Here is what Jet has been up to this month.
Every year I try to do a volunteer activity with my family. It's really important to me that my kids know the importance of giving back. This year we did an activity we have enjoyed in the past. We rang bells for the Salvation Army. Jet was NOT IMPRESSED! At first I thought he didn't like the cold, even though I had taken a blanket for him to sit on. (It was only 7 degrees the day I happened to sign up for). But, I really think he didn't like the bells ringing. I know dogs can be really sensitive to high pitched sounds. Anyway, he whined almost the whole time and would not settle. So, after about 45 minutes, my husband took him home. I want his outings to be successful, not miserable for him. But, here is a picture when we first got there and we were not frozen yet.
Jet also enjoyed a trip to his favorite little friend's house. She has loved Jet almost as much as I have since the day I got him and she frequently asks to come see him. She's been known to throw fits if she knows that she's going to miss out on seeing him, such as when her older siblings were going to come to our house while she went to the ER because she was so sick. So as soon as she felt well enough I took him over for a visit. He does so well with her!
Jet also LOVED his first snow!
And he practiced some "office" etiquette in our home office. He wasn't impressed with that, either, and he let me know by whining most of the time! Pat runs his work from home now so he gets to hang out in the office with him every day. I made him stay in a more restricted Down/Under while I was working on the bookkeeping yesterday. It's safe to say he enjoys the free reign that Pat allows him. He's not misbehaving by any means, but he gets to walk around where he wants to when Pat is there. I mentioned to Pat that he needs to stop spoiling him and make him practice this behavior as well, because someday he might have to have this restriction in a work environment. Of course, later on that day, I had let him off his leash to have some free time. When Pat came down and joined me, Jet went right under the desk where I had been requiring him to stay and laid down and went to sleep with no complaining at all. Pat says Jet would just prefer working with him over me.
I didn't take Jet out too much during the crazy Holiday shopping season. He still has some anxiety in crowds. So, we spent a lot of time this month working on commands. He finally "got" the Go Up command. I had to use a lower counter to teach him than I used with Churry. Something finally just clicked with him one day and he will do it for me anywhere now.
I took him shopping with me today. I don't know that I would classify it as "shopping", it was more running lots of short errands. He did very well. There was the perfect amount of people for him. As a reward, I got him a new rope. He LOVES ropes and LOVES to tug on them, although he has not connected the command to the action quite yet. Today, he showed some signs of hope! He was very patient and didn't moan and groan at me for taking too long. He visited PetCo and PetSmart, Office Depot, Office Max, Sonic and Best Buy.
Have a Happy and Safe New Year!
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