Holding her Licker

Elka licks. It's a thing she does.

She licks people who let her (and sneaks it in sometimes on those who do not), she licks her toys, she licks herself. Occasionally I've had to utter the improbably phrases "Elka, don't lick the floor" and "Elka, don't lick the couch."

With a tongue like that, you might as well use it, I guess.

Playing Games

Elka and I have little games we play throughout the day. She doesn't really do "solo play", as she seems to think she needs to be in contact with one of us at all (or most) times. She also frequently doesn't play with only one toy at once, though that occasionally happens. With squeaky toys, we tend to tell her "I don't want that, it's yours" and then she'll go and play. Maybe Elka's just a really good sharer?

Elka's New Game

So, Elka and I have a pretty decent routine now, for our walks.

We get up, I do my best to get her to go potty at the house, and then we walk to the park.  I do what I can to keep her attention, and keep the leash loose (and discovered today that she really loves my homemade turkey meatballs), and she does what she can to understand what I want, and we get to the park.

At the park, the long line goes on, and as I discussed in The Rules, we're much more relaxed with the long line.  It's how I practice recall (again, turkey meatballs are apparently The Way), and mostly I just want her to not pull and to keep up.

Dog yoga

Until I saw the article in the New York Times (Bonding with their downward facing humans), I never thought about dogs + yoga.

My Yoga practice has always been exceedingly private.  Home alone, with a DVD, curtains drawn private.  Of course, with Elka, you're never, in fact, alone, and this extends to yoga.  There are even two books about dog yoga (sometimes called "Doga"), one I have read, and one I have not. The Barking Buddha, by Brenda Bryan, with Bev Sparks doing the photography, is the one I have read.

Rainy days

Elka doesn't really like the rain.

Thunderstorms don't bother her in the slightest; she would in fact love to be outside to watch them.  But Elka does not like sky-water falling upon her, which can make things like potty breaks and exercising difficult on a rainy day, besides the fact that the back yard gets rather muddy.

So, what is there to do on a rainy day?

Night Maneuvers

A few months ago, when it was still icy and snowy out (read: not good walking the dog weather), I bought a laser pointer.  We'd used one to play with the cats at home, this one was four bucks, I figured I would give it a shot with Elka.  Really, you don't need much excuse to buy a cheap laser pointer; it even included the batteries.

Want to play a game? Tug!

Elka's favorite game is Tug.  She will try to play it with any toy ever, from a rope (you know, marketed as a tug toy) to Gumby (who puts up with it), to a tennis ball (which fits almost entirely into her mouth and doesn't work).

Tug is a fun thing for her, and can be for me too, though the game has to have rules, as one might guess.  There are some people who in fact say that you should never play with your dog, as it can mess up the "pack hierarchy" or make your dog aggressive.  I don't really buy into the whole "pack" notion; dogs know the difference between people and dogs.  A whole bunch of dogs together might make up a pack and have rules within it as such, but if you've got people and an "only dog" in a household, I don't think it applies.

Aggressiveness is a can of worms I don't really want to get into, or at least not when we're talking about a fun game! Suffice to say, if your dog has aggressive tendencies in the first place, or is very very possessive with toys, don't play tug.  There are problems already in place and you don't need to ask for more.  But if you have a well-balanced dog who lets you give and take toys happily?  Tug away!

Elka's favorite toy: The Third Man

Elka has a very clear preference for one of her toys: Gumby.  The evidence: