Mother's day was Sunday, which got me to thinking about mine and hw much I really missed out on when she died so early. I often consider, now, that she was my age when she died, and I absolutely cannot fathom dying right now. I still think I have many more years to go. The gifts I have seem to be only beginning to be realized. I just can't get over knowing just how much she missed out on, and how she would be right in the middle of so many things in our lives.
We had Lupe Casimiro from Chicago for drinks and dinner at Graziano's Saturday night. This was a fun visit, and I made some meats/cheeses and Sangria as a prelude to dinner. She and her husband Abel came down to visit his mother, and he had his sister and her boyfriend along for the ride. We mainly sat outside and chilled, and then left for dinner. Missed her funny attitude, and hearing about the stuff back in Chicago. Easy and fun.
I have not made a journal entry since we got our five month old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Winston. So, let this be the first of many more to come.
I am thrilled that Joel is already taking such an active lead in the development and care of him. He knows where I stood on having a puppy in an apartment without a big yard for him to play. Now, he understands why. As a way to compensate, he is trying to find as many options to keep Winston busy and happy with parks, playtime, and training. It is no small task, and he is really in love with him wholeheartedly. We laughed this morning about finding just the right dog bed for him, and then redecorating the rest of the house around it if necessary.
I will say that having a strongly instinctive herding dog is going to be fun for me. He is just starting to learn the basic handling commands of sit, down, fetch, and drop. Then we will move onto some other safety and fun tricks for him to show off when we get stopped by people walking by, which happens all the time.
I had wanted a Basset Hound, which would have been a lot lower energy, but this Corgi eye locked on us, and we had to take him home instead. I was looking forward to more of an olfactory training scheme, with scent trails, and all of that. Instead, we ended up up with a much more active and controlling breed, which should be fun once I figure out how to adapt him to the city dog life.
He is a heeler type of herding dog, typically working sheep and cattle, but also ducks and geese and that type of thing. They generally push stock from behind, barking and nipping when necessary to get them to move. There is a strong tendency to bite everything in play, so this can be threatening to strangers. He demands to be in charge and chase everything that moves. This makes him fun to play with, but he can be scary to strangers that don't know anything about that jumping up and nipping behavior. Training will help, but I don't want him to lose his instincts that make him so much fun.
Getting to know his playstyle has been expensive, so I am doing my best to learn all about what's available, and match that to things he might be interested in. I don't want to train the herding instincts out, but to refine them into something more friendly and acceptable to guests and spectators.
One simple example was the potty bells. That came together in a snap. Literally, we rang the bells every time it was potty time. Then I simply switched them to the main door handle, and he started to nudge them when he wanted to go outside. Still having a few accidents, but he is learning and we are trying to set a more reliable schedule.
I started working with the Heeling stick, teaching him to touch with his nose. That was easy, and just bears some reinforcement to get him to learn to touch lots of things without getting wound up using my hand.
I got him a soccer ball to herd around the apartment, and he is much more interested in my feet and legs than he ever was in the ball. So, I am going to get a simple wooden walking cane to move the ball around with so I can stay at a distance and still play with him. I hope to be able to get him to push the ball into a goal and run it around the island, keeping it in control as he goes around. He wants to mouth it, so he needs to be tutored to use his nose to nudge it instead of biting to move it around.
I have also observed that he is a huge snuffler, so I may yet be able to get some olfactory work in while getting him to do some rudimentary sport dog skills developed.