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.
Parrots, Petting and Popularity.
Phoenix and Tim.
Another trip around town in the sling. Phoenix was a huge hit in the local pet shop. Over a dozen people of all shapes and sizes came up to speak and pet her. One person said she liked the way Phoenix’s skin was so loose – we explained that she still had a lot more growing to do… More great socialisation experience – as usual she greeted everyone like a long lost friend, despite the towers of dog chews, pigs ears and assorted canine ephemera, she remained remarkably well controlled. We tried to introduce her to Jethro the African Grey parrot but he was more interested than she was.
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.
Should we have called her Chewie?
Puppy Sarcasm?
Let’s talk power chewing – God the power chewing. If it moves, chew it, if it doesn’t move, chew it, if it neither moves nor doesn’t move, chew it anyway, just to be safe.
When we first met Phoenix at three weeks old, the first thing she did when Tim sat in the welping box was to come over and chew his foot and it hasn’t stopped since.
Our favourite chewing episode was discovering the shredded front cover of “The Power of Positive Training” in pieces, which must have been skilfully selected and then stolen while our backs were turned, in order to wreak a terrible hypodermic-tooth filled justice on it. Perhaps this is Phoenix’s first attempt at irony?
On the plus side, the plastic milk bottles come along brand new everyday, so it’s like an ongoing Christmas for Phoenix. Second to bottles are carrots; – busting with vitamin C and oh so crunchy.
Weight Watchers and Knobbly Knees.
Looking at the River for the First Time.
Between the 6th and 13th Phoenix went from six kilos to eight: a 25% increase in body weight in a week! We suddenly thought she was looking skinny – she had the same body on very long and enormously thick legs. Her rear legs looked slightly awkward and we went into a panic spiral thinking she was becoming cow-hocked. Cue much worrying and wailing about what we’d done wrong, what terrible parents we were and how the doggy social workers were gonna come and take her into care.
Luckily, a reassuring email from Diane Parry (Mallard’s human companion and font of all knowledge HWV related) told us to pull ourselves together; she’s just growing and going through a gangly phase!
We now know that Phoenix is going to be a big lady as her legs and paws are huge and we have to wait for the rest of her body to catch up.
Return of the Party Animal
At large.
Today’s puppy party was thrown by Tracey B. the “Puppy Guru” lady. She is very cool, and kept a crowd of eight eager pooches under tight (but gentle) control. Tracey is a strong advocate of positive training methods, she’s an animal behaviourist and a member of the International Positive Dog Training Association. Her brand phrase is “respect, kindness, harmony”. The basic principle is you reward every piece of good behaviour and ignore or interrupt any undesirable ones and NEVER punish your dog.*
Tracey also works with violent teenagers using the same techniques so, respect due!
Apart from a spaniel, Phoenix was the largest dog there, this didn’t stop her getting out and about and pressing the flesh though- she was polite and enthusiastic and remarkably self controlled. She did struggle during the early part of the party, as the dogs were let off the lead one at a time over the two hours, for around ten minutes.
No problems in the car – now definitely established as the provider of good things and the vet as her favourite place EVA!!!
*I love the fact that nothing is ever the puppy’s fault, it’s always the owner who’s to blame for not thinking ahead. It’s a very “oy vey iz mir” approach, but it works.
Gotta love those ears!
Love those Ears!
First ride in New Sling.
Did we mention the baby sling? Well, it came a few days ago, and today we took Phoenix out to our nearest town, Torrington, as part of her socialisation programme. Phoenix can’t go on the ground until her second set of injections have taken effect.
Not many people around, the wind was strong and she found this a little disconcerting – ears a-flapping. We met a labrador and human friend, after checking his vaccinations were in order, they had a brief interaction which went well for everyone.
Today was also the day Phoenix discovered the joy of empty plastic milk bottles. Despite an array of expensive designer dog toys, she prefers to hurtle around with an old milk container in her mouth. This must be a variation on the “kid prefers the cardboard box to the toy inside” routine.
Ice is Nice.
Walking on Water.
First journey around the land – we live on five acres of land which is planted up with around 1900 trees and shrubs. There’s also a river and a woodland. This was the first time our pond had frozen up – Adam took a chance and walked out into the middle. Phoenix decided it looked like fun and slip-walked her way out too, causing mild heart attacks all round. The words “hip dysplasia” and “astronomical vet bills” echoed in our heads as Phoenix effortlessly glided over the ice. Luckily, she soon wandered onto land again.
Phoenix is more or less toilet trained now – apart from an occasional accident. It’s been the use of the crate that has regulated her bladder,we were unsure about the whole crate thing as it seemed like we were caging her up, but she has found it a place of safety and comfort, retreating whenever she needed to. A bit like a den in the wild.
This, along with clicking and treating at the right moment, in the right place, has worked really quickly and really well.
She seems to be a smart cookie this one…but then we would say that wouldn’t we?!
Party Animal
Tim trying out new sling indoors.
First attempts at “stacking” using the clicker and treat method – as a preparation for Phoenix’s big turn in the (future?) show ring…show-biz is calling.
… we had a semi hunger strike on our hands. Phoenix took a look at her biscuit based breakfast and basically refused to eat – where’s the good stuff? Y’know the meaty stuff. Biscuits no longer working as a treat – not cutting the mustard anymore. Luckily we’d already stocked a freezer up with her specialist raw food. We made a 50/50 blend of raw food and biscuit, mixing them up. This was accepted without any problem.
There were only a couple of other dogs at the puppy party – organised by the lovely nurses at the vets in their own time – seven were expected and only two turned up. A springer-spaniel called Sasha (who barked a lot – an unfortunate trick which Phoenix immediately took up as her own. Arf and indeed Arf!). The other party animal was a beautifully trained 14 month old rescue border collie belonging to one of the nurses.
Sasha was quite timid and over-awed by the whole thing and also by Phoenix’s confidence and bouncy demeanour. Phoenix and the collie had an intensive play session and as usual she gave as good as she got…
Sleep update: not much of a problem, a bit of a howl at night but then all is well.
Chewing: oh, the chewing! We have been following the advice of Ian Dunbar (“Before and After Getting Your Puppy”) who says you should allow your dog to bite you in order to give appropriate feedback as to the intensity of the bite, so they can gradually soften the bite pressure. This is called bite inhibition. She seems to be softening her bite: only mouthing gently…
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 