Posts Tagged ‘Dog toys’
4th Down
The NFL Wildcard Playoff Weekend is not over yet (2 games left today), but I am already a little woozy after two days of elimination desperation decision-making about going for it on 4th down. They weren’t all close games but they all contained the drama of getting knocked out of the playoffs in the first week if you lose.
Watching football several days in a row is a lot easier to do when the weather outside is frightful. It’s also a little less stressful for me this year because my team isn’t a contender. My allegiance leans toward teams representing the same division and conference as my Minnesota Vikings, but it’s not unlike me to change my mind in the middle of a game and root for their competition if circumstance dictates.
Color me fickle when it comes to other franchises and their fans. I had to pull for the Detroit Lions last night because I wasn’t up to seeing fans’ disappointment if they’d lost.
As the series, “Ted Lasso” reiterated, “It’s the hope that kills you.” In an earlier game, it was Dallas fans who had their hopes crash and burn in dramatic fashion. I felt sorry for them but it was offset by how thrilled the fans of Green Bay were.
Asher was a little disappointed we didn’t spend as much time outdoors as usual. He wasn’t interested in any of the NFL games. We pretty much exhausted all of his favorite indoor games. We’ve converted his outdoor “indestructible” throw ring into an indoor chew toy that occupies him for large chunks of time when he gets in that groove.
His bin of indoor toys becomes a wonderful time sink when a handful of his dry food is tossed in and around the objects so he has to nose stuff out of the way to find the precious morsels.
When that game is over there are usually more toys scattered around on the floor than remain in the bin. We can tell the exercise is completed when the sound of crunching kibble stops occurring. He might move around a few more toys, but when the munching is over, he’ll soon be looking for a new distraction.
I count myself lucky when he decides the next activity can be a nap instead of incessant whining to go outside.
It’s funny, I’m just the opposite. I start whining when I want to take a nap. When I’m successful and permission to sleep is granted, it’s a bit like getting a first down on that dramatic 4th down try.
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Staying Ahead
My second day of solo Asher duty went a little better than the first. I planned on working to keep a closer eye on him and hoped to stay one step ahead of his shenanigans. For the most part, it worked.
At the beginning of Tuesday, Asher gave me a little time when he hung around and chilled in the shade near where I was working on a new wood sculpting project. Hoping to buy a little more time similar to that, yesterday I offered him a portion of an antler to chew on while I worked. It kept him occupied long enough for me to get set up and start working before I noticed him walking away to bury the barely-chewed antler.
A brief moment later, Asher showed up with a spool from our trimmer in his mouth. He had gone into the shop to find an object that I very definitely didn’t want him to have. So much for my time to sculpt.
I gave Asher almost no time to himself and when he was off-leash I did my best to keep his attention on me. There was no new stink from horse manure rubbed into his coat throughout the entire day. That was a victory for me.
He didn’t seem as sharp as usual at figuring out where I hid treats in his bin of dog toys. Probably because he didn’t witness me putting anything in there. It was all a part of my staying one step ahead of him in hopes of reducing his chances of doing things I wished he wouldn’t.
Asher is doing a good job of teaching me to let go of my urge to have things in an orderly state. I feel like I’m being groomed to become more comfortable with chaos in my surroundings. Do I want the bathroom trash bin on the floor or up on top of a high surface? Maybe I’m not supposed to care.
Do I want a landscape pond that is beautiful to look at or one with netted fencing surrounding it?
I outsmarted Asher by squeezing food pellets between his Kong ball and a circular chew toy.
If he would just pop the ball out the treats would come free all at once but he didn’t figure that out. He tried licking after them instead. Didn’t offer him enough reward. I was surprised to see he didn’t have the patience to stay engaged with it long enough to be rewarded the first time.
If I’m going to stay ahead of him another day, I’ll need to change something in my “hide-the-treats” exercises. For half a day anyway. Cyndie returns today and that should be enough to keep him occupied for a long while. I’m sure he’ll want to show her all the new places where he’s found things to chew on that he’s not supposed to have.
I suppose I could put the bathroom trash bin back on the floor for him.
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Plenty Attention
Today will mark the completion of Asher’s first week at the lake. It’s fair to say he has adjusted pretty well to all the combinations of people and other animals that swirl around the Wildwood property in general and Friswold’s “cabin” in particular.
He is getting big love from all of Cyndie’s family and learning how to not bark at every movement of other people he can see from his lofty vantage point out on the second-story deck.
Cyndie and I have experimented with different attention exercises for Asher that we learned about in the obedience classes.
Tossing morsels of his dog food into a tub filled with toys requires that he push around items that may have fallen from his interest to find the snacks he can smell.
That tends to renew his liking for some items he had begun to ignore.
Asher has a remarkable inclination to push his squeaking tennis-style balls underneath furniture. When he tries that game out on the deck, the ball tends to roll off and fall to the ground one level below. Yesterday, I went down below and initiated a game of catch where I would throw the ball back up over the railing.
It proved to be an exception to the norm of so many other games where he tends to be the only one really enjoying it. I was having a blast trying to catch the balls he was nudging over the edge and then tossing them back up in a manner that gave him a fair chance of catching it with his mouth.
Beck devised a modified chew toy combination that has become my favorite. He forced one of the larger Kong balls in the middle of a hard chew ring.
It makes it harder for Asher to pick up but he seems interested in the challenge because he can almost get his teeth on the half of felt-covered ball that sticks out of each side.
Asher was flipping and kicking it around with great fervor yesterday. It seemed almost too hard for him to separate the two toys at first but now it is getting easier with practice.
With all the fun and attention Asher has been enjoying up at the lake this week, I’m starting to wonder if his eventual return home will become a disappointment for him.
Not that I’m projecting how we feel when we get home onto him or anything…
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Rare Specimen
Last night as I was coming down the stairs from our loft, I stepped over something that I most often ignore, but this time it snagged my attention. I felt it deserved to be recorded for posterity.
There lie before me the rare brown-spotted, long-armed yellow monkey, bandaged with flower print duct tape, face down in peaceful repose.
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Relative Something 