Happy Halloween!

A K-State Fan!  She did awesome amongst the droves of kids out and about tonight.!

Kinsey's Bat-O-Lantern

Jacob's Cat-O-Lantern

And my little Gypsy!

Food Refusal: Round 2

   How do you teach a child about cooking and food?  Well, you pull up the chair and let them watch.  So, tonight, Churry got to practice her Sit and Stays, as well as food refusal, sitting in a chair watching me prepare dinner.

When she got bored with that I made the challenge a little bit more difficult and had her practice a Down/Stay on the floor with temptations in front of her.  I kept adding more and more in until she fell asleep.

You can't really tell, but there is food inside the plastic bag in front of her.

Food distractions, toys, a basket of little gourds and pumpkins, the cupboard, etc.  None of them even tempted her!

So why does my dog randomly snatch food off my plate!  She performs beautifully in all of my "test trials"!

Food Refusal Week, Night 1 Pumpkin Guts

     It's one of my favorite nights of the year...pumpkin carving night!  I'm down to 2 kids who want to participate a whole lot.  The older two participate by agreeing to what the pumpkins should look like, then enjoying them when they are finished.  But, Kinsey and Jacob still enjoy the whole process.  

I think Kinsey's pumpkin weighed as much as she does!

Hmm...do I want to try this?

Wait, I think it might be a trick to get me in trouble.

You can't fool me, Mom, I'm going to ignore it!

After that effort, she needed a good rest!

More pics to come of the finished products!  Phase 2 of the decorating is tomorrow!

Such love!

Jacob and Churry have such a sweet connection!  She is a little snuggle bug with him!  As she was keeping my mom's feet warm, Jacob decided to use her as a pillow since the seats were all full.

Terrible quality picture.  I don't know what was wrong with my camera, but I still love the photo!

My little foodie!

    Churry, for the most part, hasn't had really bad habits to break.  But, here lately, she has developed a liking to people food.  There has been very few times during my time raising her that she has shown interest in food on the table...crumbs on the floor is another story and one that needs attention as well, but for now we are focusing on the very bad habit that seems to be developing.  She has always laid on the floor by my side during mealtime at home and doesn't beg, etc.  My family knows they are not allowed to speak or encourage interaction with her at all during dinner time so she has never really solicited it.

This is her spot.  My chair is at this end.

Unfortunately, she has made the connection that those yummy crumbs are from the food that is up on those plates and she has become a regular little pest.  Well, it really caught my attention last night when were having my oldest daughter's birthday party and I was sitting visiting with my family.  The next thing I knew, Churry had quick as lightning eaten my cheesecake sitting on my plate on the end table next to me!  I was NOT HAPPY!  So today begins some serious food refusal training.   Pat was appalled that I just set plates of food on the floor, but I didn't know how else to start out, so this is what I did.  I told him I would clarify for my readers that we don't just put plates of food on our kitchen floor on a regular basis!

I was very proud that she held her stay as I set them down.

Then, she actually wimpered at me because I guess she thought she was being terribly mistreated.

She finally let out a huff and relaxed.

And eventually just went to sleep, but not before staring at it for a solid 15 minutes!  

I started off sitting in my chair right next to her giving her encouragement to do well.  Then, I moved around in the kitchen to see if she would still obey (with Pat in his chair to step in if need be).  I then left the room.  Pat said she watched me leave, looked at the food, then looked at him and thought better of it!  But, at least she didn't make a move for it.  Of course, she always does things right when I'm having a specific training session for her, it's times like last night when she's just hanging out with the family that she has problems with things.  That's why during her "training time" today, I left her off leash and no cape on.  I was proud that I never had to grab her to keep her from moving towards it.   We'll keep working making the task harder and harder!

Something scary is happening around here!

"Hey, mom, it's says there is something haunted!  It's pointing at our house!"

"Holy cow, where did that thing come from!"

"This is exhausting!"

"Listen, I'm trying to practice my stays and you're getting on my nerves."

"It's not listening.  Do you think if I flip my ear up like a bat it will leave?"

What is this thing they call a doghouse?

Last night Pat and I took Churry to PetSmart to pick out a new bone.  While we were there we looked at lots of things, her favorite being the birds.  She was very fascinated by them, much like the fish at Bass Pro Shop or Cabella's.  After we watched the birds and a hamster we walked around the store practicing Leave it's, Sits, etc.  We walked by some doghouses and I realized she has likely never been in a tight enclosed space like that.  We have a large wire crate for her.  Her travel crate is solid walls, but it is pretty big and she hasn't used it for several months.  This doghouse was also up a bit on a low shelf so she had to jump up to get in it.  She thought it was great fun!  She went in and out of it for me several times.  Who knew being in the doghouse was so much fun!

A Very Proud Mama Today!

     I haven't posted too many pictures of football because I knew this day was coming and I'd take a lot of pictures!  I'll not bore you with too many.  Jacob got to play at Bill Snyder Family Stadium today!  Home of the Kansas State Wildcats for those of you who don't know that!

Obviously, he's not in a Wildcat uniform yet, but this moment may never come again so I had to get lots of pictures!

He's lined up on the end.

Now on to the topic of the blog...Miss Churry!  She also made her first trip to Bill Snyder Family Stadium today.  She did awesome as usual.  One of the challenges we encountered was the grates you see in the picture behind us.  We had to cross one to get to our seating area.  She stopped dead in her tracks when we were walking in.  After studying it for a few seconds she leaped over it.  I couldn't hold people up right at that moment to practice, so we went back after the game was over and practiced.  She eventually crossed it.  In a very humorous manner, but she crossed it!  I wish I had a video camera of her braving it!  As far as sitting in the stands, she was a pro.  There were kids pounding up and down the bleachers, throwing balls around her, etc.  And as always, she got tons of attention from some kids.  She's doing so well at not seeking the attention out and behaving very appropriately when the attention does come her way.  The rest of the time she just enjoyed the game and cheered on her favorite little player!

Her favorite football team runs out of this area behind us on game day!

And they play right here on this field!  Some of you may have seen them giving those Jayhawks a whipping yesterday!

She really wishes she had been there to see that!

And ducking her head under the seat gave her a nice view as well!

A Normal Little Walk Turns Scary???

      Churry cracks me up sometimes!  This is not a big or interesting post, but kind of funny because she's so silly.  We were doing our normal little route tonight...visiting with the same kids, passing the same yapping dogs, etc.  when all of a sudden she stopped dead in her tracks and wasn't budging.  There was a very scary GAS CAN sitting in OUR sidewalk!  She stared it down for a bit, then finally decided it was safe, but she carefully walked around it with her eye on it the entire time.  Then did a little hoppity hop when we were going by it to make sure it didn't get her from behind, I guess.  Funny girl!  Why she wasn't scared of the loud lawn mower going less than 10 feet away I don't know.  I can see why they small red gas can would be much more intimidating...