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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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