Class #3 For Hiker

I thought I was finished with the loud uncontrollable sobbing crying. As I mentioned in yesterday's email, I was having a “crying day” all day Saturday and it went right into the evening. Poor Hiker, she doesn't know what to do when I sob like that. She has the habit of waking me up between 5:30 am and 6:00 am because she thinks I should be getting up to feed her and take her for her morning walk. I don't get up until around 7:00 am to do those things, but she has her own idea of what time we should do it. This morning I decided it was time to try to brush her teeth for the first time. If you have ever tried to brush a dogs teeth, you know this is just about impossible. She loves the taste of the toothpaste, but not very much of it gets onto her teeth. I just hope that the fact it gets into her mouth gets some of it on her teeth. I also give her DentaStix twice a week, so I hope that helps. I wish I would stop with the tears already. This morning I was out in the yard with Hiker. I was looking at some landscaping Ben and I had done one weekend last January and I started crying, remembering us going to the Home Depot to get some wood chips and Ben helping me spread them. We did it on a Sunday afternoon and then that night, it snowed a little, which is very rare for our part of the country. I still have the feeling that Ben is just away somewhere and that one day he will be home again. Does this feeling every go away? I had to take Hiker to her 3rd training class today. To tell you the truth if I had not had to sign up for these classes as part of the contract to adopt her and if I would have had to pay full price for the classes, I would not be taking her to them because they really do not do much in the class. They are only 1 hour long and they tell you what to do with your dog and then send you home to work with your dog. OK I know that you need to work with your dog to get it trained, but I could have found out how to do these things for free by watching YouTube Videos on dog training because it's not like the live class actually helps to train the dog. I will say that Hiker did very well in her class today. But then most of the things they are showing me to work with her on are things she already knows. She is the oldest of the 3 dogs in the class too. The other 2 are puppies. One is 6 mos. and the other is 3 mos. Got up to 92° here today but it didn't really feel that hot to me.