A couple of weeks ago, Jackie found this great duck-shaped dog tug-of-war toy. Made of ballistic nylon, it withstood Ashley ministrations for a full week before ending up eviscerated and decapitated:
So, we bought another one. Sadly, Ashley seems to have learned from experience, and she has already eviscerated this one in just two days:
Ashley has found her place in the sun. (On the day before the winter solstice no less!)
A moment before this picture was taken I had a little joke in mind: Ashley had picked up a big piece of bark, and I was going to say she was barking.
You can see a tiny piece of bark in her mouth yet. About right for my tiny joke.
Ashley is putting on weight at the rate of about a pound a week, but so far it seems to all be muscle. She’s lean like a fitness model.
This morning Ashley was demonstrating good skills at hiding in the prairie grasses. Even though she’s black rather than brown, she was pretty well hidden when she crouched in the grass.
A neighbor’s dog ran over to meet Ashley this morning. I’ve been a bit leery of that, because Ashley tends to growl and lunge when she meets other dogs. Today all went well, and I am much encouraged.
Ashley and I have been figuring out how the dog should be walked, in order to get her enough exercise that she isn’t a pest, and to make sure that she doesn’t have “accidents” in the house. Here’s how things seem to be shaping up:
The Fourth Walk doesn’t always happen, if she doesn’t seem to need to go out before our main meal of the day, so some days we’re already down to six walks per day. (We were doing about eight walks per day for the first several weeks, as anything less led to peeing or pooping in the house.)
Longer term, I’m hoping to get down to about four walks: First walk, Long walk of the morning, Long walk of the afternoon, and Just before bedtime.
Wish me luck.
Although we’re doing slightly fewer walks, we’re probably walking longer distances—I’m averaging a full 8 miles per day last week and this week.
While walking Ashley, happened upon this probably immature hawk on the fence.
He let me walk right past, without flying away.
Walking the dog before sunrise and after sunset every day has gotten me more in touch with the phases of the moon (visible behind the branch above her) than I’ve been in years.
Since we got Ashley, I have been sleeping better. Remarkably better. It’s kind of amazing.
My Oura ring gives me some data to go on.
The place where it’s very obvious is in deep sleep time. In the month or so before I got the dog, I averaged 57 minutes of deep sleep per night. In the month or so since I got the dog, I’ve averaged 1 hour 23 minutes. Other improvements are significant, but not so impressive in terms of numbers. Total sleep has gone from 7 hours 34 minutes to 7 hours 41 minutes, which is enough to make a difference. Sleep efficiency (the percentage of the time in bed that I’m actually asleep) has gone from 87% to 89%, which doesn’t look so impressive, but also seems to make a difference. I’m also getting up much less often in the night.
Of course, this leaves me with the question of why.
I think partially, it’s just that she sets a great example: She comes to bed when we do, lies down between our feet, goes to sleep, and stays asleep—better than I do, anyway.
The other big change, of course, is that I’m walking way, way more than before.
Again the Oura ring provides some data, with “walking” that has gone from 7.3 miles to 11.2 miles per day. That’s misleading though, because the Oura ring reports a “walking equivalent” number. (Based on, I assume, my heart rate during other activity, such as weight lifting.) The FitBit software on my Pixel Watch gives me actual distance data, and the last half of October I was averaging 5 miles per day, while last week I averaged 7 miles.
