The good and the bad

It's been a while since I've updated on Megan, hasn't it? Mostly it's good, but not all!

Teaching her to go down to the basement is a mixed bag. I keep telling myself that when the tornado warning start, I'll be glad she'll just go. Also, she seems to be pretty intolerant of heat and it's a good place for her to cool off. However, there is a downside. Or many. The first I noticed was a big pile of poop. Pam discovered it and it seemed to be a couple days old at the time. In her defense, It DID look like diarrhea so I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. I suppose the basement isn't the worst place. Then it was the cat food. I feed the cat on top of an old desk in the basement. This was high enough to be a deterrent for Sparky the cocker spaniel. It seemed like Dulcinea had been cleaning her dish more quickly than usual. It seemed like Megan was awfully anxious to get down there soon after I had fed  the cat. I don't know why it took so long for met to put two and two together. Just a little while ago, I caught her peeing down there. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt here, too. It is the middle of the night, I didn't let her out right before I went to bed and I am still not sure how to interpret her middle-of-the-night signals. Most of the time she just wants attention but... Also, I caught her in the act and was able to stop her and put her outside. I'm hoping this is just an isolated incident.

On the good side, we made our first visit out to Pam's sister's house with Megan. Laura has two dogs - an elderly husky named Peaches and a rambunctious 1-1/2 year old, three-legged Saint Bernard named Falstaff. She and Peaches sniffed at each other and then pretty much ignored each other.Things were a little exciting with Falstaff at first, but they worked things out pretty quickly. This is a big step because Megan hadn't met other dogs in a social situation before. Laura has taken care of Sparky in the past when we went on vacation.  Now I feel confident leaving Megan there as well. A co-worker of Pam's has asked us to watch her yellow lab over Memorial Day weekend. It is helpful to know that Megan can get along with other dogs in confined spaces. Of course, I know things are different in her own house. We plan to have Titan over for a trial run first.

Mission accomplished

We had severe thunderstorm warnings last night so everyone went down to the basement. Except Megan. Pam and I together just couldn't get her to go down. Finally, we gave up. Pam thought maybe she would come down eventually because everyone else was down there. She didn't.  I knew we had to start training her to go down to the basement before tornado season. I figured it would take a few days to a couple weeks of gradual project. It worked in less than an hour! She amazes me with how smart and trainable she is. I guess I am still accustomed to Sparky the cocker spaniel who wasn't the brightest bulb and was also very stubborn - if he didn't want to do something he wouldn't do it no matter how much you tried to train him differently. Megan is just so responsive. There are nine stairs down to the basement. The first four are just solid walls on either side. By the fifth step, the right side is open and you can see into the finished section where we sleep during severe weather. I used bits of sausage and cheese to slowly lure her down. By the time she got to the fifth stair she looked over to the right and I could tell she was very curious. After we got past that fifth stair it was smooth sailing. Of course, I made a big fuss once she got all the way down to the bottom. Then she trotted around eagerly investigating everything. Before I left for work this morning she'd been up and down by herself a few times. She starts obedience school May 18th. I can't wait to see how she responds to structured learning!

Thunderstorms

Last night when it started thundering, Megan disappeared. I found her in the bedroom closet. Megan likes her place in the closet. I have put a makeshift bed in there and it seems to be her safe place. I have taken to giving her melatonin at night because she is restless anyway. During the thunderstorms she just doesn't seem to know what to do. Her initial instinct was to go outside to escape the noise but of course, that didn't work. I had to let her try it though. She wants to be wherever we are so if we aren't in the bedroom, she is lying on her usual bed in the living room shivering. She doesn't want to eat - she even spit out milk bones. As long as it doesn't get worse, it seems like something we can deal with. Speaking of severe weather I do have a concern. Megan WILL NOT go in the basement. In the past I have tried calling her to come down because if I go down she stands at the top of the stairs whining. Although she wants to be with me, she doesn't want it bad enough to come down. Stairs aren't the problem because on vacation we had to go up and down stairs all the time and she did it with no balking at all. This morning I tried putting her on a leash because that has worked in other cases when she doesn't want to go somewhere. Not this time. She absolutely will not go. I'd like to be able to get her in the basement in case of a tornado warning.

Megan passes another test

We went to the dog park again today. At first there were no other dogs. So Megan ran around within park boundaries just like she did last time. We were just getting ready to leave when Rusty joined us. I had never seen Rusty before I would say he is a basenji mix. I was a little worried but they got on famously. They took turns chasing each other. There was a little dominance posturing (by Megan) but nothing serious. All in all, I think Megan had a blast. She seemed so happy! Then when we got home she went to get a drink from our (very small) pond. But she didn't stop at the edge. She kept walking until she was standing in the middle of it.Silly girl!

Megan goes to the dog park

About a week ago I injured my knee pretty badly so Pam has major responsibility for walking Megan. I feel bad about that. Yesterday I stayed home to rest my knee so I figured I would have the time to take Megan to the dog park. That way I could pretty much stand still while she ran around. This is a small, neighborhood park a couple of block from our house. We could walk there, but given my condition we drove. Megan is getting really good about being in the car although she still won't get in without being led to the door on a leash. I was pretty nervous about the situation since Megan has never been to the dog park before. I was ambivalent when I saw that there were no other dogs there. I was kind of hoping to be able to test out her reaction to other dogs but I was also glad to be able to test one aspect - being off leash with no clear boundaries - without the other. I needn't have worried. She was so good! At one point she was heading toward to sidewalk and the street but I just yelled "Megan, sit!" and she did so immediately until I could put the leash back on. I was amazed. I am not used to having a dog obey me so instantly and completely. Of course, she still drags loaves of bread off the kitchen counter (found bits of bread and plastic wrapper all over the living and dining room one morning!). I need to be trained too. I don't know how many times I've left things on the counter with the same result. I need to work on training her more. I know she will learn if I just take the time.

Megan on vacation

We left home on Friday for a looong two-day drive to the Alabama coast. She has done and is doing much better than I though she would. She never bolted out of the car. She lay in her bed quietly most of the time and didn't make a nuisance of herself. Saturday was a twelve-hour day in the car and we were all really tired of it but she did no worse than either of the people. She LOVES the beach. Not the water -- that's terrifying -- that's the beach. We were the only beings out at dawn this morning so I let her off the leash with some trepidation. She ran, ran, ran but she always stopped part way and looked back at me and she always came when I called her. Such a good girl. This morning we left her alone at the cabin while we went grocery shopping and when we got back she was sound asleep on one of the beds. No problems. I think this is good for all of us.

Megan is full of it

Here's how my night went. I go to bed and Megan comes in a nanosecond later whining. Par for the course. I ignore her. A little while latter I hear her (or the maybe the cat, I thought), batting something hard around the living room. With I sigh I get up and investigate. Megan is sitting with a prescription bottle between her paws gnawing on it. Luckily, it only had a sealed bottle of eyedrops inside and her teeth hadn't reached that yet. I wonder, "How did she get that? My prescriptions are on a shelf above the sink." Then I remembered we are packing for a trip and our suitcases are on the office floor. Sure enough, she had dug the prescription bottles out of the front pocket of the overnight bag. Making sure everything was securely fastened away, I went back to bed. A little while later I hear the unmistakable sound of Megan playing with the Buster Cube. That's fine. Good, in fact, since I've been trying to teach her that for weeks now. Then I hear a loud CRASH. I get up to investigate. The crash was simply the Wii balance board falling over from where it was leaning against the wall. No big deal. But...there is some sort of plastic netting torn up and spread out all over the living room floor. What could that be? Well, Megan had gone into the closet near the bathroom (which has shutter-like doors) and retrieved a shower scrubbie off the first shelf. Then she took it out to the living room and tore it all to shreds. And I had just been bragging about how she doesn't chew up inappropriate things! This morning she didn't want to come in when I went to work. When I walked out to get her with the leash she ran in enthusiastically. I think when she saw the leash she thought we were going for a walk. Once she figured out (very quickly) that we WEREN'T going for a walk, she noticed that the porch door wasn't quite closed and ran back into the yard. There she played her "sack of potatoes" game. She did come in once I clipped the leash on her. I'm afraid that one of these days she won't. She's usually such a good dog. Maybe it's spring fever!