Pristine

Several weeks ago the White-throated Sparrows that were moving north were kind of ratty looking but I've noticed that every one I've seen this week has been in pristine plumage.  Definitely ready for the breeding season.  And the males are all tuning up their lovely songs which just adds to the enjoyment.  

I slept late today which felt great.  Hubs had an MRI this morning, so Jax was in his crate allowing me a leisurely shower.  Ah, the small joys in life!  Jax and I spent some time out on the deck (where I took this shot) and then worked on a few training things.  Also put the prong collar on for a while just so he can get used to it.  Frankly, it's a bit of a non-event for him.  He doesn't seem to even know it's there.

So several of you asked about the prong collar ... and I thought it might be helpful to give a bit more context.  As you may know, Jax is a prodigious puller.  And at 55 pounds, he can topple me fairly easy if he lunges on the leash and I'm not prepared.  Not to mention, the constant pulling is hard on my neck and shoulders.  And then, of course, there is the fear that he'll yank the leash out of my hands and race to greet some dog that isn't friendly or some person who is afraid of dogs.  I've been working diligently with trying to get him to walk well on a leash and harness (safer than a standard collar which can cause damage to the trachea when a dog lunges or pulls).  And, in situations where there are no distractions, I does well.  However, the minute he sees a dog or kids, he wants to get at them - not in an aggressive way but because he wants to play.  That is when he goes airborne, lunges, stands on his hind legs and all sorts of other bad behaviors.  

A number of people who'd seen me struggling with him suggested looking into a prong collar - the first person who suggested it really made me angry.  I didn't know anything about the collars but they sounded bad to me.  Then when I had him at the park one day, I ran into a couple with a 2-year old golden who was training as a service dog.  They told me that they used a prong collar in the early days of her training to stop her lunging and pulling and they took time to show me the collar in great detail.  Then I went home and started reading up on it.  Ultimately, I talked to a number of people (some with pit mixes) who all said these collars were game changers for their dogs.  The caveat from every person was that if you don't know what you are doing with the collar, you can hurt your dog.  So I talked to the young lady who does the obedience training and who also has a pit mix (and after educating herself, trained her boy with a prong collar.)  She offered to help us with introducing the collar and working with us to use it properly. So the first step was this week when she adjusted the fit of the collar for Jax.  Our homework was to just put the collar on him at random times of the day, leaving it on from 30 minutes to several hours.  The next step will be having her show us how to use a leash with the collar in a way that doesn't cause pain, but applies even pressure.  And because I am a bit of a helicopter mom, I put the collar on myself and tried tightening it just to see how it felt.  Didn't hurt - the prongs are angled so they don't dig into the flesh.  Frankly, even after watching numerous videos and doing a lot of reading, I would not feel comfortable doing this without someone to help.  So now you know!  And so far, when we put it on Jax, he doesn't even seem to notice that it's there.  He plays, naps, and gets into mischief just the same as when he doesn't have it on.  

Hubs, Jax and I went down the road to one of our local farms and got several flats of pansies.  I have an epic case of spring fever and pansies are really the only thing safe to plant this early in the season.  So I've planted 18 little pansies around the patio and put one larger one in a pot on the deck.  The colors are orange, purple, blue and yellow so they add some nice splashes of color.  And hopefully they will keep some of the pollinators around.  Jax helped, of course.  See Extra

Dark, plain and rich, today

xo
Debbi