FYI

Susan had my patterns. I am an idiot for forgetting I gave them to her. She is a gooddess for returning them to me, and for calling to let me know she had them. Yay.

The big boys took Pippa for her morning walk yesterday before we went to church. She is in a kennel while we're out of the house to minimize potential damage. They said she went "both" (trying to be delicate here lol) and when they came in she went downstairs. And promptly peed on the one remaining beanbag chair. So I took her out again, trying to make a point about where we pee, and she went again, requiring me to get a WalMart bag. This dog doesn't go but every 12-24 hours, so I knew the boys were fibbing.

Came inside and they finally 'fessed up. Honestly. They just didn't want to be walking her anymore. Too bad she didn't pee in their bedroom.

I am learning way more about dominant behavior than I ever wanted to. Turns out staying dominant keeps the dog off the furniture, out of my bed, and generally pleasant to live with. I prefer NOT to have a dog that thinks it's the boss of me or anyone in my family, so this is good. Cesar Millan (TV's famed "Dog Whisperer") has some great things about this in his first book, Cesar's Way. He makes some really good points about why the dog should be the lowest ranking member of the family. Some other things I've read indicate it sometimes is a real problem if the dog outranks (or thinks he outranks) a child. Yikes.

And the dog obedience classes will start soon. I enjoy walking her, but she doesn't heel, moves from side to side constantly, tangling me in the leash, and won't sit when we hit a corner. This is a problem. But I can't begin to train her until she figures out what a treat is. She has no clue, poor thing. Good news is she's started to respond consistently to her name, and it's only 8 bucks at Petco to get her nails trimmed.

I volunteer tomorrow morning in Garrett's class at school, his performance is tomorrow night, his student teacher's last day is Wednesday so I am finishing up her gift along with the other teacher gifts, I am the Caring Coordinator at church this week, and I volunteered to do some holiday baking for my MIL and mom in addition to signing up for a cookie exchange. What that means in a nutshell is I don't know when I'll be back here.

And yeah, I am basically still not feeling that Christmas spirit thing. Whatever.