Sunday

I was supposed to be at a conference since Friday, but I took yesterday off to spend with my husband. This morning I went to a workshop on heart sounds. I used to specialize in cardiology, up until the past 7 years. It was time for a review. It turned out to be a great class. So not a bad way to start a day. On the way home I went to one of my favorite browsing home stuff stores, Tuesday Morning. Everything is discounted, and you can browse for hours. I bought 3 books on back yard gardening, seating and design. Also a couple of packages of felted hangers. On the way out I found an angel sculpture that would be great somewhere in the backyard. I may have to go back to check it out after I look through the books.

When I got home, Tom was out so I had time to spend with the dogs and catch up on the computer. When he came home, we had a lazy couple of hours. We spent a while combing out mats on the 4 dogs. Georgie is not tolerating brushing very well these days. She really has some effective techniques twisting her body and kicking her back feet at your hands. But she's so small, it's easy to work around it. One of the show schnauzer breeders I communicate with says you should just shave your dog when they get to this stage. Neither Tom nor I want to do that. Georgie has always been a beauty. We'll see who wins out. What's really wierd is Finnegan is starting to squeal and is acting like we're hurting him. He really fights. This is new behavior and has started since we've gone back to a particular groomer. We won't be going there any more because something is not right. Winston is a nervous little dog who doesn't tolerate any restriction of his movement. He will try to bite if he feels threatened. He's come a long way since we've started training. I've learned that if I talk to him and tell him what to expect, he's much calmer.

Our dog trainer gave me the name of his groomer who he said takes her time and is very gentle. He even said he will meet us there to see if there is anything he can do to help with the boys. He said most groomers are into production and probably the one we went to just doesn't spend the time she should. Today we were very gentle and took our time and we got through it with great success. Molly has always loved being brushed and places her body as close as she can to the dog being groomed. We don't know if it's out of pity or to get random brushing! We rewarded everyone with yummy treats. Getting older dogs who have been in multiple homes with unknown history and undoing bad experiences is a delicate balance, but well worth the effort. We've been working the boys with a great dog trainer since January, and in general the boys are much more cooperative. I can stay calm and in control. We're all a lot happier and the boys are better socialized. We're going to take the boys to a park for our next lesson. We work outside in front of our house with lots of distractions. This will be a challenge with ducks, other dogs, runners, etc. I can't wait. Next we start the off leash series of lessons. He's already laying down the basics for hand signals from across the room. The boys are doing really well.

We went out to a very nice Japanese dinner. Then tonight I started an online family photo album. It was a fun project and I hope to expand on it. I started thinking about genealogy again and about doing a family tree.

For a lazy day, it was very productive!