Day 3 of training- Wednesday

Wednesday morning we got up and things were kind of crazy. First off I got up and let Rei off the tie down to go feed her. Then took he outside and she didn't pee, which was completely unlike her. Mike hadn't gotten the trash out or gathered, so after coming back in from Rei's break, I left her on the tie down as Katie and I collected the trash and unloaced/re-loaded the dishwasher.

John was coming to pick me up and take me to my dr to have my hand looked at since the pain was still coming and going often. So we left for the dr's appt and Rei rode nicely in the floorboard at my feet. We went in and Rei was very good staying out of the way and went down and under the chair and out of the way in the actual exam room too. The Dr. examined my hand and said she doesn't think it's broken, but that I've bruised it good. I still have full range of motion and a strong grip, which I wouldn't have it something were broken. So she gave me some Naproxin to take twice a day for 2 weeks and see if the inflammation and pain is gone by then. If not, then we'll need to look at it again and go forward from there.

John brought Meaghan and I home and we ate lunch. Then I had the hearing aid company coming out since the t coil in my left hearing aid wasn't working right. He took a look at things and the actual body casing of the hearing aid was cracked and the ear peice that goes between the ear mold and the body of the aid, was also cracked, but that whole stem was wobbling back and forth. Not sure if it's still under warranty, since I've had them about 2 1/2 yrs now. So we'll see what this brings. He also worked on the ear mold to the other ear, that was a little big yet a nd hurting before I left for NY. He filed this down to fit better into my ear and no problems so far! Yay!

Uncle Mike and Lisa both arrived pretty close to 2pm. Lisa, Rei, and I loaded up on the car and went downtown to work around the main streetlight interesection in town. And it was raining, though thankfully not too hard. So we parked in the Walgreens parking lot and worked our way completely around the intersection and Rei did well. She was a little nervous with the heavy traffic and wasnt real keen on staying at the curb with me, so not sure what was up with that. She was wanting to take off on down the sidewalk away from the intersection. But we made it all around and then headed on into the Walgreens. We walked back and picked up my script and then worked around the store for a bit too. We took a look at the doggy goodies and picked up a couple of sterilized bones for Rei to have too.

We left there and went up to the church and Lisa was amazed at how big it was. LOL! We went in and going in I made quite a fool of myself and walked into a trashcan, as Rei had tried to take me around it, but we were going through the doors and it was in front of where the doorway was since some painters were there. They had everything scooted out from the walls and Lisa said she wondered if I'd see it or not, and I didn't. I think it was about as loud as when I hit the wet floor sign with Honey, but at least this time there wasn't anyone around except the painters. LOL!

We walked back to the room where the support group meeting is held and back to the sanctuary, which was pitch dark. So we came on out and went up the stiars and around the top floor and back down and out to the car again. Rei refused to get in and it'd been a while since she'd had a break so said I'd tray to let her break. Sure enough, she had to go real bad, so then she was more than willing to get in the car and lay at my feet. :)

from the church we came back into town and went to the pet store and walked around there for a while. After I asked to go I was thinking oh man, here I've asked to take my dog that LOVES food into a pet store with bones at low level and food and toys and everything else! But we'd need to do it at some point so off we went! We went in and took a look at the toys and picked up a couple of toys for Rei to play with, letting her pick out her own. :) We paid there and she did really well considering all of the distractions that were there.

We left from the pet store and headed back to the house. We then talked about training Rei to respond to my alarm clock, so that she can alert me to that when Mike is away from home. (which is coming for a week in December). We have a plan where I will start by setting off the alarm and then give her a treat. do this over and over until she's 100% on that. Then I'll get to where she's a little bit away from me and responding to the alarm. Then we'll do where I go n the bedroom she's wandering around the room and distracted and the alarm goes off and she reponds for a treat. then I'll do it where I sit real still and she has to nudge me hard to get the treat. After that I'll move to laying down on the bed and get her to nudge me to get the treat. Then if she does that I start setting the alarm longer and longer and see that she's reliable to wake me up to the alarm. Once she's reliably waking me up for all of these things, then we'll wean off the treats and the training should stick.

So lisa headed on back to her hotel and Mike and the kids got home and we ate dinner and took it eady, the kids putting away the basket of laundry we had. Through most of this, we had Rei off the tie down but dragging the 6 foot nylon lead around so it was easier to catch and correct her if need by. We rubbed and played with Rei- as in the kids and I, by doing a game of fetch it with the new toy I'd gotten for her. She was thoroughly in love with retriving it after someone threw it down the hallway and then released her to get it by telling her to fetch it! :)

We all retired and reste for the rest of the evening until morning! :)