Week 9

I'm posting a day late, because I was a little tied up yesterday. I have started working at Buddy's again, since I've found it next to impossible to find employment elsewhere. And I was a double yesterday, so I was on for about 12 hours, and I came home and crashed. So here I am, posting on Monday.

Things are going pretty well. Patrick and I have both signed up for Skype and have been able to video chat on our webcams! It was so great to be able to see him while we were talking. Way better then just a regular phone call! It is a little tough, because he usually calls or gets online in the afternoon here, when he's just getting off of work. But it's late over there and when he gets back, his roommates are sleeping, so he can't actually talk on the webcam. The times we can talk to each other, or "video chat" is when he is getting up for work, or has a break from work, and his roommates are gone. That is somewhere in the early morning hours over here. The other day he woke me up at 4 am to talk. But I'm not complaining. I'd do it everyday just to get to see him! Since he's been working so much and so hard, they've let him take some half days, which has made it easier for us to talk, and he is able to catch up on sleep he misses working long days and staying up late to talk to me. He got to see the boys on the webcam too. Jack laid in my lap and stared at the computer screen while we were talking. They miss their dad so much!

Here at home, as I said I started picking up shifts at Buddy's, and that is definitely keeping me busy! Winston had his second "good manners" class, and he was the star if I do say so myself! He was used as an example doggie TWICE! The first new command he demonstrated was "wait". The instructor asked if she could use him as an example, and I said "Well, you can try!" I usually make Winston sit and wait for his food, but he tends to release himself when the bowl hits the floor, and he dives right in. Needless to say I was shocked when he was completely successful on the first try! The next lesson wasn't the same. She then wanted to use Winston to demonstrate how to reward big dogs for good leash behavior. She borrowed Winnie, and started walking him around the room, and he had a minor freak out because she took him away from me. He got very scared and shut down. Then he practically climbed into my lap when she brought him back to me. Is he a mama's boy or what?! We also learned targeting, where you get the dog to touch a certain point with his nose (we used our pointer and middle finger together). Winston is doing so well with this after only a day, he was jumping to reach his nose to my fingers held high over his head! Can't wait to see what we learn next week!

That's all for now. Keep Pat in your prayers. 9 weeks down, 43 to go...