Feeling grateful.

On Sunday I woke up stretched and almost feel over at the staggering pain from my neck. I quickly found that if I held my head perfectly still in the one "neck approved"  position it was only slightly uncomfortable. However any movement and I was screaming in pain. After discovering I couldn't wash my hair or get dressed with out help I called my manager and let her know I would not make it to work that day.

After that I called my mom to come drive me to a Redicare and see what I had done to my neck. We spent two hours in the waiting room watching three children cause havoc. My mom leaned over and whispered that as a child I would have been horrified to see other children acting like that and that she never would have let me get away with it. Good to know I was a well trained kid I guess.  They took some X-rays and told me I had torticollis which is where your neck muscles cause your head to tilt and it is very painful to be in any other position than the tilted one. I honestly had not noticed that I was holding my head at a different angle than normal until he pointed it out. It supposedly can happen randomly and other than being painful isn't that serious. The Dr prescribed muscle relaxers and a few days rest.

The second day I was very worried I was sleeping a ton because apparently the pills just knocked me out but when I was awake I would feel loopy but still in pain. I woke up today with a lingering stiffness but I can now mostly move my neck. Some positions are still pretty painful and it gets worse if I forget to take my pills but I can really tell it is improving.

I was feeling lucky that my dogs are willing to be so flexible for me. Normally I get up between 6am-9am every morning, The past few days I have gotten up between 11am-2pm. Because even walking would cause my neck to hurt I haven't walked them or really done anything other than cuddle them for the past three days. Sadie is loving the naps and cuddles but it really isn't Simon's thing. He would much rather be off on an adventure or playing or anything active but he has been very good and hasn't even tried to destroy the house.

A lot of husky people would tell you that having a year old husky that is used to a fair amount of exercise and mental stimulation every day and asking him to be a couch potato for a long weekend is almost impossible. Thankfully Simon is not most huskies and is being a good nanny. I know that as soon as I feel up to it our first walk or training secession is going to be full of husky energy but for now they are both being fantastic and I couldn't ask for more.

Today did not go as planned

I am not sure what is up with the blogging every day now I just keep finding time I want to sit down and write. Don't worry I am sure I wont make a habit of it.

Today didn't go as planned in almost every way.

I woke up late with a sore back a stuffy nose and a phone full of texts about work hours before I wanted to think about it. The day has progressed into taking Simon for a walk that I couldn't hold his focus or get his attention for a second of. That might be a bit of an exaggeration but not much of one. So at the end I felt frustrated and didn't enjoy the walk nearly as much as I normally do. Also it left me feeling disconnected to the dog I normal feel can almost hear my thoughts. Not that I always like what he does with that information but at least there is normally a connection there.

I got to work and a few hours later had one of the worst migraines that I have ever had. Mix that with they are deep cleaning the whole building and you can't help but smell bleach. They aren't even bleaching the room I was in there was a wall and a door between me and I still spent the afternoon feeling motion sick while sitting still and trying to convince my body not to throw up. My eyes stung the room spun and I had to take a quick break and hug my dogs to keep it all together.

 When I got home I was told I smelled like bleach so some how it got through the closed door. unfortunately this migraine was long lasting and I am still feeling the effects of it. Thankfully it has gotten less painful but the room is still spinning.

But on the positive side my bike is back from the shop and the unusually warm weather means I can start using it. Nik was willing to bring me my migraine meds at work and take care of dinner so I could just curl up into a ball and rest, And they should be done with cleaning that part of the building so the chemical smell shouldn't be as bad tomorrow.

Also apparently Sadie missed me when I was gone today and that always makes you feel good to me missed.

Here is hoping that tomorrow goes better.

Stone Fox

With the big group of 6th graders.

One of my good friends works at an elementary school helping teach kids to read and they are currently reading the book "Stone Fox". It is about a young boy racing in a dog sled race to save his grandfather's farm. She asked me if Simon and I could come in and talk to the kids about sled dogs and dog sledding and Siberian huskies. I of course said yes Simon is great with kids but it's always nice to have positive experiences with kids to remind him how wonderful they are.

After I told her we would be happy to come she asked the teachers if any of there classes that were also reading the book if they would like to have Simon come too. We ended up speaking with about 40 6th graders and a small group of five 5th graders.

Showing his dog sledding harness. 

It went very well I talked about the history of the breed and the history of dog sledding while Simon sat in a chair. Then we got to the part the kids liked best asking questions and meeting Simon. We took that as a chance to go over how to polity ask someone if you could pet there dog and how to be respectful to dogs in general. Simon did a great job he was pretty good and staying in his chair and letting me talk and he loved having kids line up to pet him.

Some set backs.

Last Sunday we started the other basic class that I am just taking with Simon I plan to take it later with Sadie. I had to go there straight from work on the plus side they are at the same place. Simon who has been doing great in the other class and on our adventures together surprised me and was pretty terrible.  Now I know I had very high expectations of him and after thinking about it a little bit I am not surprised he found the situation challenging.

The first thing that come to my mind is that for our Wednesday class he normally has time to relax and be calm before we leave the house. Because on Sunday we have to go straight from work which he finds super exciting so he was super excited from the start. Another factor is the Simon normally goes to that building for Daycare so he is used to getting to play and be hyper there he is not used to having to be calm and listen. Some of the other thing I think were making the situation more difficult for Simon are that the other class is a lot of dogs in a large building so you can have your own space. In this situation it was almost the same number of dogs in a much smaller space. Also there were a few reactive dogs who were very vocal and would lunge or bark and howl and Simon got very excited when that happened. Normally if we were at the other class I would move away from the excited dog till Simon is at a distance that he can focus and relax. But because of the smaller space that wasn't really an option. 

I felt pretty disappointed in how Simon behaved but once I thought about it and realized how difficult it must have been for him I saw it in a new light. This new training is going to be a good way to up the difficultly for Simon in a different situation. I just need to work the behaviors at home or in other less difficult situations. 

Week two obedience class.

Week two update.

Sadie really impressed me this week. During the winter Sadie is pretty much a slug; staying inside and napping.  Over the last year most of the focus was on raising Simon and exposing him to as much as we could to help him grow into a well rounded adult. Because of this, Sadie spent a lot of time hanging out with Nik while Simon and I went out and experienced as much as we could. 

With us slacking on her training I expected it to take a little work to get her back into step with training. She has gotten back into so fast and is doing a great job staying focused on Nik while other dogs misbehave around her. The chicken we are using for treats really help her. She is also doing really well socializing with other dogs at daycare and at the dog park her reactions have been spot on and I am so happy with her. The downside for the week and why I don't have any pictures of her is that Nik has been really sick and he wasn't able to make it to class on Wednesday. But they have been working together at home and she is doing great and she seems to be having a lot of fun.

On to the Simon monster. On Wednesday my day really went to the dogs. I took them to the dog park and then took Simon on a super long walk. After the walk we took a quick nap and then headed out to dog class. At class we worked on 'fronts' and heeling. Simon is doing really well with heeling but his fronts are a little crocked so that is something we need to work on.  He is also getting better at not jumping on people at class.  I intentionally stayed near the dogs that were barking and misbehaving to make it harder for him and he did really well. We hung out for the next basic class and worked on relaxing while other dogs were excited close by. 

Over all it has been a good week for training and the dogs I am so happy I have two wonderful amazing dogs in my life and I wouldn't trade them for the world. 

First week of obedience training update.

Sadie doing a stay.

We had our first training class with Sadie and Simon last Wednesday!  They both did very good considering that they haven't been in a training class for a bit.  The class is in a very large building with a lot of people and dogs which provides great distractions for Simon, especially since Sadie is in the same class and he likes checking in on her.

When Sadie passed her first class.

 Sadie has already taken and passed this class two years ago, but since we haven't remained as consistent with her as we want it will be good to give her a refresher. It will also be good for her and Nik to get more accustomed to each other in a situation where they can both be successful since I was the one who did most of the training previously.  The highlight of the night for me was when a fearful dog snapped at Sadie and she responded by backing away and looked to Nik for guidance. Simon was a little wild at first and would voice his thoughts when he was bored or frustrated. However he did do most of the things I asked of him and paid very good attention considering the distracting environment we were in.

Simon at last Wednesdays class practicing good focus. 

Training

We are about to start doing some more structured training with Simon and Sadie. We used to do a lot of training with Sadie but once she got to the point that we could walk her and she was easy to live with we started doing less. Then we got Simon and all the focus was on the new puppy and making sure he liked people and was not a monster. Now Simon is over a year old and has started to have a longer attention span I think he will do better too. We took a training class with him over the summer when we had Maya but between trying to juggle three dogs and dealing with Simon wanting to climb the trees and eat the birds it did not go so well.  I am very hopeful that now Simon will have better luck also the class is inside so less chance of him getting as distracted by everything around him.

My main goals for the current training is for Sadie and Nik to learn how to be able to work better as a team. For Sadie to learn to focus better with distractions and be less reactive to dogs around her. For Simon to improve his stays and recalls and to help increase his motivation for working with me.

I intend to post on what we are working on as well as any issues or progress we make.