Mugen is AMAZING!

Yesterday, I decided to try something different for dog school. I fed Mugen a larger than usual breakfast and skipped his lunch meal entirely. Dinner happens after dog school is over. I thought I’d see how this worked for us.

I got out my hot dogs (hebrew national, 97% fat free! Thanks to Annette! I never would have thought to share MY hot dogs with the puppy if she hadn’t mentioned it!!) and started slicing them up and prepping them to go in the nuker and Mugen started salivating all over the place. So I had him do a few sits and downs for me and I gave him a couple bits of hot dog and then we got into the car and left.

I missed dog school last week. I was painting my bedroom and my hands were weak and I pulled a muscle in my shoulder while I was painting around the ceiling. So I walked in and talked to the trainer to get the update for what I’d missed the previous week and told Mugen to sit/wait while I was talking to the trainer and he sat and waited and she looked at him and smiled and said, “Guess what we’re doing tonight?”

I asked her what and she smiled again and pointed at Mugen and I looked at him for a second and then the light bulb came on.

I’ve been working on “wait” with Mugen for the last month or two. Ever since the holidays when I needed the dogs to “wait” at the door while I talked to the UPS Dude about picking up packages. For me, teaching this was like teaching any other command. Lucy and Mugen do have a HUGE command vocabulary, but I don’t have a list of the words I use or the things I need them to do. I just use them as I need them. For example, I’ve taught Mugen and Lucy “move” because they’re big dogs and sometimes they like to be RIGHT where I need to walk. Sometimes, you teach your dogs things out of necessity and Labs are an awesome breed to do this with because it doesn’t take a lot of stress to teach them something new. Show them a handful of times, and then they remember.

So for once, I felt like we were ahead of the game at dog school. But also this week, I walked into dog school with a heck of a lot more self-confidence and it’s thanks to the dog board. We had a thread that talked about dog training go on last week some time where I ended up realizing that I was taking too much crap off of Mugen because he’s a puppy. I realized that I do let him get away with things that Reilly would never have DREAMED of doing in my house. When I gave a command to Reilly, I gave it as though his life depended on his obedience to me, and more than once, this was true. I thought I was doing the same thing with Mugen I had myself convinced that I wasn’t the sort of dog owner that coddles her itty bitty babykins, but the truth is… that’s exactly what I was doing.

I’m sure that everyone knows this, but I LOVE my dogs. Mugen will forever be my Mr Puppy Man, even when he is old and gray and his bones are creaking, he will still be my puppy. Lucy and Mugen bring so much joy into my life and I am still very much missing Reilly… and I think that until I got involved in that thread, I was so caught up in my emotions that I wasn’t paying attention to the harm that they were causing my training.

So last night, I walked into dog school with a renewed sense of self and a renewed sense of purpose. Mugen noticed. The trainers noticed. Everyone noticed. Even the stuck up Standard Poodle noticed.

Everything that we did last night was SPOT on. Every time I gave a command, Mugen would drop his butt or his chest to the ground for me without hesitation. When I said “Left” he heeled on my left. When I said “Let’s go” he went with a bounce in his step and a wag in his tail and when we got to wait… well…

I put him in a sit/wait first. Then I pivoted around in front of him and then stepped back to his side and the only part of my amazing Puppy Man that moved… were his eyes.

So then we did the down/wait.

I hadn’t actually done this one with him before. I mostly use “wait” to have him stay in the kitchen while I turn around to close a door or go in the dining room to feed Lucy, but he did his down, and then his wait. I stepped back from him about a foot or so and he did not break his down. He waited for me to come back to his side and release him.

When I walked out of dog school with him last night and got into the car, I leaned over and gave him the biggest kiss and hugged him tight and told him that I thought he was the best dog on the planet.

I am SO proud of both of us. We worked hard and we did great. I had been worried that Mugen might fail his CGC test the first time through because he just wasn’t as responsive as I’d hoped… but now, I’m positive that we’ve got that sucker in the bag.

The whole time, it wasn’t him with the problems. It was me and now that I’ve got my crap together, it’s gonna be smooth sailing from here on out, I can feel it.

Apple Releases iPad!

This morning, I realized a little late that the State of the Union Address was today. For those of you that follow me on twitter, you might have noticed my tweet somewhere around 9 am this morning that read as follows: “LOL! comment on engadget: “I’m more excited about Job’s state of the union address than Obama’s… What does that say about us?” This was promptly picked up by the Obama twitter bot. The reality is that I realized that the state of the union address was today when I read that comment on Engadget.

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My Ten Essential iPhone Apps

Well… it had to happen sooner or later. I think I have posted one of these before, but it needs an update and I have a few folks on twitter asking me the question: What are your favorite apps?

Well, here they are. These are the apps I can’t live without. Post yours in the comments! I’m always interested in looking for a new app!

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MINI Almost Killed My Enthusiasm.

Those of you that are regular readers of this blog, or are personal friends, may remember that I had a really horrible service experience with my MINI dealer this past July during which they left me stranded in a motel 6 next door to a greasy spoon for 24 hours after promising me a loaner car on 3 separate occasions. You will also remember that prior to this service experience, all I did was talk about my car and how much I loved it. I’m sure you’ve noticed how much quieter I have been about my MINI lately.

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Ladies and Gentlemen

Good evening!

Gah! I am so excited and I don’t even know where to start! I just won NaNoWrimo again this year! This book isn’t even done yet and I’m at 50,389 words! The word count will continue to climb. I had considered publishing this piece on my blog, but as the story has grown, I have realized I have a very publishable piece of young adult fiction that I am going to try to get an agent lined up to look at.

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Dear Mr. President.

I know you are a very busy man and I’m no one really important in your life. I’m just a voter, a mother of two who has a couple of really great dogs who has lived her life believing in this country and what it stands for. I’m being honest when I say that I didn’t even vote for you. I wanted to believe in you though. I wanted to believe that the change you promised would be good for this country. This country really needs to believe in itself again and I wanted to think that you could do that with your enthusiasm and your passion. The only reason I didn’t vote for you, is because I couldn’t figure out what it was exactly that you wanted to change.

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Parenting Teenagers Sucks.

This morning, hubby again tried to let me sleep in. He’s so sweet and I love him for it… but my daughter when she’s hormonal… I swear I could just explode.

Hubby had her put Lucy out. She didn’t wait for Lucy to go all the way. Both dogs, first thing in the AM have to do 1 and 2. She let Lucy pee but didn’t wait for the second half of the game. So she brought Lucy back in. Lucy, bless her heart, came upstairs to my bedroom and bumped her head on the door and tried to wake me up. I woke up in time to catch her squatting on my carpet as hubby was running up the stairs after her. Poor baby.

So quite obviously, I was awake for the day.

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Dog Fart!

I’ve had to adjust the routine since Lucy came home. It’s been rough actually but any time you have to settle into a new routine, it’s hard. So I get up at 6 am. I have the daughter attempt to take Lucy out, which does not work, for some reason, Lucy will only do her business when I’m standing outside with her which I am totally okay with now that I’ve realized it, but my kids would take her out and would forget to tell me that she didn’t go. You can imagine what a fiasco this has been.

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TGIF! … Not.

Today is the day I usually get to sleep in until 7. Mugen is quite happy to sleep in when my alarm doesn’t go off. So I settled in last night for my sleep in morning and everything was great and then… I get awakened at 6:30 by a puppy licking me in the face.

Now… don’t get me wrong, this was cute and wonderful, but I wondered how on Earth he had gotten out of his crate and into the bed with me. I had an immediate suspect and he had just shut the bedroom door.

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One Week with Miss Lucy

It’s been a week.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a week. Mugen and Lucy or “you dorks” as I have come to call them, play together like they have been the best of friends since the day they were born. I love watching them play. I also love that Lucy is so very smart. When she’s had enough of Mugen she just sits down next to me and puts her head in my lap and then I make the puppy go away for a while.

Lucy isn’t a fan of sharing her food, but I’m okay with that. The house is big enough to keep the food separate. I’m starting to switch her onto California Natural today… and she ate the quarter cup I put in with her Pedigree… and is watching Mugen butt tuck around the parlor and dining room with this look of amazement… oh… wait, she just gave him a hip check and now they’re rolling around in the floor again and chewing on each other’s tags.

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