dog nab it

Dog Beth is training me 

    When Beth  sits by the door, I let her out.  When she scratches the door, I let her in.  Sometimes the door is not shut all the way and she pushes on it, opening it, and coming in on her own.  (And I also applies to Julia.)

    We have not taught her how to close the door, however.  This does present a problem when Julia and I have gone off to different parts of the house and the door is wide open with cold air coming inside.

    I do have an issue with night time outings.

    We put a  red flashing collar on her so we can see her in the darkness.  I put a coat on and go out with her because coyotes are in the area.

    Beth will stand and stare at a bush for minutes, while I often stand there shivering because the coat is too light or the wind too strong or the hat not on my head keeping my entire body warmer.

    After she does this for a while, I guide her into the house, where she proceeds to sit at the front door waiting for me to take her out.  Again.  

    I have been waiting for a while  now to  go out  again..

    Last night she went out, stared at the bush, I got her in and we all went to bed.

    Beth goes into a kennel, but I don't close the door.  We trust her, but I am afraid that if she doesn't have the crate she will be somewhere where I will step on her or fall over her.

    At 4 a.m. Jackie woke me up and said Beth was out.  Jackie can hear Beth's nails clicking across the floor.  But with my hearing loss, I don't hear. that.

    I got up and sure enough, she was sitting by the front door.

    I tried to herd her back to bed.  I stepped in front of her and prevented her from going to the door.  She moved right, I moved left.  She moved left, I moved right.  

    We danced like this for a couple of minutes and finally I gave in, put her flashing red collar on, got on a coat, opened the door and out she went.

    Instead of staring at the bush, she went into the yard and eliminated waste, in gentler terms.  Twice.  

    Then she came back to the door, I took off her collar, and she went straight back to bed.

    That was the second time I got up during the night.

    I was up about 2 when a very powerful flower scent woke me up.  I thought maybe Julia had a candle lit, but no.  Nothing smelled downstairs or in any other part of the house except around my bed.

    And it was a great smell.

    I was a little tired today, so I took an hour nap.,  I could have slept longer but I had some things to do.

    Sometimes my life is just weird.

Peace and Love