I know I posted about it already, but because of whatever is going on our wall has taken a beating. He has gotten the molding 3 times now. The last time, John was in the room asleep in the bed and Carter STILL pulled the molding off the wall. We thought it may be an anxiety thing, but if John was home I am not so sure anymore.
He has also become AWFUL to walk. He does have his good days, but he also has the days where he does not listen whatsoever. He pulls and tries to do his own thing. Yesterday, I took him for his morning walk and he did a pretty good job. When he does a decent job, I let him chase the ducks. Well when he was done chasing the ducks, I accidentally hooked his leash to the ring that holds his tags- not the one on the collar. HUGE mistake. We were close to home and he saw a cat. He trying going after it and I was trying to get him to listen to me when he yanked really hard. He went after the cat, I fell backwards, and his tags went flying. I was SO mad! I started yelling at him to stop, sit, lay down- ANYTHING. But he didnt listen. Instead, he followed the cat into the busy parking lot. I was terrified. When I finally got him- I spanked him real good. He knew what he did was wrong. We dont usually spank him, but when he does something real bad we do. He knows too. Well, I started crying because I had just been sure I wouldnt be able to get him and he would get hit by a stupid student that doesnt pay attention. I got home, made him lay down and called John. Then I saw that the darn cat had scratched his face pretty good. I didnt know whether to beat him or hug him. I was SO pissed off at him, but SO glad he was okay. I cleaned up the blood and put him in his crate and got ready for work. UGH.
That whole experience made me realize even more that being a parent is going to be SO incredibly tough. I felt bad for spanking Carter- it KILLED my heart. But I knew he had to learn a lesson. I just wanted to hold him and rock him and give him kisses. But he wouldnt learn anything from that. If I had that hard of a time with a dog, how is it going to be with a kid?! I know my child is going to make plenty of mistakes and I know punishing them and teaching them consequences is part of being a parent- but it's going to be SO hard! Especially when they are able to talk back say mean things to me. *sigh* Definitely not ready to be a parent. haha. Carter is enough for me. I am glad he is teaching me so many lessons though!
Anyway, when Carter has his good days, we let him chase the ducks like I said before. He knew before that if he left them alone while he was on his leash and listened to us- we would let him chase them. He was pretty good about leaving the ducks alone when he was on his leash too! Well now it depends on the day. I dont know what we are going to do with him.
Carter is also not used to so many people being on campus again. They are such a huge distraction. I feel like we have to train him all over again. Very frustrating. I think because John and I have been so busy and we have not been consistent on setting aside specific time to train him (other than giving him commands on walks) and that has probably played a role in his misbehavior too.
Well it isnt ALL bad! Carter may be distracted by all the people on campus now, but at least he doesnt jump on them anymore. SCORE! He has gotten really good about going up to people and not jumping. Granted, he is still so excited his entire body is shaking, which can still unsettle people, but he doesnt jump up!!! He also has not had an accident in forever! Even with all the rain we have had :D AND he likes swimming more and more-
Checking out the water...
Taking a swim!
To help get out some of Carter's energy, we took him to the dog park twice this weekend. I LOVE THE DOG PARK. I forgot how much energy he gets out. IT'S AWESOME! He always has such a good time with the other dogs too. Some of them can be aggressive sometimes, which can scare me, but the rest of them are just playful and run around with Carter. Carter didnt seem too interested in the other dogs when I first took him- he seemed to want to sniff all their pee first. lol. After awhile he played though and had a good time :D We will be going back way more often!
On the way back to the car- he jumped in the driver seat- I think he wanted to drive? haha
Carter after one of our long walks
John and Carter cuddling one day after work :D
Carter has also starting ripping apart his toys. I think it must be an adult dog thing? Who knows. he LOVES to get the squeakers out now! I hate that he rips his toys apart, BUT at least its not our stuff! We do need to get him some more toys now though.
Anyway, that's the update for now. Now that opening is over and John has started sorta getting used to his schedule, we are gunna focus on training him better again.
Bailey LOVES to tear the stuffing out of her toys. I can't tell you how many times I've had to sew up her hedgehog. Haha.
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