A Beach Adventure

Just ordered 5 small bags of a variety of puppy food for that picky Fig. She will still just spit out kibble and then bark at me. I can take a hint. She likes the sample food we got from the vet a little better, which is a Hill’s product – but, still, she has to be in the mood. So we’ll see if it’s just ALL foods or if we can find something that speaks to her. Damn border collies. I remember trying to entice puppy Bright to eat, I’d bring out platters of roasted chicken, yogurt, eggs, beef, etc. She would just turn away. Thankfully Bright grew out of that, for the most part – but eating was so drama filled when she was a puppy.

Things that help with both eating and training, rather than having LESS distractions around, I need more. Put Fig in a group of dogs all attempting to impress me with their tricks and she’s throwing behaviors like crazy – put her in a room by herself and she has no interest whatsoever. Every dog is different, that’s for sure, Fig has been a challenge in the training department!

We were at the beach over the weekend and when I fed Fig I had all the other dogs dancing around and suddenly I had Fig’s full attention for training. Go figure. She is starting to offer behavior, she’s figuring out she’s in control of the game. Not 100% there yet, but finally some forward progress. She’s finally offering waves and rolling over – and barking. I wasn’t attempting to teach the barking, but I appreciate the new found enthusiasm. She gets confused between spins and roll overs, her down looks good, she’s offering paws up on a platform and can now do lured pedestal spins. Today we introduced something useful, we worked on the beginnings of restraint, no issues with paw holding, muzzle holding took a little work, she’s not fond of teeth inspection yet.

Knock on wood, she’s just been bringing toys back when I encourage her quite a bit. I still have a second toy to reward her driving back. She doesn’t tug with me nearly as fiercely as she does with Haku’s tail and chest hair – good lord. At the beach I had to bop her on the head with the chuck-it until she’d let go. It would help if Haku would actually tell her no, but he’s just too good. Little terror. Still, no worries about losing the puppy when out with the other dogs, she very much enjoyed chasing, stalking, pouncing and tugging on the other dogs.

She did go into the water, but got dunked by waves too many times so kept her distance after that – which was handy for the dogs to get away from her. I think she quite loved the beach and never seemed to get tired. Beaches are made for dogs! Fun to have a summer puppy that didn’t get too cold getting as wet as she did.

Puppy was a great traveler, I didn’t know what to expect. I brought her HUGE freaking wire crate as that’s what she seems to be the most comfortable in. And she was a total angel, just settled right in, slept through the night and was happy to hang out in the yard with the dogs as well. She keeps herself entertained! She didn’t bother my parent’s cats and Obi wanted nothing to do with her – which is true of just about everyone, so, hey. She just made herself at home, definitely the Fred/London in her.

Back from the beach puppy has been quiet the last couple days, which is a little worrying. She’s still happy to run around and bite dogs, but lots of sleeping and even less interest in food than she has been. Hopefully just recovering, and it has been ridiculously hot as well. I broke down and gave her raw tonight, she needs to eat, skinny little thing. She was happy to eat the ground raw, not much interest in the turkey neck I gave for her. But if you leave kibble in with her she won’t touch it in general, well, until you open her crate and the other dogs try to eat it, then she’s more into it.