February Funk

So I've been in kind of a funk recently. I'm not sure if it is because I'm really not a cold weather person and yet I've been living in Connecticut for the past 8 years and of course this year it snows about every other day?? Or maybe it's because it's the middle of February and football is over and baseball hasn't started...not that I care very much (especially about baseball) but with neither on I find Mike at a loss. Or maybe still because I decided to do the Salisbury Musical (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) which has been fun...but leaving me very little time to do much else.

Whatever the reason I just can't shake the Funk.

Hopefully though my next couple of weeks will just shake the funk right out of me. This past Friday was a good start. Mike and I went on our first date since (now this is a little embarrassing) AUGUST!!! I mean we've have date nights at home...but this was the first time we've been out to eat, just the two of use since we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. But it was a lovely evening filled with the chili cook off, Salisbury Ski Jumps and dinner at the Woodlands. The evening almost took a turn for the worst when we came home to a panicked student who cut his hand by accident. Luckily no trip to the hospital was necessary as Mike was able to stop the bleeding and settle him down...phew!

This week, aside from being Valentine's Day is my sister's birthday ( the 16th) and Mike's sister's birthday (the 19th). And thanks to a great idea from my mom back in November I'll be able to celebrate my sister's birthday for the first time in 8 years (I'm flying home to Maryland on Thursday!!) Unfortunately that will mean I'll have to miss Ashley's birthday and her first in season play day at Yale (she's a laxer).  And after an exciting trip trip to MD I can start counting down the days until my UConn friends come to visit the following weekend!!

I guess by the end of February there will just be no more room in my life for any funk...and besides March marks the start of lax season!!

On the dog side of my world...I'll be bringing another group of Salisbury kids to Fidelco tomorrow. A smaller group this time (not that there wasn't a ton of boys who wanted to go...we just couldn't get a bigger vehicle) Who knows what we'll be doing or how we'll be helping but I'm sure the boys will love it!

Oh yeah, Tripper has his second class on Friday. I wish I could report that he did better than his first day...but no such luck. The student who had him needed to bring him back to me half way through the class. I asked him what was going on and he said he thought Tripper didn't want to be in class, he was sighing and figitity...maybe nervous. I asked the boy if maybe he was a little nervous to have Tripper in class with him. He admitted that he was.

So I took out some string cheese and had the boy and Tripper do a couple different fun exercises...touches and puppy push-ups (asking the dog to sit then down then sit one right after the other...try it) After they were both feeling much more confident I asked the boy if he wanted to try again and take Tripper back to class. He said he did and off they went.

After the period was over the boy returned Tripper to my office. When I asked how it went this time, he responded by saying...perfect. He explained that he was very nervous and figitity and a little unsure about what to do with Tripper, nervous he was being mean or not stern enough. He concluded on his own that after he did the exercises with me half way through class he felt much more confident and secure and perhaps Tripper could tell.

I agreed with the boy explaining how dogs feed off of our energy and can read us sometimes better than we can read ourselves. I was really happy the boy decided to try again with Tripper, and had a much better experience. It is going to be a slow process but one I think will be really beneficial for Tripper...and the boys.

Just for fun here is an old video of when Rocky was Tripper's age, playing with Mike's parents' dog Trixie. See Rocky use to play nice with dogs.