Crazy Dog and other nonsense

Our Dog Kenji turned one the end of May, and he's become a lot better behaved in the house (except for the time last week when he peed in the basement). He mostly likes to just lay on the couch and watch what's going on. He barely chews up any little plastic toys anymore, but he still loves to eat crayons, and the kids just keep leaving them out. His hangup is that he likes to go to the bathroom in the cornfield. This didn't start until after harvest last fall. I don't mind at all that he'd rather not go in the yard, because in the few months we'd had him before harvest, I'd been out several times picking up the poop and was a little tired of it. It was great when he'd run out into the field, do his business and come right back. I got a glimpse of his hangup when they plowed (or whatever they do) the field--it wasn't hard packed anymore, and he wouldn't go out in it for a few days. He kind of just wandered around the yard, wondering what to do. Glen taught him that it was OK to go out into the field, and everything was fine. Then he needed to start going further and further out into the field to do his business, and one morning he ran off and explored the neighborhood. Then I had to walk him (in the field, of course) every morning. It usually took 10-15 minutes. When it was muddy, I tried walking him along the road, but he wouldn't have any of that. Walking in a snowy, icy field in the winter wasn't too fun either. The wind can be very cold! In the spring, I started doing some obedience work with him, and eventually I started letting him run into the field on his own again. This worked fairly well for a while, until he discovered the neighbors had a dog who was fun to visit (and this same neighbor left food scraps out on her porch for her cats). Glen thought he'd quit needing to go into the field to do his business when the corn got high enough, but it's taller than me now, and he escapes into it every chance he gets. Yes, I use a shock collar on the highest setting. We've been trying to train him not to go in the field because then we have no idea where he is (actually we do; we just walk down to the neighbor's to get him.) So when he can't go into the field, he doesn't go to the bathroom either, and because of the incident last week, if he doesn't go pee or poop I put him back into his kennel where he whines. Loudly. Which brings me to what he did this morning--he was out for the second time and still had not peed or pooped since yesterday after church when Glen took him out, because he will go for Glen. )Of course.) He will also come when Glen calls him. Anyway, there is about a 3-foot path between our horse pasture and the cornfield; the dog went on this path, stuck his butt into the corn, and pooped.



On another subject, the boys have been hard to put to bed lately. Last night, after several occurrences of discipline, I heard them still talking, but they were at least staying in their room, so I let it go. (When I've camped outside their room and tried to deal with every little thing, I think they loved the attention too much). Anyway, soon Chase came to the door with a bloody lip saying that Tate put medicine on him. The lip was fine, but I found Soothe and Heal (which is a greasy yellow lanolin ointment) in his hair, on his back, and on his arms and legs. I'm sure Tate didn't do it all, but I do believe he put the big globs in Chase's hair and on his back. I had to give Chase a bath and wash his hair three times to get him cleaned up. This was at 9:45. Later, there was a loud argument about whether or not someone did not or did too have an orange mower, but they were asleep shortly after that. Glen came home for a break around 11:30, and he couldn't help smiling as I told him the story. I think it's a little funny . . . now.



Britta has to be in a cast for about 6 weeks. She has a cast over her elbow now, and in 2 weeks they'll probably take that one off and give her a shorter one. There's not a good enough cover for a cast to allow her to swim (she'll be at EIBC twice with the cast still on), but at least the doctor told her she could probably still ride horses, as long as it's a very tame horse. So it looks like she CAN go on the trail ride with Glen, but with Kimmy instead of Cinnamon. Her cast is pink, and we went to Michael's for some bright paint pens for people to sign it with. Grandma and all the Burns' signed it today, as did all of our family except Glen. She had an itch tonight that she didn't think she could stand. She can be very dramatic (and annoying sometimes!). It eventually went away like I told her it would, but I hope she doesn't get any more! Tonight when I put the girls to bed, we were talking about Britta doing things with her left hand, and Sammy said, "I still don't think it would be as hard as making a sandwich with your feet." I think I missed an earlier conversation.



Another Sammy quote: when we were in the Strategic Air and Space Museum on vacation, we were in a hangar looking at all of these old military planes, and Sammy says, "Oh! A trash can!"