Posts filed under ‘Observations’
Uh-Oh Snow…
Bouncy in the First Snow.
We didn’t make it to Puppy Gurus because of the extreme weather – snow fluttered down and cars crashed everywhere, stopping us from getting out of the little valley we live in. Tim was particularly peeved because he’d been working on the whole sit-stand-down thing all week, and had primed Phoenix for a perfect performance* in front of the doggy posse. Oh well.
* OK passable performance if truth be told, but this is the internet and everybody lies on the internet, so we’re sticking with perfect!
Out for Tea.
We took Phoenix to meet our friend Robie, she’s not a big dog fan, but seemed to like our large eared lady. Of course Phoenix did slightly let the side down by chewing on Robie’s rugs – but I guess we should have taken a stuffed kong to distract. I don’t think we’ve been banned, but it took a good deal of playing the cute puppy card to get away with it. It also helped that one of us faked a heart murmur to take the heat off of her. Oh, and there were flapjacks and a trip to the Common too, but nothing exciting happened.
Howl, Howl and Howl Again.
Sling Shot.
Bit of a nightmare night last night – we have got into the habit of letting Phoenix sleep on the sofa with us, and then when she’s put to bed, she’s too rested to sleep and starts howling. Which she did for quite some time. Our books all say different things about what to do. Some say to ignore it, some say to comfort her. We tried ignoring and that didn’t go down too well. Tim got up and comforted her which settled her, but poor old Phoenix had a bad night overall.
The overall problem is Phoneix’s waking/sleeping schedule is out of sync with ours. Whatever we try to do to keep her awake later in the evening, she still crashes out at 8.00pm and then wakes up at 5.00am (with a toilet break in between).
This week the ringcraft and training courses start so hopefully that will allow us to alter her routine and get everyone synchronised…
Phoenix also has an itchy paw, we had a look and couldn’t find anything but it’s annoying her.
Good training session in the kitchen today: we’ve found that limiting the space helps to focus her more and stops her wandering off to chew random objects. Like us.
Nipping, Mania and Buffy.
Side Profile.
We were warned by Tracey that things get worse before they get better. Phoenix has been quite “nippy” over the past few days so we’ve stepped up the rewarding all good behaviour routine. She now knows “Sit” and “Stand” and is learning “Off” (to get off the furniture).
She has to be monitored and offered things to do all the time she’s awake, otherwise she gets bored. So we keep trying new things with her and make sure the plastic bottles keep a-coming. Luckily, Phoenix is sleeping a lot and is also easy to calm down. The manic episodes after the evening meal have begun, but we’ve found getting her to sit and then rewarding her, brings her back down to earth again. It must be frustrating having all that puppy energy but not being allowed to romp around outside for longer the ten minutes at a time, as otherwise your legs go wonky and your hips fall off. It’s the Uber-Suck as Buffy would put it.
It’s OK the Washing Machine’s Safe.
Puppy Gurus Logo.
The first Puppy Gurus training session. This was for human companions only. We left Phoenix on her own for two hours which is the longest she’s ever been left so far. We’d been building up periods of isolation from a couple of minutes up to about half an hour. We’d heard tales of dogs left alone destroying sofas and gnawing washing machines in half so were unsure what to expect.
In the event, she slept through the whole period and was just waking up when we got back and starting to tuck into a chicken wing.
Tracey gave out a lot of info, which has to be read and will be tested next week. Nobody mentioned homework…
No Madam, She is NOT Brown…
First Rays of Sunshine.
Nobody has guessed correctly what breed Phoenix is. At the vets they volunteered Rhodesian Ridgeback or Italian Spinone AND they asked if they could put her colour down as “BROWN”!!!!! Tim became quite agitated, so affronted was he… 🙂 Needless to say, we corrected them: it’s Russet (as featured in the breed description).
Heel, toe, heel, heel, toe.
Alert.
Training to walk to heel has been going on for about four days and Phoenix is beginning to get the hang of it. She’s still over stimulated by the outside environment so it has to be a balance between letting her explore new things and keeping her attention on Tim and the walk. Best way around this has been to walk her at dawn and dusk when there’s less info available to her and she can can focus on the task in hand. However, there were still enough stops to investigate badger and fox trails.
Phoenix has graduated from her PVC blue baby collar* onto her first proper clip collar which is doing the business with the flexi lead making heel training easier because it was impossible for her to ever pull on the lead. So Phoenix has the freedom to move around and the choice of coming back to walk to heel without getting into a tangled mess.
Flexi leads aren’t normally advised for training purposes but for heel training it’s proving to be invaluable.
*actually it’s soft felt but it looks like PVC.
Cute Overload.
Asleep.
Elegance.
We are loving the series of grunts, squeaks and sounds Phoenix makes when she’s sleeping – her chimpanzee impression is definitely her top trick. Grunting has become part of the vocabulary of the house as Tim and Adam make friends with their inner wolf…
We also like the suckling noise and actions she makes while dreaming, presumably of feeding from her mother.
Tail chasing has begun and attempts at ear chewing. Loveably pointless.
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 