Dinner at The Melting Pot with My Mom, Dad & Brother

My parents were in town to help me pack up our place for our move on April 7th. It was so nice of them to come...THANKS, Mom & Dad! You are the best. Love you so much. We had dinner at the Melting Pot, which is a fondue place in town. They have the best food. We had two different cheese pots to start, lobster, beef, chicken, shrimp, and veggies. Of course we also had to get the chocolate dessert with pound cake, rice krispies, strawberries, and marshmallows. Yummy!

Update on Bella

Here is the latest from the trainer:

Fri, March 20

I brought Bella to a networking meeting and I put her in the bag. I hoped everyone thought I just got into a new Large Purse Craze. Well, at first, that is exactly what everyone thought and then one lady said, "Do you have a dog in there?"

Usually I bring my big dogs and they sit under the table quietly and everyone is shocked that they are so good.

So, I opened the little hatch and out pops Bella's head. Everyone "awed" and even this lady who doesn't like dogs went on and on about Bella and decided she wants a yorkie. I got such a kick out of that and so did the other ladies. I put her on the floor in the bag and she was quiet the whole meeting. After the meeting, she got to meet everyone else.

We are going to work on "stay" today. We are getting closer to her pottying on command.

What I have been doing is walking her in the morning and night and putting paper in the bathroom in the afternoon. I check on her and when she potties, she gets to come out.

Or, I put her in an open kennel and tell her "go potty" "go pee" and she waits until I turn my back and goes.

She is going quicker each day and more comfortable with me seeing her go on the paper. She has no problem having me stand right there outside.

Sun, Mar 21

Today was an interesting day. I was hoping to get Bella to go really far in her training today. She didn't want to stay on the paper to pee, but peed next to the toilet and pood on the other side. It was not the best day so far, but I think I have to remember to have lots of small steps to get to our goal. So, I am thinking that maybe we could cut those papers in half and put one half on one side of the toilet and the other piece on the other side.

Bella slept with me and my daughter for some hours the night before. After I dreamt that she moved over a foot and peed on the bed, I woke up and put her in the kennel. She sure was happy to sleep on my shoulder and head. Later today, she got to be held by a bunch of people when I had a party for Grandpa's birthday.

This picture was taken while Bella was in my son's lap. There is no coffee in the cup, but we wanted to send it to Starbucks and hope they could use it as a commercial.

Thank You VVVVVVVVVBFF

Thank you to my VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVBFF Allison. When we were growing up we used to write notes to each other (ha...when e-mailing and texting didn't exist) and we used to sign off with VVVVVVBFF...very very very best friends forever. I think sometimes the V's would take over an entire page. I used to write 10 page notes people...crazy stuff. Anyway, just wanted to THANK her for putting the new banner on my blog. Isn't it cute? Love it. Thanks so much!

Update on Bella at training

Above: Craig cuddling and taking a nap with Bella. This was taken 11/2008.

Above: She loves her daddy. She always lays on his chest like this...too cute!

Here are two updates from the trainer:

Sunday:

Bella is doing better at getting her nails clipped. Also, getting better at lying down. Sometimes, she wants to get very close to me before lying down. I just want her to lie down. She even did sits and downs in the rainwater late yesterday. At first, she didn't want to.

Right now, the schedule with water that I am on is that after Bella pees (either on paper or
outside) she gets a little water. She was good today.

She doesn't over lick me, has learned "off" and I am trying to say "off" before she goes on any throw rugs or small carpets.

Tonight, when I said "Stay here", she looked at me as if to say, "but, I will go this way, what will you do if I do that? Probably nothing, so I go "Ha", she got dragged back to me when I picked up the line I told her stay here and she did. Good girl.

She is sitting before we exit doors and enter. I want to control her impulses. If she thinks a lot, she might think "hmm, better not do this or that or the human will not be happy." So we want her thinking.

Tuesday:

Bella is good. She is so pretty.

Yesterday, I sat for two hours plus with her on potty pads. She didn't want to go on the pads unless they were inside her crate. I did finally get her to go poo on the paper and with me right there, but I was so tired that I finally walked her outside to pee and went to bed.

It has only been a week plus a day, and looking over the week, I am very impressed with Bella's progress overall. She does like to go back to her old ways as that is so comfortable, so we have to renegotiate and then she does it. This is pretty normal.

One example that is very common is that once the dogs get used to the "down" command, they sit and go straight into a down when I ask for a "sit". What I always have to do then is go back to "sit, sit, sit, sit, and on and on until that is good again.

Bella's Training Update

Above: Bella cuddling with her new pals at the trainer's house (the trainer has 3 dogs and a cat)

Above: She probably forgot all about me...:(

I have been getting updates every day and she is doing well. She is learning a lot, but still has a long way to go. Hopefully she will figure it out in the next 3 weeks. It's been very tough without her here. We miss her like crazy!

Shattered Windshield

Above: Looking out my SHATTERED windshield at the beautiful sky!

Craig and I have the worst luck with our car. I think it's bad karma because Craig gets so mad when he's driving in traffic and sometimes cuts people off, etc. In the past two years this is what we've been through... About two summers ago we were driving down the street and two guys hit our car and then drove away. Hit and run...they hit our car AND Craig, but he was fine, and luckily I wrote down their license plate. About 6-12 months later, after a collection agency got involved, they turned it in to their insurance or paid for the damage so luckily we got our deductible back. The second one was about six months ago. A guy made an illegal turn and side swiped our car. Craig had just dropped me off at work and it happened right in front of me. I ran up to see if he was alright (he was) and then ran up to the car and took a picture of the car and license plate. Luckily the guy had the same insurance as us and it was easy to get fixed. About a week ago a UPS driver backed into our car, but luckily there wasn't much damage done. And finally the other day some idiot threw stuff from his 30th floor balcony and hit our windshield. The cops came, but there was nothing they could do because the guy that threw the stuff would not open his door. Our lease is up in August and I'm looking forward to our new car...hopefully we have better luck with that one!

Day 2 of Bella's training

Above: Bella when she was about 8 weeks old (5/12/2005)

Below: Her first bath

Robin the trainer said... Just to let you know Bella is doing very well. She did a perfect "come to me and sit" yesterday. That doesn't mean we are done with that as she will likely try different things, but she is learning.

She is learning NOT to bust out of the crates. That is a huge problem. Right there, she has called all the shots. She is learning to respect all doors inside and out. Now she has started to look at me before attempting to run lol, But again, she is learning. More tomorrow.

I asked her how she is doing with sleeping because Bella normally sleeps with us and now she is in a crate next to Robin's bed. Here's what she said...She did well sleeping. A couple times, she made little bird sounds, but cuddled up and slept.

Bella goes to training

We decided to get Bella trained since we are moving into a new house that has lots of carpet. Bella is puppy pad trained, but she thinks anything that is shaped like a puppy pad is okay to pee on. We've thrown away 2 rugs and decided that a new house with lots of carpet is not a good thing with a dog that has accidents. So we are getting her trained by a women that I swear is the Dog Whisperer of the Midwest. She is amazing! Bella will be in training for 4 weeks. The major problem areas are the potty training, licking constantly, and barking. Hopefully she will come back a well behaved dog. I'm going to miss her like crazy.

Here is what Robin the trainer had to say about Bella today:

Bella is doing great. She gets along with all the dogs (she has 3), was very interestd in my cat, and got her nails trimmed. She made sounds like a bird. Everyone thought there was a bird in our house. We are teaching her "kiss", "don't kiss", "stay here", "come with me" and I am practicing the game where you "stop when the leash gets tight and go when the leash is loose". At first it seemed like we weren't going to get more than a few inches, but then, she got the idea of how the game works. It's fun to watch her mind work. She seems acclimated very quickly here.

Landmark Black Tie Event

Craig and I went to a black tie event for Landmarks Illinois at The Palmer House on Saturday. The charity is a non-profit advocacy group that helps save threatened historic structures such as The Chicago Theater, Cook County Hospital and Lakeshore Athletic Club. They honored three people who have helped this organization, Ernie Banks (retired Cubs player), Harold Ramis (director, actor...Analyze This, Animal House, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day) and Lee Flaherty (CEO Flaherty Comm, started Old St Pat's World's Largest Block Party and Chicago Marathon). They were seated a couple tables away from us so it was neat to see them. It was fun to get all dressed up and we had a great time.