Terrifying Cars and Children

This afternoon I decided to take two of my dogs, Jo and Daisy, on a walk. (Daisy is Jo's daughter) I took them at about 3:00 because thats when the school across from my house lets out. I figured this would be a good time to expose them to something new, cars and children. Josie was fine, shes a bit of a lagger but not too much bothers her. Daisy on the other hand, well she was down right terrifyed. The street I live on is fairly narrow, 2 lanes, but the distance between the sidewalk and the road is not that huge. So, everytime a car would go by Daisy would flip out. I had both of them on tight leads and so Daisy's head would be in about the same spot but her body would flail all over the place. This happened all the way up the street until we hit the highway in which theres a large distance between sidewalk and street. Then, she was perfectly fine, walking along, tail wagging as if nothing had happened. When we turned around and went back down my street Daisy started doing the same thing all over again. This time we had a new surprise: bikes. I would step to the side and wait in the grass while the kids went by, Josie would just stare at them like "Just don't come near me." while Daisy had to flip out yet again. "Oh my god, they're going to kill me!!!!" Eventually, after passing quite a few, she started to calm down but was still obviously nervous. Then, my worst fear occured...a huge group of young kids...a giant herd plodding along so nothing dared get in their way. Once again, I pulled over to the side and, to my surprise, the dogs were fine. Josie looked at them all with her tail wagging, Daisy stared but didn't try to jump away or do anything else stupid. Most of the kids just commented on how cute they were and kept walking. Then, two little girls (maybe 7?) stopped and asked to pet them. I said sure and was just about to add that Daisy is nervous so to be gentle/calm around her, but Daisy practically jumped in her lap. She was all excited, her tail was going a mile a minute, she was licking the girl all over and jumping up to her. Josie is much calmer than that but she too went right up to the girls with her tail wagging. I was speechless. Daisy, who was terrifyed of everything suddenly liked these girls. She is never around cars and bikes like that so I could understand her fears but she isn't around little kids either, so that was what surprised me. Once we were near home, the traffic had slowed and very few kids were left so Daisy did just fine then. I think I need to start taking the dogs for a walk around 3 and just let them get used to all the new things. I dread taking the puppies, Ziggy and Rosie. They were nervous when I had them on the highway and didn't like it if cars went by too fast. I can't imagine taking them right next to all the cars with kids screaming everywhere. I'll probably traumitize them, but thats whats going to happen tomorrow! Hopefully having both of them together will help but even with Josie's calmness, Daisy wasn't helped so I don't have much hope for the other two. I'll probably be embarassed as Im coaxing these two shivering, cowering puppies down the street, but hey, if it helps them, it's worth it.

So theres the major excitement of the day. Mom is out of town so it's just me and the 6 poochinas hangin out. Pia is not doing any better. She's still happy go-lucky but the diarrhea hasn't stopped. I was impressed that I had made it so long without a mess in the house, apparently I thought too soon. While I had gone upstairs to change for the walk, Pia started to cry but I thought it was just because she couldn't hear me. I was going to come down and let everyone out which I did. But then when I went back in the bedroom to get her this horrible smell came wafting out of the bathroom. I have to give it to her though, I think she has learned what exactly a bathroom is for and so if she has to go, she goes in there. As annoying as cleaning up crap is, Im glad she does it in there where its linoleum and I can clean it up faster and easier. But why make it that easy?! No, she has to walk in it with her one foot and proceed to track it through the bedroom. That means when I find it, I have to wash her foot off, clean the bathroom floor where she crapped, then get the mop and wash the rest of the bedroom floor where she might have walked! It's a pain in the ass really. We thought she would have been through with this by now but even the Vet is not sure why shes still having diarrhea. Lovely isn't it? *gag* So, she is spending some quality time in her crate till I decide to let her out again. As for the rest of the dogs, it's nap time, and relaxation time for me!