Dewey Loves to Crochet

We all want to think that at a certain point we can let our guard down.  We can become a bit complacent when our puppies get a little older.  They behave so much better.  We trust them so much.

But we have to remember that they are still puppies and we are still puppy raisers.  However, I was still surprised to walk into the yarn room to find that Dewey had gotten one of the yarn balls and pulled it into a snarly mess.

It wasn't his fault.  It was my fault.  I had left the yarn out in the open.  The cabinet door wasn't shut.  The full bag of yarn was hanging ajar.  What dog worth his snout in curiosity wouldn't have investigated this gold mine of interesting smells?

Here is the yarn room.  My tall cabinet filled with yarn. One cabinet door open.
An open yarn bag gaping wide at dog head height and hanging off a knob on the buffet.

Trainer Jen has told us that if our pups have a fondness for something (socks, shoes, etc.) then you need to start setting those things out and then rewarding the pups for not going after them.  Set them up for success.

Dewey sits calmly by the silky orange ribbon as I try to rewind it.

Who's fault was it that he had failed? It was mine.

Now, I have to plan on being the one to make him succeed on avoiding yarn in future.

I recently became the sponsor of the Knitting and Crochet Club.  We knit and crochet baby hats for premies and babies at hospitals.  I just stored a big box of supplies without a lid under my desk and Dewey found it.

Dewey and the baby yarn for premie hats.

Now I will be buying a big storage tub with a locking lid on Sunday for my office.

It seems obvious to me that yarn is a red light item for Dewey.  So starting next week, we will be playing some yarn avoidance games, perhaps even some video, to get Dewey to the point where he isn't so interested in yarn.

We'll keep you posted!

Dodger's in the House!

Dodger arrived yesterday for puppy camp. Puppy camp is where you trade puppies for a week so they can experience a different type of household than what they are normally used to having. Dodger's dad works at home and isn't around kids very much so he wanted Dodger to get to go to school for a week, so we agreed to swap.

Our first event came when we met up for lunch with the two dogs at Casa Tina's, a very guide dog friendly restaurant. After the initial few minutes of energetic stretching to see if they could touch (when they have their coats on they can't interact with each other), they calmed down and ignored each other. Then it was head home, meet Willow and pack up Her Royal Highness!

As you can see in the photo above, this was similar to the scene in the restaurant, very calm dogs ignoring each other. That's what we like! Outside, it was a different story. Dodger is much larger than HRH and had the idea that he would play with Willow. Willow turned and did a matron growl ("young fool, back off now!"), which to his credit he did. So he turned to HRH thinking, "Oh, she's small and female, I can dominate her in a flash."

Yeah, right. Have you met the Queen?

HRH was on him in a flash.

"What?! I've got 20 pounds on you?" It was actually pretty amusing to watch this poor boy get what he was giving out handed right back to plus some. With attitude! (And a little head toss. There might have been some foot stamping as well, I was laughing and might have missed it.)

Many of you may know that we have koi ponds in our backyard. Apparently Dodger didn't get the memo. He fell in. TWICE. I'm tempted to say something about blondes because he did it all within the span of half an hour and the first time he fell in it was while he was drinking out of the pond and staring at himself. I wouldn't want to stereotype him.

In the end, I think Dodger was happy to see her go. What evil plans she has cooked up for John, I hesitate to think about. Good Luck!I crochet. I love yarn. Consequently, some might say I am a yarn harlot and buy too much yarn. Those people will not be receiving lovely yarn creations for Christmas! We immediately discovered that it is very easy to forget that we have trained our dogs not to bother with the yarn when the first thing Dodger did was run over and grab a ball of yarn.

Bad Dodger!
See all the yarn Dodger. Run Dudger, run!

Grab the yarn Dodger!
There is so much to choose from. What color do I want?



There are some things that you can teach in a week and some things that you can't. Yarn no, isn't one of them. Hence, the yarn blockade. Working so far. As for Dodger, he moved on to practice his artful moves.

See Dodger on the stairs?

See the chairs at the bottom of the stairs?

Somehow, Dodger got through the chair blockade and up the stairs. Clever boy, making my earlier blonde comment so much stereotyping balderdash. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on this one.