April 25: another snowstorm

Ildi loves the snow - so she doesn't seem to mind as much as us when it snows :)

April 23: Back to basics

Well, after a couple incidents in a row of Ildi not coming when called while off-leash - which resulted in her getting dangerously close to Sarcee Trail. So Ildi is back to getting very little off-leash time and we're doing lots of recall training. We're back to do doing some research and reading on how to improve her recall. Some of the new games and training are:
- hide and seek in the house (she stays in one room in a stay and we go into another room and call her). She comes charging full speed to try and find what room we're in - sometimes, she has to climb the stairs or make tight corners - it's always fun to hear her running with all her enthusiasm to find us! it's undoubtedly helping that we started to using chunks of kraft cheese slices as her treat. (maybe I should list out that as a separate 'trick' :) We joke that we should change the command to 'cheese'!
- recall while on the extendable leash in the park - that way we can give her a tug if she doesn't immediately come. We try to keep doing this when she's especially engaged in some scent.
- using the Come command for the things she likes and will come typically come for - dinner, walk time.

and things we make sure we never do:
- don't use the Come command unless we're sure she will come (so she will never learn that it's ok to not come when called.
- never have anything negative happen when she does come when called, for example, don't put her leash on her when you call her and definitely don't discipline her for anything when she's come when called.

today's pictures of her enjoying a warm, sunny afternoon in the yard - Ildi enjoying one her favourite activities - chewing on a big stick.

April 22: Ildi in the mountains

We've started taking last minute drives to the mountains and take Ildi on a walk out there - she loves the new scents and pathways! her nose never leaves the ground as she's scenting all the wildlife and plants. oh - to know what goes through her head as she's smelling new ground.
of course she's on leash the whole time. I can't wait until we know she's more reliable to be off-leash.

April 17: Ildi and her friends

so one of the ladies from the dog park brought her camera out the other day and shared with me the pictures. You can see Ildi's usual afternoon walk 'crowd' and the great exercise she gets from an hour of play with them!

Other than play - Ildi is doing well. Though her weight gain has slowed, she's only up to 29.5lbs. She's starting to get pretty rebellious though and doing everything she can to do the things she's not supposed to - like this morning barking from her kennel just because she was bored.

April 16: Ildi has worms

Chad discovered this week that Ildi has Roundworm - gross! He saw the worm in her poop - looked like a rubber band - a few inches long! so we got her medication asap, but it will take a few weeks for it do it's job in killing everything. poor girl!

On other health news, the vet confirmed this week that all her puppy teeth have come out, so she now just needs to her adult teeth to all come in - she still has a few blank spots. And I have to say that she seems to be handling teething fairly well. From all the books we've read we were expecting a horrible time with her chewing everything in site, but I would say her chewing has decreased - as she gets older and older. You hear the odd moan from her when she's just sitting around (guessing her teeth are hurting) and that's the really the only indication that she's teething.

we've had an interesting week too - we've been walking another dog on both of our daily walks (as they're out of town) so Ildi has had a constant companion. Luckily they get along great and Gretta (a type of collie maybe?) loves to play and puts up with Ildi grabbing at her neck fur the whole time. It tires them both out though which is great! though last night we took Ildi on a short night time walk - thinking we would try to play some fetch with her and when we let her off in our usual field she wasn't coming back. Even running in the opposite direction as us and heading towards Sarcee Trail (a busy 4 lane road). Perhaps this misbehaving is a result of not having structured walks for a week? or maybe she's going through a rebellious phase (though I think she might be a little young for that phase). Needless to say she won't be getting any off leash time once Gretta's not on our walks with us.

new Ildi pics

I've gotten behind in posting pictures of our little Ildi - so here are a few random snaps!

Ildi's weight tracker

we've been keeping track of how Ildi's put on weight over the last (almost) 3 months.

April 5: Ildi's 5 months old!

Ildi is 5 months old now and it seems like she's really grown! we were away for a week, and she had the excellent care of her 'grandparents' - who have 2 dogs of their own. When we came by to pick her up, I couldn't believe how much she had grown!
As a birthday gift, we've now tried to give her more free reign of the house - though we constantly check on her to see what she is chewing on in the living room; usually the plants or the shag rug or sitting on the couch. though yesterday she did find the mirror to okay with (see video) :)