Dogs in the shop,,,

  The idea of a dog in the shop to me in my little mind is to have another heart beat in there,,, Well that heatbeat is also connected to a mind and Shadow does have a mind of his own,,, regardless of my wants desires and tasks,,, WOW,,, energy gone wild,,, Shadow has a huge desire to be with me he is truely a shadow,,, consantly under my feet and demanding attention or just wanting to see what it is i'm doin,,, one trick is to have the door open all day. He can come and go as he wishes. That is much better then him diciding he is on the wrong side of the closed door,,, winning to get out or winning to get in and that can keep me very busy opening and closing the door... He is only a few months old so to expect him to understand that i have other things to do never occurs to him,,, His attention span is accute ,,,PLAY WITH ME ,,, and very focused ,,,Play with me some more,,, SO,,, Shadow needs a job I've bin thinking,,, something to occupy his little mind,,, I've also observed ,,,He has this time thing ,,, he scoots outside and listens and watches stuff then barks and growls at every little thing that catches his sences. Then runs in and checks on me. this time thingy is his own thing,,, are you ready to play yet,,, play come on play,,, i would usualy just tell him to get out of the way and carry on with what ever i'm trying to accomplish,,, He jumps around and eventualy turns and runs outside again or finds something to chew on then runs over to see if i'm ready to play yet,,,and so goes the day,,, As have been working I have learned to focus on the task at hand and ignore his attemps to get me to play. Shadow has learned that it is ok to do as he wishes and that seems to keep him busy,,,IN<> OUT IN OUT back and forth dragging in leaves stick and what ever else he finds outside or in the shop to chew on and leave under foot,,, nothing keeps his focus for long,,, I'd decided that was just fine and here is the lesson i have learned,,, He doesn't need me every second and i do need to be attentive though not entertaining him every second. He will come back from where ever he has wondered momentarily off to,,, this does create issuse however as we try to co-ordinate the in out back and forth with each others movements associated with our activities,,, I've leared to think befor I move in any direction as he most likely is in exactly the wrong place at percicly the wrong time,,, specialy if my hands are full with something heavy,,, The other day i wasn't paying attention and he got tangled in my feet i droped the heavy slab i was try to move, the slap got loose and landed on the dog ,,, much howling and yelping from me and the dog and after a bit all was OK,,, but not the same ,,, Shadow was licking his sore butt and i was coping with my guilt and thanking God nobody was seriously hurt because I was not paying attention to where he was in relation to my clumpsy feet,,, I was reminded to keep him in the perifial consiousness,,, Don't step on the dog,,, don't drop stuff on the dog,,, look befor you move,,, he decided it was better to keep a little distance ,,,  We're learning that this is a joint relationship and shared space ,,,  shop safety is a joint effort that is critical to be practiced every second ,,, even a puppy can and will learn ,,, My Shadow is getting there as well,,,