As I’ve mentioned, Sascha is a pretty smart dog.  I think it’s the border collie in her.  Rick says Siberian collie.  Anyway, she has figured out how her day is going based on subtle clues around her. 

In the morning, she takes note of how I dress to know how her day will go.  If I dress in comfy clothes and house slippers, she knows she will have free roam of the house.  She can go out at will, if I’m not on a phone call.  This means that she goes out in the morning, does her business, and come back in after I get the morning paper.

Now on the days that I dress to go to the office, she is an entirely different dog.  She goes out to attend to her business, but she refuses to come back in after I get the newspaper.  She goes out to the end of her lead and sits by the treat with her back to me.  This means that I have to go out through the yard to snag the lead and pull her into the garage. From there, she drags her feet to the back door.  Once the door opens, she runs into the bedroom and under the bed.

This morning, she forgot what I was wearing though.  She finished and came to the garage door to sit and wait for me.  I opened the door and her eyes got big.  She immediately ran to the end of her lead.  Silly dog, I can come and get you.  So I had to trek out through the mud to pull her back to the garage. 

As always, she got to the back door and zoomed in to the bedroom and the safety under the bed.  Poor Sascha.  It was going to be a day in her crate in the basement.  I messed around getting things together before I had to drag her out.  I had to almost crawl under the bed to get her and then drag her out.  We made it down the stairs without knocking anyone down.  She went into the crate without much trouble.

That was different.  Normally I feel like I’ve been through a cardio work out to get her downstairs and into the crate.  Sascha definitely lets me know that she is not happy about going into the crate.  I found that if I pick up one of her back legs, she can’t fight it as much. I just look like I’m pouring a teapot!

This weekend, we’ll make it up to her.  I’m going to try dog scootering for the first time since my accident in October.  I’ll have Rich take her around the block first to wear her out and then I’ll try.  Maybe she won’t go so fast.

Video and helmet cam to come.