Yesterday I had an extensive list of chores to perform, both inside and outside the house. And since Cheryl is not here to distract me and give me excuses to goof off, I knew that it would be a busy day. And I wondered how I could get Coach involved in my chores in some way.
I started with weeding. Our Turks Cap in the back yard gets full of vines--I pull them but they always come back. Normally when we are in the backyard with the dogs, the focus is on them, but yesterday my focus was on those vines, me on my hands and knees, crawling though the thick maze of plants, and Coach quickly lost interest.
When he walked away and became involved in mischief, I took him into the house and then returned to work so that he could see me through the French doors. A month or so ago Coach would have just found some mischief in the house, but now he was perplexed by his situation. So he just sat there and watched me. It seems that all the puppies go through this transformation at about 6 or 7 months old, when you can finally trust them a little.
Ten minutes later I let him out and returned to weeding while giving Coach a speech about the nature of vines and so on. The neighbors, I'm sure, have formed an opinion about me (good). He watched and listened again for about 10 minutes and then wandered off.
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| Coach standing by the Vines. Notice the curly tail--just like Jam |
Then later I was in the kitchen preparing food for the grill but I made the dogs stay on the porch, where Coach sat patiently staring inside. Then outside at the grill, when Coach got bored and wandered away, I put in back into the house to watch me from there. More confusion on his face.
Five minutes, ten minutes, and I let him out again. He did not wander away again.
More chores today.
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