Weather Woes and Cans of Pennies

For those of you who do not live in North Carolina, let me share with you what it means to have Severe Thunderstorms every night.  On the commute home, a heavy rain floods the highway so that two southbound lanes are closed.  We're so saturated that heavy rains for 30 minutes can shut down the highway.  The surface streets were packed with cars.  I was in World Market/Cost Plus when this storm hit--their metal roof making it sound like someone was throwing stones on the top of the building.  We see the lights flash and half of them go out.  But we're so used to major thunderstorms, everyone keeps shopping.  It was ony when I left that I noticed that all the lights were back on in the store. 

The local weather folks stated that during the month of July they counted 4,000 (FOUR THOUSAND) air to surface lightening strikes in the Charlotte area alone.  That's over twice the monthly average for July.  After every storm, which means basically every morning, Dave and I gather the various 5 to 6 feet long tree limbs which have fallen out of our old oak tree and put them on the curb.  Yesterday morning, on our run, Patches and I were dodging all kinds of limbs on the sidewalks.  It was only then that I thought "Did we have a big storm last night?  I don't even recall!"  I'm so used to thunder and lightening that a major ass storm can come through and I don't even notice any more. 

More storms are forecasted today.  OF COURSE THEY ARE.  I'm beginning to get a little resentful.  Since Dave and I have been married, we've had a major ice storm that knocked out our power for a week.  (That happened exactly three days after the wedding and prompted the Frontier House Honeymoon, which I may talk about later.  7 days with no hot water and an in-home temperature of 48 degrees.  Oh.  Joy.)  We had a major ice or snow storm every Thursday but two during the months of January and February.  (I ran the Charlotte Marathon with a starting temperature of 14 degrees.  My sweat froze on the outside of my clothes.)  We've enough rain since March to justify an ark.  Carolina weather is supposed to be mild.   IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE MILD.  MILD. MILD!! MILD!!!

I'm sorry to whine about the weather, but lately, if we see the sun, it's a rare, beautiful and unusual thing.

So the can of pennies.  We're getting a little tired of the barking.  We know Patches is a collie and collies bark.  And we've gotten more used to it than we thought we would or probably should.  And when he barks at the hissing cats or the evil trucks or people walking near our house, well, that's what dogs do.  But when he runs around in circles just barking because it feels good-that just sets us over the edge. 

Last weekend we started the "Stop Barking" command in which we thank him for letting us know whatever we needed to know and then distract him with a treat and get him to stay silent for longer and longer periods of time.  That is kind of working.  He knows we're trying to teach him something and he knows it has to do with barking.  Unfortunately, after he gets the treat, he tends to go back to whatever was making him bark.  So, I finally decided to try to the Can of Pennies.  I've heard about it from other folks including our trainer.  He barks.  You shake the can of pennies.  He stops.

OK.  That doesn't sound scary to me, but we decided to give it a try.  Patches started with barking at the hissing cats, and then moved to barking at me in the kitchen for attention.  I thanked him first, told him to stop barking, he didn't and I shook the can.  Oh! My!  Gosh!  My head might as well have exploded like a pumpkin, I scared him so badly.  He nearly did a backward flip and ran out of the kitchen and into the hall where he cowered like a bad dog.  Have I mentioned that collies are very sensitive dogs?  I had to go into the hall and get on the floor and comfort him before he would even lift his ears up again.  There's a difference between an event that stops a behavior and scaring the beejeesus out of a dog.  He didn't bark again for the rest of the evening, but I really am not sure the can of pennies option should be used very often.  This morning at breakfast, he was circling and barking again and I gave a very small shake and he ran outside.  The problem is not that he stops barking (not a problem!), it's just that he looks so scared afterwards that worries me.   I'm going to check the web today to see any advice on cans of pennies and barking.  I don't want to traumatize our good dog.  If you have any insights, please share!

Working at home today.  Going to 12:30 yoga.

8:20:18 AM