Celebrating the Little Things in a Serious Way

I'm learning to celebrate the little things these days.  And yes, you guessed it, I'm talking about the pups.  I find it quite frustrating that we can't move these behavior changes along a little quicker.  You would think that as a social worker, and someone who has advocated that people can't change their life overnight- that it takes time, I would be a little more understanding, but it's really irritating to me!

Last night I had a great victory.  I sat outside of our apartment (in the stairwell) for 30 minutes without the dogs making a peep.  Don't get me wrong, it was from 10:23 to 10:53, so very late in the day, but still- I was able to exit the apartment without a complete conniption fit happening.  So for now, if BK and I want to go have an after-dinner drink, it might actually be an option.

How I wish they'd spend their time...

Today was good too.  We had another appointment with the dog trainer and worked on walking the dogs. She actually thought they were good walkers.  She had me let go of the leashes and let them run along the sidewalk without being restrained.  They do a lot better with other dogs if they just have the chance to sniff and then move along.  Our dogs aren't aggressive, so once they sniff they move along and are always looking back to make sure we're still there.

The other thing today was that Tanner is stressed and making himself sick.  I'm not sure if this is because we went to Belgium and left him at the holiday home or because BK is now back in the US, but he has all kinds of digestive issues.  That's as far as I'll go into it, but I'm getting really tired of picking up after him and constantly running to the door to go outside.  I had a vet appointment scheduled, but after seeing him jump around, be excited about walking, take treats and be an all around good dog, the trainer was pretty certain that he is not sick- just acting out on his stress.

I say I need to celebrate the small things because I need to remember how far they've come since we moved into this apartment a little over three weeks ago.  They no longer bark every single time the building door opens, they no longer follow my every move in the apartment, they don't bark when they hear our neighbor's dog bark, and to top it off the weather has been nice the past couple of days.  Our neighbors are also more understanding and appreciate that we are working hard to get them acclimated. Looking on the bright side here!

We're at the end of our day in Basel.  Here's to more small successes tomorrow- it's a new day for all of us.