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2009 Story Set
| Morning ritual - highly refined October 25, 2010 Never mind a wet dog shaking itself out. My beagles shake when I put the harness on them! They don't care if they are wet. (I get to chase them with a towel on rainy days - nothing like a damp little beagle hiding under your bed with a sock clamped in its little mouth. You do have to try to stop laughing.) They have a morning routine...... Bark, bark, whine, and bay at me while pressed against the screen door (Grace, the hyper 2 yr old nearly, on hind legs) - especially if I am running late in the morning. (Suky, the inscrutable 1 year old, stands and watches for clues.) I come out with the leads and harness rigs. I had better have my shoes on, my fanny pack loaded and strapped on, and my jacket if needed on. Trot trot trot in circles and then right out of the pen and around in the yard - this is their standard morning response to the harnesses they were barking about. (The pen is kept open most of the time.) - They are never that far - just barely out of reach. Wise beagles. (A trot is not a run or a walk - it is a trot.) They will do this until I go COME HERE and point to the ground at which point Grace lowers her head like she's going to be whipped and submits to being hooked up - walking close enough for me to catch her and then standing there - responding to FOOTIE by letting her leg bend etc. etc., maintaining the poor puppy look (she does this well), and when hooked in - merrily trots off to the back door to wait - me bent over double and getting dizzy. I struggle back up, deep breathe, and go after puppy number two. Suky also runs off in circles (also never far from reach) but if you are close enough - she just SITS (someone else trained that). I hook her up - also with her head lowered like she's being assaulted, then she trots to the back door as well. (She also knows FOOTIE.) I hook them together before I open the back door and then they are off (I had better be assembled and ready with my stuff because they do not tolerate any delay). Off we go out the front door like they were shot from a cannon - me trying to get beside them to call out HEEL and WITH ME and trying to hustle after jerking the door shut (and locked). Once I left the keys inside - but we got in the back. I could also climb into the garage if that house door wasn't locked. The pups could be in the back of the truck or in the backyard pen while I did this. I try to remember the keys. Grace knows HEEL - Suky not so much. Grace took nearly 18 months to get it. I have knots in the leads (I use double leads attached to both harnesses) - this keeps them from easily slipping them out of my hand. Suky - built like a buffalo or a steel tank and looking like a round bowling ball when she sits - drags both Grace and me all over Fremont - she will stop all forward motion if she wants to (straight-legged braking action or the just lay down action) and then she will race us down the street when she wants - literally DRAGGING us with her (we are working on this...takes time). She gets so annoyed when I drag her backwards chanting DON'T PULL DON'T PULL (technique used with Grace and taught by the trainer). 20 pound demon! At the end of the walk (which gets faster every day), they have learned BIN (trash) then DOOR in which case they trot down the alley and up to the front door and wait for me to open it. (They have a short fuse and I am expected to be quick.) Then they tandem hurry to the back door and then to the sofa bench and then jointly jump UP. (If they don't coordinate themselves - they fall back off the seat since they are tethered together and both must be UP at once or the one that misses will drag the other one right off the seat. They learned this fairly quickly probably because I was laughing at them so loudly - bent over laughing hysterically - the two or three times they failed. There is nothing so funny as a sassy beagle on its butt! They can act so put out!) Once on the sofa seat, I can unfasten them and detangle the leads (they twist them something fierce) while NOT standing on my head. After the walk, I am usually dripping sweat and panting. After a hug and a pet - they are set loose one at a time. They play outside (or just sit in sunbeams) until I open the back door and yell PEN. In which case they bolt into the house (often shoulder to shoulder in tandem) and race down the hall (frolicking by Suky) and get into their day pen (and get the treats Mommy has already shoved into the KONG balls). They are very disappointed in me if I haven't yet set out the Kong balls! One should not disappoint a beagle. This ritual has a time-table to it and beagles are impatient. After all this I am free to put on make up and dress and leave for work----. Just note that I am expected home by 5! 4 would be better. (On weekends, they nap in their carriers to 4 or 4:30 and they expect to be inside for their naps by 12, 1 or 2 at the latest --- unless there is a warm sun in which they snooze on the sofa in the patio pen.) In the evening - they expect to be let in (after play time feeding and a potty time) between 6 and 6:30 - handed a bully stick IMMEDIATELY - allowed a potty break when done with the stick, and then in to bed in the carriers by 7:30-8 - with a salmon treat. There is a potty break before I go to bed anywhere from 10:30 to whenever I roll over and realize I had fallen asleep. And then it is morning by 6:30-7 and out the door they run. (They prefer sunbeams) (I am held responsible if it is too dark. I have to turn on the Halogen lights.) And we repeat the day------ food - walkie - pen ---- I am learning not to vary it by much. |
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