With the girls / PART FIVE

HORN LESSONS

A cacophony of drum beats and notes from French horns, trombones and guitars strain under closed doors at Andersen Music. FLD Dutch and I are here with Elaina and Sofia for their back-to-back French horn lessons. We squeeze down the long, narrow hall lined with folding chairs against the wall opposite the closed white doors of the lesson rooms. Dutch takes it all in stride; this isn't the first time he's cocked his head at the dissonance.

Still, it takes him the entire 30 minutes of Elaina's lesson to settle.

Dutch, settle, I say. He ducks his head and drops into a "down." He looks up expectantly. I hand him a piece of kibble.

FLD Dutch looks up for his treat.

He pops up, nose sniffing out a tuft of carpet pulled up at the baseboard.

Leave it. His head rockets around for his reward. Dutch, sit. Hit butt drops to the floor. Good boy, I say and he inhales another bit of food. Down. Now you settle.

He lies down. For a moment. I tuck him back into a down and stick the rough end of a Nylabone into his mouth. He grabs it with his front paws and chews like his life depended on it. For at least 15 seconds. He makes a lunge for the door at the end of the hall, but I have a good grip on his leash. He proceeds to sing, not at all in harmony with the melodies banging through the doors.

I take him outside to "park." When we return to where Sofia is staying busy playing "Angry Birds" on my iTouch, the door opens and Elaina's teacher goes ga-ga over Dutch, ramping him up all over again. Sigh.

Sofia takes her turn behind the white door. I ask Elaina to step on Dutch's leash while I take a picture. 

FLD Dutch and Elaina appear to have a stand-off.

I get one shot off and Mr. Smarty-pants gets up. He butts his head against the door and it swings open. He tries to dart inside, but Elaina's youthful reflexes save the day.

FLD Dutch busts open the door to Sofia's lesson. Good catch, Elaina!

Finally.

Dutch settles.

I have to wake him up when it's time to leave.

With the girls / PART FOUR

MOVIE NIGHT - part two

Dry, and safely back home with our snacks, Sofia dibs on the yellow chair that swallows her up like a girl-eating clam. Natalie claims the couch. Elaina steals the pillows from the couch and makes a cushy lounge on the floor with a comforter and blankets. I get the brown swivel chair in the corner.

As the movie loads, bags are ripped open and munching ensues.

FOOD! Dutch bounds in from the kitchen where he was Lab-wrestling with Rosie. He pounces for the baked chip bag, landing square on top of Elaina. UGH! His miscalculation allows her time to swing the bag up out of reach. He leaps.

Dutch! He is momentarily distracted. Then he spots Natalie's bag of Sun Chips. He coils and pounces like a wolf hunting mice under the snow. Nat barely gets the bag away.

Rosie's crate in the kitchen is our only hope.

Dutch attacks the kibble that I toss into the crate and I quickly latch the door behind him. Ahhhh, now we can enjoy the movie. The girls have seen "Perfect Pitch" several times before, but they want me to see it too.

I avert my eyes at the opening barf scene (why do all movies have a barf scene?!) and catch a glimpse of golden streak.

"Dutch!" Elaina yells as he makes the leap across her this time and lands on the bag of chips.

I leap up in turn and rescue her from the ravenous beast. Back in the crate with you! (I toss a few bits of kibble in behind him.)

Okay. Now we are safe to snarf...almost. Before I sink back into my chair, I hear Dutch scratch at the wire crate door. Two seconds later, he's a fuzzy fury on top of Elaina again.

Not only can this puppy read (see my post MOVIE NIGHT / part one), he's Houdini! This time I secure the crate latch with his collar.

The little guy is NOT pleased. Dutch's repertoire of whines, barks, yips, woofs, howls, growls, snarls and moans, whistles (I swear he sounds like a baby bird), sighs, yaps, yowls, bays and yelps is more entertaining than the movie. He goes on like this for more than a few minutes.

Suddenly, the volume on the TV is TOO LOUD.

I check on Dutch. He is stretched out in the crate, sound asleep.

(As I mentioned in my first post about my time with the girls, I hope that Dutch doesn't teach Rosie to unlatch her crate! I'm not sure I'd put anything past the smart little fella.)

 

What are you up to, Dutch?

 

With the girls / PART THREE

MOVIE NIGHT - part one

Or, a missed cue.

A quick "park" and we were on our way to Family Video. Elaina, Sofia and Natalie entered ahead of FLD Dutch and me. Good thing. He and I barely made it through the door.

"I've got to see this one before you can come in!" a woman yelled and ran toward us, almost knocking over a rack of video jackets. After our confrontation in the mall the night before, I thought we were going to get thrown out.

"Oh, he's ADORABLE!" the woman exclaimed as she poured herself all over Dutch. Turned out she was the owner of the store and a dog-lover as well. Nat stood by for support as I tried to explain why it wasn't such a good idea for her to play with the now lunging and woooo-wooooing puppy. By the time I had extracted her from the ballistic ball of fur, Elaina and Sofia had "Perfect Pitch" in hand and were waiting for us by the checkout.

Wait, I said. We need to get some candy.

"We always stop by Kroger on the way home," Elaina said. "It's cheaper."

One way to keep kids from missing their mom too much is to do the exact same things with them that she does. Kroger's it is then, I said.

I didn't bother to remove Dutch's blue "Future Leader Dog" bandana; Kroger's was only a mile away. We lucked out with a parking spot right on the end, leaving us a short sprint into the grocery store.

The candy aisle was smack dab in the middle of the store, so Dutch got practice heeling through crowds of people on a shiny, scent-saturated floor. He seemed to do fine, even though he kept trying to scratch himself on three legs. I coaxed him along.

In the candy department, the four of us perused our options. A bag of baked barbeque chips, Salsa Sun Chips, Red Twizzlers. Didn't these girls like chocolate? I grabbed a giant box of Whoppers.

"Aunt patti!" Natalie screamed. "Dutch is peeing!"

I turned to witness a contrite, but relieved, puppy in a sprinter's pose, with a growing puddle beneath him. He didn't just pee a river, he peed a Great Lake! And me, caught without my cleanup bag--I thought it was just going to be a quick trip in and out of the video store. All I had was a poop bag in my back pocket.

I should have at least had my camera. I swear this little puppy can read. He "parked" almost on top of a bright yellow triangle sign that said:

CAUTION

WET FLOOR

I immediately told Natalie to find me some paper towels. She thought I meant in the store bathroom. No, get a roll off the shelf, I'll buy a roll. We were in a grocery after all. She froze. Elaina, I said, can you find me some? The 15-year-old quickly saved the day.

I used so much paper towel that when we went through the self-checkout what was left of the roll was not heavy enough to signal the computer register. I had to place the poop bag, which was now a pee bag, on the scale instead.

Never again.

Never again will I forget my camera...or ignore a cue from a just-learning puppy!

  

Winter Break - Take 3 Harmony

When Natalie started to practice, baritone notes careened off knotty-pine walls and our house echoed like a sound box on steroids. Sofia ran downstairs to snatch her trumpet and join in.

Quite the concert ensued, missing only the round sounds of Elaina's French horn.

I don't know why she didn't join in.

Nat and Sofia belt it out.

As if losing interest, Natalie slid to the floor from her perch on Andy's desk chair. Sofia  continued alone, tooting to class-lesson music spread precariously on the metal stand.

Suddenly, Sofia's tune turned peppy. Nat started bouncing along on her b*tt, the baritone nearly engulfing her.

It was like her fingers had a mind of their own. They danced on the valves. She licked her lips and kissed the mouthpiece with a smack. A jazzy slew of notes erupted, weaving in and out of Sofia's structured song.

Sofia and Natalie share a magical moment. Gypsy rolls her eyes.

Always the critic, Gypsy wasn't impressed.

But I was.

FLD Scout wasn't sure. Here she checks out that shiny thing that makes noise.

Winter Break - Take 2 Haiku

winter break in the "patch"

girls sleep in too long

black Lab alarm clock trio

brings the dead to life

Sofia and Elaina are up before Natalie. They decide she's had enough sleep and send the pups downstairs.

Natalie doesn't know what hit her. Scout howls "Get up!"

Gus and Elaina report, "Mission accomplished!"

Winter Break - Take 1

On a crispy winter-break morning, Elaina said, "I'm going for a run. It's conditioning for soccer." Natalie wanted to run with her. I said, Why don't you take Rosie?

 

Sofia said, "I'll walk," and agreed to take Gus. He's a very good walker, I told her.

 

I came along with FLD Scout, who, on this particular morning, wasn't a very good walker.

 

I don't think she liked seeing Rosie leave us in the dust.

 

Sporting a white and black panda hat, Sofia and Gus wait for me and FLD Scout.

 

It is exactly one mile from our house on the top of the hill south to Wiltse Road. Elaina, Nat, and Rosie were a half-mile gone before I caught up to Sofia and Gus, who waited patiently for me to walk Scout backwards every time she put tension on the leash.

 

FLD Scout and I never made it all the way to Wiltse Road.

Elaina smiles, in spite of her hill effort coming back from Wiltse Road.

 

Elaina came charging up the first hill on her return mile. Natalie trudged behind with Rosie. There are no hills like these in their downstate suburban neighborhood.

 

My nieces lead the way...it's uphill home, from every direction!

 

FLD Scout and I turned homeward--I figured with all my backwards-walking I got the distance in.

Go on ahead, I said to Sofia and Natalie. We'll get there.

 

Eventually.

 

My three nieces (and Rosie) came north with Andy when he came home from downstate business one Sunday night in February. Their mom, my sister Anne, would be up later in the week to spend a couple of relaxing days and then drive them back in time for weekend soccer games. Get ready for some picture-tales of our fun-filled week!

Tuesday's TRAINING TIP (on Thursday!): "What's that?!"

Elaina and Natalie made their way into Total Soccer before I could get FLD Scout's blue working jacket on. They each had a game at the indoor arena.

Elaina, aka "Beast," shakes it up during her game.

Natalie kicks the ball toward goal for an assist!

Scout easily heeled at my left side to the entrance, but as we passed into the space between the big double glass doors, she balked.

"Wooooof!" I couldn't tell if she was startled by her own reflection in the glass, or the toddler kicking a soccer ball around just inside.

Scout, sit, I said to get her attention back on me. I had to coax her with a finger tap above her tail.

Scout, heel, I said, once she was sitting and settled down. I opened the inner door. She stepped across the threshold with me and yipped a couple more times, overtaken by the yells and whistles coming from behind the two-boarded soccer fields to the right and left of us, and groups of youngsters bouncing balls while they waited for their own games to start.

Scout, settle, I commanded, this time with a finger poke to her side. She whipped her head around to look up at me, and strained forward against the leash.

I waited. 

When the tension on the leash relaxed, we went to find the girls.

Taking FLD Scout to her first indoor soccer game gave her good exposure to kids, noise, slippery metal bleachers, ball distractions, and the always-a-temptation public arena floor. She needed some reassurance negotiating the bleachers, but after the second time moving (we inadvertently sat with the opposition) she gained confidence.

An alert FLD Scout shows interest in soccer-arena activities.

IF YOUR PUPPY BALKS AND ACTS AFRAID

1. STAY CALM  Your reaction will travel through the leash to your puppy.

2. REDIRECT  Give your puppy a command to take her mind off whatever is scaring her. Use name recognition or a finger poke to refocus her attention to you.

3. GO SLOW  Don't overwhelm your puppy. Stay at a distance from the offending object until your puppy calms down. Turn the other way and approach again, stopping before your puppy acts nervous.

4. REWARD APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR  Don't forget to praise your puppy when she gathers her confidence!

It didn't take long for FLD Scout to settle down in the arena. She was very interested in the kids (and their soccer balls) who were waiting to play, but she was happy to hang out and observe instead of participating.

FLD Scout settles into a "down-stay" in the bleachers. She is tied to the rail while I take pictures.

Young John takes a seat next to FLD Scout...

...who can hardly contain herself to greet him! John did a remarkable job ignoring her, even though he was just as interested in her as she was of him.

Both girls' teams won their games! YAY!

Cookie-Bake Tired-Puppy Recipe

Cousins Sofia, Claire, and Natalie--sugared out at our annual family cookie-bake.

 

INGREDIENTS

one puppy

one Lab

six kids + six "big" kids

cookie-dough

powdered sugar and sprinkles galore

• send puppy and Lab out to the fenced-in yard for a couple of hours of hard Lab-wrestling
• bring inside to chill

• mix six big kids with cookie-dough of various types
• let six little kids decorate cookies with sugar and sprinkles

Russian tea-cakes get powdered.

Elaina gets powdered, too!

Logan attempts the closed-eye technique with spritzer cookies. Zoey is skeptical.

Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!!!

• allow puppy to wander underfoot

FLD Scout gets floured and sugared!

• bake

no need to clean floors afterwards

Sugared cookies.

Candy-cane cookies and "Belgium" waffles.

Just before my camera clicked, Scout's chin was flat on the floor between her paws, eyes slammed shut.

Tired puppy dreams of sugar-crumbs.

My cookie-bake FIB:

holiday mixings

two

Labs

six kids

cookie-bake

extravaganza

no need to clean floors afterwards

A Winter Precursor

"The computer weather says it will clear up after 1:00," Andy announced. The morning was a dreary drizzle. "Let's take the dogs to Ogemaw Hills Pathway for a hike later."

The dogs were all for it, never mind that the sky refused to turn blue.

Gypsy is remarkably generous, allowing FLD Scout and Gus to sit with her on the way to Ogemaw Hills Pathway.

We parked off Sage Lake Road to explore the "most difficult" section of the Pathway's more than 13 rolling miles of hiking and cross-country ski trails.

We are familiar with the "easiest" and "more difficult" trails accessible off Fairview Road, most recently last February when we lost Elaina and Andy and I skied as much of the route as we could in attempts to find her. 

Natalie leads the group last winter on the "easier" trails (minus Elaina).

Anne gives a whistle.

She showed up later, oblivious to our send-Anne-and-the-girls-to-town-for-help concern (cell phones don't work well up here). Her first-time skiing and she took off ahead of us, following the trail markers and having a great time.

Elaina back at marker #1, where I eventually found her.

Lesson learned--announce "stay in contact with the group" BEFORE strapping skis on athletic teens!

Back to our Sunday afternoon hike.

The "most difficult" section proved once again that trail designations always overstate the difficulty. The "backslide" was appropriately named--a long, gradually winding downhill through 100' pines and hardwoods. Beautiful. And contrary to "what goes down must come up," the subsequent uphills were not as difficult as we imagined they might be. But. We weren't on skis!

After almost three miles of hiking down and up in the saturated forest, three dogs (and two people) were ready for a rest.

Three tired dogs on the drive home. Gypsy looks like she's thinking, "Jeez Scout, you're the littlest one and you're taking up all the room!" Gus did the smart thing and opted for the floor.

I, for one, am looking forward to snow and revisiting the "most difficult" trails at Ogemaw Hills Pathway!

A Pictoral Post for Thursday, September 8, 2011

FLD Scout, the day we picked her up from Leader Dogs for the Blind.

In one week, FLD Scout...

day 1

 

GAINED 1 1/2 POUNDS

day 7

WAS SPOILED BY MY NIECES

Sitting nice for Elaina and Nat.

Girl paws. Sofia and Scout snuggle it up.

Nose to nose with Natalie on the floor.

 

PLAYED WITH ROSIE

 

Rosie thinks, "Hey, this isn't Gus!"

TRIED TO PLAY WITH GYPSY

FLD Scout checks out Gypsy's stick.

Went out for breakfast and dinner.  Shopped at Meijer's, Krogers, Home Depot, Glen's, and Walmart.  Heeled down Brady Road.

CHASED AFTER GYPSY IN THE WOODS.

FLD Scout, hot on Gypsy's heels.

AND HELPED A 100 LB GOLDENDOODLE TAKE A BATH.

Trying to catch Finn's tail as my brother Jim washes him.

FLD Scout after Finn's bath.

BUT MOST OF ALL,

SHE MADE HERSELF RIGHT AT HOME!

FLD Scout, taking over Gypsy's bed.

(and wormed her way into our hearts)

SPRING BREAK

Ten days before the girls came to visit, I cross-country skied through our woods and into the Rifle River Recreation Area.

Last Thursday, the girls and I hiked through wakening woods where snow was visibly melting, yet still-frozen lakes were not to be trusted.

Frozen Lodge Lake.

Come along...

TREES

At the base of this tree were so many large wood shavings, I wondered if Andy had been whittling here.  Not so.

These holes are the handiwork of the Pileated Woodpecker!

This woodpecker is almost as large as a crow.

Pileated Woodpecker at work.

Woodpeckers aren't the only industrious creatures in our forests...witness the work of a beaver!

A tree, cut down by a beaver.

We are not sure what caused this tree to grow so crooked.

An old crooked tree.

THE OBSERVATION TOWER

About a mile and a half jaunt from our back door is a three-story observation tower overlooking Grebe Lake.  The open wooden stairs are a training opportunity for FLD Gus, who was anxious to follow the girls up to the top.

Looking down through the tower staircase. (photo by Sofia)

FLD Gus, calm at the top.  (Gypsy, not so much.)

Gypsy wasn't too sure about the stairs, but when her annoying barking didn't bring us down to throw her stick, she finally decided to join us.

Gypsy, barking at us from below.

Here we rested, and relished the sunshine and spectacular view.

Tallest pine.

LOOK!  An eagle's nest in the tallest pine, just across the slush-frozen water. 

Take a closer look...

An eagle in its nest!

THE GIRLS

Natalie, caught throwing rocks onto the frozen lake from the top of the tower.

Sofia, looking for rocks.  "Come on up!"

Big-sister Elaina, keeping all of us in line.

THE TRAIL HOME

 

On the sunny-side, the trail was free of snow and ice.

"Queen" Natalie, hoofing it in the sun.

But where hills obstructed, evidence of my birth-day-ski lingered.

My ski tracks are melting!!!

FLD Gus wasn't the only one dog-tired when we got home!

FLD Gus, one tired puppy.