Happenings in the Past Week

I read a lot of books. A lot of books. Something like, 5-8 books? 7 books. I started reading books before I took a blogging break though, so I can't count all them them during the past week.
Lets see... I read: Dog Sense, Born to Run,  Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, The Hunger Games, The Social Lives of Dogs, Pack of Two, and Through the Eyes of a Dog.
I currently have on hold at the library: How the Dog Became the Dog. It needs to hurry up and get returned so I can read it.


Because of the shoulder/neck/arm issue, I spent very little time on the computer for the first few days, less than 20 minutes a day. I gradually began to increase the time until I found that I can go an hour to two till my shoulder begins to tell me to get off. If I refrain from putting my left arm up on the desk (required for typing, unfortunately) then I can go a bit longer. But even if I leave my arm off the desk for the entire time, it's sitting at the comp (no matter where I put my arm) that makes it hurt so I can't spend as much time on it as I would my own currently-dead computer.

Yay. I am so excited. </sarcasam>

I bought a thingy, doggy diner? Dish holder, at Ross, for $8. It came with two bowls, a ball (dead) a rope toy (almost dead), and some rawhides. And a lot of paper stuff, crinkled shredded stuff. Like the stuff that's in Easter baskets, but made out of paper.
The diner-holder is not metal colored anymore though, I "painted" it black with rattle-can PlastiDip so it wouldn't clink when Conker eats. The noise bugged him enough that he wouldn't eat if a bowl was in it so I had to fix it somehow.
I also bought a heavy-duty stainless bowl that I am now obsessed with for about $3.50.

The dogs all got some raw food. The Girls got: Pork, chicken bones, ground beef, canned mollusks, gizzard, heart, liver. Conker got: chicken leg, pork, other stuff...

Conker made a funny face.

Got a picture of Conker looking bizarre (and kinda fat) while checking out a Kong.

The dogs got some more raw food. This time chicken boobs with the usual nonsense.

I have begun to train Juneau to tolerate the sound of a cap gun, with hopes that she will be able to eventually progress to gunfire (fireworks make her shake, so maybe not) so I can use her as a Coot retriever this upcoming waterfowl season.  I am doing it by getting her into the retrieving mode by having her play with a toy, then giving her lots of praise and having her focus on the toy, then firing the cap gun, more praise, and chucking the toy before she has a chance to flip out. So far it's working. Conker doesn't seem to care either way.

If she ends up getting stuck at the sound of actual gunfire, I will attempt to train Conker to do water retrieves, but I have high doubts that will actually work. He will retrieve, in shallow water, sometimes, if he wants to, and maybe-sorta-not-really brings things back. He is fine with loud noises, much moreso than Juneau, and I think he would adapt to gunfire a hellova lot easier than she would, but he won't leap into freezing water deeper than he is tall without a second thought like Juneau will.

He would be a better squirrel dog. He loves to tree things, and barks up a storm when he does.


The furnace has finally been fixed. No more staying up late tending the fire. I miss the fire, it has much better warmth than the furnace, and I am very well adapted to this nocturnal schedule of sleeping from 10AM to 6PM and being awake during the evening, night, and early morning. Anytime I try to break it, I fail dramatically and revert back to "normal" within a day.

Oh, and these things don't seem to know what "Leave me alone." means anymore. Seriously. Everywhere I go, they are there. Following, no, STALKING me, and staring at me like their lives depend on getting one more, no, two more, scratches before I send them off to do something that does not intrude upon my book reading.