Couch 184: Welcome to Zanzibar!

I hate anxiety. It's making me drive myself crazy with things I never said or asked... and I'm so mad at myself right now.

As much as I hate meds, I may need to start anxiety meds, this stuff gets the best of me too much.

Sending out peaceful vibes to all my couchies tonight. G'night!

My current project, for the crafty Couchies.
It's a Christmas stocking, and I've scrolled down and am working on the toe. Crossing my fingers (and my stitches! Ha!) that I get it done in time to cut it out and turn it into an actual stocking!

image1.jpg One of my friend's is a photographer and I won a free mini photo shoot. So I just took my 2 youngest, got a few cute ones out of it.

20181215_181751_HDR.jpg DH got sent home from work again today because his boss said he didn't need him. So all day he was in a horrible mood..until he decided that he wanted to get my boys a bearded dragon.

Say hello to Spyro.

Sister's surprise baby shower went sort of okay. She almost cancelled because she was sick, probably with the flu. She doesn't believe in shots. But she came and seemed happy to know people thought about her and cared. We didn't get to do any games. It was only me, my sister, my older sister, my mom, and a friend and her 2 kids. We ate, opened presents, had cake, and went home. Didn't even use 50% of what I bought. If H found out, he'd be pissed.

Next on the list of my adventures: tomorrow opening presents with my mom and our friend and her kids, Monday is T, and Tuesday is a birthday dinner for my sister.

I wish I could sleep the next 6 months away, wake up and if I don't like what I see, then go back to sleep.

I haven't mixed the two! I figured I need cheddar cheese to go with the mustard which I haven't got- so sadly no experimental research can start just yet.

I'm at the gym and i'm one of those people bored stiff on the stair thing- so bitter now sounds amazing! I haven't tried almonds and chickpeas together i might steal that.

Edit: I bought a small jar of French mustard and tasted it on it's own then with a teeny peice of cheese-It's very strong but I'm an official member of the mustard fan club.

SheHulk - Spyro is so cute! I had no idea they started out so small.

Awww your daughters are beautiful. I love the matchy clothes.
Sypro would definitively be a shock present for me. I'd be afraid of him escaping!

Oooo that sounds lovely. What kind of stuff was left over?

I hope your session with T goes well and you enjoy the birthday dinner.

SheHulk, your kids are adorable! I also like the matching clothing and pillow.


How do you feel about the bearded dragon? How big do they get?

Well I got something small to look forward to. just booked a dog sitting gig on Xmas eve night, the person is paying me 65$ for one night. Crazy but awesome.

Your kids are beautiful.

DP..we just adopted a 5 month old 45lb Shepherd mix. He was rescued from the south (Georgia) and shipped here to Jersey where he lived in the Shelter from the beginning of November until we found and adopted him on Thursday. He never had a home. He’s timid, shy and not house trained at all. Do you have any tips on breaking him out of his shell? And house training? I’ve been letting him out every hour and giving a treat immediately if he eliminates outside. So far he has eliminated 4 times in the house and I just bring him over to where he did it, tell him no-and take him straight outside then clean it up.

My BFF sent me these as Christmas gifts, which is doubly hilarious since neither of us really go for pink hyper-girly things.

(The text message one is especially funny since she has a young kiddo and is always texting me at 2am going "DOES THIS COUGH SOUND LIKE CROUP DO I NEED TO TAKE HIM TO THE ER" or like "IS THIS CUT INFECTED IS HIS HAND GOING TO FALL OFF" and I always look at the video or the picture or whatever and inevitably it's totally fine and I tell her so and then she feels better.)

Awwwwww bearded dragons? They are adorable

Shy dogs are my favorite!!! They take a lot of work and patience but the reward is amazing. My dog that I still have was that way. He hated men, and eventually worked as a therapy dog.

What i did, was spend a lot of time gaining his trust and bonding with him. Walks were the best way. I'd take him on walks every day and sometimes bring treats to give him as we walk.

Another thing was exposure therapy so to speak. I got him used to people more by exposing him to people. Starting small like on walks (maybe give the person a treat or ask a neighbor to come up to YOU to say hi... ) or taking him to a park.

Then we would go to places like the pet store, the workers gave treats and such. As much as many people HATE Cesar Millan.. the no touch, no talk, no eye contact is vital here. This goes for strangers. They can offer a treat but casually, not by saying "Here's a cookie" or by looking and oohing and awing over them, but just having their hand out and letting the dog sniff and take it.

Remember to award GOOD behaviors. If your dog is coming to you, or taking treats or whatever you want them to do, praise them, pet them. Things like that. It's a huge trust building thing, it took many months for my dog to come around.

Feel free to message me if you need more info. Good luck

As for the house training, the no thing, is not very liked in the training community. It's punishing bad behavior as opposed to praising good. Dogs dont have the ability to rationalize. So they are in the here and now.

Taking him out often is good but what you do is when he eliminates outside,then you praise him.

As frustrating as accidents in the home may be, it doesn't really do anything for him except say "Ok, she's upset" and that can make an already shy dog, even more shy. It takes time, they have to adjust to new ways of life. Walks can help with this too, again, rewarding them for going on walks.

Last resort is a kennel, I'm not a fan of them personally but for training things they can help. IF you have to go out somewhere, you can try doing that. It seems to help many people.

When my dog was a puppy, and well, he was dying, we used puppy pads. Putting them all over, causally picking them up if soiled and calmly talking them outside. Most dogs catch on quickly. good luck

Thanks! We’ve been taking him for walks and this AM was the first time since Thursday he didn’t try to run right back into the house. I’ll try some of the tips you gave me about slowly introducing him to other people.

Thanks! I didn’t know saying no was frowned upon in training. That’s new information for me. I’ll stop doing that and probably put pads down today in the spots he’s been eliminating in the house.