=== When Dogs Go Wild ===

     So recently I find myself torn between my love for our dog, and my dislike for him getting into things; it makes me furious when dogs go wild. Our dog is a black shih tzu / cocker spaniel named Furgle; he's super cute and does the most adorable things when he's trying to get your attention, or when he's just TRYING to be cute. I absolutely LOVE him and he makes it so difficult to stay mad at him when he does something wrong.

     Just yesterday we came home after a day in Regina to a torn up pile of swim diapers and a couple other objects from around the house spread around the floor of the living room. That right there is a lot of valuable money that we don't want to have to spend again... but I also understand where he's coming from. Most other dogs don't have a problem with separation anxiety like he does though.

     When I say separation anxiety, I don't mean your average run-of-the-mill "Oh no, my family is gone so I'm going to be sad" sort of stuff... I mean "WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? HOOOWWWWWLLLLL!!!!!" Mix that with a little bit of puppy / cocker spaniel chewing on everything destruction and you've got our dear Furgle. I know I make it sound bad, but he's really not THAT bad. He's pretty calm when we're home most of the time and even when company comes over, he calms down pretty quickly as long as they actually let him sniff them... or jump all over them.

     Jumping isn't the only bad habit he has which we'd like to get him out of. I'm sure some of this he'll grow out of as he gets older and after he gets fixed, but he likes to bite SOOOO MUCH. Don't get me wrong, I love to do a little bit of rough-housing, but I HATE being bitten. So currently that's a never ending fight to get him to stop with that along with jumping (which is also pretty cute) and getting so frantic whenever there's a door between us and him. Currently I absolutely no idea if we'll ever get him out of that last habit... we might be stuck with a dog who doesn't want to be separated for the rest of his life. I think I would be alright with that; It's really not so bad having him always want to be around us.

     He's absolutely a sweetheart and the cutest dog in the world when he's not so busy biting us all the time. He's super athletic so we're thinking of getting him into some agility training at some point. There's actually a dog agility club here in Moose Jaw believe it or not. I think that would be good for both him and us. And of course, we'll get our dog to stop going wild with a little bit of help from a puppy-training class after we get him fixed.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Puppy Training

     For anybody who has never trained a puppy, they can be a complete pain to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love our dog, but he has been sooooooooo annoying for us to deal with at times. Usually he's pretty good for us, but he loves to bite as I would imagine most dogs do before they learn not to.

     Now some of you out there might meet Furgle and think, "How could he be a pain? He's such a sweetheart!" Well, don't let him fool you! He's actually a tiny terrorizing monster at all other points in time. Okay, maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit. He's actually not that bad when he isn't biting us all the time. We've recently started using a spray bottle whenever he starts biting to get his attention and get him to stop. He's not the biggest fan of water and to be honest, we're not really complaining about it. He's learning quickly what it means and hasn't been biting nearly as much as before.

     As for house-training him, he's been pretty good with that so far as well. He doesn't really seem to get HOW to tell us he needs to go outside yet and rather stops pretty quickly and just starts peeing... but at least he's learned to pee and poop on the pad (mostly) rather than anywhere in the kitchen. Probably in about a month from now he should be big enough to hold his waste long enough to train him to only go outside (mostly). He's progressing well I think and he seems like a pretty smart dog to me, so we'll see how long it takes him to learn everything we need to teach him. I'm looking forward to him being calm and mature enough to actually teach him some proper commands and things.

     With one solution comes another problem though. This problem isn't really a HUGE deal though compared to the issues that are possible with a dog. Furgle has... started to hump everything. Oh goodie.... I have to admit, it's a little bit funny, but I suppose it's not exactly something that I'd like him doing to things or people in public. He'll surely calm down once he gets fixed as most dogs do. We have no plans to breed any dogs, so I don't think that will be an issue at all. I'm sure just a little bit of persistence will get him to stop in no time. He usually picks up on things pretty quickly so I'm hoping we won't have too many issues with the coming baby on the way.

     So far, best Christmas present ever! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

August Update

     It's the beginning of August. I've found a full-time job and school is coming up soon. We're making our payments for rent and catching up on our bills. I think things are going well. The real challenge will be balancing work and school and still finding just a little bit of time to do my own things every once in a while.

     I don't feel like I have a ton of time to myself these days. I always feel busy. I really can't imagine how I'm going to feel once I have to devote time to schoolwork and whatnot; surely I'll survive though.

     In other news, Carley's gecko Ryker has started moving around more again. He's much more interesting when he actually leaves his rock and does things. Really makes me want to get a puppy, but I suppose I'll just have to continue getting my dog-fix through work for now. I'm sure we plan on getting a Shih Tzu once we're ready and I also have a goal to get an American Eskimo one day in the future.

     I may have to be alright with moving out of the city and onto an acreage to be able to get all the dogs I want plus rescuing a few. That might mean awful internet out in the country if we go ahead with that idea, but that's thinking for quite some time into the future. I'm sure we'll figure out what we want to do when the time comes.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

I Don't Know What To Do With Myself

     I hardly know what to do. There's so much I want to talk about, but there's nobody I want to talk about it with. I'm worried that I'm not going to be able to pay rent in the future. I'm worried that by the time I'm able to get another job, I'll be too far in debt to do anything about it. There's so much more that I want to talk about, but I'm not ready to talk about it because I just don't know.

     So here I am giving my hands something to do. They need something to do. Something good to do. Maybe some people don't find this productive, but I think it helps. I don't really have much of importance to say if anything right now. I hardly feel like this is worth posting, but I'm going to anyways.

     One one hand I'm really happy about some things that are happening right now. On the other hand, I'm really sad about other things that are happening. I'm sure it'll all sort itself out in time. I just don't know how exactly I'm supposed to be feeling right now. I want to be doing my own thing, but I have to get myself a job, and I'm trying to be a good friend all at the same time. Ugh............................. Make the stress go away. Perhaps a massage... or a puppy... anything. I'm thinking the puppy.

     If I manage to get myself a good job and don't have any reason not to in the near future... I'm going to get myself a puppy. Then I won't need to worry about anything else. I'll just be able to feel better about everything by having snuggles all the time every night. Snuggles are awesome. I need more snuggles. I need less stress and more snuggles... and I guess I need patience in my life. It's so hard to be patient, but somehow there has to be some somewhere. Everything will get better when everyone and everything is patient. I just hope life doesn't wait too long to get back to awesomeness.

~ Kyle