Just another Saturday

A little lost? Read our last chapter: Food and Fun

Dead fish that someone threw out,
big enough to feed a family of 4!

Big spider, silver dollar sized!

Well same good morning with a long walk (where we dodged that dead fish again as well as a huge spider) and then breakfast. Leia was so tired from her walk that she didn't quite have the energy to get to her breakfast sooo I kinda spoiled her and brought her the bowl which she woofed down (put water on the food again, one happy girl.).

After she had a little time to rest it was day 2 of ear cleaning... She was all happy until she saw me reach for the bottle of cleaner. Oh boy you'd though I'd reached for the beating stick (metaphorically, we don't actually have one nor do we condone physical punishment) because her smile vanished and she was OUT of there and ran right into the bedroom. NICE.  I called her back in and put the leash on her so she couldn't run far. I also bribed her with bits of treats. She was NOT a fan of getting her ears cleaned and would clearly rather be just about anywhere else but she tolerated it and didn't growl or whine. If I felt her tense up I'd pause and pet for a little bit and then go right back to it, praising her the entire time as I cleaned. We got a much better cleaning done today and in a little bit we'll put the drops in. I know this isn't fun for her, but it is important and a part of life she will have to get used to, especially with her semi-flop ears.

I was proud of her today. A stranger passed the glass door and she began to growl (her concerned growl) and I quickly corrected and what did she do? Flop back down like "Ok, not a problem? Got it!" Good girl!

We did a little bit of crate training today where she got in for no reason and chilled for a while. One hitch, she absolutely destroyed her water dish when she first got in (meaning she flipped a huge dish of water all over her blankie). So I cleaned it up and am drying her blanket (for the 3rd time this week). She stayed in her crate while I made and ate lunch, then quickly walked out to get the mail and returned. I think I might have heard her howl once as I was returning down the hall but couldn't hear it when I was at the door, so if it was actually her then she piped down. After returning I did a few things and then let her out without making a huge deal about it. I know I am repeating thoughts from earlier posts here but it is important that she learns that not every time in the crate means I am leaving or going away for hours.

I realized today that I am going to have to watch out for Leia's back hips. Yesterday I was petting her and went to roll her and she whined, I just figured the ground was hard but today she flopped down funny on her leg and cried because it put stress on her back left (right from our perspective) hip... This probably explains some of the limping, stiff and painful. Poor baby girl I know all too well how bad that can hurt (having 16 knee dislocations myself.) For now I will try to make sure she doesn't do a lot of dodging and weaving where strain would be put on that hip. That's fine with me because I can't do too much of that either.

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