Tuesday 3-18-14 chat

No green beer or whiskey for me.  I've been sort of busy at work, which is a nice change.  In a few months I won't believe that I was actually bored.lol

Tina, GingerD is lucky she ended up with you.  Having a plan is always good. :)    I hope the dental goes smoothly.  Yay for losing some weight, GingerD.

It's sunny and nice here.  I think we're supposed to get into the 80's today.

No hang over, we did enjoy some Guinness and Bass yesterday with family and friends. My step dad is 100% Irish so its a mandatory thing on St. Patty's Days. Got my friend Kim on a plane early this morning she is heading back to Florida I told her to send us some heat here in PA. Back to reality now was really good to see her I wish she lived closer. Have a good safe day everyone.

No green beer here either but I am feeling very sluggish. I must not have slept well last night. I feel the need for another cup of coffee coming on.

I had to break down and make a hair appt with a different stylist :( I was waiting for my stylist to get back from maternity leave but it turns out her baby was born super early and is only 4 lbs. So, he's still in the hospital and she'll be on maternity leave for quite a while. Glad her baby is ok though, just needs to incubate for a bit ;p

Michele, Tracy's going to have to smack you for "St. Patty's Day".  lol  Didn't you see her post yesterday?  It's St. Paddy's day.  :)  

Julie, good luck finding someone new for your hair.  I hate that.

Finding a good stylist can be so frustrating.  It's one thing to go through that process when you make the choice entirely yourself because you're tired of your current stylist, but it's more annoying when you're having to make a change when you really prefer not to.  I hope you find someone you like, Julie!

@JackieG

Michele, Tracy's going to have to smack you for "St. Patty's Day".  lol  Didn't you see her post yesterday?  It's St. Paddy's day.  

 That's me, Miss Nit-Pick!

Michele, I'm glad you enjoyed your friend's visit.  Florida is definitely far away from PA, but at least it's closer than Oregon.  It's very rare that any of my friends want to travel 3,000 miles out here to see me.  But, I'm going to CT in April to overlap a visit from my friend who lives in Florida now -- we haven't been in our hometown together in YEARS.  I'm very excited!

No green beer for me last night (or any kind of libation, for that matter).  The only evidence I'm carrying around today of my wild evening is a strong smell of garlic on my hands from chopping a bunch of it for dinner last night!

Tina, I meant to add that I hope GingerD's appt goes well on Friday and her tooth issue can be taken care of.  I also hope you have relatively high success with your plans to deal with her food guarding and demand barking.  Boy, I can relate to the latter problem.  It's so hard to truly ignore them when that shrill bark is right in your face and you just want to watch the news for 15 minutes!  

@tacran

It's so hard to truly ignore them when that shrill bark is right in your face and you just want to watch the news for 15 minutes

Two words: water bottle

GingerD needs only to see it before she shuts up. Squirting not necessary.

We should try the spray bottle.  We've tried other distractions, like the pennies in a can, but after a while she just ignores it.  We used it to stop her barking through the fence at the neighbor's dog.  For a while, it worked because she's so easily startled.  But eventually the noise meant nothing.  A spray of water, however, is more than just a sound.

Is there any chance it would make her fear water a little bit?  We've worked on getting her to cooperate having her paws dunked in a bucket of water before she comes in after running zoomies in the muddy backyard.  But I wouldn't think a spritz of water from a spray bottle would make her avoid the bucket, would it?

@tacran

Is there any chance it would make her fear water a little bit?

That I don't know. I have used this on other dogs I've had as well as cats and have not noticed a difference. Usually after one or two squirts around the face (and it's usually on a spray setting, not a direct squirt), it hasn't been necessary to actually do anything but hold the spray bottle in my hand.  BUT... I am not a trainer, nor do I play one on TV. 

it.is.still.raining/sleeting.miserable

Tina I am sure I saw you helping out Dr Pol with some training techniques

Saturday morning is the volunteer cleanup at B& I's lake. Looks like the weather should be nice so I am planning on bagging some trash!

Funny story: Key to the funniness is that B is the anti-barker.
Ever since he's a pup if he wants to start trouble he steals something and flaunts it in front of us. One favored item is a plastic doorstop that we use for our bedroom door. This morning, he must have decided to steal it however it didn't work out to plan.
He went missing for quite some time (20-30 minutes - usually in the morning he is in your face so when he was missing I knew it wasn't good).
I was walking past our bedroom and thought, "huh, I thought I'd opened this door"
When I popped it open guess who was behind it, wiggling and wagging like, "phew, I was wondering when you'd find me" LOL

He could have been in there all day and would never had made a noise. I recall once we left him in the garage for hours and didn't find him until we both sort of panicked that he was AWOL. He truly makes me LOL on a very regular basis

 Tina; I hope Ginger's dental goes well on Friday. I agree with Jackie; she is so lucky that you have her. When we adopted Jessie she barked at our cats a lot. She wasn't aggressive towards them so she was probably just excited but it was very annoying and worried the cats. I had a friend who raised and showed Bull Mastiffs and she suggested a spray bottle with  water mixed with a small amount of vinegar. It worked great and only took a few days for the barking to stop.