September 7, 2013

Today hasn’t been a great A.J. day. He was up around 6:30 and refused to settle down again. (Did I mention that today is Saturday?) I sent him out and went back to bed. About 5 minutes later he started to bark. I didn’t want him to bother the neighbors that early in the morning, so I let him back in. Tried to go back to bed again, he starts licking his foot, shaking, and generally making a nuisance of himself. I finally said “I can’t take it anymore” and got up.

He started his walk pulling on the leash practically right out of the door. We went over to the parking lot and did figure eights through most of it. He finally started to settle down a bit, but it was a tough walk.

Greg and I went to the first Boise State home football game of the season. Since it was a day game we rode out bikes. Boise State won, but it wasn’t a good game and it lasted forever. A.J. was home alone for six hours. It was a nice day so we had left him outside, and he did just fine. He was lying on the patio asleep when we got home.

Before we left I had a training session with him. I tried to teach him “Stand.” I think he was figuring it out, he did pretty well. Between that and the stuffed Kong I guess he was content to hang out in the yard until we got back. And we made it back by dinnertime, which I’m sure is the important thing for him.

We took him on a walk tonight. They’re putting in a new housing development right next to ours. The street is one big loop and there aren’t any houses in yet, so we walked over there hoping we wouldn’t run into anyone. Unfortunately other dog walkers have discovered this as a good place to either take dogs like A.J. or dogs who can run around nicely off-leash. We’ve been turned back several times in the past when we’ve tried to go that way. Today we started down the road before we saw the dogs, but A.J. smelled them. He was on alert as we were walking down the street and the instant he saw the dogs he erupted. They were about 200 yards away. That’s a long ways away. They were heading away from us, so we continued on but spent most of the walk turning back and forth along the street, going from one side of the street, turning, going to the other side, turning the other way, going back to the other side…. That’s part of his training, to change direction whenever he starts to pull forward, the idea being that eventually he’ll start to pay attention to where I’m going. But every time we headed forward he started to pull again. It was not a fun walk. We saw another dog walk by as we were headed back home; he erupted again. I really don’t know what to do with him. He’s also still mouthing at me sometimes.

When we got home I took him out back to run him around and try to get some of his frustration out, but he remained crazy for about an hour and a half. I really don’t know what to do with him. He needs something for his brain to do, and he needs to run around, but all of that is tough when I can’t take him away from the house without eruptions. I’m completely frustrated right now.

Oh, and he’s still licking at his foot and it’s still bleeding all over the place. And I think he has a problem with his ear again.

Today hasn’t been a great A.J. day.