Bring the Phone!

Mira just brought DH his blackberry. He had left it on the bathroom counter, and when it rang Mira decided to take it to him in the office.

She is also bringing us things like keys, the TV remote, etc. upon request. And, she's learning to turn the lights on and off.

If I drop anything, she'll pick it up and hand it to me--which really comes in handy on those days when I'm either in a lot of pain, having dizzy spells, or both. It appears that she will also have the potential to learn to do some balance work to help steady me when I get dizzy or disoriented with a migraine or flare-up. She is also continuing to develop her alerting behavior, and we're learning how to better interpret what she's trying to tell us.

We met with a trainer/behaviorist today who helped us work with her on a few things and showed us how to correct her when she growls. She is now only growling at people near our house or car, and not when we're out somewhere else in neutral territory. The trainer said that "she's all bark" and he thinks we can break her of the barking/growling behavior at the door, too.

It seems to be very much a situation where she's just doing a job she had previously been taught to do, and as she realizes that we neither expect nor want her to protect us, our house or our car (and that, in our "pack" it's our job to protect Mira rather than the other way around), she will stop doing it. She's made a lot of progress already over the past week.

The kids had their first AWANA meeting of the year this week, and they enjoyed it. Ebee, especially, is excited that she gets to be in Cubbies and get her own AWANA vest and book this year.

We did a few days of light schoolwork this week, and plan to work our way into full swing in the coming week. We're studying France this next week or two, which should be fun.