Linus & home repair

Look! Evidence that Linus is playing! He rummaged through the toy pile until he found a bone he liked. As soon as I got the camera, he stopped.

The stuffed platypus from Ty is his favorite toy. We frequently have to retrieve it from the backyard. One day Chris picked up in the yard & tried to get Linus to play with him. Linus refused & later snuck out to bury the platypus under the photinias. Chris recovered him & has decided that playing with it in the backyard isn't a good idea.

He has come out of his shell so much. He's happy & hyper. He's all wriggly whenever he sees us. He's started jumping on us & on Einstein to get to the front of the petting line. We've decided that we're not going to do what Cesar would & insist he be calm and submissive before we give him affection. He's not used to getting it or wanting it. However, the jumping has to go especially since he does it while we're walking and/or carrying things. He's so happy & such a sweetie. He is umimpressed with the Nylabones a friend recommended to us. The one he dug out of the toy basket was one of those freeze-dried real bones. If he continues to chew on it, we'll get him some more. Anyone want some Nylabones? Einstein's never cared for them either.

Any ideas on how to stop Linus' whining in the morning? We think he's just waking up & wants out. I got up with him this morning at 6 (which is late for Linus) so Chris could sleep in. On the theory that maybe he's waking up to the sunlight we're going to toss a blanket over his crate tonight. Cross your fingers for us. I did do some more research on barking collars. It looks like that ones that the dog sets off himself have maybe a 30% success rate. Collars that are activated by remotes are the best when combined with verbal training. Would you believe that it is extremely cheaper to buy a collar to shock your dog than another more humane way (noise and/or vibration)? We're going to keep working on it but I was grouchy enough this morning that researching it was therapeutic.

Kyanos came down some this morning. Linus responded well to verbal warnings to leave her alone. He watched her very intently while Einstein fell asleep. So things are going good on the Linus/Kyanos interaction front. I was doing some knitting & Linus decided to help out by jumping up on top of my laceweight cashmere/silk blend strung with beads. Everything was saved & Linus curled up in the now clear spot beside me. Linus has also taken to hopping up in Einstein's papa san. So far Einstein is allowing it. We'll see how long that lasts.

We actually started working on the master bathroom today. We'll finish up tomorrow.
Photos are over here.