Blurbs and Dogs

“The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.” - Samuel Butler

It's SUNNY out! Woot!! Of course, my thermometer reads 22 degrees as I'm writing this, but ... SUN. Sun is good. Warmth with sun would be better, but I'll take what I can get, because I am truly grateful I have sun and not snow like Sarita, or hail like Amy.

Maybe I can even do a little gardening today... **sigh**

Yesterday I spent in blurb hell. I have to create a "tagline", a 100 word description AND a blurb (like what you'd read on the back of a book cover) for "Kitchen Matches (or whatever it will be called)". This is agonizing work. I hit up some friends for help (thanks Allie, Judy, Charity and Ceri!) and am plugging away.

Somedays I think writing the book or story is the easy part.

Speaking of writing books, LOL, I'm working on editing Playing House again. No matter what, I seem to return back to that story over and over. It's the book that won't go away. Fact is, I really like my hero and heroine. We'll see what happens. I may get frustrated again, and put it away again, but...every time I open it, I get a little farther. So, perhaps before I am old(er) and gray(er), I will actually get this silly thing finished and out the door.

And, no, I haven't finished my mystery. I started to take the easy way out and have the murdered confess all... but decided that was lazy. So, now I have to figure out how to show the reader whodunnit without doing that.

Bother. Bother. Bother.

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Dakota did well in class today. Of course, we'd already taught her all the things she was supposed to be learning, so we cheated. Actually, she's really quite good at learning "tricks" (sit, stay, come, down, etc)... if I could teach to stop pulling the leash so hard that I get burns on my hands, that would be a miracle.

I've tried a choke collar, a pinch collar and a gentle leader (halti). I even tried all of them a the same time (hey, I used to ride horses using an English bridle, I can handle that many leashes at the same time). Nothing. Works.

The obedience instructor suggested I use treats to keep her close... just keep stuffing her full of treats so she wouldn't pull, and would learn that staying beside me is a good thing, but the fact is...Dakota is NOT food motivated. Have you SEEN how skinny she is? The instructor even tried hot dogs, and after a couple pieces, Dakota didn't care. She can't have cheese, because it gives her the runs.

I've tried the "I'm a tree" method of stopping and standing still when she pulls (again suggested by the instructor) and then walking forward when she loosens the leash -- the assumption being that when she learns that she gets nowhere when she pulls, she'll stop.

Uh. No. The moment I take a step forward, she throws herself forward again.

I've tried exhausting her before I do leash training by running her up and down the road -- me on the bike, her with the leash between her teeth, PULLING me down the road. We'll do it until she slows down (about 1 1/2 miles), give her a drink and then try walking.

She STILL pulls.

Understand, I'm not giving her a long leash. I make her stay next to me. But, it doesn't matter how long or short the leash is... she pulls non-stop. It makes it miserable for us, because I won't take her for long walks. I'm exhausted when I do -- my arm aches, my hand is all but bleeding.

Gah.

And so are the days of my dog.

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Okay. I'm good with that. :-)