Day 8 Mikey and the Firefighters

On Day 8 we had a great post- work walk. The weather was so beautiful I was able to wear sandals!

 

There was a fire on our block and soon after we set out on the walk, we were surrounded by 4 shrieking fire engines, 2 wailing cop cars, and at least 20 fire fighters and cops.  Mikey was a total professional, just sniffing as if nothing were going on.  I actually had to drag him away from the commotion.  This is not a fearful or skittish dog!  He only reacted to one particularly loud and annoying siren that went close by us. He just flicked an ear at it!

As you know, we’ve been working on “sit”, even in high-distraction areas like the dog park, Smorgasburg, and inside moving vehicles.  Well, here’s the best part about the fire: Mikey managed a sit even with firetrucks and firefighters and sirens going on around him.  WHAT A GOOD BOY.  He's doing his "sit" in the picture up on top, but here some others of Mikey, cool as a cucumber.

 

(Don’t worry about the fire.  I believe it was just a small but smoky kitchen fire.  I saw an abashed- looking young guy exiting the smoking building and talking to the firefighters.  I always feel a tiny bit sorry for firefighters who come all the way out and then see that it’s no big deal.  What a letdown, huh?)

 

On his post- work walk Mikey mosesed but did not robert.  Hmm; unusual.  Then after we went in and he ate dinner (all of his dinner, hooray!) he had a robert accident on the floor.  My fault.  Maybe I should have kept him out a bit longer. Poor guy.  Then on his late night walk: neither.   We even took him for a quick last walk immediately before bedtime, but nothing!  Uh oh.  We felt a great sense of forboding…

 

…For no reason!  He woke up before the alarm in the am, which was unusual, so I decided to listen to what Mikey was telling me and get him outside quick!  Upon opening his crate I could see he had NOT had an accident overnight.  What a good boy.

 

Outside he walked for a while, sniffed around a lot, and then, only after a few minutes, did first robert, and then moses.  So it wasn’t even an emergency.  Yay, good boy!  I’m slowly learning how to work with Mikey to keep as much robert and moses outside the house as possible.  He’s being very patient with me!

 

I tried a few new treats last night, because I was making a big chef’s salad for dinner.  He tolerates but isn’t crazy about tomato. That's a bronze- level treat, to use Tamar Geller's terminology. He isn’t interested in lettuce (he spat it out!) and would not even look at cucumber.  But he LOVED the tiny bits of roast beef and turkey cold cuts we gave him-- just as we expected!  Those are his gold - level treats, along with bits of hot dog and cheddar.

Here's a photo unrelated to anything, but I like it.

 

The Statue of Liberty is that tiny spike in the distance.

Mikey is the dog you want in your house if you want your pets to stay off the couch.  See, I really want him on the couch.  But he won’t (or can’t) jump up.  So I picked him up and set him next to me on the couch.  He seemed very nervous.  I petted him gently and kept murmuring “it’s okay, buddy, it’s okay.”  This usually works pretty well when he’s anxious.  It got him through the vet visit, and helps him when I have to do his eye ointment twice a day.  But he just wanted to get down off that couch!  He actually jumped down and ran away!  My guess: he was VERY well trained to stay off the furniture by his last owners.  Or he just doesn’t want to be up there.

Working on Shiblog Inu is a lot of fun.  I hope you will pardon any typos I make.  I'm usually posting pretty late at night, and sometimes I'm even nodding off when I post.  Also, I'm not sure why Blogger sometimes has different- sized type in the post.  I assure you, I'm not trying to make it look like that!  So I'm still working out the bugs.  Please bear with me and keep coming to read Mikey stories!