Puppy Training-Week 1

We started puppy classes with Oscar last night at PetSmart. There are only 3 puppies in our class...two of them being my own and my mother in law's. Then there is Bailey, who is a 6 month old Scottish highland terrier thing. There was supposed to be a lab joining us as well, but was a no show. So just the three musketeers last night. We all got introduced and started working on a few basics. My thoughts on this whole thing thus far? I HATE that clicker thing. What a pain in the butt! I dreamed of clickers last night. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click. Not to mention that you almost need like extra hands to do it. NOT to mention the mental challenge of just making sure you click the stupid thing in the first place...and at the exact right moment on top of that. So...I'm feeling clicker challenged this morning. Despite the fact that I hate the clicker...I have heard good things about clicker training and this class and has witnessed firsthand some amazing transformations of good behavior because of it. And so...we will stick with it. At this point, I am wondering though if I can perhaps expand it to work also on my children. I mean, as long as I am clicking and training. Though I doubt they would do much of anything for a liver treat. No. I'm afraid I'd have to be dropping dollars into their little hands each click instead of liver yum yums. Too expensive. Besides that...I'd need another hand. One for the clicker, one for the liver snacks and one for the dollar dispensing. Okay....so clicker training the kids is officially off the table now.

Speaking of the kids...they are making me nuts! I am very certain that I am NOT the only parent saying that this summer, however, they really are just stepping up the "make mom insane" behavior here this past week. We have actually had a really great, easy summer thus far. But the past few days have yielded a whole new level of bickering and WHINING!!!!! You may or may not know this about me, but I simply do NOT do whine. And boys tend to do WAY less of it than girls do (though I did not KNOW that until we had Clara). I always thought that the fact that my boys were not whiney was due to my outstanding parenting skills. Then God smacked me right down a notch or two by blessing me with Clarabelle who can, at times, be the world's most skilled and most annoying whiner. Which, just really makes me nuts. We are in whiney mode here as of late...and DRAMA! Oh my! Clara actually told me just last night that we just don't understand how hard it is for her and how much tougher life is on her. We simply don't get it...the hardships of being a whole 4 years old. Clara is currently learning to roller skate. Chris brought the infernal things home with him the other day after Clara went with him supposedly to get a haircut! Along with these skates, she had also wrangled a new helmet, new set of knee and elbow pads (complete with water bottle) and a set of wrist guards. Now...I would not really be opposed to Clara getting the skates...IF she could skate. However...she does not. Not even close. So it requires the assistance of yours truly. WHICH might not be such a bad thing IF it wasn't 106 degrees...are you following me here? So we have been hitting the culdesac out front rather early each morning in full roller skate safety attire and it pretty much happens like this. I drag Clara by the arm and she complains that I am going too fast (even though my speed is like....hmmm...BARELY moving). I mean, it's taking like 15 minutes to go around the little traffic island there in front of the house. ONCE! Yesterday morning we were out skating and we started down the sidewalk and Clara nearly lost her footing and she shouts out "Mom! THINK of me!" The way she said it was SO funny and so dramatic and so out of nowhere. Then I got to laughing so hard that I did not think I was going to be able to hold the child up! All this while juggling my morning cup of coffee (GOT to have that!), which, is coming dangerously close to being WORN isntead of consumed due to laughing hysterically and trying to hold up Clara with my other hand. All of this happening, of course, right in front of the peekers house. The "peekers" are my VERY annoying old neighbors who have a closed circuit camera system monitoring everything that happens in front of their house (including the sidewalk we were standing on). They watch everything. Then they also tend to peek out of their blinds at my kids if they are racing around the outside of the house and climbing over OUR wall and what not. I'm pretty sure they can't stand my kids and we have probably single handedly removed several years from their life just in the worry caused that perhaps a child might actually TOUCH an edge of their property. That's FINE with me. Needless to say, there is NO love between me and the neighbors. Although, I'm sure they thought we were insane as this whole skate/coffee/ hysterical laughing while trying to hold up the child happened right in front of their little camera thing.

Okay, so enough commenting on the drama and whining in our house. Life is good. We are rocking along. Oh...I have nearly recovered from my 10 mile run. Can I just say that the hours following that run sucked most horribly?! It felt great WHILE I did it! But man...once I stopped...NOT fun. I was in a state of extreme YUCK for several hours post run. I'm really not sore at all from it. A little bit tight through my hip flexors, but not really sore too much. Not much planned today. Got to take my Max to the doctor for his physical! Fun, fun, fun! More on that later! Life is good here in the desert!