Monday, November 17, 2008

well, it's been a very tiring weekend.

On Saturday, it was a meet up/lunch with grandma and baking of Genie's treats in the evening. And on Sunday, it was a lunch at the dog cafe with Glenn/Uncle Teng and Lana, and then Genie's first training class at night.

Meetup with Grandma was normal, though it was cut short because it looked like it was going to rain and she said it was better to leave before it starts to pour.

It was surprisingly easy baking Genie's treats - no huge hiccups. And I didn't set the kitchen on fire. Well.. I think Melvin's Mom doing most of the work helped :P Hee! I'd bought all the ingredients and was about to get down to it when I realised I didn't know how to turn on the oven.

No, wait. Really.. The oven we have at home isn't the modern oven - it's a baby belling easily what.. 20 years old? And the wrong move essentially means a power trip. So I sought for help from the expert who's been using the said contraption for.. the past 20 years. The oven's very well maintained, mind you - it just has a temper, that's all.

In the end, I stood there while she blended the ingredients, poured the stuff onto a tray and stuck it in the oven.

That's what happened.. all I did was ask "Auntie, how do you turn on the oven?"

That said, Genie loves the treats (so did the other dogs at the dog cafe *laugh* I'll tell you about that in abit). I set aside half of it for Lana, and abit for Melvin's colleague who has a Pommy.

On Sunday, the 2 dogs, Genie and Lana finally got to meet. They had lamb stew, while us humans had baked rice/burgers. We'd let them roam freely in the cafe (I mean, it's a dog cafe, duh). Then suddenly, Glenn yelled "Lana no!" I looked over and there she was.. sniffing at another dog's bowl of food =.=

So he hurried over and drag poor Lana back to our table. Then before I knew it, Glenn said "Genie! No!"

That greedy girl had stolen a meatball from the bowl Lana was sniffing at >.>

I apologised to the owners of the poor poodle.. and they didn't seem offended at all. But still. Like OMG.. I was so embarassed.

We gave Lana some of the treats I baked, but guess what - the other dogs in the cafe could SMELL the treats and we were suddenly the most popular table in the shop. There was one particular Jack Russel Terrier who didn't want to leave and kept staring at the treats as well as giving Melvin cute puppy looks in hope of a treat. Haha.

Genie then spent the afternoon in the cafe bullying Lana. I was telling Glenn "Lana should give Genie a loud bark - then we'll see Genie hiding behind her human parents" As it is, Genie kept snapping at Lana (probably playing.. it wasn't an angry growl or anything), while Lana ignored her for most.

Until.. we let them loose in the dog play area. Then Lana took her revenge by chasing Genie all over. All of us just stood there and laughed.

After all that fun, Genie fell asleep in the car on the way back and slept the afternoon away, until we woke her up for an early dinner and brought the groggy dog to her first training class.

What a disaster.

She wouldn't listen to me - and kept wanting to play with other dogs. In fact, I'm inclined to believe she temporarily forget her own name because calling her name didn't help either.

Oh well.

She'll improve, I hope. The instructor gave us a training schedule to practise at home. This morning, I made her sit/stay for 3 minutes before allowing her to have her breakfast. She gave me the "why are you making me stare at my breakfast but not letting me eat it?" look.

That was one of the longest 3 mins in my life. Do you have any idea how bored I was looking at her look at her food?

It's all very well because there are no distractions at home.. I'm not sure I can achieve the same results in a public area with all the people, noise and whatnots. Will probably give it a try after a few days.

And we're supposed to work it up to 30mins. oh.my.gawd. Like am I supposed to stare at her for 30mins while she stares at her food?

I hope not.