A Very Rough Day...

Let me start the post by wishing my wonderful girlfriend a very, very happy birthday! We decided to go and get some brunch at a really good Mexican restaurant in Oakland, the Huarache Azteca. It was a really good brunch, with mariachis, huaraches, and quesadillas. The lunch was about 2 hours long and was used as a joint birthday and training exercise for Maki. Like Elizabeth mentioned, the little guy has some separation anxiety. So we are trying to leave and reinforce that we will be back. To track his behavior, we developed "Maki Vision (TM)". The system consists of Elizabeth's camcorder and my MacBook both recording different areas of the apartment. With this we can monitor his actions and hear what he does. While home, he knows that he is not allowed on the couches. However, when we leave he decides that both couches are the most comfortable places in the house.

After checking out the couches, Maki had an one hour and fifteen minute session of barking and whining. It was excruciatingly painful to watch. So much that it actually got to my and Elizabeth's nerves quite a bit. Now we are re-working the leaving the house technique so that he knows that we are coming back. We also have to ignore him for a little while which is proving to be quite hard for me, he is so lovable!! Hopefully the neighbors won't hate us... I might end up writing them a little apology letter and drooping it in their mailboxes... maybe.


With all the issues... we still love the little lazy dog! He is definitely a handful, but very sweet!

- Daniel