Perfect Morning

What could be better than hanging out dockside on a beautiful sunny, warm morning after the kiddos have been dropped off to school, and with your CCI friend by your side? It was so peaceful.

Haddie and I watched the ducks swim by, fish jump, dogs going for jogs with their owners off in the distance, and a group of moms with jogging strollers that were exercising on the large lawn lakeside. Haddie found her shadow in the lake, and the bugs hopping on the water. She enjoyed the sun in her eyes and my continuous photo shoot with my phone. She was more interested in the cawing crows than the adorable ducks.

Perfect morning to start my Friday!!

A Shout Out of Happy!!

Our super friend Haddie and I had two outings today. The first was at our local Starbucks where we met my awesome mom for some yummy drinks. We chose a table outside by the drive-thru order. While there was not too much in foot traffic, the location was by a busy street with lots of noise, and cars pulling up next to us to chat to the mystery voice coming from the board.

Haddie did ... great!!! Nothing freaked her out; loud motorcycles or semi-trucks had nothing on this friend. She ignored it all. Strangers were kind enough to ask before they pet her, and she stayed seated. I think a few licks were had, but they were short lived. 

I enjoyed conversation with my mom while Haddie slept by my right side. We were both enjoying her cooperativeness and ease. 

My mom getting in her Cradling time

Later this evening .... 

It was the first day back to dance class for my sweet girl. While there is a lobby for parents to socialize while their dancers are being instructed behind closed doors in either a Pink, Blue, or Green Room - the dancers access their specific class through outside doors via a sidewalk which spans the length of the building. 

Although Haddie has yet to have an indoor accident in our house, I am taking it slow in regards to taking her inside different environments. I want her to be solid with me first, before we add that level of distraction. Therefore, I parked our bodies outside on the sidewalk. 

Haddie was an instant magnet. Tap shoes, flip flops, ballet shoes, barefeet, high heels, and work boots all clicked by in various ways close to my teeny tiny four legged friend. It is amazing what you observe when you are looking down studying the behavior of a dog. 

And here is my Shout Out of Happy!!  Ready? (insert brag button)

Haddie did not lick the various fingers and hands that came to her, and she stayed seated facing the crowd of passerby's.  A-mazing. I could have jumped out of my skin right then and there in happiness. She was a true champ. I was delighted!!!

My girl's class was in the Blue Room tonight and the door was propped open due to the heat wave we are experiencing. I stood at the entrance of the door - a quick moment of oohs and aahs came forth - before the teacher started in her quick Expectations and Happenings for the year. Haddie sat next to me and only tried twice to enter. A quick No solved that attempt and she went back to sitting down facing the ballerinas. Oh, how I wished I had my Photographer handy!!  Next time ... 

The rest of the hour long class was spent either on the sidewalk, or in the grassy strip across the parking lot. The grass area was a hill, and my friend found a way to somehow balance laying downhill, and upside down, with out tumbling allllllll the way down. She cracks me up. A crazy pose that she put herself into and did so with out fuss or fear; as if she hangs upside down every day. She obviously has good balance for such a smushy, rolly-polly bellied, big footed girl.

So floppy and adorable in all her cuteness wrapped into a yellow and blue cape. A Shout Out of Happy!!!

Oh, Haddie - what a fantastic girl you are in so many ways!! You have captured our heart and we are focused on doing our part to provide you a wonderful journey towards Advanced Training. We hope your future holds a very special place in a Handler's heart one day. Yay, Haddie!!!

A little here and there

Tuesday is our garbage pickup day and my plans were to sit on our porch with Haddie to see the large, smelly, monster truck park in front of our house with all the noises. However, I apparently missed him when the four legged friend and I were re-reading the CCI manual together. We both heard the roar, but were too late in getting out the door. Next week ....

Honestly, I did not pose these pictures. I had sat down on the floor to reread some CCI chapters. Haddie was sitting on the other side of the room facing me. A piece of paper slipped out of the notebook creating a curious puppy. She came closer to sit down and observe the papers flipping back and forth. A few times she would lean over the notebook, or stand on a particular page. A quick No correction and she was back to sitting or laying down intrigued and content. Good Girl!

Before the kiddos left for school today, they wanted to know what CCI Adventure I was planning with Haddie. I have a page full of ideas, just bursting to be explored, but the pup needs to walk on her leash farther than fifteen steps. I decided to try another stroll around our block to see if perhaps in the quiet of the street, as all children had departed to the school buildings, that Haddie would keep up with me.

She started off slow; her usual routine of the week. But we kept at it and she eventually got the swing of hanging with me. She didn't pull and I tried not to pull her either when she chose to stand! still! and! not! move! Mixing up talking in a high squeak tone and using the Here command - she eventually decided that walking on leash was really not that difficult or stressful.

We made it around the corner of our block and sat at the school bus stop. The neighbor dogs were going wild behind their fenced yards. Haddie was observant to the noise and would look to the left and right and back again as the dogs took turns making conversations. She never pipped in, however.

Five minutes in and she settled into a Down and watched the cars go by, all the while I was talking to her about her environment in a calming tone. Yes, I was the crazy lady at the bus stop. I had heard that when you expose them to new environments at this age that talking calmly helps - and you don't even have to make any sense. Well, I at least made sense! I described everything she was looking at (wink).

The other adventure was after nap time and lunch, when we visited the Vet for booster shots. Of course all the staff members coo'd over the sweetness of Haddie. I carried her in and carried her out because of her early pup stage and not being fully vaccinated, but they had a good look at her in her cape while standing on the scale. A whopping 16 pounds with some ounces. All is fine!!

The rest of the day was spent sleeping by her water bowl tuckered out from the heat and vaccines. She feels this is the coolest place for her, as this is a usual scene in our house. Luckily we have another watering hole for our Beagle to enjoy with out waking the sleeping puppy. She is a messy drinker, the sloppiest dog I have ever met. It's as if she doesn't really have the muscle control to perform the duty as she leaks water from her mouth quiet rapidly as she turns to leave. But she quickly flops down on all the dribbles and puddles she leaves behind, soaking it into her fur, while settling down into a cool day dream. Sweet Dog.

Yogurt Shop - the first official outing

Today is the last day of summer; a beautiful low-80's. The kids return to school tomorrow, and our routine begins. Bittersweet. Sometimes routine is nice, while other times it is nice to have no schedule. Sigh.

We celebrated by going to the local FrozenYogurt Shop. We grabbed a table with chairs and settled in to see what this Socialize the Puppy is all about.

Really?

I don't want to jinx ourselves, and perhaps this is completely normal behavior given the CCI genes of this dog, but we were all beaming. We had three people come over. The first was a lady dressed in a Harley Davidson attire with loud boots. Haddie did not pass the No Lick policy, but she stayed seated. The next visitor were two sweet teenage girls. This time Haddie stayed seated and did not lick. Bravo, Girl!

The Harley crew zoomed by the sidewalk making lots of noise and Haddie lifted her head to follow the noise, but did not get out of her laying down position. As soon as the cycles were out of sight, she put her head back to the sleep position. Never mind the foot traffic in and out of the coffee house to our right, the pup didn't even notice through her closed eyes.

And that's the end of the story.  One of the teenagers thought that we had trained her so quickly on acting like a grown-up dog. They were shocked that we have only had her less than a week. Genetics. That was our only solid answer, because ... even we are amazed.

If you are a fellow Puppy Raiser ... I'm opening up the Comment Forum to give your opinion ... is this normal behavior, or are these signs of avoidance?

The two girls

I had a couple of plans when we brought Haddie home on Wednesday. The main plan focused on our family pet; a six year old Beagle named Cora. She came to us at the age of two after retirement as a Champion Show dog and after her first litter of puppies. She is a dream dog to our family; we are very grateful for our connection.

When we vacation - she spends time back with her breeder. Sometimes as the solo beagle, other times with a handful of beagles, other times with just one other. She was an agility class dog for the first 18 months of being under our wing and proved to handle stranger-dogs with ease. But when it comes to welcoming another dog to our house, I was truly uncertain how the meeting and acceptance would go.

Reading about joining two dogs into a household, I decided upon a plan that worked best for our family. I am not sure if we followed it to the letter, I am sure I made up some of it as we went along, but thankfully it worked.

The two dogs were absent of each other for the first three full days. When Haddie was out, Cora was in her kennel in another area of the house. And vice versa. They smelled each other's belongings, but were not allowed to share each other's toy or bed. Cora did amazingly well, including putting up with any of Haddie's noisy fuss when Haddie transitioned to her kennel. Her barks were heard throughout the house, regardless of the fact that she could not be seen, Cora did not care. She did not copy, and she did not scratch the door where the noise was coming from. She ignored.

While this created a lot of juggling and forethought from the peeps in this house, I would do it again. It allowed time for Haddie to do several things; get to know us and bond as much as possible in three short days, learn to look at us when we called her name, and learned to come Here when we gave the command.

The meeting was last night. The breaking point was that we had had a family party to celebrate my soon-to-be birthday girl; and the dogs had had enough rotation during the day, it was hot, the party was over, the dogs needed energy released ... and well, we were just ready!!

My son leashed Cora while I had already been in the backyard leashed with Haddie. I think the best part was that neither dog made a sound. I was expecting Cora to give a few Beagle "Arooo's" at the youngster. But she did not. The worrisome part was when Cora decided on her own to lay down and roll over. Sigh. I was bummed. She had given up quickly on showing her right ownership to Top Dog in the house.

We came inside and separated the two in their kennels. I am no Dog Psychologist to know if that was what was really taking place (establishing Top Dog status) but I just expected more out of Cora. I know she is a sweet and caring dog by nature, but I just wasn't expecting that behavior from her so quickly. Haddie just looked at her shocked, and then I called Cora up before Haddie got any ideas of pinning her in a dog-friendly way.

Fast forward - by the end of the evening both dogs were at my feet, unleashed, paying no attention to one another. It helped greatly that both dogs are SOLD! on the Food Reward system. It kept their attention on me, rather than each other. Eventually one of the dogs would find a spot to lay down, and the other dog went about it's normal routine.

And the bonding time between Haddie and her Volunteer Raisers (us) to train her to know her name and find us on the Here command?  Proved to be Brilliant. I was able to call Haddie out of social time with Cora on the lawn and in the house every.single.time.

The two girls are friends. Whew!

Life is Good

My girl and I were working on the Here command with Haddie today. Sometimes training a working pup is so rewarding because you think that you actually did something grand - when in fact the pup is just that brilliant by herself. My girl and I were laughing, we were having so much fun that Haddie actually did what she was told to do over and over and over.

What a gem! She loves to work. She loves her peeps. She loves her rewards. Life is good.

Golf - first outing

Kindergarten Puppy Class is held on Wednesdays in our area - but unfortunately, we had a conflict last night in that our kiddos were wrapping up their private golf lessons, my husband had a meeting, and I could not be two places at once. We chose to complete golf and give Haddie a first outing.

I sat with her next to the golf cart car wash section of the course, with the kids' lesson on the hill. It was quiet of people. The sounds she heard and the things she observed were the hand held power washer rinsing off the golf carts, birds squawking nearby, the sound of the ball hitting golf clubs at the driving range to our left, and the golf ball machine that picked up all the balls. 

Haddie was fabulous. She would walk around me on her leach while I stayed put on the blanket. She would sit to observe. She never barked, or jumped. She just sat. When she got bored, she would switch her position. We took a short walk down the side of the building for a hurry break, and then she settled in the grass and fell asleep for thirty minutes. 

It was peaceful. We couldn't have asked for a better first day and puppy. I think the pictures snapped of her against the wheat looking grass and the sun nearly setting are gorgeous. I'm thankful for my quick point and shoot Lumix. It does okay when you are doing snaps one handed with a curious pup leashed in the other.