Day three of Nande being home with us has already begun well. She slept in later, was much calmer in her room last night and she seems to have already begun to understand the basics of potty training. The good thing is that P and I talk strategy every morning while listening to her whine and yip for attention, she's used to being up at about 5:30 on the farm and with 11 brothers and sisters.
We plan what we want to work on, what's going well, what's up with the cat being such a freak, ideas for how to make her training better and there's always the nightly potty report. We even have a diary we write all of her potty work in and thoughts from the day's play and training. Its a good resource to track how she's adjusting to our schedules and its funny to read too.
Because there are two of us sharing the duties, we have to maintain consistency in what we are working on, the words we're using and, as much as possible, the vocal inflection necessary to get the message home.
Nande is still a pup, still prone to fits of speed racer charging all over the backyard as her energy bursts consume her and still prone to nipping when she's over tired or just needy. But we are both impressed with her ability to learn and accept instruction. She's sitting regularly now, sits for her collar to be put on, sits for her leash to be attached, sits for the door to be opened, sits for treats (yeah, took her all of five seconds to get that one though she'll still forget and start jumping around like kangaroo because she can smell the snausage in my hand).
I came upstairs last night a little frustrated because she'd been hard to put down and had actually bitten my pretty good and hard a couple of times in the process. But after reading and rereading our various books and printouts, I was much more serene and comfortable with how things were going. So, when she started making noises, I went down, took her out to potty, making sure I led her through doors and that she had to comply with the rules before getting outside. Then gave her some loving attention, held her in my lap and then put her back into her pen. Before I came up, I turned on the radio on the table for her. It gives her some noise to block out some of the ambient noise from outside and I secretly love that my puppy went to sleep listening to the rebroadcast of yesterday's Giants and Cubs spring training game in Arizona.
Which reminds me, the game happened to be on ESPN and, when I turned on the tv, Sammy Sosa was shown running around. Nande immediately got her hackles up and started growling and barking some. Then they showed Barry Bonds and she did the same thing. When they showed some white ball players she was much, much less bothered. So, I either have a puppy that doesn't like black people or a puppy that doesn't like alleged steroid users.
I remember a girlfriend once telling me that most dogs don't like dark skinned people as much at first because the darkness of the skin throws them off and they think the person is a shadow. Anyone got any input about it?
And, last thing, my heart melts when she's playing and she does this little jumping attack on her toy. She'll run after it and then leap into the air to come with all four paws trying to land on the toy it seems like. It is beyond cute. Maybe I'll have to try and catch it on video.
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