The bad. The good. And a concrete truck

The bad:
I think Paige is developing a barking problem. From the dog who didn't bark for the first 8 days that I had her to a dog who attacks the front window and pulls me down the street to bark at something. I miss the other dog. On Saturday, we were walking down an alley and she suddenly paused. I tried to get her moving forward again. Instead she attacked a 8', solid wood fence. I had accidentally managed to get the leash attached to the key ring that holds her tags instead of the heavy ring on her collar. She pulled the key ring apart, and it was a pretty heavy duty key ring. Luckily, since she was so busy barking at the fence, I was able to get the leash back onto her collar. And through all of this, I only ever heard a couple of growls from the other side of the fence. After I managed to pull her away from that fence, I had to go strait home. I couldn't do it. Right after we got home Nick showed up. I just showed him the pulled apart key ring and fell into his arms crying. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Why is this starting? Marni and I are going to go for a walk on Wednesday and see if we can't figure it out. I'm wondering if I didn't rush into my selection of the dog. This was something that I was worried about when I agreed to her and now it's escalating. And the worst part, when she does this, there isn't anything I can do in order to regain her attention. I'm glad I got Paige at 5 years old. I'm learning a lot about what I want in my next dog but I'm not going to be tied to her for too long.

Later in the evening on Saturday, Nick was rough housing with her a little bit. At one point she yelped - he said that he put pressure on her in the wrong way. She went to nip at him. When he moved backwards to avoid the bite, she lunged in further and snapped at the air in front of his face again. One corrective nip I could understand. The second one was inappropriate. I feel like I'm making this sound worse than it really was. After the walk we just had, it was just too much on me.

The good:
Sunday we decided that we wanted to buy Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii so we walked over to the local future shop. I took Paige because I thought it would be a good training exercise. On the walk over, we passed one dog and I had a dog in a working vest lunging and barking. I was so embarrassed. This is not how a dog in vest is supposed to act.

At Future shop, she took a little bit to settle in but then she was a super service puppy. Following me attentively with her eyes and moving with me when I moved. She's even starting to figure out what to do when I turn into her after stopping.

After Future shop we decided we were hungry so we went to Red Robins. Paige did her first restaurant. She climbed under the table under the booth readily. But she wasn't comfortable. She was stress panting and kept shifting around. After ordering I decided that we should go and practice bathrooms. I thought it would be a nice break from being under the table. Once we get there, of course the toilet in the large stall is plugged so we got to try and figure out how to fit a large dog into a small stall with me. I will say this: It can be done but it's clumsy. How do you move a dog in far enough to be able to close the door? Turns out that it's easiest to get the dog positioned where you would like them and then close the door over them when they are lying down. Who'd have guessed? Then it was back under the table. Paige decided that she should turn around this time so that she could look out. Voila! Much less stressful. And then boredom kicked in part way though the meal. She kept huffing at me. But I was very impressed with how long she lasted. When we go out of there, she was so done. It was vest off on the way back to the apartment so she could just be a dog. The lessons learned: Should have done a fast food restaurant before a sit down one; If there is more than 2 of us in the booth, Paige is going to have to lie on the floor outside of the booth.

And our final point: This morning we passed a concrete truck. Paige looked at it with her ears pricked up but didn't show any startle or fear. Good girl.