Not the credit card!

Stella LOVES to carry stuff.  One of the first things she did when she first came home was pick up the cat's dish and carry it around the house before stopping to clean out any last remnants of food.   She continues that every day so it is always a hunt to find out where the cat food dish has been left.   She loves our shoes, slippers, hats, gloves, socks and underwear and if none of the above is available she will settle for one of the many dog toys.  Luckily she is mainly gentle with her treasures (other than a few of my slippers) and she has trained us to be much better at putting things away properly.   When we go out walking she constantly scouts the ground for something to pick up and carry and if we are in the trails she often has a stick in her mouth.   Luckily she is pretty good at dropping things when told outside and also happily gives us her treasures in the house.

I know that carrying stuff is mostly her genetics but it is also an attention seeking behaviour so its a balance to not reinforce the pattern.  Riley has been very good at training me to reward that type of behaviour.  When we hike he loves to search for golf balls, any small remnant piece of a ball, piece of plastic or anything he thinks I might want to take from him.  He then bounces up to me with his find and tries to entice me into "playing" with him.  Playing for him means trying to play keep away from me!   I usually carry a squeeky ball with me to trade for whatever he has which I realize just rewards the behaviour but honestly I am stumped as to how to deal with the situation without using punishment. 

Stella has been a wee bit more "naughty" these past weeks which is probably due to her age (9 months) and growing levels of independance.  We also have been dog-sitting another dog for the last 10 days which means a little bit more competition for attention in the house.  I am not concerned about this minor blip and know that we will work through it.  I have reduced some of the extra freedoms she was earning and have crated again when leaving the house to err on the side of safety.

Last night I was booking our summer camping trip and left the room to switch over the laundry.  While folding I heard a crinkle, crinkle noise so headed back and found her with the wrapper of something I was eating.   She happily gave it to me and I returned to my folding.  Next sound came to me and I went back to check only to discover that she was chomping on MY CREDIT CARD!!!  I rescued the card but it has some pretty big teeth dimples in the plastic and some of those are on the magnetic stripe so I'm not overly hopeful that it is gonna work anymore.  Yes, it was my fault for leaving it on the coffee table but really shouldn't my dogs understand how important that sacred piece of plastic is for maintaining all the wonderful comforts of their life :o).    BRAT!  Obviously we still have a ways to go with puppy antics.

Freedoms

Stella recently turned eight months old and we have begun the process of her having more freedom in the house.  We spend most of our time at home in our kitchen/ tv room area which has a baby gate to seperate it from the rest of our home.  The baby gate was "temporarily" installed back when Riley was a puppy but has proven useful for times when I meet with clients or when we have extra dogs around.  It has also given the cats and Riley a way to choose whether or not to interact with the puppy while she has been growing up.

The baby gate likely won't be going anywhere but it is certainly open a lot more these days.  Stella is good in the house with possible exceptions of a fascination with gloves, shoes and socks & underwear.  Luckily she mostly just carries them around for attention without destroying anything.   She is actually shaping us to pick up after ourselves much more :o).  I'm also starting to notice her finally easing on the puppy obsession of putting everything and anything in her mouth.

There is a second baby gate in the house which can block our bedroom door.  Again that one was installed when Riley was a puppy and we used it to keep him and Lucy in our room while we all slept.   Stella is crated at night and that will likely continue as I want to keep her used to crating for when we eventually start to trial.   Riley outgrew his crate at about eight months so we began to gate him with Lucy in our bedroom when we were out.  It was a logical choice as it is away from street view windows and he loved to sleep on our bed.  That eventually led to whole house freedom but he still usually just goes and sleeps up on our bed when left alone.  We have now begun the same process with Stella and after a little bit of destruction the first day (ripped book) and smarter planning by us (leave dog toys and puppy proof better) she has figured things out.  It is usually only for 1-2 hours a few days a week so this is a good way to ease into more freedoms.  Both dogs basically hop up onto the bed and settle down for a good snooze when we leave now.

Snow play day

Today we packed up the dogs and drove the 1.5 hour trip to Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) for a cross country skiing adventure.  WOP designates approx ten kilometres of it's trails as dog-friendly as well some dog-friendly snowshoe trails.  We opted to ski with the dogs today.  This was Stella's first snow experience and she had a blast.  Riley has lots of experience with skiing and it ranks on the list of his favourite things.  I wasn't sure if Stella would be a fan of the cold snow but the temperature was sitting close to zero and she had a coat on and didn't mind the snow at all.  She even often ventured off the groomed trails to bounce through the deeper snow areas. 

Stella figured out pretty quickly how to stay out of the way of the skiers although she tried to "herd" me on some of the downhill sections until I convinced her that wasn't a very good idea.  I am not a fast skier so the pace is very suitable for the dogs to play and have lots of fun.  I occasionally get up some good speed on the downhill areas and the dogs seem to almost cheer as they escort me along with joyfull bounces and big grins. 

There were lots of other dogs out on the trail so Stella had fun playing with them.  I think Riley was grateful to have her attention diverted for a while although he occasionally joined in with the play.  He is generally happy to greet other dogs for a quick sniff and then moves on to his next item of interest.    Stella is still a puppy so likes to play with other dogs but is always watching us and is happy to leave them to stay with us.  She especially had a great time playing with a Burmese Mountain Dog who's owner was skiing around the same pace as me.   We all had a great afternoon and the dogs were asleep almost before we left the parking lot.

Settling In

Stella has now been with us just over four months.  I have loved her from the moment she came into our family and that just continues to grow.  Riley is wonderful with her and I am very happy with how she settled into our home.  I thought things were great so I guess that's why I have been somewhat pleasantly surprised to notice some recent changes.  In the past few weeks Riley has really begun to play with her (see prior blog post play with me).   They had a minor moment this week where Riley disciplined her when she pounced on him while he was sound asleep but after a day of subdued behaviours they are back to where they were and she seems to have learned a little more respect for him.  Riley has really embraced his inner puppy in a lot of ways which totally cracks me up even when that naughtiness sometimes makes me crazy.  The increased play behaviour means I have had to work on a few more "ground rules" for when we just want some peace and quiet. 

Hubby is wonderful with all the animals but really we have them because it's what makes me happy.  He likes to quote "Happy wife, happy life :o)".  He loves them but is not nearly the animal crazy nut that I am.   When Stella was new to our home I think he was sometimes a bit overwhelmed but they have developed their own wonderful bond over the last months.   It makes me smile to hear him talking away to her telling her what a good puppy she is or walking by and seeing them snuggled together on the couch.

Fred has been pretty comfortable with Stella for the past few months but Desi has still regarded her with great suspicion.  Desi was a year old and terrified of dogs when we got her.  She has become much more comfortable with dogs but will never be like Fred who has been around dogs since he was a tiny baby.  The past few weeks have shown a big change in Desi's comfort level with Stella.  She is still cautious but has finally come back to hanging out with us on the couch in our family room.  She even is willing to snuggle when Stella is also on the couch  which is a huge step for her. 

My mom visits about once a month for up to a week or so and brings her dog Sam (Riley's littermate).  Sam really was not thrilled with having a puppy around but now has accepted Stella as a family member.  I worried that there would be some jealousy because both dogs want to hang out/play with Riley but the three dogs get along great.  Stella is delighted to have another dog to bound after through the bushes on our walks but knows that Sam isn't as tolerant as Riley and respects his boundaries.

Lastly we have had a few walks recently with a good friend that has a dog-reactive dog.  Her dog has come a long way in the last year and loves Riley.  He has been the only dog in years that she has trusted to be walking off leash with hers.  She was worried her dog would go after Stella and that would prevent us from enjoying our walks together.  I am happy to report that we have now enjoyed two successful walks together where we heavily reinforced her dog's good choices and Stella showed great body language for the situation.   We start each walk with some parallel walking and then her dog stays on leash for the first 2/3 of the trail portion while Riley and Stella are off.  Each time Stella came close or her dog sniffed Stella we rewarded and praised.  The last 1/3 of the trail walk the leash was dropped and all went great and her dog even made some play gestures to Stella. We finished with more parallel walking.  We will continue that pattern for a while until we have a strong history and gradually introduce more managed freedoms.

It's been interesting to see the family "pack" gel together.  I'm sure we have lots more bumps in the road ahead as we move on from puppyhood into the teenage phases but I look forward to many adventures together.

Play with me!

Stella is a typical puppy who loves to play.  These past few weeks there has been a noticable change in the playing level between her and Riley.  Previously Riley has been willing to tug with her (and self handicaps to keep the game fun for her) but they haven't really played hard.  That was mainly about them having two different play styles.  Riley is a body slamming play hard style typical of a lab and Stella is more about zoom, zoom chasing play.  Now they seem to have worked out a happy medium and do lots of mouth sparring, with some wrestling and lots more zooming around.  Their body language is wonderful with lots of play bows, pauses, look-aways etc.  When they are outside they play bow,  Stella zooms,  Riley chases and eventually blocks her, she freezes and sometimes a mini wrestle and then they start back to the beginning.  My yard is looking a little worse for wear but it is fabulous to see them having fun.

Last night was again another learning lesson for Stella.  When she came inside from a pee she proceeded to pounce on Riley while he was soundly sleeping.  He reacted by grabbing her muzzle. It was an appropriate response but she was scared and surpised. Not a mark on her but she avoided him for the rest of the evening and has been very subdued in her approaches to him today.  He has been super tolerant of her grabbing his jowls and bugging him endlessly but I did figure that eventually he might teach her this lesson.  She will work through it and they will be fine but perhaps this will teach her to let sleeping dogs lie and to respect his boundaries a bit more.

Stella also cracks me up by her antics trying to get Fred to play with her.  Fred (cat) has gotten pretty comfortable with having her around so now hangs out with us quite a bit more.  She play bows to him and does lots of other doggie play language but it obvious by the look of disdain on Fred's face that he isn't interested.

We have had some gorgeous sunny cold weather this past week and have enjoyed some wonderful walks.  Here are a few pics from yesterday.  Stella looks so serious in her pictures which is odd to me because that doesn't really reflect her personality.

A Glimpse of Teenager

Stella will be six months old at the end of this month and I have noticed a few episodes of "I don't hear you" happening.   The world is quite interesting to her at the moment and she is asserting some independance.  Riley is much more playful with her these days so this is also an attraction for her.  Currently her favourite game on a walk is to try to steal something Riley wants and get him to chase her for it.  She is already faster than he is at the tight turns etc. but he still wins (for now) in a full out sprint.  Yesterday at puppy class she had moments where she worked very well for me but there were also more moments (when compared to past classes) when she was more interested in other happenings then she was in working.

It isn't something I am worried about but it is information that I need to notice and adjust for in training.  In all fairness to her an hour long training class is a long time for a puppy to concentrate.  I make sure to break up the training with some fun tugging or chase games but it is still a long time.  When we are out on walks and she is interested in something I need to make sure that I don't set her up for "failure" by asking for a recall that she won't want to do.  Instead I need to make sure I increase the reinforcement for good choices by using better treats and fun actions like chasing, tug etc.  which will increase her value for working with me.  I need to make sure I work short fun sessions in lots of different habitats so she understands that she needs to pay attention in all sorts of places. 

Riley also needs to get more work than I have been giving him these days as he has a tendancy to revert back to bratty teenage ways.  Working two dogs is a whole new set of challenges for me.  I did have Lucy with Riley but she was ten when he was a pup and easily satisfied with a few extra treats.  Riley would prefer to work so I need some creative ways to work that to my advantage.  More on that topic to come later.

Outgrowing her jacket but not quite big enough for the next sizes I have available.



Happy "Howl"oween

Little miss pumpkin

Stella .....Roar, does my costume look scary Riley?       Riley ...... ah no!

In case you are wondering Riley HATES to wear any clothing so dressing him up is not an option.  He does have a special halloween collar that I need to dig out before the trick or treaters show up tomorrow night.  I didn't plan for a costume for Stella but I walked by a 75% off sign and was hooked.

Halloween is also Stella's five month birthday.  She weighs in at 29.6 pounds today and the poor girl is deep in the process of teething.  Below see a pic of her current double set of some puppy teeth alongside the adult teeth.

and here is a flashback pic from our breeder which shows the little miss when she just past five weeks old.  What a cutie pie!

and just because I love him here is a blurry pic of Riley at around the age of five weeks.

Growing Up

Stella weighed in yesterday at 27 pounds at just over 19 weeks old.  She is losing teeth at a rapid rate with her adult teeth coming in nicely.  Tonight I was playing some tug with her and she stopped for a second, spit out a tooth and then came back for some more play.  We finished one set of puppy classes this week and I am very pleased with her behaviours.  Potty training is pretty much complete unless we are idiots.  She had one mistake last week during a rambunctious play session with Riley which was totally our fault as she had been sleeping quite a while and we hadn't taken her out.  I think that one surprised her as well as us and has been her only mistake in quite a long time.

Riley is getting much more interested in playing with her now.  Unfortunately for Stella that sometimes means he gets the zoomies with her and he isn't very careful and has run her over a few times.  Riley currently weighs in at 107 pounds so there is an 80 pound difference between them.  She is quickly learning to stay out of his way when he gets crazy :o).  They will work out a good play style that works for both of them over time.  I love to watch them tug because he could easily whip the toy from her but instead he self handicaps to keep the game going.  I think he will be in trouble in the future because she is getting faster every day and will be way more agile then he is.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Mani Pedi Time

I love a good spa day with a nice manicure and pedicure.  Unfortunately the dogs do not share my opinion with regards to having their nails trimmed.   I never really had a problem with Lucy because she was easily bought with treats.  She wasn't happy but tolerated it.  Riley has big thick black nails and he barely tolerated his nails being clipped.  A few years ago I switched to using the dremel and he is way more comfortable with that.  I combine the dremel with tasty treats and more importantly short tug games in between feet.  That really seems to work with him as it lets him reduce the stress before it causes him to resist. 

The first time I tried to clip Stella's nails she screamed bloody murder.  This was before I even got near the first nail!  She didn't even particularly like to have her feet touched.  Over the next few weeks we worked on touching her feet and rewarding and also tried randomly clip a toe but there was little improvement.  I then decided to switch to using the dremel and set about desensitizing her to the sound and vibrations.  We also began to work on her tolerating mild restraint with lots of rewards.  She was quite comfortable with both until I tried to move on to grinding her nails where she once again pitched a major fit.  Once I determined that she really wasn't scared (she would willingly take treats, would not hide etc.) I set about quietly waiting out the struggle (without letting her win) and rewarding when she became calm and then doing a short touch to the nail with the grinder before releasing.  I continued to do this every few days or so for the past few weeks and finally we are having good success this past week.  YEAH!!!!  The position that works best for us is to have Stella laying on hubby's legs on her back while he rubs her belly and feeds treats while I grind the nails.  Now when we finish she doesn't want to leave the position lol.  She still has a way to go before she will be one of those dogs that will sleep through a nail grinding session but I am super pleased with our progress.  We will continue to do this 2-3 times per week for now until she is indifferent to having it done.

Beaches and bath time

We had an absolutely stunning west coast day on the beach yesterday.  The dogs had lots of fun and we learned that Stella is gonna be one of those "roll on gross things" dogs.  Lucy was that way especially in her younger years but it has not been something that Riley has really enjoyed.  That is probably due to his fixation on the ball or frisbee.  Stella however was gleefully rolling in the sand and we were smiling like doting parents before it dawned on us that she might be doing something more then just enjoying the warm sand.  She was rolling on a dead animal carcass ... likely a seal.  The carcass was mainly just fur but it was enough to make her smell pretty bad. 

That adventure landed Stella her first bath when we returned back to the trailer.  That was the fastest bath I have ever given a dog.  With labradors there is a double coat and you must work to get the water all the way through to the skin and then lather and rinse.  Stella's coat was soooooo much easier so she was in and out in less than five minutes.  She was not thrilled and we had to wrap her up after to keep warm but she definately smelled much better!

Here are some pictures from our beach walking adventure.

Travelling Dogs

Our dogs go almost everywhere with us.  The majority of any time away includes them.  These trips provide fabulous socialization and as a result our dogs have learned to be comforable in most situations.  We camp in our travel trailer in the summer and in the winter we rent dog-friendly accomodations for any ski time or other visits.  This week marks the final camping trip of the year.  Our trailer "winters" on Vancouver Island with family who have a much larger area to park it so we generally wind up the season with a trip to Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  

Stella is already a seasoned car traveller.  Both dogs wear seatbelts in our vehicle which keeps all of us safe and she has already learned to travel quietly.  She does however sometimes get bored and has a few minutes with a "pawwwwty for one" which involves her making all sorts of strange noises, pawing at the seat and bouncing as much as she is able.  She then settles down to regular travel mode.  Considering she is only a 15 week puppy she does very well!

We spent last night with family and she slept very well in her collapsible crate.  This is a good step for her to learn to be crated in unfamiliar environments which will be great when we get to dog competitions later on.

So we are here in Tofino and managed to squeek in a shorter beach walk this afternoon when we arrived.   Stella was thrilled with so many things to pick up on the beach that I was willing to trade cookies to have her drop :o).  Riley just loves everything about the beach so he is in doggy heaven here.

Lots more beach adventures will follow this week.

Battle of the Bed

The rule in our house is that dogs are not allowed on the couch.  It is not that I have any great objection to the dogs being on the couch but Riley is just way to big and when Lucy was a pup we were told how bad it was to have your dog on the couch.  I now know that isn't true but the couch is also the cat's domain where they are able to cuddle with us so it doesn't really seem fair to have the new puppy hogging the prime lap positions. 

The first night Stella was home she came over to where I was sitting on the couch and put her feet up.  I then reached over to scratch her head and she pushed back on my hand for leverage and had climbed onto the couch so fast I didn't even figure out what she was doing until she was on my lap.  Since then the best way to buy a respite from puppy craziness was to allow her onto the couch where she would promptly snuggle down and go to sleep.  Now she has successfully managed to bounce her way unassisted a few times onto the couch so I decided it was time to addresss the issue. 

We have a large foam bed (can fit three dogs)and also a crate in this room but based on her desire to snuggle into something when she is sleeping I decided to buy a new bed.  The new bed is more of a basket style with sides.  She really wasn't all that interested in the bed for the first few days so I added an extra snuggly baby quilt and the bed is placed right next to where she normally would ask to come on the couch.  There was another dog bed there before that I did often treat her when she was sitting or sleeping on it so there is a small history of reinforcement for that area.  When she asks to come up onto the couch I would ignore her and look directly at her bed.  She kept trying but eventually she followed my gaze and went to her bed and lay down.  I heavily treated this behaviour. 

It has only been a few days but she has now mostly adopted her new bed as her "spot" and has only asked to come on the couch a few times today.  I continue to randomly reward her when she is on her bed. Both cats are pleased with this development and have made quick cuddle appearances this evening.

Our bed however is a full on cuddle zone for all animals.  The rule is if two humans are in bed then no dogs but once a side is vacated it is fair game.   That really is more a function of limited space as we often have two cats all night long.  Hubby works early in the morning and Riley generally hops up as soon as he gets up to shower.  Stella loves to have a morning snuggle (or lazy weekend afternoon snuggles) and when released from her crate she goes straight over to the side of the bed waiting to be lifted up.  Once on the bed she snuggles in for as long as I am willing to stay.  I laughed today when Riley was on the bed later in the day and Stella was jumping up at him and trying to get on the bed (it will be a while yet for that one).  Riley growled at her just like when he was a puppy and Lucy growled at him.  Lucy wouldn't let him choose to jump on the bed with her until he was about eight months old.  If I invite the pup then no problem but apparently dog house rules are that those special sharing priviledges need to be earned by puppies!

Mud Puppy

Stella's count for today .... damage one phone, kill one coaster, one mud puddle up to her neck and the award for best recall at puppy class.  It was a busy day for a puppy :o).

This morning she was sleeping so soundly I didn't bother to crate her while I ran upstairs and did a few things.  I came back downstairs to find the phone missing a portion of the antenna plastic and a coaster missing a few chunks.  Lesson learned, never count on a sleeping puppy to stay sleeping.

On our walk today Riley went through a big mud ditch and Stella watched from the sidelines.  He later got cleaned up in a stream and on the way back I put him on leash to prevent a repeat performance.  Stella obviously thought that she needed to try his adventure and did a cannonball leap from the trail (drop about 1.5 feet) into the mud.  I think she was pretty surprised that she ended up in mud up to her neck.  We then all had to turn around and head back to the stream where I managed to get enough mud off to let her back into the car.

Tonight was puppy class.  We are enrolled in two different puppy classes as I have some scheduling conflicts and will miss a bunch of our monday puppy classes this month.  I work with both these instructors with Riley and they both have great things to offer.  Tonight was our second class in our wednesday sessions.  The puppies (eight) got to socialize with each other with lots of happy recalls out of the group.  We also worked on a sphinx down, wait and got to do a mini dog walk (agility).  Stella did very well.  She has lots of focus and is quite comfortable in that group setting.  We had a competition at the end of class for the fastest restrained recall and she won!