Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Last Sunday at church the service revolved around "Building Community". Our Pastor at one point was talking about how it used to be that people would sit out on their front porches and wave and talk to people as they went by. For example in Andy Griffith (I realize it was only a TV show and not real life), they'd sit out on the front porch and sooner or later pretty much everyone they knew would walk by and say hello.

So early last week I was thinking, we do no activity in the front of our house. If we go out the front door, it's either to take the dogs for a walk or get the mail. Some people have porches but "hanging out" in the front of our house doesn't really work. I decided on Friday to change that and see what the effect would be.

I had to bring my boy out with me. So I took Gryffin and tied him to the tree in the front. I brought a bowl of water for him, some treats, and brought out a beach chair and we sat there for about an hour. I sat there and read while he sniffed the air and enjoyed the breeze. The clouds were a gorgeous pink as the sun was going down. See, something I wouldn't have seen from the Sweet Room. It felt really nice to change things up a little like that.

When I first sat down out there, I couldn't help but laugh and think of the "Friends" episode where their apartment got robbed and they temporarily replaced their furniture with lawn chairs in the living room. Sitting in a basic plastic white chair and drinking a beer, Chandler shrugs and says "Could we be more white trash?" I love "Friends", too funny.

I was bored so drew a picture to add a little flair and color to the blog and post:

Liz told me the neighbors would think I was nuts but we only had two people walk by(with dogs) and of the many cars that drove by, only two of them took notice, and both of them smiled and waved.

On Monday last week, Gryffin started his "Canine Good Citizen Class" since he graduated the regular obedience class. It's 6 weeks long and in the 7th week he will take the test to earn his "good citizen" badge. I've read through the test and of all the tricks or skills he is tested on, there is only one, even at this moment in time, I think he would fail (and fail miserably). Here's the test:

Test 8: Reaction to another dog
This test demonstrates that the dog can behave politely around other dogs. Two handlers and their dogs approach each other from a distance of about 20 feet, stop, shake hands and exchange pleasantries, and continue on for about 10 feet. The dogs should show no more than casual interest in each other. Neither dog should go to the other dog or its handler.

So by sitting in the yard, it was also my effort to help him and his reaction to other dogs. The two people that walked by both had dogs and Gryffin went absolutely NUTS. "NUTS" is actually an understatement. Imagine the worst temper tantrum you've ever seen, multiply it by 10, and put it in dog form, that's what Gryffin does. It's downright embarrassing how bad he is. He whines, howls, squeals, growls, and barks at the dogs walking by. He yanks on the leash like he's about to run a sprint in a race. He leaves no embarrassing action unused.

What we've been taught to cure him of this behavior is to give him treats as much as we can BEFORE his temper tantrum occurs. So while those dogs are approaching, I'm giving him an endless stream of unearned treats hoping he'll learn that "other dogs = treats = happiness = calmness" and not go nuts anymore. He definitely has a threshold for when he's calm to when he goes bananas so as long as we continue to shorten that threshold, we're making progress. It's been a while since progress has occurred though.

So I think over the next 6 weeks I'm going to make it a point to sit in the front yard, not only to help Gryffin get over his ridiculous behavior, but also to see what effect it might have on the neighborhood. It's an experiment is what it is. Will we make new neighborhood friends? Probably not. But I think it will certainly help with increasing the friendliness of our neighbors.