T-Minus 52 Pounds and Who Let The Dogs Out*
I arrived at work yesterday morning with five healthy lunches. (We are fortunate in that we have a nice kitchen in our office so I could do this every week. It's just that in the past I have been bad about remembering to bring healthy lunches.)
I gained a lot of weight after my surgery in May. I have since lost a little bit. I don't even want to tell you the number on the scale back in July after 6 weeks of bed rest. It made me cry. Hard.
Actually, I don't want to tell you what the number was on the scale yesterday, because it still makes me upset. What I do want to tell you is that I have a goal of losing 1 pound per week this year. If I accomplish it, I will back down to the number I was at when Husband and I got married. Which would make me a size 10 or 12. (I have no delusions that I will ever be a size 6 again, but I would like to fit into the Hello Kitty jammies my daughter gave me for Christmas.)
I have recently looked at wedding pictures. I think that was a good weight/size for me. (I was thinner a year later, when Husband and I had been living in Japan for a year and I walked several miles every day to get to and from work. But I don't think that weight is a reasonable goal for me right now.)
At any rate, my goal is lose a pound a week this year. Healthy lunches, lots of water, and exercising again. (I started last night, back on my treadmill, with the company of Don Draper and the rest of the Mad Men. I think Mad Men will keep me coming back to the treadmill for a while. After I burn through the rest of Mad Men, well, Husband gave me Season 1 of the X-Files for Christmas (or X-mas!) so that should work as my treadmill companion as well. I'll keep you informed. Cheer me on, okay?
***********************
My niece got a dog for her birthday on Sunday. It's an adorable little French Bulldog and Beagle mix, very cute. (I find this whole scenario peculiar because, of all my siblings, my youngest sister, the mother of the child who received the dog, has never liked dogs.)
My sister is lamenting that the dog doesn't like to sleep in her crate.
I am confused by this and I am wondering if I am the only one.
We had two dogs growing up, one a beagle/basset hound who lived until I was 11, and then what was, apparently, the bastard love child of a small shepherd mutt and a coyote. (We did know he was part coyote until we took him a new vet, when he was about a year old, and the vet said, "Who the hell sold you a coyote???" Upon further examination, the vet decided he was only half coyote. Probably.)
He was a good watch dog. Kind of terrifying to the mail man, though.
Anyway, neither of my dogs had a crate. The dogs slept with me, either under my bed or at the foot of it, actually on the bed. When I left for college, the half-coyote took to sleeping in my brothers' bedroom. (I guess we were not a typical family, though. I mean, what with the wild pack animal for a pet and all.)
I will accept that my family had unusual pet rearing techniques, but I do recall that many of my friends had dogs, and I don't remember those dogs sleeping in crates, either. I don't know that they actually slept with their owners, but I remember dog beds, and I remember dogs roaming freely through my friends houses when we got home from school.
We don't have a dog now, being cat people by chance and circumstance. (After college, I adopted a cat, because my apartment complex in Tucson didn't allow me to have a dog. That cat is still with me (barely hanging on) and his companion, the small auxiliary cat, is our other pet. They sleep wherever they want to sleep, with the exception of Lana's bedroom. (She has a strict 'no cats sleep in here' policy that drives the small auxiliary cat to distraction, attempting to sleep in her room in stealth.))
So...back to this crate concept? Is it new? Or have I just encountered bizarre dog rearing techniques in my life and the idea that the dog should sleep in a crate is entirely typical?
I'm truly curious.
LM
*Doggie (Who Let the Dogs Out) is interesting in that a legal battle ensued over who actually wrote the song, and I believe (I could be wrong) that the actual rights to the song are now owned by a Canadian ad agency. The song was made popular in the US by the Baha Men, although they were doing a cover of a song recorded by a Caribbean singer named Anslem Douglas. Frankly, I think the Caribbean version (difficult to find) is superior to the Baha Men version.
posted by LawMommy at 11:19 AM
12 Comments:
Allow me to raise the first fist, cheering you on!! If Don Draper can't motivate you, nothing can.
ONLY YOUR FAMILY would have a half coyote for a pet. The stories never cease to amaze...
Good luck losing the weight!
The crate thing is a training method...to give a new dog time to acclimate to new surroundings...just a way to avoid common messes and disasters during the transition phase of things.
I have min. daschund and she sleeps in the bed with me everynight. I come from a dog family and our dogs have always slept in the bedrooms. Now at my moms the dogs roam freely in the day too but that didn't work well for me with Lily. Let's just say it is amazing how much carpet a little dog can shred! So in the daytime whem I am at work she stays in the crate. She doesn't seem to mind when no one is home but would go crazy if I put her in the crate when I was there.
1) weight watchers. seriously. i lost 15 lbs in 3 months and kept it off (well, until this whole child in my womb appeared...). I plan on enrolling again before he's born to lose the baby weight (those suits simply have to fit before June 1. They HAVE. TO. FIT.).
2) crates are awesome. We tell our dog to go to her "house" and no matter what is going on, she heads to her crate. She also goes there when she is tired or scared...its her own little home. She does still sleep in our bed, on the couch, etc...but no matter where we go, or what is going on, she has her crate. Its great for house training too.
3) Whoever wrote "who let the dogs out" should have been sued for nuisance, or something. That song is awful...and now. its stuck in my head.
Dogs are by nature den animals and new dogs, puppies are house trained better if they are also crate trained. We raise and train show dogs and with the exception of our very oldest dog who is 14 and has cancer our guys sleep in crates at night.( She starts on the on the bed with us and often gets up during the night and goes into her crate on her own, but we leave the door open for her.) Of course we also live in Tornado country, so it serve a place that can protect them if there is a tornado during the night. (Not likely, but it does help me to sleep better).
They all live with us in the house so this way every one has their own space if it get very hectic, their own space to keep their own toys and a place for them to eat as well. their dog beds are in there, but we do have beds scattered in the family room where they hang during the day.
And good luck with your fitness plan, we will keep checking back.
My dog slept with me as a kid too. But now both our dogs sleep in their crates. (Well, except when K takes the smaller one to bed with her). They like the crates and will go in them even when they don't have to. But also my dogs are not well trained (because I am not a good dog trainer) and they will chew, chase cats, and go potty on the floor if left alone for any significant amount of time. I always thought I'd have good dogs - but it turns out that takes a lot of time and energy and I have neither of those.
I think a pound a week sounds eminantly do-able. For you. For me? Well, I haven't been able to lose a pound in a looong time so a pound a week sounds very pie in the sky. But I shall very enthusiastically cheer YOU on. :-)
Ditto the den animal comment. Crates aren't new - at least not any newer than dens :) Or domesticated dogs. Dogs are happiest when they have a safe den area to retire to. Not all dogs. Many dogs. Some use crates just for puppies. it makes housebreaking 1000000x easier (dogs won't pee or poo in their den/crate). And it keeps your house safe from insane puppy teeth. Some retire the crate when the puppy is a (trained) adult. Other dogs are really attached to their crates for life.
Our puppy gives mixed messages. She cries like a banshee in the crate but also goes in on her own all day. She just likes things on her terms.
Good luck with your goal of losing weight! You can so do it!! :D You go girl!!
I don't think the use of crates was as common when we were kids. Our dogs don't sleep in crates. Jake did when he first came home, and so did Dagny for the first few months, but now they just sleep on our bedroom floor (we put a baby gate on our door to keep them in so that they don't wander around chewing up furniture at night) (though they can both jump the gate, but don't unless there is a cat to chase, but the cats go out in the garage at night). And there is way more info. than you really cared to know. I'll have to tell my husband about your coyote -- he'll be very jealous (somebody in our area had half wolf puppies advertised, and he tried to convice me to look at them). As far as your pound a week goal, you go girl!
we crate trained our old dog, it made for less accidents, she potty trained in 2-3 weeks and less alpha crap of getting on the bed/furniture.
Good luck on the weight. I am on a diet and exercising as well. (30 day shred dealio) and it is working, I find if I do salad and protein at lunch, dinner i can eat anything with portion control. Good luck. I will be here cheering you on!
Our little dog hated the crate and we finally got rid of it (crate, not the dog.) Put her in a crate and she s guarenteed to poo, poop, yelp, vomit etc. I think maybe she wasn't crate trained as a pup and we found her at the Humane Society and she is convinced she is the baby of the family.
Here in the UK I dont know of anyone with a dog which sleeps in a crate. It seems kinda cruel. We have always had dogs and they would sleep in their beds in the lounge. Lots of people have their dogs in their beds, in fact the boxer I grew up with always slept on my bed with me !
BTW can you write your views on the heiress Casey Johnson who died recently having adopted a baby girl from Kazakstan when she was obviously an unfit mother ??? I read loads of adoption blogs and noone has mentioned it!!
Post a Comment
<< Home