From Bad to Horrible

I haven't had heart to update on Bella too much as of late. Things are not okay.

Bella is in an almost constant state of obsession nowadays. She's so stressed and unhappy that it is stressing me out to no end. I cannot pinpoint what exactly made this turn into such a huge problem, the behavior had definitely started midsummer but it seems it truly exploded after her surgery. The puppy probably plays some part but I have been super careful to not allow her to harass Bella.

The neighbor's cat is the focus point of Bella's obsession. The photos below are all taken of her place in the living room where she will stop and stare out the living room window.

This is where my capabilities end. Plastic bags have turned into cats that must be murdered, outside there is an army of ghost cats waiting to taunt Bella, she can't relax when we go out to pee or poop. Since the surgery she has pooped inside more often than outside. She has started peeing as little as once every 24 hours and then it's only when she can't hold it in any longer. She's stiff and unresponsive, she's super anxious. She's terribly terribly unhappy.

Two days ago she took off when I took her and Tosca to a place where I go to let them be off leash during our walk. She has not once in her lifetime done that before. She was lost for an hour and wouldn't answer my call.

I am so lost and demotivated. I have been working so hard to try to avoid her getting into the obsessive state while tending to her needs. It feels things just keep getting worse no matter what I do and I'm heartbroken about it. Right now there is no one enjoying any part of the day with Bella. She's just constantly in her program. I can do training with her but she's clocking out whenever there's a moment's break in my program.

I did try calling a behaviorist today only to find out she's taken the entire month of September off.

We're back!

Me and Bella took the entire family out of town for a week and just got back this afternoon. I admit I'm glad to be back!

My stepdaughter leaves tomorrow and my son goes back to kindergarten on Monday. Yup, the summer holidays are almost over! I'm actually excited for autumn and winter.

I took Bella's cone off this afternoon and so far she's behaving well. However I feel like I'm performing animal cruelty when applying the daily mouthwash as the vet instructed. It smells exactly like human mouthwash and I suspect the burning sensation is the same for a dog.

Little Tosca is growing like weed, she really enjoyed her time in the countryside.

Amazing Terriers

Bella's surgery was today and I'm pleased to say it went very well. As I write this we're taking it easy in the sofa now that the kids and puppy have gone to bed.

It was terrible to see her when I went to get her, she looked so vulnerable. She was shivering most of the evening and was half comatose to begin with. But when I took her outside to pee she was going to charge off (in slow-motion) and wasn't going to give an inch when it came to getting food. She even got the bodysuit I put her into off.

She's supposed to take it easy tomorrow and the day after, I was sweating about her getting peace and quiet in this busy home, now I'm worried how to hold her back! Terriers are just amazing little fighters no matter what life throws at them.

Summer Holidays

We got our puppy on Friday a week ago. Say hello to Tosca.

My stepdaughter came to us for three weeks the day after so we currently have a full house! Things are just settling into some kind of routine now and I'm starting to catch a break on moments like now, where my fiancé has taken the two older kids leaving me with the youngest and the dogs. Yes, that's called a break in my household!

Bella was very disgruntled about the dog intrusion the first two days but now she's always wanting to play with the puppy. If she's not playing, she's obsessing about our new neighbors cat as seen below.

Bella is a great dog, but oh my gosh, I hate dealing with the obsessive behavior!! She will hang in this spot for hours if she is allowed, and the cat is always jumping up and down our fence which reinforces Bella's obsession.

For some bad news, I found out yesterday that one of Bella's molars is broken. It seems pretty bad, it's split from bottom and seems to go further up than the gums. I could move the fragment before she flinched. I'm gutted not having seen it before because this is a long weekend in Iceland and I can't make a vet appointment until Tuesday at the earliest.
I have no idea when it happened or how, I'm just going to have to watch it closely for any signs of infection.

I'll try to do some puppy-spam soon but here's two more photos to begin with:

My 9 week puppy is already taller than Bella!

Some News

Okay, I'm done with all the melodrama for now. Let's just say I had a bad week.

Bella has false pregnancy but it seems a fairly mild case as the only side effect I notice is that she lactates and I believe another symptom was that for a few days she was peeing unusually little, like once every 24 hours. I was driving myself mad taking her out almost like a puppy and watching her for a sign of any illness.

However she seems just fine now (it's not fully over). I'm watching out for whatever but she's pretty much her normal happy self. Maybe even a little more playful than usual for some reason.

We finally finished building the deck and painted it so now I suddenly have more time to relax. So I decided to use leftover timber to improve the jumps I built over a year ago. Now I've got one sturdy jump that goes up to 55cm or so.

I've been focusing on finding ways to engage Bella more in training and have been reading and watching a ton of stuff to help us break through the rut we got into earlier in the summer. We're doing touch training (nose touching hand) and it was easy as pie for her to learn the gist of the game in one session. Now I'm focusing on having fun building on it. I already see the huge benefit of it doing heeling.
I am also trying yet again to use toys as rewards. After my research I'm less frustrated about it though. I'm just glad for times such as today when she jumped for me in order to chase a ball.

Anyway, what riled me up last week was that we did look at a 4 year old German Shepherd that was up for adoption. We were fully committed to the adoption but then then I don't know what happened. The owner was super super busy and kept postponing things until we just didn't want to participate in it and dropped out of the deal.
I was pretty gutted because I've secretly been wanting another dog and was scouting for suitable matches amidst all the Border Collie mixes available. That's when things got really weird all of the sudden we ended up at a German Shepherd breeder's home. Although it happened very quickly I had been thinking about it for a very long time so it wasn't really too difficult to make the decision to get a puppy. Yes, a GSD puppy.

We're picking our little girl up tomorrow afternoon after her vet check and puppy shots, yippee!

Frustrations

Today afternoon was bad in so many ways. After the kids had fallen asleep and I could finally lie down in the sofa I thought I could just enjoy the rest of the evening in peace and quiet and go to bed. There must be something in the air tonight because that's not what happened.

Bella was lying in the sofa with me and when I was petting her my hand hit a wet and sticky patch. That's when I realized that it was milk. She's pseudo-pregnant. Nooooo!

Summer Life

It looks like a lot of people on my blogroll are enjoying their summer away from the computer. Me and Bella are stuck in the rain in Iceland but we are just getting out and doing our thing. Nothing out of the ordinary and with the constant rain I don't always bother taking the camera with me.

We have no camping trips planned, no trips abroad or anything like that. And still... there is something exciting that may be happening to us soon. I don't want to jinx anything by including spoilers since recently everything I want to happen falls through. There will be no tracking course next weekend, for example.

Anyway, me and Bella hope everyone is having a great busy dog summer!

Those Warm Summer Days

Bella has received some comments that she appears too busy and must be careful to not forget her naps. So here's some proof that there is downtime in our household.

Today we had the first super good summer day so me and Bella tanned out on the deck we are building in our back yard.

In the evening, I went to watch an Obedience test while Bella practiced lying still in the sofa while I was gone. Last time I went she dumped the trash all over the floor so we're already improving in the sport, right?

A Dog and her Hats

Things are crazy in every sort of way here at home. We received seven large boxes full of baby clothes for the little one. They were so many we lost them all. When Bella had finished locating the kids under the stashes of clothes we started a hat party.

Magnus was easiest to find, he screams the loudest

We also discovered an 80's baby, we tried to bring her back to our time by adding a classy hat.

The big sister was even buried under everything. Bella was getting bored of her own party by then and hid under her hat.

Yet she couldn't resist trying on one more hat before calling it quits and returning to her daylong nap.

We're also building a deck. I would be lying if I said that my home is clean and tidy these days. However, me and Bella are very patient for now as we foresee a lot of late night cocktails in July in the privacy of our fenced deck.

Days Three and Four

Things are a little busy at Camp Bella since we are preparing for a little get-together with family in order to announce the name of the newest family member. However I'm making it a priority to go out there and lay a track inbetween feeding the little one and cleaning the apartment. Then my body is fragile so I have to watch out not to go overboard and risk limping.

Yesterday the new lens arrived so I took a moment after tracking and shot a few photos.

It's been ridiculously sunny for several days now and it makes it impossible to see clearly if what I was doing was working out or not but it was fun nonetheless. Bella got a case of the zoomies and I just couldn't keep up very well. That was the first challenge, finding her since the camera goes up to 300mm and it's just wonderful. Next will be getting the focus to be on her eye/face rather than her back. I can't wait ti have more time with this lens. It's nice and sharp.

 

 

The last two aren't focused on her face but getting these kind of action shots has been my dream so now that I've got the equipment I must master the technique. I know Bella won't mind helping me out.

 

Not sure how much me and Bella can do this weekend, today we were only able to lay the track and go home. I don't know if I'll have time to lay a track tomorrow but we will try. Hopefully there will be time for photos on Sunday. That will also be the last day of the initial tracking imprinting, after that we start the second stage on Tuesday that will gradually allow more variation.

March Finally Arrived... And Is Now Gone

I haven't written anything since last year. The main reason being that I was borderline depressed in January and February from being stuck to using crutches to go from one room to the other in my apartment. I don't know why Bella didn't get unhinged during all this time spent with me but she truly is an amazing individual.

However, I finally had my little girl on March 20th, 11 days ago. We're both doing well and it's a great relief that this pregnancy is finished. I've told my fiancé that from now on I'm only adding more dogs to the family.

Little one likes to sleep which is a blessing. Now the enormous task of recovering awaits me but I am thankful to have Bella's lone eye to help me keep mine on the prize.

It's only been a few days but already I can walk fairly normally around the apartment and get things done again. Going out for short walks takes me a few steps back but I think I need to do it anyway to eventually be able to recover.

So here's to hoping this summer will be an active one for me and Bella!

Party Sunday

Yesterday we celebrated my stepdaughter's eight year old birthday with family while she was with us this weekend. Bella put her party hat on and as usual was the life of the party as the photographic evidence reveals.

After the arrival of the first guests Bella is already overwhelmed. She wore her bell collar while they arrived but I then removed it as soon as everybody was there. Bella was in fact so distraught with all the guests (all 7 people!) that she laid down on the middle of the floor or roamed around like a bird with a broken wing and I ended up closing her in the hallway to be alone. She was really relieved.

The photo below was taken after everybody had left. She hurried into "our" sofa and was just out of it for the rest of the evening, looking super worried if there was some commotion from the kids.

I may not have a party or a family dog, but she more than makes up for it when we go out and find her element.

I really can't wait for my health to improve so me and Bella can continue doing those things we love and enjoy. I recently got a new car that I can use to haul my mountain bike and my dream is to take Bella to the outskirts of town next autumn and bike on the trails with Bella off leash.

My sacrum bone is super loose and if I push myself too hard I limp something awful (as in, can barely walk). That's how today is after yesterday's birthday preparations. I've reached a point where my physiotherapist is working on containing the condition but she keeps telling me she's going to fix me after baby is  born. Here's to hoping she's right! 

I believe that after this round my babymaking days are over! In fact I keep telling my fiancé that if I ever get the urge again I'm rather getting Bella a doggy brother to bully.

Bella's Family Life

Me and Bella managed to go out around noon this week and snapped some nice pictures. I just haven't had the mental capacity to fully process them yet.

Until then, here's one of Bella playing the family dog from today:

I keep telling her she won't be receiving any Oscar nominations for best actress anytime soon but she doesn't listen!

Happy weekend!

Hiding

I have been staying at home today and yesterday. That's how me and Bella roll when we're home alone:

Lazy Bones and Dog Fences

Last 2-3 weeks have been uneventful at the household. Bella has been in heat and the first several days she looked pretty much like she was dead.

I don't like this time of year.

My mobility has been getting worse as well so this has been an awkward time for both of us. We've been a pair of couch-potatoes.

However she's been coming into her own the past few days and it's actually helping my own spirits as well. Yesterday I took a trip to one of the new dog fences that was built about two weeks ago. It's very close to my place of work so I figured that since I only work a few hours a day I could take Bella with me and allow her to run free on our way back home. At least until she's definitely past her fertile phase and I can let her loose in our usual spots.

Now, I work in a very urban area and the city decided a dog fence was perfectly placed on a rather small patch of grass surrounded by big traffic lanes. This is what me and Bella found:

A dog park - Reykjavík style!

It's not a very good photo but apart from the terrible half-muddy ground there is a pretty big gap under the fence. This was one of the smaller gaps. Bella could have left the fence pretty much everywhere along the entire length of the fence. Much larger dogs than my Border Terrier don't need an iron will to escape.
And right outside this gap in the picture is a street with rather heavy traffic on most days. There's traffic just a short distance from anywhere outside this fence.

So my terrior-in-heat didn't get to stretch her legs much inside this fence. I was really excited to see these small dog parks get built in the hopes of a dog friendlier city. This effort just fails on so many levels.

So in the meantime until I can turn Bella loose outside a fence we are working on our contraband-peppermint scent skills at home. Bella is doing well but now the handler needs more knowledge.

That Evil Ribbon

Normally I am very respectful of the fact that my Bella is a dog who prefers not to be handled. We have a good thing going on where she doesn't mess with anyone in the home and in turn I make sure she gets to be free from harassment.

The only downside for Bella is that I sometimes can't contain myself. I sometimes pick her up just to hear that unevitable heave of sigh. I hug her just to get the exact same reaction. Yeah, Bella's not the cuddly little lapdog type. That's perfectly fine with me.

Then sometimes I take a step further. Not always intentionally. The other day was one of those days where my poor Border Terrier got more than she bargained for when me and son found a ribbon. It was an innocent enough idea putting it on. We didn't expect the huge reaction we got!

Going away, throwing herself down and 'yawning' - "What is this torture decvie??"

"I've lost a piece of my soul"

Waiting and hoping

"I only look like I'm fine with this since this is my blind side."

"I really hate my life right now"

"I'm going to lie here in a bad mood until this horrible thing has been removed"

I removed the ribbon after taking these photos, I don't really enjoy making her get this upset unless I really need to. But her huge expressions do put a smile on my face, when it's over something as harmless as a ribbon.

We Still Live

After a while of being missing in action I return with a video. Of Bella! yay!

To make a long story short, my back is messed up big time again and I have been struggling with work and home life.Physiotherapy, acupuncture and painkillers are some of the things awaiting me. Unfortunately, my doctors are advising me not to walk, jog or bike much if I can avoid it and instead going for a swim. Unfortunate for a person with a dog? EXTREMELY!

However, after feeling very guilty and like the world's worst dog owner I decided to stop grieving and get creative with things to do with Bella. I do try to take her to a field to go frisbee-ing or ball throwing but I am also getting back into more regularly activating her in my home. Mainly with trick training.

When I was pregnant with my son I taught her to pick things up for me, something I have used from time to time. I never got around to actually getting her to drop them into a box like I was planning. Yesterday I finally got around to finding a suitable box and we got going. I took a short video and it's actually only our second training session working on this, ever. I think it's going pretty well already.

With a kid that loves spreading his toys (and the contents of my kitchen) all over the apartment, maybe Bella could still try to impress my fiancé with her tricks.

Euro 2012

The European Football Championships 2012 started 8th of June and for a couch dog like Bella, it's an ideal sport.

I've got the Carlsberg and remote, now what's missing? Slave, do your work!

 

Baby Magnus runs for NOMS.

 

Omnomnom!

 

Now we can watch the matches. Owner, get outta the way!

Bella is real serious when watching the players. Who be the fittest? Who be the fastest? Who could play frisbee with me the whole day?

Not this one...

Hmmm...

Oh, a cute one! With a prize! Did he win???

ZZzzzzz....