Well, Ozzy seems to be a bit better. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Yes, he has accidents. But his signals are clear, and sometimes he even…get this…tells us he has to go! Especially this week.

It’s interesting, as I think the process has improved quite a bit this week, and it was never really bad. We’re clicker training this time around, which we’ve never tried before. And it’s working – with the other dogs too. But on average, he’s having one “oops” a day. It’s never been poop – only pee. And he’s never gone in his crate. (Although I suppose there’s always a first time.)

So I have high hopes for him-maybe he’ll be reliable before 9 months? Could he be one of those rare, not super hard to house train, Swissies?

There are no pictures. That’s right, none.

The weather was cloudy and raining pretty much the entire time we were there. Not good for pictures at all.

I’ll admit I was a bit nervous or apprehensive about going. This was our first trip in 7 years that we took without Gryffin. He was always such a big part of our lives that I really wasn’t sure how it would go without him.

Oddly enough, it went really well.

Indy and Beowulf were actually fantastic in the truck on the ride out. I’m used to Indy being great in a vehicle, but not Beowulf. The sleeping part of the trip worked extremely well. Beowulf is usually on the bed (Alex would be there too…), and Indy and Gryffin would find places on the couches behind us as we use an air mattress out there. It would be normal to be woken up with a punch/kick/paw to the head/throat/you name it. That was Gryffin’s thing. Or he’d wake up and smack his lips for 20 minutes. While it certainly goes without saying that I would rather he’d be alive and well with us, the weekend went really well. I really didn’t expect it. Although I didn’t expect a disaster, either.

Yes, I was a little sad now and then. But it really seemed that when I was sad, Indy and Beowulf would do something incredibly cute or cuddly to make me happy.

It worked.

For his remaining litter mates, I hope you all had a wonderful Birthday today full of treats, belly rubs and practical jokes.

To everyone else:

Life is short. Play with your dog.

Gryffin and Beowulf got a lot of love, too. Actually, Gryffin got a fair amount of Irish Cream to drink and bean dip to eat. Beowulf was wearing his yarmulke, so he was quite the ladies man. But he’s getting old, and at about 10:30pm, he stopped circulating and plopped himself down on a dog bed by the couch, which likely worked out better than he planned.

All five of us were dead to the world the next day. We went out for breakfast in the morning (well, the dogs stayed home) and that was it. I believe that the three sleepy dogs sucked the energy out of the house. Period. There was none to be found anywhere.

Actually, I’m still sleepy now…

While the humans were off in Cabo, the doggies were at home with their favorite sitter. I think things went smoothly, except for one hiccup.

Thursday morning around 5:30am, I got a text from the sitter. Indy went into heat early. (We actually think she may have gone into heat before we left, but I won’t bore you with that story.) Oddly enough, I was already awake, so it wasn’t an issue at all. I fumbled around with my phone and told her where to look for the diapers and pads. I’m not sure where the good denim diapers went, because when we got home, she was wearing the silly frilly ones that I never meant for her to wear again. They are too small.

So my poor baby girl was in her emotional, hormonal state while we were gone. Poor thing. Poor sitter. Our absence was probably harder on everyone because of it.

Here’s the funny part. I think Indy is on to her super fertile part of the cycle. Which means both boy dogs in our house are very interested in her. Gryffin would not leave her alone on Sunday night! He kept pouncing around and trying to mount her. The manic look did not leave his face at all. Indy had the look of “please help me” and “make him stop” for a long time. She was very happy when we finally took her upstairs (and away from Gryffin) for the night.

That’s all for now, folks!

To celebrate, Dan and I took the Swissies to the Bonfield Express 5k race and walk that starts about .75 miles from our house. I usually run it, but to get the others involved, I walked. I think between the “race” and distance to and from, the dogs got about 4 miles in this morning. Indy is almost calm now!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!