Journal: reflect on today’s field trip. What was the most challenging aspect of today’s trip?
I took McLean out this morning, so as not to have an accident in the house, and then I gave Showbo and him each some breakfast consisting of mostly rice and a little bland chicken. What is wrong with their stomachs, anyway? After breakfast, we went back to sleep in preparation of a long, tiring day at the zoo!
A short time later it was time to start on our trip, but McLean had to do his business again. He almost pees as much as I do, but this time he also had diarrhea. Ugh! Diarrhea is so grose, to clean-up and smell! We gave him some Immodium AD and were to give him a half pill if he has diarrhea again. Don’t forget this issue. J
Oh, boy. We finally arrived at the zoo, after construction and much traffic, but some trainers were not there yet. We were not last and could not be lectured about being late. I do not mean lectured, I mean hassled! Ha, ha.
We first used our service dogs to pay for our zoo tickets. The pay counter was behind glass, and the payment had to be dropped into a groove under the glass for the cashier to grab. McLean had some trouble with my “large” wallet, so he used just my credit card. He easily put in his mouth and put his paws up on the counter, but he had no understanding about how to place the card in the groove. Eventually, I took the card from him and handed it to the manunder the groove, but really? That task was difficult, and probably the most challenging.
We all stopped at the monkey house when we first entered the zoo, where McLean showed some interest in actually watching the monkeys. This interest was one of only a few times he showed any interest in the any of the zoo animals. He also liked the peacocks and the turtles! J
The tiger and a strange bird really wanted to get McLean, but the trainer thought we should walk away before any creature got too scared or stressed.
Ok, so McLean needed to use a half Immodium pill. He had a little diarrhea when we left the cat area, but Dave saw some blood in it. Again, ugh! Fortunately, McLean is not as particular as Showbo, making it much easier to give him medicine. I just mixed the pill with a couple treats, and his big tongue licked it all in one swoop. J
During lunch we had our dogs retrieve something, and McLean easily retrieved a grocery bag, while others were not as lucky. The group was there until closing time but we only did one final task. The service dogs had to use their door hooks to open the doors to the primate reserve. No problems there.
Overall it was an uneventful day, and we managed to get home in time to get the girls from child care. Yea!
Well, other than diarrhea being an interesting, and disgusting, challenge, McLean put up a good fight when we tried to clip his nails this evening. Clipping his nails is very, very difficult! I used the click and treat method, as suggested by a trainer, but he wanted nothing to do with the clipping of his nails. He is a strong dog, and he can easily pull his paw away from the nail clippers! What should we do?
Ok, I am now really tired. Until tomorrow.