Surprise. It's harder than you thought it would be.
Oh this dog. What was I thinking?
I knew it would be hard, but geez. Some parts of this whole puppy process are very frustrating. She needs to be more socialized, so I'm trying to get her out more.
As an important aside, socializing a puppy doesn't really support my desire to be a hermit. When the dog trainer said take to me "for the next month, take her everywhere you go." I thought: I already am. The kitchen. My office. The backyard. That's pretty much everywhere I go.
But I want her to be well adjusted, so we are both trying to get out a little more. (big fat UGH).
Anyway...Yesterday I tried walking her down to the corner to meet Brynn after school. I've walked her a little bit - around the house, in the backyard, up and down the street a time or two. She's handled all of those pretty well, for the most part she walks right along with me. But yesterday I put her on the leash and started walking.
Josie had other ideas. She planted that furry little butt on the ground and looked at me, like go wherever you want, but I'm staying right here.
I could not get her to budge one inch. She just sat and looked at me with this "I win" gleam in her eyes.
And I was hit with this wave of surprise. Surprised that you have to teach a dog to walk on a leash. She follows me every where I go. She walks right alongside me all day, but put a ribbon around her neck and chaos ensues.
That's not the first time I've been taken by surprise. There were other little things. I remember being surprised you had to teach a kid to ride a bike. I knew you had to teach them to ride a bike with no training wheels, but somehow I thought the training wheel version was an instinct.
We gave Grace a bike for her 4th birthday and she was completely disinterested and had literally no idea what to do. How do you make it go? Bike riding and childhood seemed to go together like fish and chips, so who knew that give a kid a bike and she'd look at you with big doe eyes, like "um, can I get a little help here?'
There have been a million little things like that, but there have been big things too. The decision to have a second baby was even harder than the decision to have the first. I genuinely thought that once we'd started our family, everything would just kind of click along after that. Things would happen in their time, decisions would be easier.
In hindsight, that's stupid. All decisions have a much greater impact on 4 different people than they do on just 1 or 2. Add more people to your mix and things are bound to become more complicated, but at the time, it felt like once the ball was rolling, it would just keep going without a lot of hiccups.
I'm not sure what the lesson is in all this. I think it's the realization that most things just aren't what you expect they will be.
So what do you do?
You move ahead. You adjust and adapt when something takes you by surprise. You do your best. You choose to be happy (another surprise - I had no idea there was so much choice in happiness.)
And when you find yourself starring down 3 lbs of fur at the end of a long pink leash, just pick her up and walk to the corner. There's always tomorrow.
I knew it would be hard, but geez. Some parts of this whole puppy process are very frustrating. She needs to be more socialized, so I'm trying to get her out more.
As an important aside, socializing a puppy doesn't really support my desire to be a hermit. When the dog trainer said take to me "for the next month, take her everywhere you go." I thought: I already am. The kitchen. My office. The backyard. That's pretty much everywhere I go.
But I want her to be well adjusted, so we are both trying to get out a little more. (big fat UGH).
Anyway...Yesterday I tried walking her down to the corner to meet Brynn after school. I've walked her a little bit - around the house, in the backyard, up and down the street a time or two. She's handled all of those pretty well, for the most part she walks right along with me. But yesterday I put her on the leash and started walking.
Josie had other ideas. She planted that furry little butt on the ground and looked at me, like go wherever you want, but I'm staying right here.
I could not get her to budge one inch. She just sat and looked at me with this "I win" gleam in her eyes.
And I was hit with this wave of surprise. Surprised that you have to teach a dog to walk on a leash. She follows me every where I go. She walks right alongside me all day, but put a ribbon around her neck and chaos ensues.
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| Bike = ??? |
We gave Grace a bike for her 4th birthday and she was completely disinterested and had literally no idea what to do. How do you make it go? Bike riding and childhood seemed to go together like fish and chips, so who knew that give a kid a bike and she'd look at you with big doe eyes, like "um, can I get a little help here?'
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| Baby Brynn |
In hindsight, that's stupid. All decisions have a much greater impact on 4 different people than they do on just 1 or 2. Add more people to your mix and things are bound to become more complicated, but at the time, it felt like once the ball was rolling, it would just keep going without a lot of hiccups.
I'm not sure what the lesson is in all this. I think it's the realization that most things just aren't what you expect they will be.
So what do you do?
You move ahead. You adjust and adapt when something takes you by surprise. You do your best. You choose to be happy (another surprise - I had no idea there was so much choice in happiness.)
And when you find yourself starring down 3 lbs of fur at the end of a long pink leash, just pick her up and walk to the corner. There's always tomorrow.
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| I also climb retaining walls and JUMP off on my 2 inch toothpick legs. Aren't I a peach? |
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