Thursday, 21 November 2019
Dexter found a rabbit when we were taking our last walk last night. Fortunately, no deer showed up but both dogs can still find rabbits very distracting. This rabbit didn't run but stayed very still, and once I realized what it was I moved my flashlight away. The combination helped Dext get over it without going bonkers.
He's developed a new habit that I don't care for. For the last 3 nights he's started barking during the night and won't stop, no matter what I say - or threaten. The first time was back at Montgomery Bell State Park and he was barking at 9:15 (I go to bed early these days), so I figured it was just someone walking their dog.
But the next night at Reelfoot Lake he was barking at about 11:00, so I guessed there was a critter outside. Last night he did it again about 10:30. He's almost never barked during the night on this trip, so I'm at a loss about what's causing this now.
And after last night's barking, I couldn't get back to sleep. I lay there for about an hour and finally got up and organized the photos on my computer (no wifi so I couldn't do anything more constructive), and then went back to bed after being up about an hour. Not a great way of getting a good night's sleep.
Some years ago with other dogs I used something I think was called Gentle Spray - made by the folks who make Gentle Leader collars that keep dogs from pulling. The Gentle Spray is a device that is attached by a collar around the neck and citronella spray is activated near the dog's muzzle when he barks. It breaks the dog's focus (and helps the overall smell of the room). It worked pretty well before.
Only problem is that they're expensive. I think the ones I used to have cost $150 or so. But they worked pretty well so if Dext keeps this up I'm going to pay a visit to a PetsMart. Not too much to pay for a decent night of sleep.
Walking with the dogs has gotten to be a challenge most of the time. Dext does this Search Mission routine where he pulls hard while he weaves back and forth across the road ahead of us, searching for critters, I guess.
Gracie, on the other hand, pulls hard in the opposite direction while she does a perfect imitation of a 14-year-old girl who's been forced to go to the mall with her mother and wants to pretend she's unrelated so trails as far back as she can get away with. It might not be too terribly bad except Gracie also weaves back and forth across the road behind me to check things out, and she sees no problem in wrapping the leash around the back of my legs and coming up hard on my other side. That's especially a problem when they both spot a critter they want to chase. She's pulled me over that way before, so now I panic when she's weaving around back there.
One pulling and weaving in front, the other doing the same behind. Walks are often not a lot of fun for me, though the dogs love them so I guess it's not all bad.
Such a shame I can't get a wifi signal in the campground. I'm working on blog posts using my word processing program - I've got LibreOffice on my computer - but I just can't cut and paste because of the wildly irregular font you've seen before. Plus I need to look up information online sometimes and pull in my photos, so it can take some extra time to post them even when I finally get a signal. But at least having my ideas organized makes it easier in the end.
It was raining most of the day today, and windy and chilly and just generally unpleasant. After I spent a few hours putting together draft posts I still didn't feel like unplugging to move down the road to the Visitor Center (source of wifi signal). I spent an hour or so going through receipts and other paperwork. Can't get a phone signal here either, it turns out.
When the weather was still ugly after all that, I decided to take a sick day for the rest of the day. Did what I do when I'm sick: watched all 3 Star Wars episodes, interspersed with dog walks. Ate some soup and covered up with a blanket and just generally let my body recuperate a bit.
The weather never improved, but I did, so that was good.
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