June 4

Raining this morning, like most of the day yesterday. Wet muddy paw prints cover the porch and the carpet, but the boys stayed otherwise dry. They cuddle up to me, licking my face, and trying to lay on my lap which is far too small to accomodate six dogs that are over 40lbs each. I hug them each in turn and pet them, trying to make them all as happy as possible for a creature with only two arms. I whistled a tune which seemed to intrigue Samantha up until G'kar started howling. Either he hates whistling or he loves to sing. It may be a little of both. He'll sing with me sometimes, and other times just bark until I stop making any noise.

I'm kind of excited about going to the event this weekend, and hoping that both Samantha and Freya are going to be on their best behavior. I worry though, as Samantha has started to be a bit more cranky towards Freya at times. This morning she jumped on Freya as she came in the door because Freya was trying to play with me and G'kar. She doesn't like dogs playing near her, and she never seems to play herself. I wonder why? We've only had her just over two months now, so I'm hoping it is only an insecurity thing, and that she will become more relaxed as time goes on. She certainly has been less confrontational with G'kar, even letting him walk by her without raising her hackles half the time. This is some small progress, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

I've been looking in to sending James and Freya to obedience classes so that he can learn better how to train the dogs. It is all well and good for me to teach him, but half the time he doesn't really listen to me, or doesn't take what I tell him to heart. Hopefully learning it from someone else will cement it in his mind. I really would like him to get Freya, Samantha and Yukon certified as CGC (canine good citizens) at the very least, and get a conformation report for them. I'm not sure James is dedicated enough to the dogs to handle them in the show ring, but I'd at least like to see him try. His allergies make him miserable though, and he contributes to his misery by constantly rubbing his eyes. This makes him not want to be outside at all, and makes it difficult to get him to care for the dogs. Ah well, the difficulties of unfuzzy kids...

Picked up a padded backpack for the event and found the collapsible water bowl we used when we moved.

The rug by the back door was wet, so sat in the chair on the porch instead after returning home. Freya seemed a bit put-off by this, but the boys didn't care, and snuggled up to me as much as possible anyway. Due to the mud, I ended up giving Samantha a quick bath in warm water just to get the dirt off from her. She wasn't too thrilled, but suffered through it. Freya on the other hand, was not happy at all. She kept shaking and trying to escape, but I held her firmly and petted her, encouraging her verbally. By the end of the bath, she had stopped struggling, and had relaxed a little, which was a good sign. Bathing the two dogs used up four bathsheets, heh, but the dogs, though not happy about being wet, did like the rub-down drying process.

Samantha has a very pungent wet-dog smell though. Freya didn't smell much at all, but whew, my whole room smells like wet husky musk. Need to run the steamvac.