A little bit of Jasper in my life...

Sheesh, I'm such a slacker! I've been promising myself that I would get around to blogging several times over the past few days but somehow the days have been getting away from me. What have I been doing, pray tell? To be honest, not a whole lot. I know...I'm a horrible blogging person.

But really, why does it seem that as the weather starts to get warmer, the days start to go faster? I can honestly say that there were a few days in the depths of those dark January days when I thought spring would never come. But alas, here it is. Something else I have noticed as of late is how my entire day seems to hinge on the actions of our not-so-newly acquired Beagle. Okay, for all those who know me, you know that these past for months have been something of a struggle for me, dog wise. For a while there, it seemed my life had been separated into two distinct parts: BJ (And that stands for Before Jasper so get your mind out of the gutter, you dirty, dirty people!) and AJ (predictably, After Jasper). Things were awfully tense for those first few weeks...alright, for those first few months, in all honestly. There were many times that I found myself bursting into tears of frustration at the office when a co-worker would innocently ask how our new puppy was doing. And I can't count the number of times when Adam (my husband) would come home to find me sobbing on the couch while poor beagle friend stared at me like I had lost my mind. To put it bluntly, I hated the dog (yes, I admit it) and I wanted nothing more than to take him back to the Shelter where we had found him.

But then, something rather astounding started happening. Day by day, things started to get better. Oh don't misunderstand me...there are still plenty of times when I find myself ready to inflict some serious damage but more often than not, I'm laughing at something cute or silly he has done and calling out "Love you angel boy..be a good dog" when I'm heading out the door in the morning. What in the world has happened to the woman who wanted to send him back to the shelter?! Oh, I'm sure she is still in there somewhere but slowly, she is being beaten into submission. Yes, her, not the dog..lol.

So where is this all going, you ask? I have no idea. I just felt the need to talk about Jasper and about the stunning realization that Adam and I had this weekend that we have now had him for four months. Four months! Where does the time go? I think back to that time, just before Christmas when all Adam and I could talk about was how much we wanted a dog...how much I wanted a dog. I guess I just never imagined that *my dog* would be the 10 month old beagle that is now running around downstairs like an animal possessed while I am typing this. I had always envisioned myself with something more...more...well, more *me*, like a lab or something. But in all truthfulness, I wouldn't trade Jasper for the world. And in saying that, I suppose I shouldn't be offended when, upon hearing that we had got a Beagle, one of my very good friends replied with the following: "A beagle? That is such a perfect dog for you. It IS you!" Umm...I am still not sure what that means but I'm hoping that she isn't implying that I must be kept on a leash at all times for fear of me escaping into the wide world beyond!

And just as a side note to add to all of this (and probably what sparked all of this in the first place), we had a bit of a Jasper breakthrough this afternoon. Those of you in the know, and for the most part, this would apply first and foremost to my ever patient co-workers who hear a LOT about Jasper on a daily basis, you know that things have been steadily improving. The poor beast has mastered how to sit, stay, etc...but the most frustrating thing for me from the start has always been the fact that he absolutely, ABSOLUTELY refused to walk properly on a leash. Now this might not seem to be that big of a concern but for me, it was tantamount as I am the one that walks him most in the daylight hours and for Jasper, seeing other people or dogs was like what a red cape must be to a bull. Just one glance and he would be off, dragging a helpless and hapless me after him for whatever length of time it would take me to finally bring him back under control. Yes, as you can imagine, this is what led to many of the breakdowns that Adam would witness when he came home from work at night as I have been put in charge of taking the energetic Jasper for a walk after I get home from work. Yes, I get home first so that lovely honour falls to me. Now don't get me wrong, I am in charge of popping home and taking him for a short walk at lunch as well but being as it is the middle of the day, there are not very many people around our area at that time so the most he usually gets up to is chasing the odd squirrel. And frankly, I've become quite adept at squirrel spotting, which gives me those few precious moments to prepare before my arm would be unceremoniously ripped off.

But I digress. So basically, the whole walking thing was quickly becoming the bane of my existence (Isildur's Bane, for all of my fellow LOTR friends) because frankly, I just couldn't handle the pulling. It was so bad that for me, just the thought of having to take him for that walk after work was enough to send my stress levels soaring at the end of each day. I dreaded it, and even more so as the weather has started to get warmer for two very important reasons.

1) With the warmer weather, people have started to crawl out of the woodwork again. Where before, on those dark, snowy and cold after-work walks, Jasper and I might see the odd person or two with their equally odd dogs, now there are *scores* of people out and about...scads even! I have taken to walking Jasper through a park near our house and I just couldn't believe the number of people there the other day. Okay, enough of that..on to number 2.

ahem..

2) With the onset of the warmer weather, I can no longer wear my padded ski mitts that have been my saving grace up until this point. You see, the poor dog pulls so much that the handle from the leash cuts into my skin and damn well hurts..ALOT! But for some reason, people don't seem to take well to seeing you wearing ski gloves in 15C temperatures, even as protection.

So basically, I was at a loss and didn't know what to do. I had taken to wearing mini gloves but still, it didn't do much to save my hands from the leash and even they were too warm for the nice spring days we have been having of late. But then it seemed, everything changed this weekend.

For one, I went out and bought Jasper (and myself) a new leash. And this one is an uber-leash..the leash to end all leashes...MY leash! And the key to this one...it is round and therefore has no nasty edges to cut into my ever so tender flesh! Score one for me! And for two, Adam and I FINALLY got around to going back to PetSmart (the place that has replaced IKEA as my #1 money taker) to exchange the halter harness we had bought about 2 months ago for the proper size. Ding ding ding...still not sure what took us so long.

So okay, the new leash was a stellar idea and we tried it out on Sunday and Monday, noticing that it indeed was an improvement on the hands. But it still wasn't doing anything to help the fact that Jasper was still pulling like a fiend. Damn dog...that is my new name for him. And so after what was probably our worst walk to date, yesterday after work, Adam took the halter harnness thingy out of the package and fit it on to Jasper to see how it was going to work. I'm sure I don't have to tell you just how unimpressed he was to have this "Mask of Zorro" contraption attached to his face and he fought like mad for the entire 10 minutes that he had it on, trying to pull it off his face. To put it lightly, I wasn't hopeful.

But Adam, bless his soul, is persistant. He took him out in it for his bedtime walk last night and had some minor success with it, although it did manage to come off a couple of times and Jasper would have been just a speck on the horizon if it weren't for the convenient "safety strap". But you know me...I was still skeptical. I mean, what would happen if I took him out in it and he somehow managed to get out of it AND unhook the safety strap?? We would be dogless and I'm pretty sure Adam would think it was premeditated..thusly, never forgiving me. And yes, I do realize that this would have to mean that we had one terribly impressive Houdini of a pooch on our hands to manage such a feat but still...it *could* happen.

Anyway, I had been debating this whole "should I", "shouldn't I" thing all day today, having just opted for the leash at lunch. And when I was driving home, I finally convinced myself to give it a try. What is the worst that could happen? So arriving home, I took a deep breath, grabbed the halter/harness thingy with a firm hand and forced it on to a very unhappy puppy. I then clipped on the uber leash and headed out the door, keeping very close watch on the constantly protesting Jasper to make sure that he wasn't pulling the halter/harness thingy off. And you know what? It worked....it actually worked. Really, I think I'm still in shock over it.

The one we have is one that fits around the snout of the dog and then clips behind his head. The leash is attached to a ring underneath the dogs chin which in effect, pulls the dogs snout closed and down to his chest each time he starts to pull. And from first hand experience, I can honestly say that it is a godsend! I mean, part of it could have been the fact that Jasper was trying so hard to get the darn thing off that he didn't have time to pull like he normally does. But halfway through the walk, he seem to reach some point of acceptance and stopped struggling so much...and still, he didn't start pulling. Every time he did, it would just take a little tug on the uber-leash to get him back in line again. God, I LOVE this thing!! We even came across PEOPLE...and DOGS!! And still...no pulling! Sweet Jesus, this is what having a dog is all about! And you know what the best part was? We walked by this man and woman and I heard her commenting about what a nice dog Jasper was to walk so well beside me. I actually had to look around to make sure they were talking about MY dog! I'm just thankful that they weren't around to witness the little spectacle that he made of us yesterday afternoon, pre-Halti! I'm just hoping that I will again run into the man that I saw in the park one day late last week that laughed at me while I was trying to rein in an especially exuberant Jasper. My favourite part was when he then proceeded to tell me that I was fighting a losing battle since he had a beagle once and was therefore the foremost expert on them, informing me that they were absolutely impossible to train. Well, I'll show him, I thought...and now, I can!

I suppose I'm really hoping that this walk wasn't some sort of an abberation (of whatever that is called) and that he won't start pulling like a maniac again tomorrow when I take him out. But I really think we might be on to something here. At least I hope. I can handle and accept the rest of Jaspers unique quirks but this walking thing was so important to me, just for the lack of stress alone. I'm looking forward to actually being able to *like* him again, as well as love him.

Anyway, this has gone on longer than I had wanted/expected but thats okay because its my blog and I'll cry if I want to..lol. I didn't get the chance to talk about all the other things I wanted to talk about but I suppose those shall wait for another day.