The first full day she did a lot of sleeping. I confess that I was tired too so we took a nice long nap together while my husband took the girls to the pool. She does like to cuddle.
She has been good about doing potties outside. She is a 6 month old puppy so I'm not expecting perfection here but she' s been doing really, really good. I think she may have had one small #1 accident yesterday...otherwise she's been doing everything outside. I walk in the yard with her and I tell her "go potty" and she goes pretty quickly. I do work from home so I let her out every few hours.
She seems to be a pretty low-key girl. Although I say that..please understand that may change as she settles in more. But, so far I haven't really seen any "puppyish" behavior. No chewing and she wasn't interested in the toys I showed her. While I worked today she mostly stayed near me and slept. She may become more active as she settles and gets more comfortable.
She went on a walk yesterday and today and did well. She is understanding the leash now and is pretty good. She doesn't pull but does walk behind me sometimes. She did her potty on the walk this morning.
She does whine when she gets in the crate. But, it's a low whine and lasts about 10 minutes. Not bad. The storms last night didn't seem to bother her...nor did the fireworks we heard as we were walking. She did wake up a few times during the night last night and whine a little. But, went back to sleep. I think it's all still new to her and she might be waking up and unsure of where she is. I did let her out to go potty about 3am and she did go but the night before she made it all night without having to go.
As I've said before, I think many things are new for her. Being in a house, around a family, around new dogs, may all be new. I've noticed a few times that when she hears a person or a dog coming she will begin to bark. In my mind, I think it's a nervous bark...kind of like...something's coming and I'm unsure about it. The barking didn't bother Missy and Holly. It did bother Miles a little...I think he's thinking...what's she so nervous about...get her quiet. So, what I've been doing today is to start clicker training with her. The first step in clicker training is to get the dog to "target" your hand. Eventually, this will be used as part of come, etc. In this case, I want her to focus on me and not on what's making her nervous. I just started today and she's doing great. My trainer was here today with me and I showed her Olivia and she also agreed that Olivia was doing great. I have a video below that shows a bit of this. You can see she is focused and polite. Good girl. Let me say also..that her nervous barking has only been a few times. Nevertheless, I want to discourage it...so I'm trying to encourage a different behavior.
Like I said, she's a puppy and much of the world is new to her, I think. She is a little cautious about new people. She will eventually come say hello but it may take her a few minutes. My mom and her boyfriend came over today and it took a couple minutes. She was even a little cautious about my daughters (who came home just yesterday after a week at grandma's).
She is a lovely little girl who will be devoted to you once she gets to know you.
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| Leah and Olivia. Olivia a little cautious |
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| Getting better |
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| Even better |
You will have to click the link below for the video today. It is large and won't upload here. Forgive the "shakiness" of it. My 12 year old took the video and did not have a steady hand. Also, if you're a clicker purist please know that I am just learning clicker training myself. So, I'm not perfect. But, I'm getting there and so is she.
Thanks for reading and thanks for thinking rescue!