Dog update!
The dog and I have been doing battle. I think I'm winning at the moment, but the upper hand can change without warning. Foley is having some severe separation anxiety problems; when I leave her in the morning, she barks and howls and I can hear her from outside. It makes it very hard to leave, but I do have to go to work. She also messes her crate nearly every day (fun!). I was going to work on proper crate training this weekend while Mark is off in Utah, but unfortunately Foley reacted badly to his being gone. Yesterday evening she whined and howled and barked non-stop, asked to go out constantly, and refused to come back in when she was outside. I was at my wits' end and was relieved that she settled down when we went upstairs where she couldn't see the back door. I thought she'd be better today, but no, and even after a nice walk and a ride in the truck, she went right back to whining and howling when we got home. Finally, she jumped up on the back door, and that was IT. I realized that even if it had started out as "Where's Daddy?" anxiety, it had evolved into "I'm the boss of you", and I was letting her get away with it because I thought she needed to cry herself out. HA! So, over the next 10 minutes or so, I calmly but firmly demonstrated who was alpha using Mark's patented asserting dominance technique, and hallelujah, it worked. I think these few days without Daddy around might be good for my relationship with this little beastie. However, the crate training might be a bit much for her right now.

I want to take more pictures, but she doesn't photograph well indoors, and it's been so cloudy out. Reminds me, I need to buy her a collar that lights up at night; she completely vanishes in the dark!
- posted by Diane @ 2:20 PM