New Jersey - Day 13

Clarksboro KOA

Thursday, 13 December 2018

I decided to take the dogs back to day care today.  I’d planned to spend the whole day in the campground but changed my mind when I realized it would be good for Dexter to get prompt reinforcement for his behavior yesterday.  Plus, Nancy says she has a lot more dogs on Mondays and Fridays than on the other weekdays, and Dexter needs the smaller groups to do well.  Plus plus, with Christmas in the middle of the week this year, my possible day care days are limited.  So off we went.

And back Lily and I came.  She’s gradually adjusting to her new life, but she still seems to be insecure about the on-the-road part.  She almost always spends the ride in the 4” space behind the TV – even when the dogs aren’t here.  I expected her to come down to ride in comfort after I’d dumped them at day care, but all day yesterday behind the TV was where she was.  Today was more of the same.  Well, it’s been less than a month and things take time.

I spent much of the day catching up on my blog posts.  Between the notes I take while I’m driving and my photos I’m able to feel like I’m there again.  It’s nice for me, and I hope I’m able to capture some of that in words.

Went to get the dogs in the afternoon, and Nancy said Dexter had done well again.  His only growls were in situations she thought justified them, so that’s good.  I just wish she had a big enough situation that she could separate Gracie from Dexter – he’s very protective, even when she doesn’t need it, and also a little jealous when she wants to play with other dogs.  She won’t assert herself (drives me crazy in daily living that she’s so submissive to everybody else) so has been missing out on some play time.

I'm sorry that they’re not coming home exhausted, though maybe that’d improve if I left them for more than 4 or 5 hours.  But they need the extra mental stimulation and socialization, and they do get more exercise than I can give them, so I’ll keep bringing them.  This day care is only 20 minutes from the campground, which is another plus.

This is NJ’s license plate. Like CT, they seem to have very few specialty plates and almost all of them look like this.  Easy to spot as no other state’s looks like this.