May 23: Ildi is spayed

wow - it's been too long since I wrote and actually there has been a fair amount going on for little Ildi.
The biggest news is that she got spayed last week. It was probably harder on the humans than her! I hated that she was staying overnight at the vet; imagining her all by herself in a kennel for the evening. She's so used to our laps on the couch - how would she survive?! But when we picked her up the next morning she seemed her usual self and all the staff seemed to have loved her - she so social!

We weren't sure what to expect after her surgery; would she be groggy, low energy, etc... she seemed like herself though. Though she didn't get any walks for 2 days and she wasn't bouncing off the walls, so I guess she was lower energy than usual.
We took it easy on her and walked her for only short ones for the next 3 days, but you could tell she wanted more. It was amazing that she had all her usual energy and seemed to be in no pain.
It's been a week since surgery and we have her back to normal walks (2x/ day at 45min each), but always on the leash and never in the dog park. I can just picture her getting rolled by another dog and her stitches coming out. She seems to be in a little more pain now though, we notice that sometimes she when she's lying down, she'll whine and then try to changes positions - even a standing-up-sleep (leaning against the couch). The incision site itself is starting to look much worse too - I might call the vet on Monday in fact. While it doesn't seem infected (warm or pussy), it has gotten hard and raised (like from beneath the skin) and only now is starting to lick it.

Other than that, we have been using this time to really practice our walks with her. We have a new harness (the Gentle Leader Easy Walk harness) that has been working out really well and we've been practicing 'heel' by turning direction 180 degrees when she pulls and some positive reinforcement with her favourite Buddy Biscuits when she looks at us while walking.

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.

March 6: learnings

so I realize that I don't stop and think about the things that Ildi doesn't do anymore or rather has grown out of. And they're all things that drove us nuts and we wished she would stop doing -turns out that with many of those things, she did stop doing. So there is hope! and that hope gets me through the days when she's picked up new bad habits and I wonder if (eating the plants in my backyard, for example) will ever stop.

The 'not good things' she's stopped doing:
- chewing our hands, fingers, arms constantly. She still does it every once in awhile; usually when she's tired - she's like a little kid, she gets to be a real nuisance when she's due for a nap. We call it "going moray eel" as she looks like one the way she swings her open jaws everywhere :)
- she's stopped chewing on chair legs
- she's stopped chewing up the rug. We actually don't even normally have a rug in the kitchen (still the only room she's allowed in loose), but she was running around and sliding so much that we were worried it would cause hip displaysia so we bought a cheap area rug to prevent her from sliding into walls. She used to just chew on it and try to take it apart thread by thread. I think it been a few weeks since she's done that!
- no more bathroom trips outside in the middle of the night!
- dare I say she's house trained - we haven't had any accidents in the house for about a month and she regularly 'rings the bell' when she wants to go out.

but thankfully she still likes to nap with us! :) here's a picture of her and Chad napping.




oh - and today I think she may have eaten a dead mouse. I can't be certain as she has her mouth in everything when we're out for a walk. But for some reason, this time, I thought 'oh god, that's a mouse'. I don't know if I'm more scared about what eating a mouse could do to her or that if she's throw it up and there would be a mouse in my house!
and that reminds me - will there be a time when she won't put EVERYTHING in her mouth that she finds outside?

next posting will be about all the new habits she's started in on! :)

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!

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.

Ildi gains weight

well, something magically happened, as of yesterday Ildi now weighs 17.5lbs. That's the biggest weight gain since we've had her; though she still looks like skin and bones!
I'm noticing that she's not eating her lunch amount consistently, but usually eats her full amount at breakfast and dinner. I'll even give her more at dinner if she didn't eat all her lunch.

Her house training seems to be going really well - often she sits at the door when she wants to 'do her business' and a couple of times she's even figured out how to ring the bell!

Chad comes home tonight - I'm so curious as to how excited Ilid will be to see him. Chad thinks she might not remember as he's been gone for almost as long as he was home with her when we first got her.
and I can't wait to have the help again with Ildi all day :) and I'm hoping that with Chad back Ildi's walks will get better.

Ildi at 14 weeks: Ildi goes to Banff

A friend of mine was in town yesterday so we drove to Banff together - with Ildi of course! I fear I'm turning into one of those annoying parents (of humans) that talks of their kid non-stop.
I was amazed at how well Ildi did - in the kennel for the 2 hour car drive and silent the whole way. I had covered her kennel with a blanket as I was worried that she would get cold being in the car for that long and it seems like that calms her down instantly. will definitely try that again! I would bring out for walks whenever it was appropriate with what we were doing and then feed her lunch in her kennel. I even took her on a gondola ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain. She was a hit with everyone! even becoming a 'tourist attraction' for a group of japanese tourists who wanted to take her picture.

She weighed in at 14lbs this week.
and I'm still having issues with her going on walks - even in Banff. It's getting sightly better, but not perfect.

and on a positive note - her 'stand' command is really coming. I'm now training her on a hand command as she has the verbal command!

Day 16: still refusing to go on walks

ok - this is really starting to concern me. Ildi is getting worse at refusing to go on walks; now I can barely get her down the front the steps. When she finally does, she takes a few steps and sits down and sometimes even lies down. And she sits facing the direction we came from (the house) - she also seems like she's shaking, is she scared of something. Is she wanting Chad back, or not wanting to leave the house in case Chad comes back? It's making me frustrated and I'm sure it stresses her too, not to mention she's not getting all the exercise she needs.

I'm trying to do some research on this - it almost seems like she's developed a new fear? I found some forums where people had the same problem, one person's advice was to drive somewhere different and then take her for a walk. So I tried that - we drove to the little shopping centre near our house -that way I figured she could also meet more people and have a new experience of seeing cars, a parking lots etc.

She loved the trip - she did forget about her fear for awhile; likely because as soon as she sees another person it catches her attention and makes her want to go meet that person. That will be a new challenge - try to get her used to people so that she doesn't get so excited to see/meet them.