quiet at home with no one to play with because mom has meetings and work.

Yesterday I picked her up from Roxy’s and we walked all the way home. She was fantastic. If she started walking ahead of me, she’d slow down and wait for me to catch up. This behavior got lots of treats and praise. She didn’t bark at a single dog and didn’t try to jump on a single person. She got a little riled up around other dogs but she kept her cool and thus got lots of love and treats. At home she was sweet as pie and she was pretty tuckered out by dinner time.

I am going to have to face up to the fact that if I plan on keeping her at home on a work day, I’m probably going to have to get up early and take her to a dog park. She just has way too much energy in the morning. It’s a bit of a drive and there aren’t very many dogs in the morning. I’m hoping it’ll work. We’ll see. If there aren’t other dogs, I can at least try to work on her walking with me off leash.

Bees. Mississippi loves hunting and eating bees. She snaps at them until them are on the ground, then carefully eats them. They probably taste sweet. She moves from bee to bee, one after another. She’s so obsessed with them that I could probably wave a whole roasted turkey in her face and she wouldn’t come away from the bees. I can’t keep her out of the yard, so I just have to hope she doesn’t get hurt. The other night she was making loud gagging, coughing noises. Could be bees, could be from eating something else. I don’t know. All I can do is try to keep her away from stuff that’s bad for her to eat. I just have to hope she’s as good of a bee catcher as she thinks she is. Maybe she’ll get stung a couple times and change her mind about the bees. For now, I’ll just keep my eye on her.

I’m starting to think that maybe she wound up at the OHS because of something she ate. She had a very long scar down her belly which I assumed was a spay scar. Now I’m thinking maybe she needed something removed from her belly and the previous owners couldn’t afford the surgery. Maybe? Who knows. The scar runs all the way from her sternum to her tail.

We start a group class at the Sellwood community center next week. I am hoping she can remain calm during class. She’s getting better at being around other dogs without barking up a storm but it still happens pretty regularly. I’m also going to try to start bringing her more places. On days when she’s at home with me, I’m going to start taking her to Mocha Momma’s and attempting to sit out on their patio for a few minutes at a time. I’m hoping once she gets used to being there, she’ll be able to hang out with me for a whole coffee, maybe even hang out while I do some work. Then who knows, someday she can come with us to other places that allow dogs. A couple of pints with our doggy on an outdoor patio sounds divine. Someday little girl, someday.

I think I figured out why Mississippi has been hacking and acting weird. The clover on our lawn is in bloom and she wants to eat all of the bees. How ironic. I’m sure I’m not the first person with a bee eating dog.

Mississippi was just barking up a storm in the living room. She was nowhere near the door, she was in the middle of the living room, barking for my attention. We had just gotten back from a solid hour and a half at the dog park and you’d think she’d be ready for a nap. She’s a little hopped up on goofy juice right now so I’m not letting her out in the backyard right now. She started barking up a storm at the park after getting mad at a remote controlled hobby glider. Once she starts barking, it’s pretty much down hill from there.

So anyway, I found her barking up a storm in the middle of the living room with a pair of my underwear in her mouth. She wouldn’t give them back. I had to use the “voice of god” (VOG) on her to get her to drop them. They were torn to shreds before I got to them. I’m also pretty sure she somehow got ahold of an unused tampon today because I found the wrapper earlier but no torn up pieces of cotton to be found anywhere. She’s been gagging a little today. I hear cotton can give you, well… cotton mouth. We keep all that stuff, including all trash and recycling safely stowed away in the cupboards, but she must have grabbed a stray off the edge of my desk or something.

I’ve started wedging my workout shoes into the top of my elliptical machine so she can’t get to them. She tried to steal a sock earlier. If you look around our house you will find it pretty much devoid of anything non dog friendly from the waste down. Our dining room table looks like a cubby hole blew up. Our kitchen counters have keys, mail, remotes, sunglasses, purses and bags. We keep a cardboard box and an ottoman on the couch most of the time so she stays off it.

Whenever she is frustrated, she finds something of ours and seeks to destroy it. Quite often I’m retrieving one of Tom’s shoes from her mouth. I am constantly picking up shoes that were accidentally left out and throwing them in the closet. It’s starting to look like a shoe avalanche in there.

We try to keep the bedroom door closed. We try to get ahold of the mail before she does. I try to keep things off the floor in my office (you should see my desktop). You never know when or where she’s going to strike. Things had gotten a little lax around here because she was behaving so much better, but it seems the destructo behavior is back in style.

We are pretty sure she swallowed something unpleasant to pass the other day and that was why she was feeling so bad. I wish there was some way of showing her, gee, when you eat bad things, it hurts on the way out. I don’t think she’s smart enough to make any connections between swallowing and pooping.

Tom and I have been together 9 years as of last weekend. Now that we have our wedding anniversary to look forward to, Tom says this one must now be called the “old anniversary”. I still think we should celebrate it, we’ll just do it with less fan fare than the wedding anniversary. So this year we dropped off Mississippi for a doggy slumber party at Roxy’s and headed to the coast for the night.

We thought it would feel like a relief to have a getaway without Mississippi but we found ourselves missing her. We talked about dogs pretty much non-stop and couldn’t keep ourselves away from this cute pooch that looked a lot like her. She’s getting closer and closer every day to being able to handle walking by people without wanting to jump on them. Soon she’ll be able to come with us to the beach. Still, it was pretty nice to do whatever we wanted and not have to worry about Mississippi getting in trouble or getting bored.

We drove to the coast by way of Astoria, our friend Bob said the traffic on 26 would be bad. I’m not sure I believe him but it was still nice to see a little more of the coast than we would have otherwise. We stopped by Seaside and went to the aquarium. I got to feed the seals. They each have a special trick they use to bride food from you. One of the seals splashes the hell out of everyone for his trick. I’d say it wasn’t working out for him very well but he’s a fatty so he must be doing ok. I came up with a theory that he is trying to stop people from feeding his buddies because they all need to go on a diet. So a he’s splashing people, he’s probably saying “Stop enabling my buddies, can’t you see they are overeating themselves into heart attacksville? Go feed your own fat faces and leave us in peace.” The aquarium is a little depressing. The Octopus and eels don’t have proper living quarters. There are no caves or crevaces in their tanks so they are forced to be out in the open all the time. One of the octopus was in an open touch, looked like it used to be used as a touch tank and there’s just a sign over it saying “Don’t touch the octopus”. That seemed a little nuts. If I was that octopus, I’d bite off every finger that came near me. You know people can’t resists temptation like that. The seals didn’t seem to have enough space either.

Seaside was incredibly foggy. Pea soup fog. From the boardwalk, the sand was only clue you had that there was any ocean out there. In both Seaside and Cannon Beach, the sand shelf stretches out so far, the ocean seems miles away. We walked out into the fog and stuck our feat in the cold water. I wanted to do the bumper cars before we left but they make you go in one direction only, so no head-on whiplash injuries, which takes all the fun and adventure out of it. Plus there were only three people in there. How exciting could that be? Me and Tom chasing each other around at 2MPH. We can run faster than those cars go. Better to just tackle him when he’s not expecting it.

Cannon Beach is a lovely town and our motel was great. We were across the street from the beach and had a nice view from our balcony. We stayed at the Waves Motel. Our room had a full kitchen, a real coffee maker, and a gas fireplace. We walked down the beach, looked for somewhere to have dinner, and got a cappuccino and a caramel apple from the Picnic Basket, and took a nap with the ocean breeze flowing through the windows and door. So nice to fall asleep to the sound of ocean again. Such a perfect weekend.

We were hoping for a romantic and delicious dinner but Cannon Beach is not exactly overflowing with nice restaurants. Most places have steak and burgers and fried fish. We settled on Bistro. It was cute and the food was ok but it was nothing to write home about. We did have an excellent bottle of pinot noir from Four Graces in Dundee Oregon. Next time we’ll just go there more prepared for a beer and burger kind of weekend.

After Dinner we had too many beers at Bill’s Tavern and we closed the place. Not a hard thing to do in Cannon Beach as I think everything closes by 10pm. We talked about the future and laughed and drank beer.

The next day we had breakfast at the Pig’n Pancake in Cannon Beach, and took a nap on the beach where Tom turned his legs nice and lobster red. Then we drove down the coast a bit before heading back to Portland. The Oregon coast is absolutely spectacular. Between the lush forests and golden beaches there are few places on earth as lovely. We still definitely feel like tourists, but we’re excited to think this is our home now.

We’ve been here just under three months, and have had Mississippi for just under two months. We love Oregon and are so excited about our future here. So here’s to nine more years together in Oregon. I sure am a lucky duck. I have the world’s best husband, the soon-to-be world’s best dog, and I’m living in one of the nicest places on earth.

Mississippi is not feeling well today. She had a really stressful day yesterday and it’s been very hot. Today she showed little interest in going out in the backyard. It’s usually the first thing she wants to do in the morning. She is very affectionate and wants lots of belly rubs today. Her nose feels hot and although she hasn’t visited her water bowl this morning, she ate some ice cubes. She had a kong full of food but shows no interest in her morning scoop of kibble in a bowl. She wasn’t even interested in watching me eat breakfast.

Her belly feels soft and normal, she’s pooing and peeing, she went for a walk with Tom this morning and wagged her tail when she met the neighbor’s dog outside. Other than that all she wants to do is lay around.

Her nose is a little warm. She had weird hiccups or stomach muscle contractions for a couple minutes this morning, not like throwing up, more like really strong hiccups. I called the vet and they didn’t seem to think it sounded serious. They asked if she’d had a lot of exercise recently. She always has a lot of exercise. They seemed to think maybe she was just tired.

She had a half day at doggy day care yesterday and some play time at a dog park. Not an unusual amount of activity but she was behaving strangely yesterday. She was extra agitated and just acting a little weird. When I tried to take her on a walk, she went totally nuts, barking at everything, I had to bring her back inside to calm down. The second try was very peaceful and nice. She met a very nice dog who was off leash and she got playful with him.

At the dog park last night she got pretty ganged up on. Three male dogs tried to hump her. Some dumb teenager was playing with an RC car along the dog park fence. Her hackles were up. She does not like toy cars or rockets at all. A miniature Australian Shepard got really possessive over her water when Mississippi tried to help herself. Mississippi was very upset over this and I decided it was time to leave the dog park. I know it probably sounds like she might have been too stressed out for the dog park yesterday but she was so restless in the afternoon and trying to get in all sorts of trouble. I thought some time at the dog park would help. Maybe she was cranky over feeling bad.

I’m worried about her and I don’t know if I should take her to the vet. I wish she could tell me what’s wrong. She’s sleeping in her crate now and appears to be having a nightmare. Maybe she really just got over stimulated yesterday and just needs a rest. I don’t know what to do other than keep a close eye on her and make sure she drinks plenty of water. Poor girl.

Update: I just caught her trying to tear apart Tom’s slipper so she can’t be feeling that bad!

Our dog Mississippi is a 1 year old Border Collie/Labrador mix. She’s been out of the Oregon Humane Society for less than two months and for most of her time with us, she has had next to no patience. Trying to keep her occupied and out of trouble has been a full time job. We’ve gotten pretty good at keeping her busy.

Within the first couple weeks of bringing her home, I started making my own goo to stuff her kongs with. I love making her healthy treats and it feels good knowing that at least some of the food she eats isn’t filled with mystery meats or other yucky fillers. Have you read the ingredients of your dog food lately? Would you eat that stuff? Yuck. By making my own kong stuffing goo, I get to cook her something nice, which I love, I get to incorporate some of our leftovers, saving us money, and she gets to eat some quality food. She thinks it’s as good as caviar.

I fill the kongs with a nice helping of kibble then pack the rest of the kong with goo. We’ve got three medium kongs and one small kong and all of them get frozen solid so that when we give them to her, it takes her a good 1-2 hours to get through them. They have become and invaluable tool for us to enjoy a few moments of sanity each day. For a while, all her meals were fed to her this way. Now that she’s starting to calm down, she gets a half helping of her meals in a bowl and the other half in kongs. Whenever we have to leave her alone in the house, she gets some sort of treat like a kong, a watermelon rind, or a carrot. It makes our going away feel like less of a bummer for her. She generally seems more interested in her snack than in trying to leave the house with us.

Once Mississippi is eating most of her meals from a bowl, I imagine I’ll just spread a spoonful of goo into a kong, without adding kibble, as a fun afternoon snack for her. Similar to what you’d use peanut butter for.

I like her kong goo over any other products I’ve found. Some people recommend peanut butter, and I do like to give her a little bit every once in a while, but since we were giving her about 4-5 kongs a day for a while there, it was way too much peanut butter for her. Natural Balance makes a dog food roll but think it’s too dense and dry for kong stuffing purposes. It either crumbles apart or if you roll it into a ball, it’s so dense the dog can’t get it out at all.

My kong goo is really pasty, so when it is frozen, it’s very tough to get at, but as it thaws it makes for a nice gooey texture for the dogs to lick. I’m so proud of my kong goo, I sometimes wonder about selling it to New Leaf or local pet supply stores. The effort probably wouldn’t be worth the money but I do wonder. Who knows, maybe someday… I thought I’d share my recipe with you today. If you are in a similar situtaion; resscue dog with a lack of patience, trying to chew up all your belongings, give this goo a try.

For her ingredients, I try to keep them on the cheap. I buy my meats bulk from either Costco or the Safeway value packs and freeze them in single servings. I think the beef I used today was on sale for $1.99 a pound. Some of that meat supply gets turned into chili or pot roast for us. I will also use leftover meats and vegetables from our dinners and I add things from my own garden. The kale I added to this was extra stuff from our garden that I knew we weren’t going to be able to eat. I chopped it up and kept in the freezer. The mint and parsley are growing in my front yard. The carrots and potatoes came from a giant value bag. She eats carrots as a snack so we go through lots of them around here. The brown rice was bought from a bulk bin. The stock is homemade from our freezer.

You’ll need a food processor for this recipe. If you’ve got a small food processor like I do, you’ll have to blend your goo in batches. Have a large bowl handy. Leftover cottage cheese, salsa, mozzarella, etc plastic containers are great for storing multiple batches in the freezer.

Kong Goo Recipe:
About 16oz of beef, anything that’s on sale, cut into chunks
A cup or so of any leftover meat
4 carrots cut into big chunks
3 small potatoes or 1 large yam
3 pieces of celery, loosely chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup of kale or other greens, stems removed and chopped
1 cup of brown rice
Handful of fresh parsley and mint
1-2 cups broth

Cook the brown rice in a rice cooker according to directions. Throw the beef, potato, carrot, celery, and about 1 cup of broth in a large pot or Crock pot and cook until the potatoes and carrots are tender. and the meat is cooked through. I usually just put the pot on the stove on a low temperature and go watch a movie.

Let ingredients cool until they are manageable. Blend rice with stew ingredients, kale, peas, and fresh mint and parsley in a food processor with some broth until smooth and pasty. Add just enough broth to create a nice gooey texture. Divide up your goo into several 8oz or 16oz plastic food containers. Keep one of the containers in the fridge and freeze the rest. You should end up with about 4 16oz containers. Thaw them as needed.

To use your goo, fill up a rubber kong or similar stuffable toy 2/3 of the way with kibble, top with kong goo and let freeze at least 2 hours. I probably use about 1/4 cup of goo per kong. Make sure you make your doggy do a command or two before giving them the kong. This recipe should give you enough kong goo for about a month of kongs.

Mississippi says: “I like sticks almost as much as mom’s kong goo!”

So, I bought a Norditrack 990 Audiostrider Elliptical machine. It sucks. I sort of knew it would. I bought it anyway. I could have been smart and buy one that I could actually try out first. I just went for it. It wobbles so bad and it makes lots of noise.

Anyway, it’s mine now and I’m going to use it all the time if it kills me. I’ve done two 10 minute sessions on it today so far. I’m so out of shape. So this is it! The start of me getting back into shape. I’ll work up to 30 minute sessions over the next week and start a regular routine. Sucks that it is loud because early morning workouts while Tom sleeps in would have been nice. Still, it’s here and I will use it no matter how annoying it it. To those thinking of buying a Nordictrack, don’t. The cheap plastic parts are incredibly cheap. The computer makes very annoying beeping noises, the front end wobbles back and forth with each stride and actually gets worse if you use the arm polls. You are better off getting a Hurricane or a Sole if you can afford it. My plan is to use this thing for 2 years then if I can prove I use it regularly, I’ll buy a Sole.

One nice feature: Apple holder! Apple number 139.

Wow, has it really been this long since I posted a blog about the apple eating resolution? Sorry, I’ve been good at photographing them, but not as good at blogging about them. I’m running about 10 apples behind my 365 apples in 2009 schedule so I need to do some doubling up in the next week or two. Here’s what you’ve missed. In reverse order, here we go:

Apples 137 and 138 were eaten as I waited impatiently for my elliptical machine to be delivered. The UPS freight delivery guy was in a grumpy mood by the time he got to my house. They had loaded his truck backwards, putting the first deliveries in the front of the truck, so he had to unload everything to get to the right stuff. My elliptical weighed 231 pounds. The truck had no ramp and no dolly so he had to slide it off the truck. He luckily saw a dolly in a neighbor’s garage so he was able to borrow that. Otherwise, I have no idea how we would have gotten it up my drive. Our street is really narrow and they were doing construction at the end of the block. This meant he had to back down the street in order to get out. I felt sad for him. He hates the fitness company I bought my elliptical from. They don’t bother with delivery logistics and since their customers are mostly residential folks, they expect UPS to bring their giant fitness machines in their houses for them (I didn’t). Poor guy, sorry!

I bought my elliptical before I had figured out where I would put it. It’s too tall to go in the basement, the garage is no good because there’s poor circulation and a lot of the time (I’m hoping) it’s going to smell like paint fumes. So, the only option was my office. I moved around my chair and sewing table while eating apple 136 and unpacked some more boxes. I wrote this for apple 136:

Determination. I can make art, I can take classes, I can keep a regular exercise schedule. I can get my work done and spend more time in the studio. I can train my dog to be well behaved around other people and animals. This apple is a promise to myself that all of these things can happen if I just keep trying. I’m clearing a space for my foolish exercise equipment purchase. I will prove to myself that it wasn’t a foolish purchase, I will use it and I will lose the tire. I will meditate while burning off the weight.

I ate apple 135 while doing some drawing.

I was given this apple for free by the checker at Safeway who simultaneously passive aggressively scolded me for not putting my produce in Earth destroying plastic bags. She said they are hard to handle when they are loose like that. Maybe she hoped she was killing me with kindness for letting me have an apple for free even though she clearly blamed me for it’s fall.

Apples 134 and 133 were eaten as I obsessed over the Oregon Humane Society photo contest. I’ve been taking photos of Mississippi left and right. If I win, I get a new camera. I also started eating apples two by two because I realized I’m falling behind.

Mississippi and I did some pruning in the backyard and I got a lovely vase full of Japanese maple branches. I ate apple 132 feeling very pleased with my new decoration.

Apple 131, Mississippi is in boarding for the day and we open the drapes to finally let some light in. Our house has felt like a cave.

Apple 130, I’ve been borrowing all the dooks and videos about dog training from the Sellwood library. Keeping my dream alive of one day having a happy, well adjusted dog.

I ate apple 129 while supervising Mississippi in the backyard, hoping she doesn’t eat all my beautiful plants.

I picked up Mississippi from Rockin’ Roxy’s on Friday and I’m pretty sure they swapped my troubled, frustrated dog with a happy, well adjusted, awesome dog. Suddenly she has almost completely stopped barking for attention. She lets us sleep until 8am and instead of waking us by barking, whining and destroying, she wakes us up with kisses and shows patience while we stumble out of bed and make coffee. She can play in the backyard with little supervision and she lets us eat our meals without too much of a fuss. Instead of barking for attention, she asks us for scratches and belly rubs. She behaved so well today at a gigantic dog park today (8 acres!) and was fairly easy to keep an eye on. She would even occasionally come to us if we called her. Yesterday we had a BBQ with three small children under 5 and a 1 year old baby. We of course had to watch her a lot but she was very nice with the kids. We even got her to do some tricks for treats with the kids. At night she’s been letting us relax and watch tv. Now instead of destroying things or playing keep away with our treasured belongings, she now will occasionally take a sock or a shoe, take it to where we can see it and drop it at her feet. She stands there, wagging her tail, smiling, and when we approach, she lets us take it back. This very cute, non-destructive behavior means lots and lots of love and scratches from us. She’s starting to learn nicer ways to ask for attention.

Something magical has happened to us. She is shaping into the dog we knew she could be and she’s doing it fast. We still have some work to do with her barking at other dogs while on a leash, she still jumps, she still gets a little overexcited, but things are so, so, so much better.
We’ve been able to open the front curtains now that she’s stopped most of her barking. We’ve also been keeping the bedroom doors open most of the time. We’ve had the backyard door open most of the time during the day this weekend and have only needed to bring her in occasionally when she starts to bark at passers by or starts to dig too much. Our house is breathing a sigh of relief. We can see the light! No more closed curtains all the day.

I think all the hard work is paying off. Our work with Tim, her half days at Rockin’ Roxy’s, all our practice and love, good times at doggy parks, all of this is making her an awesome dog. She is starting to understand we want her to be a happy dog and she’s responding to that. She smiles so much. We haven’t even hit the two month mark with her yet. I think we’ll have to throw her a special party on June 6th to celebrate two month with her.

There is lots more work to do but it feels so great right now. It was wonderful to show her off yesterday at our BBQ. We are just head over heals in love with her. Hurray! As we ate dinner tonight, with our happy dog laying by our feet, Tom said “Who’s dog is that?” She’s our dog. That cute little fur ball is our wonderful dog. So Roxy’s, if you did accidentally give us the wrong dog on Friday, please break it to us gently. It’s been such an amazing weekend.