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- BB telling me how fun his playtime was, 30 wks old
BB got a real, honest to goodness, gobs of fun boy play Wednesday, complete with stick carrying, Auntie chasing, and tall grass exploring! Poor kiddo was so bored being stuck in his pen all morning while Mom and I were out that I wouldn’t have been surprised if he exploded into bits of puppy popcorn. So before sittng down to cool off, I opened the door and said “let’s go!”.
OUT into the field we went, Beebs pausing only long enough for a piddle. He pounced and chased and had oodles of puppy play for at least as long as his brother does. Wow. He still wasn’t worn out, but he has satisfied. I should have cut it short though, happy boy or not, since he was awfully sore later on. How could I, seeing what a good time he was having? He doesn’t get field wanders with me too very often–it’s a big treat when he does.
In this pic, he’s ‘talking’, which is a hysterical conversation. When Beebers talks, he mimics our syllables, and does this Scooby Doo ‘ro, ro, rrrooo” sort of sound. I tell him I don’t believe him and he talks louder, I tell him what a silly boy he is and he wiggles, I tell him I know how hard it is to be a little boy and he moves his head around… told ya it was hysterical!
BB yesterday had his first outing since his latest bout with the surgeons. He didn’t get out of the car, but it was a nice long ride. My niece, Emily, and her brothers were coming to swim that evening. Mom and I were just not feeling up to handling the absolute chaos of a 2 year old, a teenager with severe but no longer medicated ADHD, and a preteen with emotional problems. Especially since it gets the pups in a great uproar, adding to the noise, wildness, and confusion. Nor did we want to tell them they couldn’t come.
So we went out for awhile. The boys have finally reached a size that they won’t both fit in one car anymore, so we had a puppy caravan. It was down to the diner for a leisurely supper, then up to Walgreens for a few necessaries. Being so hot, we leave the cars running with the AC going for the puppies. Hurts the gas milage, but better that than have Beebs overheat. A boy has to get out in the world, hot or not, right?
We came home and Emily was still there. My brother decided he would keep her since he isn’t working now (grrrr), so BB has to work on his reactivity from Thursday night through Sunday morning… weekend number 17 came early, whether I’m up to it or not. Hhhhhh. He’s doing much better, but it’s a tremendous amount of work and vigilance.
I don’t have any help with it, either. If I’m not there when Emily comes into the room, nobody does the “look at that” game with him, and Beebs gets riled up. Then I start over with his re-conditioning. When it comes to training dogs, it can’t be just one member of the “pack” doing all the work, or the progress is either slow or non-existant. Everyone has to do the same things, the same way, with consistancy. That’s not what’s happening here, so the progress is slow.
But BB has a sweet personality, which is a plus! He doesn’t want to bark and fuss at Emily, she just scares him running around and making so much noise. He’s able now to not react if he sees or hears her, and is friendly if he can walk up to her. It’s when she comes at him that he doesn’t do so well. Em’s learning not to run around him, kudos to her.
I guess we’ll see how the weekend goes. Hopefully Mom will help me keep her puppy exercised so he’s got less energy to react with. That’d be better. Keep your fingers crossed and a prayer in the pipeline!
