The Bark

When I was fostering, I especially liked taking in puppies. I was a stay-at-home mom, so why not! I have a nice deck to hang out on and a fairly decent sized yard. I always let the puppies learn on their own how to navigate the stairs. This meant having to carry them up and down for potty times. I didn't mind it at all.

 Here is Brandon, on the left, and Brianna, on the right. They had not learned how to walk down the stairs on their own yet. I was taking pictures of the other dogs and turned around to hear Brianna barking.

It was a bark that has become known as the "MOM, I can't get to you!!" bark. It's very distinct from her other barks.

My mom's dogs were here one day and they were sleeping in the hallway. I stepped over them to go into another room. There goes the bark! She couldn't or wouldn't try and get past them on her own.

It comes in REAL handy though for those times she gets closed in a crate. She'll go into a crate on her own sometimes for sleep. One of the others will pass by and manage to swing the door closed. It's a little funny that she won't paw the crate door open, while at the same time, I'm glad for it. So she just uses her bark to alert me.

Puppy Pictures

I have this cute little widget on my desktop that goes through the My Pictures folder and gives me a slideshow. This picture of baby Kali came up and I knew I had to go hunting down the girls' puppy pictures and post them!

Baby Kali

Baby Tina

Baby Brianna

Baby Astra

Rally cones, my great thrift store find! They're not heavy duty or 12", but they don't need to be for practice. So for now, since Jackson can't go to class, I can just bring class to him!!

Oh, how he's grown!

Quirks

Just like people, my dogs have quirks.

Quirk - a peculiar trait; idiosyncrasy.

To me, it's their quirks that make them so lovable. I don't mind indulging their quirks, sometimes. It does make for a much happier household. With four females and one male, happy is definitely something we want around here. Their little quirks make up much of their personalities.

Some people feel that indulging this side of their dogs makes them spoiled. Well, I happen to like them a bit spoiled. Even though it can make life difficult at times.

My crew eat their meals in crates. Well, all bowls are in crates is a more accurate description. Locking Brianna in the crate with her food bowl is a surefire way to assure she doesn't eat. Unless of course she was absolutely starving... Those times are rare. The rest don't care. They'll go running to their crates and eat to their heart's content. They don't care if you close their crates, leave the room, heck, leave the house if you like. Only Astra would then care, after she's done eating of course.

But Bree? Nope! Again, unless she's starving, you better be prepared to plant your butt down in the room with her until she's done eating. She's eats quickly so this isn't a big deal to me. If I absolutely have to be in another room at the time, I just take her food bowl with me and she'll eat wherever I am.

That's just one example, I have tons more I'm not sure if I'm going to share now or not.

It's Been A While

It's been a while since I posted.
It's been a while since I trained the levels.
It's just been a while...

However, Jackson has made it through Puppy Basic Manners 1, Puppy Basic Manners 2, and is almost finished with Performance Puppy Class. He, also, did Puppy Socialization classes and those went very well. It turns out he is the youngest in his 'group'. His 'group' is the same puppies that he started out with in puppy basic manners 1. These are the great pups and owners we got to know during puppy socialization. I'm positive this has made ALL the difference for him.

This weekend, he's even going to be competing in his very first APDT Rally Trial. Not only is it his first trial, it's my first trial also. This should prove to be VERY interesting. I can only hope I manage to keep it fun and don't let my competitive side take over.

In the past four months, I've also managed to work through a lot of Brianna's food issues. She's eating her meals much better now. She's also progressed in how often she'll take a treat in public. I'm still working on building toy drive in her. I feel that would be a great help during classes and such. Though as it stands now, she's regressed when she has to do anything during training class. It might have something to do with the fact that her class is after Jackson's. So she's already spent an hour in the crate, whining during class. Yes I know, we're working on her crate training some more.

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Jackson

 

  

Jackson was born 12/02/09. He came home with us at nearly 12 weeks of age just this past Sunday. He's settling in so nicely with everyone. He's slowly learning to be comfortable in his crate for naps during the day. Nighttime was a WHOLE other story! Thankfully, I thought to raise his crate higher and put it right next to the bed, that made him settle down and be willing to sleep. 

He's a very vocal pup which we hope will prove to be lots of fun later. He's a sweet, 12.5 lb fluffy bundle of play!

 

Blah

So a month goes between postings.. I said this wasn't going to be easy and I was right. It doesn't help we've been so busy with snow that everything else seems to have just fallen by the wayside.

I did finally manage to get some good pictures of the girls in the snow!

 

Astra no longer seems the feel the camera is going to steal her soul!

 

I love how she manages to just walk across the top of the snow.

 

I didn't notice until later how this looked like they were conspiring against me.

I haven't really done any major training with them lately. They're not interested, I'm not interested... It's the weather I'm sure. I don't count our standard at-home stuff as really training anyway. 

I've gotten some really great suggestions on how to work through some of their 'issues' which I have been trying.