Loved my vacation but glad to be home...

Whew. My husband and I got home this afternoon after a very long drive (from Wyoming to Mississippi). I had a wonderful time in Wyoming for Christmas, but someone needs to invent a quick, reliable, and inexpensive method of travel, because driving just is not it. Our poor dog. During the first day of driving, he'd get excited every time we'd decelerate, thinking that we were "there" (he had no idea where "there" was, but he wanted to be "there" anyway). He'd get up, stand on the center console, and survey the scene, and then disappointedly return to his blanket to lay back down until the next change in velocity. By the end of the second day of driving, he didn't even bother to get up. Even when I asked him, "Where are we? Are we home?" he clearly didn't believe me until I actually hooked his leash to his harness. He was SO happy to be home. We were too.

It was a nice vacation. My parents and brother came out from California to Wyoming, where my in-laws live. My husband and I drove out from here in the Mid South, and my brother-in-law came home from his freshman year of college. We were only missing my sister-in-law's family to make it complete, but it was their turn to go to her in-laws' house instead. We ate and ate and ate and ate and...well, I'm sure you get the idea; let's just say the 21 lbs I had lost prior to the trip is somewhat diminished. At least when I go back to the gym all the sorority girls will be gone!

The only downsides to the trip were the duration of the drive to get there, the lack of snow (there was barely any on the ground anywhere; we saw some higher up in the mountains and at the ski resort, but they are having unusually warm weather and most of it had melted off), and the behavior of my dog.



I have a six-year-old neutered male Shiba Inu (if you've never heard of them, look 'em up; they are incredibly cute as puppies, very attractive as adults, and complete pains in the butt as far as their behavior is concerned) and his behavior over the week was, shall we say, undesirable. He escaped the house three days in a row. The first two days he had to be tricked back into the house with food (leave a trail of breadcrumbs or, more truthfully, tuna, and he'll eventually give in to greed and come in). The third day I think he had decided all the fun was gone (none of us would go out and chase him; we just ignored him the whole time) and so he just came in after about a hour of his own accord.

He also tormented my brother-in-law's Sheltie. Every time there was a treat or some food involved, my dog would jump on the Sheltie, snarling and growling. The poor Sheltie was a victim of an attack by several dogs in their neighborhood when he was younger, and he has back problems so he's a bit gimpy, and the result of the attacks by my dog (no biting, just snarling and wrestling) was that the Sheltie would go hide behind a chair and quiver in fear while my dog got what he wanted (he also got scolded, but unfortunately he could give a rat's butt if we scold him--his temperament is very much like a Siamese cat: worship me from afar and I may deign to pay attention to you if I feel like it).

If that wasn't enough, he also got snappy with my brother and my husband. My brother reached down to pet the dog while he had a treat on the floor between his feet, and apparently the dog felt that this was a threat. He responded the same way he did with the Sheltie: he lashed his head towards my brother's hand (but never actually bit or made contact) and snarled. He did the same thing to my husband on the drive home. He was in the back seat, scratching at a raw spot on his cheek (I'm sure it will mean a vet visit if he doesn't leave it alone). My husband reached around the seat to poke at the dog and get him to stop scratching, and the dog snapped and snarled again. We are now looking at shock collars and other possibilities to correct these behaviors; if you have any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.

Well, time to unpack. Guess I'll be spending a lot of time at the gym this week...