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 22: Ildi's a digger and answers from the vet

we sometimes let Ildi into the backyard unsupervised - but peak through the window every few minutes to ensure she's not wreaking havoc on the bushes. This time we couldn't see her from the kitchen window for some time, which means she's sitting behind the patio wall. The only thing behind the patio wall is grass so we just assumed she was chewing on a branch, as she usually does. Not this time, this time I discovered she had dug a little hole in the middle of the lawn! It was a few inches deep and absolutely no grass left - geez! that was the end of unsupervised play in the backyard :(

Since the last post, Ildi had her last set of shots at the vet - yay!! with parvo going around in the city right now we can finally rest easy that she has full immunity. and she now weighs 24.5lbs - a slow but steady increase.

She's pretty much gone off of breakfast - having just a few bites and then burying the rest in her kennel blankets. But she eats her dinner! the vet said some dogs are just not morning eaters, but give her whatever she didn't eat, plus her usual dinner portion for dinner. You should have seen how full her dinner bowl was last night - but she ate it all!

I also asked the vet about when we could start running with her and should we be worried that she runs at full speed when she's at the dog park (off-leash). Dr. Boone said she could start running (start with short distance) at 1yr. and that it's no problem if she runs at the dog park. It's the controlled running on a leash that is not good for her bone development.

Also, the vet said to not worry about the plants in the backyard (iris' and lilies) - she said that they are more toxic to cats - unless the dog starts eating the bulbs.

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 :)

March 1: another photo comparison

here's another side by side picture of Ildi and how she's growing up so fast! plus I added a photo that shows how long she's is - and she's still a lap dog!

She's had a busy couple days of socialization and lots of off-leash time. Though with the weather warming so much all the snow is melting and there are tons of fresh scents suddenly available! She's not such a good listener when she's fully engaged in hounding scents. But she's finding lots of mice dens and even flushing grouse.

on a development point, she's lost a tooth! though I would have thought she might be a bit young to loose her puppy teeth, but she seems to also be shedding suddenly. Could be the warmer weather or it could be that she's maturing early. Our vet had warned us that when pups are born in winter and not spring, the onset of spring can cause a pup to mature faster and actually go into their first heat cycle early. I wonder if this is starting happen?

Feb. 24: 4months old today!

Ildi turned 4 months old today and as a treat we've had a big week already. Ildi's experienced a new dog park (Edworthy Park) AND we let her off leash for the first time! We're still a little nervous about it - mostly because she just runs up to every dog and tries to play and we're the ones who are unsure of whether it's a friendly dog we're meeting for the first time.
The 2nd big adventure was that she started a new dog class - Agility Foundations through the Super Dogs. We had checked ahead of time to ensure she wasn't too young and they said she wasn't; yet when we walked in it was clear she was the youngest and dare I say the ONLY puppy in the class! There is a border collie, a sheepdog, a retriever, a weimaraner and I'm not sure what the other is - maybe some kind of spaniel or duck-tolling retriever. Most of them are about 1.5 years old; you should have seen how little she looked next to all the full grown dogs! You could even tell that the instructor wasn't sure she would be old enough to handle it all - but she earned all of their respect by being pretty much the best at all the exercises. You can only imagine how proud Chad and I were! She's so eager to please and so happy being active and having a task to do. Can't wait till next week!