Good Doggies

Ok, well it may not start out sounding like they're so good, but trust me, it gets better!

Yesterday I had a couple of doctor appointments so the kids were left alone twice, the longest being 2-1/2 hours.  The first time, I came home and one of them (I believe it to be Casey) had an accident on one of the towels on the kitchen floor which we have by the door for muddy paws.  I also found that they had chewed the corner off of "their" cabinet.  Yes, we have a special hutch in our kitchen just to hold critter treats, toys, accessories, and gear.  I found a good number of pieces, though, so don't think they ingested much, if any of the wood shards.  Keith was the first one to come home from their second "alone" experience of the day.  He found everything to be in one piece and dry!!

Today has been a better day all around.  I am so excited with them.  They have been very good outside.  I was surprised that Casey wanted to come in so quickly on our last trip out back, but he climbed up the stairs and stood at the door staring at me as if to say "well, are you gonna let me in?"  He typically loves being outside and would stay out there for hours at a time.  Sadly for him, Keith and I are pretty emphatic that a human be out there with them at all times and we can't usually stay out there for hours.  Poly doesn't know a ton of commands and "come" wasn't working when she didn't want to follow Casey in.  The minute I came in and grabbed her leash, putting it on her, she followed me right inside.  Oh, that's another thing - we can sometimes let her out without a leash on and she isn't trying to climb under the fence to escape into the neighbor's yard (she only does it on the one side; makes me wonder what's going on that she doesn't want to go to the other side, except that they have two dogs of their own -- I would tend to think she'd rather be on the side with the dogs, but what do I know, I'm only human!).  It's been fun watching her run and see how fast she is... like a bullet!

Alright, scatterbrain, back to the topic.  When we came inside, I decided to do a few minutes of play/training with them.  Poly is still mastering "sit" while Casey is seeming to re-learn "come" (since he was either ignoring me or had forgotten the command when it was time to come in earlier in the day).  They both did SO great.  Poly does like to sit only until we reach for the treat; I guess she figures her "work" is done and she can do what *she* wants now.  Baby steps.  Casey will "wait" for me to take two steps back (I worked up from one to two today) and then come when I ask him to.  It was awesome!  It's hard training two dogs at the same time, but it seemed to work today and nobody got frustrated.  SUCCESS!

After that, I reminded them of their Kongs (which still have residue from the peanut butter/Kong peanut butter flavored squeeze stuff... Casey is the only dog alive who doesn't bend over backwards for human peanut butter) in the living room from earlier in the day and I grabbed a toy, lovingly known as "Mr. Green Man" which Casey had pulled out of the toy box this afternoon.  He's basically a neon green, round squeaking head with feet.  Round things are about the only toys Casey doesn't destroy and Mr. Green Man was a favorite of Kilter's.  We haven't yet suggested to Casey that Mr. Green Man has feet and are not going to encourage him to discover that one for himself; those feet will only last so long before Mr. Green Man has a double amputation.

Now they are relaxing... Casey is sunning at the back door and Poly has planted herself smack dab in the middle of the love seat, using nearly the entire thing.  Who knew 35 lbs could take up so much space?  Something tells me the bones and deer antlers are going to be next on the play list, but they can decide that for themselves... everything is in the toy box (a regular size crate) and they can just pull out what they want on their own.  I love to see what they chose and how they are so intentional once they decide what they want, just going right in for it!