Plotting and planning

It's 1am. I'm up and Harley is in bed sleeping (as he should be). I was thinking about my last blog entry and realized that I'm not showing a complete picture of Harley. He's more than just a dog who bites me. So today, Easter Sunday, I'm going to have David videotape me working with Harley so you can see how smart he is and how cute he can be. I don't want anyone to think that I'm just trying to highlight what is wrong with Harley. There's obviously more to it than that. So, we'll do a little video later today.

I'm hoping to get Harley out for a walk today. The weather is supposed to be nice, up near 60 degrees. Maybe David would consider going with us. I'm going to try to walk Harley over to the mailbox and back then walk him around the cul de sac a few times. I'm sure he would enjoy that. I'm hoping that Harley can have another good day today as far as the biting goes. He made it all the way until 4:41pm yesterday before he bit me. I was doing some reading on bite force and it said that Labradors have about 125 pounds of force in their bite. Pit bulls and Rotties are up in the 300's. So, I guess I'll keep telling myself that this could be much worse than it is.

I watched a few episodes of "It's Me Or The Dog" yesterday. The one thing I took away from it is that you have to work with the dog, you have to practice. The dog obviously won't learn what it isn't being taught. Follow up is key in this process and I haven't been following up very well. Harley will only improve if I put the time into working with him. Why pay an expert like Dr. J if I'm not going to follow the advice completely. I need to stop getting so frustrated with Harley. He will definitely pick up on my frustration and will feel frustrated himself. I need to have a positive attitude and show Harley that together we can do this. I know that the best thing I can do for Harley is to walk him. A tired dog is a good dog. It would be good for me to get out there and start walking too. I won't be able to just go up to Palmer Park and do the 40 minute loop right off. Taking some shorter walks with Harley will get me ready for going up there. It will get Harley ready to go up there too.

So, I need to work with Harley more consistently. It's not going to be an easy process and I will only get out of it what I put into it. It would not be fair to give Harley up without working with him and being committed to making this work. There are 3 things I need to keep in mind - 1. there are going to be expenses every month with Harley (Prozac, bison bones and treats) and that will just have to be a part of the budget 2. Harley can't do this on his own, I have to do this with him and 3. I need to give the Prozac time to work. I'm willing to do all of those things to try to make the situation with Harley better.

I didn't get to talk to Dr. J last night. She got home late (around 9pm) and emailed and asked if we could talk tonight instead. I told her that would be fine. I feel I can benefit from having the extra time to gather my thoughts and write down some questions or thoughts that I have. I need to remember that I paid Dr. J for this service and I need to take advantage of the follow up time that she includes with the evaluation/diagnosis. I need to stop feeling like I'm in this all on my own because I am not. I have David, Dr. J, Lisa and Marianne to help me weather this storm. I could ask Lisa if she would walk Woody with me and Harley a couple times a week. I need to get Harley socialized. He's been too isolated these last few months that he's been out of training. I need to have him in controlled situations where he can succeed. I'm sure Lisa would love to get Woody out there and spend some time with me. I certainly would enjoy spending time with her.

I'm also going to ask Marianne if I can drop by her office at least once a week for just a few minutes to let Harley get used to her and her office. I'd like to do the same thing with Lisa. I'd like to stop by her house so Harley gets used to being in different environments. He's probably acting out as much as he does because he is so bored with spending all of his time with just me. I'm going to ask David if he would take Harley for a walk without me once a week. Just a quick walk over to the mailboxes and back. I need Harley to get used to being without me so that his separation anxiety can lessen. And I need to be contacting Dr. J at least 3x/week just to let her know how things are progressing. I can't believe that a month has already gone by since she did the evaluation. We have 2 more months of follow up and I intend to use that time to it's fullest.

I'm thinking that I might also be able to get Kitty and Sammy to meet up with Harley and me for a walk each week. I would love the opportunity to spend more time with Kitty anyway. Sammy is well behaved and maybe Harley can learn from Sammy and Woody how to settle down and be a polite dog. So there's a lot that I can do to help this situation improve with the support of my friends.

I've also been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do about school. It's not what anyone else wants me to do but what I truly would like to do for me. Harley obviously fits into my decision so what happens over the next month will have an impact whether I keep Harley or not. What I really want to do is to take online classes and to go to campus for 1 class. That way I'm getting the best of both worlds. There is no way I could sit at school all day or leave Harley all day. Especially not right now. Classes start June 1st so I have plenty of time to work with Harley and Dr. J to make this situation better. I'm thinking of taking 4 classes, 3 online and 1 on campus. It would be a lot but I think that I really need it to get the structure and routine back into my life. Harley can only benefit from that.

Now it's 2am. I should be getting back to bed. I'm glad I took time though to think about all of these things. I can start putting this all into action later this morning by taking Harley for a walk.