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.

March 9: Ildi's new habits

We've noticed that Ildi is getting confident and curious and we've discovered that with that comes more 'bad' habits (read habits that we need to figure out how to stop or curb).

Perhaps it's timed with the relief of a warm week so all the snow has melted everywhere and in the fields we always walk in she seems to have a new wealth of smells available to her. In areas we once let her off-leash to explore and she would come when called, there is now no way she will return to you; she wanders off further in the opposite direction and I can actually believe that she can't hear you at all when she's in scent tracking mode. Like the Dog Whisperer says, '60% of her brain is controlled by smell' so that means that more than half of her brain is turned off to us humans. But it's getting worse and we fear we're ruining the recall command when we call her and she doesn't come. A few times she's even popped her head up, looked right at us, we call her and she runs in the other direction - still scent tracking of course. So we're going back to basics in some ways. We're only going to let her off-leash if we're certain she will come back to us and when she's playing with other dogs in the off-leash park. And we're going to be practicing our recall command under heavy distraction. I'm curious what this experience was like for other hunting dogs as puppies. I'll have to ask my friend who has two adult Vizslas.

Another one is that with the warm weather, the glacier in our backyard has melted so she can finally go and explore. Except we've learned that in her mind that means chew off branches or pull them out from the ground and eat the decorative grass (that once stood 5 ft tall) and any other periennal. I suppose we then shouldn't let her into the backyard unless we can supervise her at all times, but she was just moments away from figuring out how to get past our barriers so she would have gotten to the backyard on her own anyways. and she loves the backyard! whenever she's bored in the house she asks to go out and just sits in the yard - then starts to chew and eat my plants. I'm curious if dogs grow out of this behaviour?
oh - and here's a link to a site that lists all the indoor and outdoor plants that are poisonous to dogs; looks like I have some pulling to do :(
http://www.dogpack.com/health/poisonplants.htm

And suddenly she's started barking more. She now barks when she's playing with other dogs - as if to invite them to keep playing. and she started barking yesterday at something in the backyard that freaked her out (I think it was the wind), but she continued barking from inside the house still - at whatever was freaking her out. Then again last night when we were seeing friends and their puppy to the door (after a puppy play session). She stood behind her gate barking - obviously upset that she was left alone in the kitchen and she could see us all standing just a few feet away, but she never would have started barking in that situation before. Someone once told that as she gets more confident, she'll bark more. hmmm - how to curb this, fast!

but thankfully, at the end of the day, she still loves a good cuddle and nap in our laps! that always help to melt away the frustrations of the day :)

Feb. 17: Ildi at 15 weeks

yeah Chad's home! and as I expected Ildi was super excited to him. She got to wake up to having Chad take her for her 7am pee trip and you could hear her little tail just going crazy while she got picked up to be taken down the stairs :)

Her walks have been slightly better since Chad returned, but still not perfect. She still sits suddenly or pulls go back in the direction of home. - but I should say that when she's walking she's doing an amazing job at learning the 'heel' command. Sometimes I forget how young she is and have to temper my expectations and learn not to get too frustrated if she's not sitting or heeling. It often takes a stranger who makes a comment at how well behaved she is to remind me!

2nd vet appoint yesterday for her 3rd round of shots. She absolutely amazing with the vet and us when we're poking and prodding her - is that her breed or specific breeding of her parents?
and she's up slightly in her weight at 18lbs now.

And something I just started to notice (and mentioned to the vet) is that her stomach is starting to change colour. I'm pretty sure it seems like her skin is getting darker, but to be honest I'm not sure which direction is going, but as a result she has patchy skin colour on her belly. Is this normal?

Dare I jinx us - we haven't had an accident inside the house in weeks! and more and more she goes to the back door herself to tell us she wants to go out and pee.

Also with Chad home, she's already learned to 'give a paw' (and the 'other paw'), 'high five' and 'high ten'. I give full credit to the clicker in enabling her to pick up things so quickly; I had doubted how useful it would be, but I'm convert now!

Today's pictures are from her playing on the back patio wih her favourite game - tearing a cardboard box to pieces.

Day 18: lots of cuddle time

so with Chad away, I've developed the habit of watching some evening TV with her on my lap. I love the cuddle time and I think she loves the nap time. Funny I had heard that Vizsla's are lap dogs, but it's still seems strange that that can be a breed thing - but it's definitely true in her case. She likes nothing more than playing with hey toys in your lap or sleeping on you. The sweet cuddle time makes up for all the times she won't listen to me and is jumping up on the couch or stealing slippers!

We're still having walk issues - but the plus side is that it's forcing me to drive her to other locations and then she also gets to meet more people and have new experiences. Though it's definitely more time consuming!

new fun game for her - she likes to play with more than one toy at once. So in this picture, she hides her ball under her pillow and moves it all around. it's quite entertaining to see how she makes new games for herself.

oh - and the new command I'm determined to teach her before Chad gets back it 'stand'.

Puppy Class

Ildi goes to puppy class! Unfortunately, I couldn't go, but Chad could. He got to be the proud 'dad' as Ildi was already ahead of her puppy classmates in knowing how to sit and lie down!! We feel lucky as Ildi is so keen to do training and it seems that she's so smart and quick to learn (for treats!)
Puppy class also gave her her first opportunity to meet and play with other dogs (puppies). She was the boldest pup and never afraid to meet the others and of course, super excited to meet the other humans!
We learned from puppy class some tricks on trying to get her to 'heel'.

Ildi's photo shoot

Ildi weighs in at 13lbs this morning - she's gained a whopping .5lbs in 3 days, is that normal?

We've been teaching her lots already - she pretty much knows how to sit, we teach her the word and a hand command (we use a clicker to aid the teaching process). We're attempting lie down. We also playing fetch (if you can call it fetch this early on :)
and 1 big step in our minds is that she played on her own with one of her toys for the first time!

had 1 accident inside the house today and we've noticed that she no longer does her business 18 times/ day - thank god! we're down to 12; but keep in mind that we're both home during the day so she doesn't stay locked in her kennel for super long periods of time.

and I've posted some pics from a 'photo shoot'. Chad's a photographer so I think we're lucky to have professional quality pictures anytime we want them!

Day 3: we're learning

Last night Ildi woke us up 4 times to 'do her business' (one of them was a false alarm though). We sleep pretty light as we're still trying to learn what all her different whines mean. Right now, any time she whines we get up, take her out of her kennel and take her outside to pee.
Have I mentioned we live in Calgary, Canada and it's January! it's cold outside at 3am when you've just gotten out of your warm bed!

Thurs morning we weighed her (before she ate breakfast) - 12.5lbs (we'll start a graph soon).
Only 2 accidents inside the house today! but I give ourselves most of the credit and not Ildi as we take outside almost every hour :) We've started rating the day; she's 16 (successfull trips to the bathroom)/ 18 (total bathrooms)!

We practiced with her leash today inside the house and in the backyard. and we introduced her to kids for the first time by way of our friend's 3 and 7 year old. Ildi LOVES people and kids - seriously - she gets so excited and all she wants is to be pet. She did well with the kids - especially because we're all nervous, not knowing what she would do and I'm sure she could sense it.

We also created a dictionary for ourselves for the commands that we want to be using with her - that way my husband and I are consistent with what we're teaching.

We definitely need to stop her from chewing everyone and everything! Never having a puppy before, I didn't quite expect the amount of chewing. Is it her, is it her breed or is every puppy this way?