Memorial Weekend

Maggie's Memorial Weekend started with a spa day with Kat on Friday. She went in for a bath and grooming at Kriser's. We were a little concerned about how much they might take off and that she might look like a shaven poodle when they were done, but they did an excellent job. They even gave her a scarf to boot. She looks better than ever.
Friday night we went up to Michigan - this was Maggie's first full weekend up there. After a stressful Friday with the grooming, and then a new place Friday night, Saturday didn't get off to the best start.

The one big difference in Michigan is that we don't have a fenced in yard, so she's on the leash all of the time. That, combined with the new surroundings, had Maggie a little tense in the beginning. Getting her to relax outside and enjoy the weather was a challenge. We hooked her leash on the leg of our patio table and tried to get her to chill.

First she would only stand, uncomfortably.

Eventually (after like an hour), she decided to sit. She looks happy here, but that's just her playing to the camera. Don't be fooled.

And then, finally, she plopped down on the patio. Though she was going to have nothing to do with her treat (the 'bully stick'). She wasn't quite that comfortable yet. Once she decided to lay down we took her leash off. There's a very high inertial threshold for Maggie to get moving once she's lying down so we were pretty confident she wasn't going anywhere.

We had one incident Saturday morning, shortly after we finished our cereal on the patio. While still in standing-mode, Maggie pulled hard enough to move the patio table. The table isn't very heavy, and the thought had crossed my mind that attaching her to the table might not be the best of ideas - but I'd convinced myself that she generally doesn't move quickly, or with enough momentum to move the table much, so we were fine.

That turned out not to be the case. Maggie didn't pull very hard, but it was hard enough to move the table an inch or two. What I hadn't foreseen was the cycle this could begin.

The table moved. That scared Maggie. The quicker Maggie moved, the more the table chased after her, and so on. The end result was the table ending up dragged through the "landscaping" (ie. mulch with some tall grasses) before I caught ahold of it and the untimely demise of one cereal bowl.

From that point on, Maggie's leash was attached to the leg of a patio chair - and only when one of us was seated in said chair.

By Sunday night, Maggie was exhausted and making herself comfortable on her bed, as you can see in the photos above.

We went on many, many walks in the area - mainly down by the water. By Sunday and Monday, this was all old hat to Mags and she was more relaxed both inside the condo and out. We rounded out the trip with a visit to her new friend Nina. Nina is our neighbor's 11 year old (estimated - they also adopted) Lab. Nina is very mellow, and just the right speed for Maggie. A lot of sniffing ensued and they seemed agreeable enough.

Our biggest concern heading into the weekend was that we'd spend endless hours trying to get Maggie to go #1 on the leash, and wakeful nights stressing over the fact that she hadn't gone in X hours. Right away, Maggie put these concerns to rest - she now is completely cool with doing any and all types of business on the leash. And she's figured out to just pull off into the grass on our walks and go whenever needed. That made the weekend much more enjoyable for us, and now that we're over the first hump, we're sure future weekends will go much smoother.

Next weekend (weather permitting) we're planning on taking her to the beach - stay tuned!