In the beginning

We had organization.

I am convinced that having a schedule may save all of us this summer.

But first we have to have good food.  Job assignment always goes easier when we start with a good meal...

Is that bribery?

We brought back the job chart that has worked great for the last two summers.  Only this year we added Jenna and Benson.  So far so good.  Now if it would stop raining.

Got fairies?

Losing teeth is hard when you're little.  Sometimes it requires a certain amount of incentive to keep the little ones from panicing at the site of a wiggly tooth.  Thus the invention of the Tooth Fairy.  

 Anyone who know me, knows this is a sticky situation in the best of circumstances.  Remembering to remember is not one of my strong characteristics.  

Jenna has ultra organizing abilities and she can remember to put her tooth under the pillow without any prompts from her parents which usually means it takes a couple of nights before the tooth fairy actually shows up.

She lost a tooth on the last day of school and after two nights of disappointment she tacked this to her door.

But alas, the tooth fairy was sleepy, so it wasn't until midnight when a very thoughtful older brother remembered the look of disappointment on her face the previous morning when she realized  she had been forgotten once again. He came up with a very fun plan.  A trail of pennies (his own life savings...) lead from the pillow to the dining room with a note from the Fairy.

 

She loved it!

10 reasons the Hatches have never been to Disneyland...

 In  no particular order and counting only the last two years...

And excluding shoes that last no more than two months per pair, cars that get totaled right AFTER they are paid for and scout uniforms...

10.  Stitches

 9.  Broken Collar bone

  8.  Broken hand

 7.  Flooded basements

 6. stitches (again)

 5. Flooded basement again (x3 actually...)

 4.  Broken Ankle bone

 3.  Stitches (yet again)

 2.  tonsillectomy, tonsillectomy and ankle surgery (see #4)
and our favorite...

  1.  Puppies who eat tiny stuffed animals and have to have surgery to get them removed.

horse hoofs, sunflowers, swamps

We spent an awesome weekend in Franklin.  There's nothing prettier than Franklin in the spring I think...

I don't have most of the great pictures we took--they are all stuck on LoaLee's camera.

The kids had a blast riding horses, trimming horse hooves, and cooking breakfast on the porch.

Beau hung out with Mosey--the best dog on the planet and Clancy  (who thinks he's the best dog on the planet...).  He slept out in the tent with the boys, rolled in manure and chewed on horse hooves.  yummm.  Unfortunately, today Beau is recovering from surgery to remove Jenna's very tiny stuffed animal (what do you do with a teething puppy...) that was lodged in his intestine.  We are glad he didn't have any terrible illness or twisted intestine but this is a seriously expensive chew toy. 

Rustin and I got to sped Friday night in SLC city with my parents.  We went to Utah Symphony's performance of Mahler's 1st symphony--Titan.  It was really stunning.  While (embarrassingly) the Mozart piano concerto in the first half nearly put me to sleep, the Mahler symphony was amazing the entire time.  The symphony doubled in size size from Mozart to Mahler.  The Titan symphony calls for more instruments than almost any symphony (so the program said...)  The horns and tympani were amazing.  We loved it all.

On Monday we visited the cemeteries.  I'll have to write more about that later.  It was a cool, clear beautiful morning.  Sam played  his bagpipes at the cemetery as we visited the resting places of Rustin's fourth great grandparents and down. 

In the afternoon we went canoeing at Johnson's reservoir where the boys "accidentally" swamped the canoe three times.  It wore them out.  Actually I think we are all still tired.

Tomorrow is our first official day of summer so we will sleep in and then get organized.  Positive thinking's important right...?

Go to mat training beginnings. Twelve weeks old.

I started with 'go to mat' training for Beau. The goal is to be able to have the dog go to a mat and lay down and be quiet whenever we need him to. 

At first my goal was just to get Beau to look at or sniff or even better, sit on the mat--but he wasn't interested in the mat, just dinner..  (actually I had the mat too far away--I should have put it where he would naturally sit on it...)

So to get him to notice the mat I just started tossing treats onto the mat.  Then I clicked and treated rapidly before he could get off, even though I don't think he really realized that he was on the mat at that point--he was just happy to be getting dinner.  Every ten treats or so, I tossed the treat away so he would leave the mat to get the treat.  But he still wasn't intentionally going back on to the mat to get a treat. hmmm...

 After a few minutes of this, I finally remembered to put the mat at my feet where Beau was more likely to lie down so that I could more easily reinforce the behavior--quickly treating about every second with two pieces of kibble.  (he likes his kibble...?) And then throwing a treat off the mat to give him a chance to go back to it on purpose.  For the first four or five times I had to draw his attention to the mat by patting it and then he went and laid down for another round of rapid reinforcement..

Finally, after about six cycles of 10 treats, he left the mat to go get his tossed treat, paused for a second and then trotted onto the mat.  Yeah!  So I click and give him the rest of the bowl for dinner.  That's it for training today.

**By the way--I like to use meals/food for training,  I like to have a dog  work to get his food.  Some people think it makes a dog who will only work if there is food around but I never had that problem with Molly and I don't think I will with Beau either.  I think it makes a dog who is always trying to figure out what you want him to do.  Works for me.**

A month's worth of life in 12 pictures

Jenna has been practicing every morning--we manage a mere 10 minutes but every bit counts.

 "Put your violin over on your shoulder."  Smart alek.

Benson going to show-and-tell at preschool.  It's always nice to have the kids demonstrate how non-violent and peaceful things are at this house. Pretty sure there are a couple of guns in the backpack.

Jenna and I went to a baby shower in Logan for Ashlee.  Any time now...

And who can resist a cute picture of pregnant cousins hugging.

Rustin and I went with Austin's class on their field trip to Boise.  My favorite part?--

The penitentiary.

The creamy whites and steely gray-blues with a touch of rust and brick.  I am determined to paint my house these colors one of these days...

Here's to looking up! (Boise state capitol building.)

I guess I should have included laundry, bills, dishes, Rustin in a suit (church...), school picnics, flowers and homework.  You'll just have to imagine.  Final count-down--3 1/2 days of school.  Yea!

Cheapest computer fix ever...

I was sure that we were going to have to get a new computer.  The Internet connection kept crashing and things were moving very slowly until finally--no Internet at all. (the spell checker keeps telling me to capitalize internet--is that right?)

Then, late Saturday night, it occurred to me that I should check the phone connection that is in the corner.

Yep.  It had fallen prey to a teething puppy.

Thankfully he didn't chew through the cord he just pulled everything loose so all I had to do was re connect the wires to the phone jack in the wall.  ( so glad I learned to do that back when I ran an entirely new line to the family room!) Computer is all better.  It does still need a few updates and it is running low on memory but it is hanging in there.

**Warning--dog training talk ahead...** Anyone an expert trainer out there?  I could use some advice!

As far as puppy training goes--we are now proud owners of the third best creation of all time.  Right after telephone and color television.  The dog door.  Seriously.

Emmet making good use of the new door.

I don't think much can rival the dog door for convenience.  Maybe it's not the Third most important invention but it is seriously awesome.  Rustin put on a pair of goggles and very dramatically (sparks everywhere) cut a hole in the family room door.  Once the hole was cut it only took about 15 minutes to put the door in.  It took a couple of tries to get Beau used to the door and Wallah.  Potty training accomplished.

We hit a snag with training which I remember from Molly's days;  adding a cue to a second behavior (down).  It seems like the second behavior is the worst until they get the idea that everything has a different name.

Down has been a tricky one.  Sit was so firmly ingrained that I couldn't get him to lay down for anything.  I ended up luring a few times which  made him think he was being rewarded for trying to get a treat out of my hand sothen I had to go back and do treat zen again...

Once Beau figured out that laying down was what was getting treats then I couldn't get him to get up so I could cue the down.  Even if I threw the treat he would army crawl over to get it.  I started holding it up to lure him up and that kind of started a snapping sort of attempt to get the treat which wasn't what I wanted... Anyway I finally just started walking far enough away that he would get up and that helped.  However...

Once I added the cue "down" to the repertoire then Beau was confused again. As in, 'I'm not supposed to sit anymore she just wants me to lay down.  And I don't think he was hearing the word but just responding to my fist on the floor by laying down and batting at my hand.  That's not what I want. 

 I'm not sure this puppy will survive this inexperienced trainer. 

I have been getting  this sort of slouching,whining, half-sit-slide-to-down. hmmm.  So for a few days I just abandoned it entirely and let him do some target (touching a spoon) and 'leave it'.  He still sits by default whenever he wants something.

I did finally get a good sit again by clicking really fast for the sit cue (even if he wasn't looking at me and was trying to slide to down) and then giving him his treat up high above his head so he couldn't slide down.

I know a better trainer would be getting through all this much faster but I am only training one meal a day.  And truthfully we missed a few days with our recent bout with strep throat...
 
He is finally sitting again and is making good progress with down.  I went back to pairing the cue 'down' with capturing the action again. And he did a really good in the kitchen down on the fist cue yesterday... 

Remember -this article... And Ian Dunbar's often repeated rule--dogs don't generalize.  If you teach it in one place you will probably have to teach all over again when you move to a new place.  Eventually they will get it but it takes a lot of repetitions in a lot of different places.  I am reminding myself of these things as I type.

On an encouraging note--Everything's going great with loose leash walking (though he really just picked that up on his own without a lot of trouble) and coming when called (see here too)and staying home.  Beau has never strayed out of the yard even with the fence not complete.  He doesn't leave my parents or my sisters house either when off leash. And his hair is soft as bunny fur.  Really.  And I love to brush him.

So I just keep trying.