Kody and I are back at Bridle Trails. He can’t take the heat of direct sunlight for more than five minutes really. So that makes Bridle Trails perfect for sunny days. It’s shady and cool and when it’s warm the trails are dry instead of muddy and the horse poop dries faster. He loves it.

Things have been crazy and full of change lately. I think in a good way overall. My diet is better than ever and I don’t have to force myself to do it so much anymore. I had to take a break from the constant eating. It became unmaintainable. I started eating junk and got fat, but started really investigating how to do my diet without crisis. Slowly but surely I found ways to cook foods I like. I make my own burger when I need one, and mine are healthy. I’ve found different ways of dealing with my cravings and my own food personality. Sometimes it means going to Dairy Queen if I have to.

I realized that if I’m going to do this for the rest of my life, it can’t be such a struggle. I’ve found the healthy foods I like, and I’ve learned to find healthy cheat foods as well that I actually prefer. For instance, let’s say I’m having a lazy moment and just want to go through a drive through and get a chicken sandwich. I’ll forgo the fries because I’ve got the Costco pack of Sun Chips at home which I actually like better than fries. I’ve actually thrown fries in the trash! I used to hate Sun Chips, but now I love them. Eating healthy is like drinking Diet Coke. You start and it’s really weird, but after a while you really do prefer it.

Lately our walks have been a little stressful. It seems like there is broken glass all over the place. I already mentioned the broken bottle on the sidewalk and that my neighbor got his car broken into and didn’t clean it up. I cleaned those up, but they were just the beginning. About a week ago I discovered shattered glass in the dirt just outside our apartment. I did a major cleanup and I’ve been cleaning it up ever since because every day I find a few new pieces. And then someone broke some glass in a nearby parking lot. I just went and spend a half hour cleaning that up as best I could. What is up with this?

To top it all off, someone is scattering chicken bones all over the property. Yeah, it’s weird. One day one of the bones made its way into Kody’s main potty area right near our apartment. I threw it into the parking lot because I was feeling lazy. Two hours later that same piece was right back where it started. Huh? So I brought in in and threw it in my trash to ensure it wouldn’t return.

I hope this starts settling down. Who would of thought this type of thing would happen in Bridle Trails? Just goes to show, money can’t buy class. (Seriously though, you should see some of the super tacky McMansions around here. Note to the newly rich, when you spend 3 million dollars building a new house, you don’t surround it with prefab moulded cement “stone” walls. I never!)

Barack Obama’s speech about racism and his pastor was the only inspiring thing I’ve ever heard from a president or a presidential candidate in my lifetime. He won me over. I am actually a fan now. I may be in love.

Kody is not giving in to his paw injury. He kept waiting by the door all day and I knew what he wanted. So we did a quick walk at Grass Lawn Park. Some teenagers screamed out to me that they loved my dog. And then a little kid later exclaimed, “That’s a hot dog dog!!!” Kody is an attention getter, which is perfect for an attention whore like me! (Blog every day, anyone?)

Apple released an update for the Airport Extreme so I can now do my computer backups wirelessly with my had drive attached to the router. I think it will also back up multiple computers. Terabyte drive, here I come!

Tara and I had lunch yesterday and she said something like, “When you like something you get really into it. Like the whole Mac thing, you think everyone should have a Mac.” To which I replied, “Well, that’s just true. Everyone should have a Mac.” I wasn’t joking. It’s just plain true.

I think this is why I’ve had no cell coverage for the last couple of days. How could this happen in such an upscale neighborhood as Bridle Trails?

They are finally asleep on the couch. I think Kody is helping Flex by waiting by the door when Flex needs to go to the bathroom. Because we’ll all go out and only Flex will go. I imagined he’s saying to Flex, “Yeah this guy is kinda dumb and can’t tell when you have to go so I do this waiting by the door thing. It takes him a while to figure it out but he means well.”

I was able to collect another one of Kody’s teeth today. I heard it clicking around in his mouth and grabbed it when he dropped it. It’s an elusive canine! How fun. It’s amazing how unfazed they are when they lose teeth.

I hope they start getting bored of each other soon. It seems they do better when I’m doing chores, so I’ve been working all day and I’m so tired!

Kody already lets me know pretty clearly he wants to go out by sitting patiently by the door. I was ready to let the bell thing go but was just doing it out of habit. He was waiting by the door but I needed to change out of my gym clothes before we went out. He apparently got impatient and rang the bell while I was changing in the other room. I yelled out “Good job!” and he came running in very proud of himself and excited.

Flex wasn’t at the gym today so Kody has a ton of extra energy. We’ll be heading to Bridle Trails shortly. Currently he’s getting some energy out attacking his newest bed.

Having said that, he’s a bit extreme. It seems like he wants you to have your dog acting obviously submissive at all times. I don’t think that’s good. Let me explain how I got here.

We’ve been walking almost every day in the forest. Kody loves this more that I can even describe. He now gets excited and makes noise before the car even stops in the parking lot. He barks once or twice when we get out of the car from happiness. When we first start walking he barks a few times just to report that he’s ready to go and happy. In both cases he’s not barking at anything. Then it’s down to business for him, and he loves it. He doesn’t even want to stop for other people or dogs, he just wants to go go go.

I tried having him walk beside or behind me, but it wasn’t fun for either of us. The paths are too narrow, and he wants to track not follow me. It was like taking your kids to Disneyland and expecting them to be calm and sit with their hands folded. So now I let him out in front. He varies between going to the end of his leash, walking beside me, or hanging out behind a little bit. Although mostly he’s out front tracking a scent with his nose to the ground. He has so much fun, it’s like I can visualize the scent paths he’s following. I don’t know if it’s a breed thing, Dachshunds are hounds after all, but he’s just on task when we’re there.

Most of the time there aren’t any choices as to which direction to go, but when there is a choice, he either looks up at me or quickly follows where I point. I don’t think you have to be in front to be the leader of a dog in some situations.

Cesar is always talking about how you have to remember that your dog is not a human, and I agree. But he seems to think that humans can be dogs, or at the very least both dogs and humans. But we aren’t dogs, and we can’t be dogs. I make a horrible pack leader, but I make a great leader. Kody knows I’m not a dog, because if I was, I’d be having just as much fun as he is in the forest. He’s clearly better at forest stuff than I am, and always will be. That doesn’t mean he’s leading me, but it does mean that going to the forest is a thing I do for him, not a thing I do for me. I’m happy, but this is the highlight of his day. This is the time when he really gets to be the dog he is. This is no time for me to try to pretend I’m a dog. I wouldn’t be fooling anyone.