Penny and Sofie

Last week I spent several days in small town Ohio babysitting my grandchild, Sofie. Friday Hubby and Penny came down for the weekend. It was a little hectic. Penny understood "leave it" when it came to toys on the baby's play table, but Sofie. 13 months old, would hand the toys to Penny and she just couldn't resist that. It was a fun weekend. One of the things we did was go to the Cleveland west side market. They had everything there. Mary who loves to cook had a marvelous cookbook called "1000 Mexican Recipes." This morning we had chili rellenos with scrambles eggs and bacon. Marvellous.

Bad Puppy Trainer

Today we took Penny into Costco, which we have done several times before, only this time she did a big dump in the center aisle by the wine. I had all my cleaning supplies with me and even used a Clorox wipe on the floor. The manager was there and called out the big cleaning machine, Hubby called it a Zamboni. On top of that we were so shook up we forgot the wine. The night before, at obedience class, our puppy counselor talked to us about Penny's behavior at the vet.  We knew she had been terrible, but didn't know the vet wrote a long email to our puppy counselor saying the dog was out of control. I came home and went off of my weight watchers diet and had 2 glasses of wine.

Penny Update

Penny, our puppy we are raising for Leader Dogs for the Blind,is getting much bigger.  She is a 45 pound golden  retriever. She is a real challenge.  I think she is settling down a little more.  She walks on a loose leash beautifully unless she is distracted.  She goes down and sits nicely, unless distracted.
Housebreaking was a breeze. We have had some trouble with her being "mouthy."  When she gets excited or distracted, she tends to bite our hands, never breaking the skin.  She also eats anything she can get her mouth on, furniture, plants, especially pieces of cloth, Kleenex, or napkins. She also barks when she gets excited or distracted.  Did you notice the frequency of the word distracted? We take her to obedience class every Tuesday where we are often the focus, as the other dogs in class distract her. We have her until September 1st of this year, by then it will be terrible to have to give her up.

Happy New Year

Wow, I didn't realize it had been that long since I posted. I guess I will have to add a New Years Resolution to post more often.  Every year I make the same New Years Resolutions.  You know, lose weight, exercise more, play the piano more, read more, the usual. I am certainly not bored, but maybe boring. Maybe I will make a New Years Resolution to think of a more exciting resolution.

A Rough Lions Meeting

Tonight we had a Lions Meeting with about 28 people present.  It was a joint meeting between our club and another. I was rattled because more people came than we had expected and so we were running for chairs and table settings. Two of the members of my club are high muckety mucks in Lions and they tend to run the meeting and not let anything pass. Fortunately the president of the guest club came up to me afterwards and told me to hang in and not let them get me down.

Obedience Class

Tonight we took Penny to her second obedience class.  The Puppy counselor had to take us out of the room for more training again. The whole class experience was unnerving.  Penny bit me and I was dripping blood and some one ran for disinfectant for the floor. (it was not a vicious bite just puppy teeth.) The counselor remarked that Penny was a very lively headstrong dog.  She knew the commands but hadn't decided to follow them considering the circumstances.(The run was full of dogs.) Next week the class will go to the airport but Penny is not trained well enough to go.  On election day we cannot use the school because it is a poling place, so we are all going to Home Depot where we will be given a shopping list and have to find things and keep the dogs from destroying the store.

Shots

Today I went to Walgreen Pharmacy and got my flu shot and my shingles shot. So now I am prepared. Hubby got his two weeks ago. He paid $125, I paid $45. Now he is looking for his receipt and ready to fight.