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Saskia's a Good Girl!



 
 
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Old October 29th 04, 02:45 PM
White Monkey
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Default Saskia's a Good Girl!

Hi all, finding some time (wow!) to post today.
Saskia's approach to Walter, her new 6-week-old "baby brother", has been
very good. She at first pretty much ignored him, but after a day or so
started sniffing him and over the next couple of days had to be taught not
to "Dane-poke" him. She likes to sniff his hands and feet when he's waving
them around, and often likes to watch him get changed. Over the weeks, four
of them now since he came home at 2 weeks, she has been allowed to smell him
pretty much at will and watch him in his stroller-cradle or crib as long as
she keeps her head out, and we sit on the couch with her while holding him a
lot and call her a good girl and pet her. She still sleeps on our bed and
gets lots of playtime.

When he cries, if he's in his stroller-cradle downstairs or his crib
upstairs, she will often go stand beside it and give me the same, "You gonna
come do something about this?" look she gives me from the sliding glass door
if the cat wants in. If I'm playing with her and he cries, she has all on
her own started dropping the game, getting a chew-toy, and climbing onto the
couch. Without any special work on our part, she has also started responding
much better to such comments as, "Not right now" (usually meaning, "Sorry,
girl. I do see the toy but cannot play with you right now") and "calm down".

12 days ago, Saskia went in for her spay/gastropexy. After that she was
confined to the house and tiny yard for 10 days while it healed. We were
sure to play lots of tug, pet her a lot, and provide lots of
peanut-butter-and-treat-filled marrow bones. Nonetheless, she IS an
8-month-old puppy and of course started to feel pretty darn pent up.
"Saskia, SETTLE DOWN!" will probably be Walter's first words. At the same
time, she did calm down when asked, stopped herself several times from
jumping on us, and respected Walter. She was a good girl.

The other day the vet had a look and cleared Saskia for her good ol' tearing
about and bashing times with other dogs, Frisbees, and anything else that
shows up at playtime. We took her out for a run, and by some miracle ran
into the blue Cane Corso--this is a puppy one month older than Saskia, one
foot less tall, and exactly the same weight. That was EXACTLY what she
needed.

Today, I decided that since there wasn't a cloud in the sky (there is now!),
since Walter had just eaten and was sound asleep in his stroller-cradle, and
since Saskia was asking to go poop in the back yard (which we really prefer
does not happen, but there have been special circumstances, what with her
surgery and before that Walter being in intensive care and all), that I
would see how we all did on our own for a walk, and start teaching her some
stroller-etiquette.

Saskia is a puppy. Of course she pulled--but responded immediately to a
little snap on her martingale collar and the command not to pull. Of course
she broke heels--and responded perfectly to the snap and command or in
several cases a simple warning of "no". She stopped and waited every time I
told her to, and to my amazement did NOT do the bounding about crazily she
often starts when she first gets out for the day. She did not wrap the lead
around the stroller.

When we got to the field, she sat when I told her to and held the sit for
seconds after I took the martingale off, until I said the traditional, "OK,
free puppy!" Then she executed several thousand laps at high speed before
becoming calm enough to play Frisbee. And darned if she didn't bring the
thing straight back to me almost every time (as with many non-retrievers,
she has a tendency, usually, to lose interest and drop it after the chase
part).

Saskia stopped and did not go into the bike lane when I warned her, and she
also stopped and came back when I said to when the dog-aggressive Dogue de
Bordeaux and Rottlweiler appeared suddenly around the corner (leashed) and
she thought she might go invite them to play. Then, after some more zoomies,
she came straight back and sat in front of me when I said to, leash in plain
sight in my hand, and we came home.

And all this without me remembering to bring the treats.

--Katrina

http://www.xs4all.nl/~cooper17/katri...KsofaSmall.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~cooper17/katri...alterSmall.jpg





 




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