dog training by Dennis

I don't know why I haven't remembered to confiscate and hide the New Year's noise makers. Yesterday morning, I awakened to the sound of one being blown repeatedly. After he blew it (and thank goodness he was on the other end of the house) a couple dozen times, I heard a new pattern of noise emerge. Honk--howl--honk--howl... He was blowing the noisemaker horn and Lemonade was howling along, eerily singing the same awful key as the noisemaker. It started off as irritating and yet slightly funny, and after the dog joined in the noise party, I was laughing hard. Dennis was giggling too, and it was a cheerful start to our morning.

Tonight we went swimming. What else do you do when it's 30 degrees outside? As it turns out, Gran decided to join the gym where we go, and tonight we met her there and enjoyed a nice swim in their very warm indoor pool. Dennis brought along some toys and conducted some "water rescues" while sitting on the pool step after he'd had enough swimming. He moved to the end of the pool (where a shelf/ledge/seat runs the entire width) and happily scooted along until he reached one of those spouts where filtered water renters the pool. He apparently sat just right because his eyes got big and he announced in an incredulous way "my butt is getting sucked up by the pool!". He wasn't worried. He was intrigued. He wiggled around to actually try to get "sucked up".

Fortunately after his return to school (where we both had a really great day) and swimming, he fell right to sleep without all the usual drama at bedtime.