RainRainRain

Could you guess? It's been pouring rain all day. Walking Bella requires completely suiting up in head-to-toe rain gear and miserably dripping your way around the neighborhood. There is not a lot of dog walking competition; we owned the road. And now as I write, the rain has let up, but someone is coming over, so I can't take her out.

The pleasure in today's walk, besides having a wonderful puppy with whom I can walk, was Bella's stick. When we leave our backyard, she immediately steps into the garden to snort some great smell. Today she found a thick, meaty stick. Yum! She happily carried it throughout the walk. She didn't miss not having treats for good walking behavior. She had something to chew the entire way!

Toys

It's interesting to see how different dogs play with the same toy. Lucy, at 10 months old, adopted a cedar log from our log pile. Over ten years, that log became a piece of kindling. It was one of two toys with which Lucy continually played. But although it diminished in size, Lucy wasn't really a chewer. Oh, she'd give it a couple of gnaws, but mostly she wanted to play tug or toss it around. Bella has found the "log" and is only moderately interested in it. Bella is a chewer extraordinaire, however, and if she sticks with it, it will disappear.

The other toy Lucy absolutely loved was what we called her cocktail ball. It came out when I started making dinner. She wasn't very food motivated, but she was definitely nose motivated. Lucy would roll the ball methodically throughout the house until every little treat fell out. She didn't pause, she didn't stop, until the ball was empty.

Bella has lots of toys which she plays with constantly. Her method with the ball, however, is quite different. Bella's nose is a mere shadow of Lucy's, but she loves the same ball because it has food. Bella will roll it only a bit. Otherwise she is determined to chew her way through. This says something for the strength of the ball—she's yet to rip it apart. Bella also is into dropping it or putting it on the edge of furniture and letting it roll off. She has a clever method, but Lucy got more treats.

What Dog?

I just saw this questionnaire on another blog http://manymuddypaws.blogspot.com/ regarding what breed you'd choose out of the seven AKC recognized dog groups and why. I thought this would be fun to do. I couldn't choose just one for several of the categories. How could anyone? Dogs are just too wonderful. What's your choice—or choices?

1. Sporting: My pick-Golden Retriever. I had several growing up and they were such a good family dog. And Labrador—as that's part of Bella.


2. Hound: My pick-This one is tough. Many folks thought Lucy had some greyhound or Saluki or Whippet in her. She ran like a greyhound, with her legs folding underneath her, so one of the long, lean running dogs...


3. Working: My pick-Schnauzer. My brother had one, Arnie. He was a great dog.


4. Terriers: My pick-Airedale, definitely Airedale. I read the book Junket as a little girl and have had a penchant for Airedales ever since.


5. Toys: My pick-This one is tough too as I don't really appreciate toy dogs. I guess I'd go with an Italian Greyhound, just because of Lucy. In reality IG's are still too small and finicky for my taste. My neice has a Chihuahua which is the cutest little thing, but I just don't feel myself drawn to toys.


6. Non Sporting: My pick-Dalmatian. I wouldn't have thought they'd fall into this group, but I like their sleekness and love their spots!


7. Herding: My pick-Really tough choice. I've had mixed breeds of Aussies, Border Collies and German Shepherds and love all three of those. Do I have to choose?


8. Miscellaneous: My pick-Treewalking Coonhound. A friend told me she'd grown up with one and I looked it up. Beautiful shape!

Working on "No Jump"

In obedience class this past week, Bella started out as a jewel. This was Week #2. Last week, Bella embarrassed me by barking through the entire class. We had a stellar start this week, but it rapidly disintegrated. Bella behaved like Hermione on a sugar high. As the teacher demonstrated different techniques, Bella began whining and wiggling—and crawling towards the teacher. "Pick me! Oh! Pick me! I know how to do that!" And indeed, Bella does know how to do both the "sit" and "down" the instructor was trying to teach us.

However, by the end of the hour, Bella had lost all touch with reality. No amount of cajoling, treating, ignoring, downing or correcting could get her to focus. She's lost complete control of herself, and I had lost control of her. It was awful and unfortunately, the instructor offered no solutions. This frustrated me. When I finally asked, her reply was that class was too exciting. Well, instruct me how to deal with it because I'm getting nothing from class this way! I'll try talking with the teacher before class next week, but if I see this same lack of intervention, I'll complain. She isn't helping us, if she isn't teaching us how to control our dogs. This is one of the reasons we're all taking a class.

One interesting training tip I did get from class is a new way of teaching a pup not to jump up on you. It's interesting how the methods have changed on this. It used to be you were supposed to knee the dog in the chest when it jumped up. Later, grabbing the dogs paws became the preferred method. Some recommended you turn your back to the dog when it jumped. Others promoted stepping towards the dog, so the pup would sit upon backing away. Well, here's yet another solution:

We haven't had any visitors, so I've yet to have a friend try it, but it looks like a good idea. What do you think of this method?

Fresh Bread

I baked a loaf of whole wheat bread yesterday after work. It was the perfect time to do it. It was pouring rain and a homey afternoon. I put on some classical music and got to kneading. The timing was also perfect in that the finished bread came out of the oven just before we had to take off and meet my niece and her partner for dinner. The kitchen smelled heavenly!

Flash back to earlier in the day. Bella ate part of a sock at some point during the day. My husband was around, but hadn't noticed that the sock was reconfigured. I was a bit concerned about what it would do in her system, but the only choice was to wait and see.

I took her to see her friend, Amber. They played a bit, but Bella was really being a pill. Amber was bombarded by the puppy and clearly unhappy about it, so we left. On our walk, we ran into another friend walking her Akita and walked with them. Both of us were hoping for an opportunity to work our dogs around distractions. Bella did well, but since her obedience class on Monday, has really been pushing the envelope. She's choosing to ignore commands. Gr-r-r.

Flash forward. When we returned from a fun evening out, we opened the door to discover the puppy had somehow been able to reach the back of the counter and had eaten the majority of the fresh bread. To my knowledge, this is her first successful attempt at counter-surfing. Needless to say, she was horribly uncomfortable and had a restless night. (As did I dealing with her!)

This morning she's slugging around the house and refused to go on a walk. I left her with my husband with instructions on feeding her (very little and in her crate) and watching to see if she is okay. She has a lot inside her that needs to come out...

Hiking

I took Bella on a most magnificent hike this past Friday with a friend and her dog. The weather was chilly but gorgeously sunny with fall colors coming on strongly. The other dog is 6, almost 7, and tolerant of Bella, but not necessarily eager to play with her, much to Bella's chagrin.

There were streams and lakes throughout the hike, so the opportunities to retrieve were around every corner. At one of the lakes, we had to stop tossing sticks because she was shivering with cold, but determined to keep going. She hiked probably 6 miles that day and slept well that night!

The next day my husband took her on a small mountain bike ride—around 2.5 miles. He said she was banking her turns and barking with joy. The next day, she went kite boarding with him. Because of the cold and a pesky injury, my husband ended up not kiting, but playing on the beach with Bella. Oh happy girl!

Here she is in the van on top of all the equipment. Today has been a big let down with us both back at work. It's a dog's life!

Flash Back

With school starting up again, I haven't been able to write regularly (or at all). I never posted about our vacation and it's enough in the past, that I am no longer in the mood to write about it. However, I do want to say that Bella did beautifully. Within the first week we stopped using the crate when we went off biking and I'm not sure why we chose to do that. I always left her with a stuffed Kong and the van—and Bella—were fine when we returned. The only things we lost to her chewing was one magazine (which we gave her) and two rolls of toilet paper (to which she helped herself).

I took her hiking and her Aussie traits kicked in. Although I started her on a leash, I wanted to see how she'd do off-leash. At four months, I felt confident in her need to be with us that I doubted she'd run off, though I knew I was taking a risk. Again, she did beautifully. She'd go part way up a trail, stop and wait until I caught up. The trait I was not happy with was her nipping. In her excitement to get going, keep going or return, she'd start barking and nipping at me. Bad! When this started, I made her sit and rewarded her for complying. The disreputable behavior subsided.

We also tried her on very, very short mountain bike rides (under three miles). She stayed right with us. What a joy! She'll be a great mountain biking dog when she gets a bit older. Oh! And did I mention she figured out swimming on this trip? That's her labby side. Previously, she'd tiptoe into the water, but never chose to swim. At one point, she just walked into a lake and began paddling!

Of course when we returned home and reverted to "normal" life, it wasn't as "fun" for her. I had to return to work, she had to be sequestered when I left. No fabulous new smells and new woods to encounter. However, I think the camping trip also helped in other ways. It finally trained her regarding peeing indoors. The van was too little (like a crate). She's been stellar ever since.