Busy busy days, routines busted

Charly's on the horse medicine now, for coccidiosis. It's 12 mL daily for 3 days, 10 days off, then repeat 3 days, then a stool check. It's tasteless (yes, the vet actually tasted it!) (she tastes all the meds) (is dog taste like ours? can't be -- they eat poop). It's a lot of volume, takes about 6 squirts into her lip pocket to get it all into her, but she doesn't mind, seems to think it's a treat. She hasn't had any reaction to it, except maybe some loss of appetite, though that could be due to all the excitement around here.

My son T came home from ten months in Thailand on Sept. 1, is staying a couple of weeks with me before heading to Phoenix where he has part-time work awaiting him and oodles of friends. Charly has done a bit of floor piddling, due to being half scared of him and half in love with him (I call him her new toy), and also due to my attention being distracted a lot more than usual. Training has lapsed a bit in several areas.

Before T's arrival we had two short walks with the prong collar and short leash. Charly is not happy. I feel bad for her, but I can see that letting her wander around and sniff everywhere on the retractable leash contributes to her sense of running the show and works against her recognizing me as "in charge" of her. So, grudgingly, I've been won over to proper leash training. Our first time with prongs, I hadn't yet found info on how tight/loose it should be, so it was loose, but it still worked, preventing her from pulling. She did the two-legged dance a couple of times, was mad at me, refusing treats and not looking at me. The next day I removed a couple more links to get it snug, though it doesn't actually stay up behind her ears. Her neck is pretty much the same thickness down a ways. Also, I paid more attention to using the "snap" correctly, or I should say I tried to, as I'm not that good at it yet. I also started out with the leash attached to her harness and only switched to the prong collar after the first incident of pulling. When I switched back to the harness after she was doing okay, she kept doing okay until we got close to home. When she started the pulling, I immediately switched to the prong collar, which immediately changed her behavior. Still clearly resentful, but what can she do but frown and refuse my affections?

So we were making progress, but training has lapsed with all the busyness of having company. I find it hard to maintain normal routines with us shooting off here and there, including a long drive up to Bellevue WA, east of Seattle (3 hrs each way) to look at a motorcycle. I'm glad to report that Charly does great on car rides, harnessed in the back seat, mostly sleeping, happy to get out after 3 hours to walk around, pee, drink, but not at all interested in her midday meal.

Yes, T wants a used motorcycle (cheaper insurance & better gas mileage & besides it's one of those "always wanted" things) instead of a car. He rode motorbikes in Thailand (automatic transmission), loved it and has wanted a motorcycle for so long (and now regrets he wouldn't let me teach him stick shift when he first learned to drive, haha), and has done so much research, knows the exact model he wants, and found such a good deal... Yeah, I know all about the safety issues & stats, and yes I'm squeamish, but he's old enough to make his own decisions, but I'm still in control of the money and could refuse, etc., = ambivalence. The bike (Kawasaki 650) is at a Harley dealership, a trade-in, 2006 w/ very low mileage. He bargained the price down and we resisted salesman tricks to get us to buy on the spot and were able to put a hold on it with a refundable deposit and come home again to be really sure. T has signed up for a 3-day motorcycle safety class here in Portland next weekend to enable him to get a license, but will have the bike shipped to Phoenix rather than ride there, reluctant to take a long freeway drive right off the bat, cautious, which is good.

T goes for a run every morning while I sit on my ass, yoga classes suspended until Sept. 18 but that's no excuse. I could go to Bally's.