Wrong side of the fence

I went grocery shopping this morning and left Wesha at home with Reto. He told me that Wesha was in the garden, when suddenly he heard her bark in a panicky way. When he went outside to see what was going on, he found Wesha on the wrong side of the fence!

A small part of our garden ends in a little hill that then becomes our neighbour's garden. But this hill is small and very steep on one of the sides. Wesha had apparently jumped the fence and then she found herself on the steep part of the hill and no way to get back into our garden again! Naughty little lady!
I sure hope she doesn't make a habit of jumping the fence there, though!

Wesha's coat is slowly changing. The hair on her back is no longer the soft puppy hair, it is a bit tougher. It is also a bit darker. I like that. It is hard to see on pictures, but she has a darker stripe on her back now.

Pic from earlier this afternoon:

Herbstfest

It went really well this afternoon. It was very busy in Benken en also pretty loud (information coming through loudspeakers, bands playing music, kids screaming etc.) With little pieces of Frolic in my hand, I could keep Wesha focused on me and we walked through the big crowd for about 5 minutes without any problems.

After about 5 minutes, I stood a bit to the side of the street with Wesha. I stepped on her leash and she sat down and looked up at me. People, people in wheelchairs, children, dogs and even a little steam train came past and Wesha never flinched or got nervous. I gave her pieces of Frolic every now and then and that was enough to keep her calm and focused on me for about 10-15 minutes. In that time, Reto and the kids found us a place to eat. Reto came to get us and we walked another 5 minutes through the crowds.

At the make-shift restaurant, I sat down and stepped on Wesha's leash again. She laid down under the table and I gave her something to chew on. She chewed until it was soft and then swallowed the whole thing... that went a bit faster than I had hoped. When we got our food, she was already done. She was a bit restless under the table and even barked once or twice, but I didn't give her enough leash to move around.

As soon as I had finished my food, I walked back to the car with Wesha. It was funny, because she was so focused on me, that she didn't even notice another dog that we passed, until it was sniffing her bottom! LOL! When we came to the car, I gave Wesha some water and then I let her rest in the shade next to the car. We waited until Reto and the kids came too. They finished their food and walked around a bit on the fair before they came to the car.

Wesha had a good sleep when we came home!

And once again... I am very very proud of her.

Four months old

Today, Wesha is already 4 months old!

She is beautiful and I am so in love with her! (As you can see in this pic)



Yesterday, while Tina had her riding class, I took Wesha for a walk first and then I took her into a restaurant for the first time. This restaurant (a "Beiz") is in a very small village and it is quite simple. The kind of place where the farmers come to chat with each other. (There were farmers there yesterday too, they were discussing the Miss Switzerland election, that would be on television in the evening.)
When we walked in, there were only 2 farmers. I took a seat and Wesha laid down next to my chair. She was very good and she hardly took her eyes off me. I gave her some goodies to praise her. When I heard more people coming in, I also gave her some goodies, so that she wouldn't get up and greet them (we were sitting right next to the door). And it worked nicely. She never made a sound, and she didn't move around, but stayed put perfectly. After about 10-15 minutes, we left again. I was very proud of Wesha!

Today, we will take her to the "Herbstfest" (a kind of harvest fair). There she will see a crowd for the first time. I am curious how she will react. We might only be there for a couple of minutes, depending on how Wesha does. But I also bring something to chew for her, in case she does well and we can eat something at the "Herbstfest".

Playing with Iggy again

Wesha and Iggy had a very good time together again today. This video was made during their first round of playing:



And these pics too:




After a while, we forced to doggies to rest:



This clip is from the second round of playing. We just had to laugh at the sounds that Wesha makes while playing!

Taping

We finally taped Wesha's ear yesterday. The ears had been better for a while, but yesterday, the right ear was folded all day long. So we decided to do something about it. It was very hard to tape it, because Wesha wouldn't hold still (didn't expect anything else, of course!). But we managed and this is what Wesha looked like:


To distract Wesha, we went for a walk immediately after we taped the ear. During the walk, she sometimes had to stop to scratch and she tried to get rid of the tape by dragging her head through the grass. But it stayed on and I was hopeful. But later in the afternoon, it had shifted. The tape was behind the left ear and it looked as if it wasn't doing any good anymore. So I took it away again. It was no problem to get it off, since it was a skin friendly tape that I had gotten from our vet.

The ear was folded again this morning. I am not sure whether we are going to try again or whether we are going to give up on this ear. To be continued...

Piccies

Room for improvement

And then there are a few areas where there is some room for improvement:

Watchdog:
Wesha is quite the watchdog. When she is indoors, but sitting in front of the window, she barks at anything that moves outside. When she is in the garden, this is less. But she still often barks and sometimes even runs along with people/bicycles/cars/dogs that pass our garden.
Her bench is in front of the window and when I put her in her bench to eat or when I have to leave her alone for a short while, I always close the curtains.


Digging:
Wesha just loves to dig holes in our garden. At the moment, I hardly let her in the garden alone, because I don't want her to dig. But I also feel that I cannot always keep her busy when she is in the garden.


Jumping up at people:
Wesha still jumps up at anyone she meets. I feel it is the hardest thing to teach her to stay with her four paws on the ground. Especially because most people give her lots of attention when she jumps up at them.

Biting:
Although she is biting on our hands a lot less, Wesha will still do so when we give her the opportunity. Our clothes are also not safe from her teeth. And she bites/chews her toys so hard, that they are all falling apart after a short while.
(Wesha got this great duck from Angi and Steve)


So we just keep working on these issues. I am confident that Wesha will continue to learn what is and what isn't desired behaviour.

Proud

Wesha is doing so well, that I have to write a blog entry about it.

The Couch:
She hardly ever jumps on the couch anymore. That is really a relief. We can finally relax, sleep on the couch and watch television in peace again. When someone is sleeping on the couch, Wesha often sleeps underneath:



The Mornings:
Wesha is really calm and quiet in the mornings. When we wake up, we let her out in the garden to do her "business". She comes back in and since we are usually busy with breakfast, showering, getting dressed and ready for school, reading the newspaper, Wesha goes back to sleep again until one of us (Reto or me) take her out for her morning walk. We feed her after that first walk.

The Meals:
Wesha is so well behaved when it comes to eating! In the morning, we feed her from hand and she is patient and sits while we do so. For lunch, I make her a meat/vegetable mix. I "serve" this in her bowl. Wesha has to sit before I put down the bowl. And she has to remain like that until I allow her to start eating. This is also going VERY well! The last meal of the day is a meaty bone, that I give to her in the bench.

The Walks:
Wesha is doing very well when walking on the leash too. I am really proud of her. She hardly ever pulls anymore, she often walks next to me and looks up at me. I trained the "look" command from the very beginning with her and it is paying off. No matter what happens around us (other people, dogs, bicycles, cars), she will walk next to me and look up at me. And she can do this for long periods already. Fantastic concentration! You might have seen this pic of last Wednesday:


Waiting:
In our puppy course, we learned to stand on the leash and leave our dogs very little room to move around when we are talking to someone or when we have to wait for a while. Wesha found this very hard in the beginning. She would whimper and move around and pull the leash etc. But now, she very quickly sits or lays down and is calm and patient.
Waiting in the car is also going fine. Yesterday, Tina had her riding class and after a walk, I put Wesha in her transport box in the car and I took my seat in the front. We had to wait for an hour and she was quiet all the time!

So... as you will understand, I am very proud of Wesha!

Another Vet visit

I had to take Wesha to the vet again today. We had an appointment for one of her immunisations. Wesha never notices that she gets an injection, because the assistants distract her with Frolic. And when Wesha gets Frolic, the rest of the world seems to disappear for her!

The vet checked her teeth (lots of new ones), ears (clean) and listenend to her heart (fine). She was also weighed. Wesha now weighs 9.2kg/20.2lbs (at 16 weeks and 2 days).

She has a little rash. The vet said that it is a very common rash among puppies/young dogs(forgot the name, but it would be in German anyway) and that apart from putting some antiseptic cream (I will use an Aloe-Vera cream) on it, we didn't have to treat it. (Unless it gets worse, of course.)Funny thing is, that Weta had it too!

The visit was over before we knew it and Wesha didn't "do" anything in the waiting - and/or treatment room! YAY! That was an improvement!

Sisters II

Sisters

Angi, Steve and Weta came to visit us today. It was so much fun to see the two sisters together! They are so different. Weta is a lot darker than Wesha, her fur is very different too. Her head smaller, her eyes a bit darker etc. And yet, they often have the same expression on their faces. The characters differ as well. Weta is calmer than Wesha. (It took Wesha far longer to calm down and fall asleep during the "breaks" we created for them.)

Angi and Steve arrived here around 10.15 and they left around 15.30. We had such a good time. Chatting about our puppies (we won't be able to use this word much longer. They are already 16 weeks old today!) all day long. Exchanging experiences. It was so nice! And when Wesha and Weta were awake, we just didn't have enough eyes to see all that was going on, LOL!

I have tons and tons of pictures. These 3 are just a little taste. I will post more of them tomorrow. Angi and Steve's pictures and video clips are already up on their website. Please have a look HERE.

Angi, Steve and Weta


The sisters during our walk


Trying to get them to pose

Teething

We knew that Wesha was teething. But a couple of days ago, I inspected her teeth and she was missing all front teeth! In upper and lower jaw! It looked so funny. Yesterday I checked again and the front teeth had broken through the gums. She also has a very high chew need. She even chews on the special toys that I bought for her. She didn't really like those toys before.

Wesha is becoming more beautiful by the day. This is a pic from our morning walk today:

Puppy course 2 & chasing a cat

This morning, I took Wesha to the puppy play group for the second time. We started in the group of medium- to big sized puppies and this time we could stay. Wesha seemed much more at ease than last time. She played and ran around with the other puppies. Sometimes she was a bit impressed, but she always returned to play.

The exercises went really well too (easy, because Wesha would do anything for food, LOL!) and even the waiting went a lot better. Most of the time she was sitting patiently, looking up at me to see if I would reward her for being so good. So I did reward her every now and then and told her often how good she was doing.

Officially, we would "promote" to the young dog course next week Sunday. But I asked if we could stay in the puppy group for another week (or maybe 2), because Wesha has only attended the course twice so far. That was no problem and I am looking forward to next week.


Later this afternoon, Reto and I went for a walk with Wesha. As we walked out of the village, into the fields, we had her off the leash. After the last house, Wesha disappeared into a field. We walked on, as she always comes running after us after a while. But suddenly we saw a cat flying out of the field, onto the path and Wesha right after it! I called her and made a funny sound, that she usually listens to. But she didn't come, they ran in the opposite direction, away from us and then into the garden of the last house, where that cat lives (it belongs to a boy that goes to school with Tina). I suspect it went inside through a cat flap. Because when I called Wesha a second time (I couldn't see her at that moment), she came running to us. She is incredibly fast!! I praised her for coming to me and gave her a couple of goodies. We didn't put her on the leash, but just continued our walk. Wesha seeemed to have forgotten the cat and came with us without any problems.

What I have learned from this is that I should stay a bit closer to Wesha when she is off the leash. Because if we would have been closer, I think that I might have gotten her attention quicker. She seems to have pretty strong hunting instincts. (Usually, I keep on walking when she starts sniffing around, because she should keep her one eye on me and run to me when I keep on walking. This incident has made me see that it would be handy to stay closer to Wesha, though)

More eye candy

Ooohhh... I have a little itch!

Wesha helping Reto to make the little fence stronger by placing new wooden posts

She is sooooo sweet when she is asleep

If Wesha needs some TLC ... one of the kids is always willing to give it to her

Action in the garden

To Tape or Not To Tape

As you can see on the above pic, Wesha seems to develop a folded ear. This is not a health problem at all, but it is not the way it should be. And I do not find it attractive. So I have been trying to get as much information as possible to see what we can do about it. Apparently, these ears start to fold when pups start teething. It has been said to disappear again after teething, but this doesn't seem to happen very often. Once the cartilage is firming, the ear will remain folded. So if you want to do something about it, you should do it while the dog is still young.

The options are:
- do nothing, hope that it will disappear again by itself
- do nothing and try to find the folded ear cute
- tape the ears for about 2 weeks (and repeat if necessary)
- glue a piece of cardboard in the ear so that it stays in the correct position

Oh and according to my vet:
- give Wesha the double amount of "Canosan" (a supplement for building strong ligaments and cartilage)

For days we have been discussing these options. We don't like the cardboard option. So we might do either nothing or tape the ear. And we will give Wesha the double dose of Canosan (although I doubt that will help).

It is so hard to take decisions like this. I don't want to cause Wesha any discomfort. And at the same time I don't want her to have a folded ear. I got some skin-friendly tape from the vet, just in case.

Wesha meets Dilo

We went to my MIL this afternoon and there was another dog visiting there. It is poodle "Dilo" about 8 months old. Wesha was a bit impressed during the first play session. We put the dogs apart for a while to let them rest and during the second play session, Wesha was not impressed at all anymore. Dilo even ran inside to hide from her, LOL!



This was a first for Wesha... When she is playing with Iggy, SHE is usually riding Iggy.

Let me sniff yours, while you are sniffing mine

Looks almost like a hug


The only pic of Viva and Wesha. Viva still doesn't like Wesha much and my MIL kept Viva away from the young Dilo and Wesha for most of the time.

Tired after the first round of playing:



Looking very happy