Feb. 19: Ildi's scent game

We wanted to try and challenge the hunter in Ildi - we had noticed on walks that when she gets 'play time', all she wants to do is put her nose to the ground and sniff, especially in clumps of long grass. Guess that's the hunter in her!
so we took small pieces of cooked chicken and chicken skin and would hide them one at a time in a cup - along with 2 empty cups. Her job is sniff out which one has the chicken in it. She loved this game! Today's pictures show her waiting while we put the cups down - she's so eager and on her best behaviour - look at how perfect her sit and down are!

week of Jan. 25

we decided to turn our 'pee log book' into more of a timetable so that we could start to see the patterns/ time of day of when Ildi needs to 'do her business'. There is definitely a pattern and this helps us relax a little on the constant trips outside! on average, she's doing 12 pees and 7 poops a day! a few accidents inside this week, but really we can only blame ourselves - it's hard to remember that we've only had her 2 weeks.

We've been trying to train Ildi to ring a bell that we've hung off the backdoor. To train her, we ring the bell ourselves every time we go out with her. And every once in a while she sits at the door when she has to go - seems like great progress already!

weight is up to 13.5lbs - still seems like a slow gain?

we've also been starting to play fetch with her. she now knows: sit, lie down, sit-stay, come.

I also took her to my parents house for an evening play session with their 2 big dogs. At first she was nervous meeting them, but then warmed up to the dogs and was just running everywhere once in side the house. She loved their toys and wanted to always play with the dogs - while they were playing more of a policeman role and following her everywhere as if to say 'i have my eye on you, don't do anything you shouldn't do'.

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!