Summer!

I had a good school year, but I am exhausted. My summer break started at 12:30 this afternoon. My house, health, dogs, and garden are all an unmitigated disaster after nearly 10 months of driving back and forth to Santa Rosa and getting home too late and too exhausted to eat right, go to the gym, spend time with my dogs, or clean anything.

I’ve already started working on that. I came home today and moved a bunch of plants to the coffeehouse where they will be spending the summer; washed three loads of laundry; walked the dogs; changed the water in the aquarium; took a long, hot shower to loosen up my arthritic hips; sprinkled the tub with Comet; and made a to-do list for tomorrow.

I’ve accepted a position teaching in Tucumcari next school year, which should make it a lot easier for me to take proper care of myself and my family. My goal is to establish good habits this summer so they’ll kind of flywheel once school starts. We’ll see how it goes.

Emily

Summer training

Y’all, I am SOOOOOO excited today. I spent part of this afternoon on the phone with Doug and Elizabeth Simpson from Tenderfoot Training in Colorado, and when they found out about our dog situation in Tucumcari and what I’m doing to try to fix it, they gave me a huge discount on private lessons so I can come up and spend three days studying with them next month at their place in the mountains outside Boulder.

I’m bringing one of my dogs (probably Marley, but I’m still weighing my options) and will get to work with my own dog and their dogs and then observe some lessons so I can see how they work with clients. When I was still on Instagram, I followed them and really liked their approach: They don’t use aversives, but they don’t use treats, either. Their methods are an outgrowth of the natural horsemanship movement, which I have always appreciated for its efficiency.

The last few years have been immensely stressful — endometriosis, surgery, pandemic, grad school, Long COVID, neurodivergence, office politics at my old school, learning a new age group at my current school, etc., etc., etc. — and I haven’t done a solo road trip since 2019 or something, so I am way overdue for a little me time. My primary goal here is obviously to learn some new training techniques, but I’m hoping this will also be an opportunity to clear my head and decompress a little. If it goes as well as I’m hoping, I might make it an annual tradition. I can think of worse ways to spend my summers than hanging out with dogs and the people who love them.

Assorted updates

What a spring. I wanted to blog more, but I’ve been absolutely swamped for the past month, I’m still trying to get my energy back and clear the brain fog after that bout with the flu and strep in February, and some desperately needed construction on I-40 has my commute eating my lunch even more than usual.

I’m also trying to figure out what’s going on with the Pest, whose anxiety levels have been all over the place lately. I thought we’d gotten a handle on it, but while she was helping me teach an obedience lesson yesterday morning, something startled her, and she instantly spiraled so far into fight-or-flight mode that she couldn’t focus or listen to me AT ALL. If we can’t get a handle on this, I’m going to have to retire her and train Marley and/or the Burrito to take her place.

Now for the good news:

1. The semester ends in three weeks, so I’ll have time to decompress and regroup for a couple of months.
2. A judge has issued an injunction telling the Public Education Department that it can’t enforce its demand for everybody to switch to a five-day week until a lawsuit over the issue makes its way through court. The governor is now running her mouth like a scared Chihuahua in a roomful of pit bulls, which tells me she already knows she’s overstepped and is just trying to bluff in hopes that she won’t be mauled too badly.*
3. Because I trust politicians and bureaucrats about as far as I can throw them, I am planning to spend this summer restructuring my lifestyle around the prospect of a five-day, 60-hour work week that includes 10 hours on the road. That way, I’ll be ready for a worst-case scenario, and if it doesn’t come to pass, I’ll have a few extra hours a week to play with.
4. As part of this effort, I am shifting to a low-FODMAP Mediterranean diet, which is supposed to help with Long COVID, and streamlining or automating as many housekeeping tasks as possible to reduce my stress levels and buy myself a few extra minutes every week.
5. I was already planning to devote a big chunk of my summer to dog training, but Ramona’s meltdown yesterday really brought home the need for that. I’m hoping to reboot my relationship with her by tethering her to my waist and hand-feeding her for a week, walking her 3 to 5 miles a day, and doing some targeted training designed to alleviate anxiety. Because I never work without a Plan B, I am also going to train Pearl and Marley to Canine Good Citizen standards so one of them can take over for Ramona in case she can’t overcome her anxiety enough to keep working, and all three dogs are going to learn nose work in the hope that one of them will be able to alert me to impending migraine attacks.

It’s shaping up to be a busy summer, but I’m directing my efforts inward instead of overpacking my schedule and creating unnecessary stress for myself. Hopefully the end result will be higher energy and lower stress when the fall semester starts.

Emily

*Note to Jessica Velasquez: I train dogs. The fastest way to fix reactivity is for the handler to give the leash a sharp jerk, put the dog in a sit-stay, and step between her and whatever she’s yapping about. If the dog is unusually strong, stubborn, or stupid, you may need to fit her for a good prong collar to get her attention. Herm Sprenger’s entry-level model should be sturdy enough to keep the average politician under control at press conferences and other public events. Don’t forget to mark and reward every time she stops yipping and looks up at you for direction. You’re welcome.