Kids, Beach, Shopping, Non Sequitor!

Prada meets yard work. That's where she gets to sit tied down to a porch support post with her nylabone and watch me stain a fence or haul bark dust! Not the most exciting thing for the dog but it's a good chance for her to learn how to stay out of trouble when i can't be with her at all times. She did great, as I expected.

Mom continues to ignore her and Prada's fixation seems to have diminished slightly but not enough for comfort. Mom says it's really hard not to affirm that little puppy look Prada gives her with her huge brown eyes but she knows it's better for our working relationship and has hope that by Christmas break, when I come home from school, she'll be able to play, too.

On Saturday we took Prada down to a family reunion-ish picnic to meet Mom's side of the family. In order to curb Prada's too-social working habits I cut back on the 'sit, ok now you [small child] can pet her unless she stands up' routine. After a couple of hours I removed the harness and let the kids come and say hello, and then the harness went back on. This seems to have made a bit of a difference and I think I'll have to discipline myself into making this a habit. It's just so hard to say no to a cute little guy that asks so politely if he can pet the doggy!!!

Saturday evening Prada joined me and a friend for a church service for college-aged students at my friend's church. Afterwards we moved to one of the rooms upstairs converted into a college-kid's hangout complete with food, couches, a TV, and foosball table. I'd brought Prada's nylabone to distract her from the volleyball flying around the gym down. Several of the students spent more than an hour watching my girl tear that thing apart (or try to) and chatting. Apparently it was quite phenomenal to them how the bone never really changed shape and she never lost interest

Afterwards she and my friend and I retreated to a house where my friend was house-sitting. Prada spent the night literally halfway on top of me as we slept on the floor of the living-room close to where my shepherd's mat was placed. I think that helped the bond a bit. Pack mentality? Once again Prada refused to eat more than a mouthful of kibble, being in a new area. Yet another reason why I'm moving back to school a week early: get her eating schedule back to normal before classes start.

Next morning Prada and my friend and I went and worked in her church's 2-year-old Sunday school classroom. I took Prada out of harness ('cause it's just a bit difficult to explain the concept of a working dog to 2-year-olds) tied her down to a chair, gave her the bone, and let her sleep the whole time. She turned out to be a great hit with the kids, and tolerated their gentle stroking, even the wrong way, very quietly. One little girl, who apparently is growing up on a farm, got a puppy kiss on her cheek! Prada let me mostly ignore her and play with the kids, color, and hand out snack without much complaint, though she looked miffed when I left her alone to take the kids out to the gym to play with balls.

That afternoon Prada got to go to the Oregon coast with me and my friend! Wheeeeeeeee.....wet! No surprise there, so we didn't go down onto the beach. Guess we'll find out how easily her fur collects sand on another trip. Instead we walked around one of the shopping centers in town, then went to our favorite restaurant. Prada received, as per usual, many admiring glances and comments and behaved rather well, though she clearly doesn't like shopping as much as I'd originally thought. To her it's about the same as museum work, except with the added oddity of the fitting room. Yet another tiny space for her to cram her loooooooong slinky body into while I monkey around with weird bits of fabric. Fortunately for her I'm not a huge shopper and have only done so much recently in order to get her out of the house. Once school kicks in we won't have time for hardly anything except essentials.

(By “…wet.  No surprise there’ I mean that in Oregon it’s almost always rainy at the beach, so that’s why we stayed in town instead of hitting the sand.  Cold Oregon coastal waters are no fun in the rain!)