Being pretty
Playing with Farah
Exploring the scary lawn mower
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Monday, 8 September 2008
Safe
We have spiral stairs in our house. When Wesha moved in with us, we boarded it off with a large piece of cardboard. However, this wasn't holding up too well lately. Whenever someone came back to ground level, Wesha would jump against the carton and the whole situation just wasn't safe anymore. Today, the carpenter installed these beautiful gates.
I am very happy, because finally, I can walk upstairs or downstairs without having to put Wesha in her bench or having to worry about Wesha coming after me. And it looks so much nicer than having a piece of cardboard in the living room!
I am very happy, because finally, I can walk upstairs or downstairs without having to put Wesha in her bench or having to worry about Wesha coming after me. And it looks so much nicer than having a piece of cardboard in the living room!
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Puppy course
So... finally, this morning we went to the puppy play course with Wesha. Reto and the kids came too.
There were two groups of puppies. One group with puppies of small sized breeds and the other group with puppies of medium/large sized breeds. We were in the second group with Wesha. But during the first play session, Wesha got very scared. A Berner Sennendog wanted to play, Wesha got scared and ran off, the Berner Sennendog chased her. So we interrupted the play and took Wesha to the other group. I was really surprised that Wesha got scared so quickly, because when she plays with Iggy, she is very ehm... pushy and sure of herself. I think Iggy is so sweet, almost a bit too sweet. He is very submissive and Wesha very dominant when they are playing.
Anyway, I carried Wesha to the other group. She was really very scared, because she tried to climb onto my shoulders. That is a sure sign for her being scared. In the other group there were only 2 dogs of similar size as Wesha. The others were tiny. (Jack Russell Terrier, Westy, and some breeds that I didn't recognise.) One of them was so small, it could hardly walk on the long grass. Cute to see.
Even with the small dogs, she was pretty timid now. The dogs were allowed to play twice for a few minutes. Wesha was often distracted by nice smells and so didn't even play with other puppies that much. She was sniffing here and there. She was also distracted by people with goodies in their hands or pockets. She sniffed them and sometimes jumped up to them. But the people didn't pay her any attention (as instructed) and then she went off again. She tried to play with a really small dog once, but it ran off and she went after it and then lost interest. Towards the end, she played a bit with a Border Collie (BC). This went really well, because the BC was also very timid. So they invited each other to play, danced around a little and hardly engaged in a physical way at all.
In between the play times, we did some exercises. One was holding the pup to calm it. That was a very tough exercise for us, because Wesha tends to struggle and not go calm. One of the teachers told me to increase the pressure and wait until she was quiet before putting her on the ground and putting on her leash. And after a while, Wesha did relax a little. But in the beginning it was hard to hold her!
Then the teachers explained a few things and we had to stand on the leash, to give the pup no room to go anywhere. Wesha was very nervous and kept whimpering, trying to go to other dogs, barking, sniffing around etc. As soon as she was sitting quietly, I gave her goodies. And at the end of the lesson, this worked well. I think she was also tired, but at least she wasn't so nervous anymore.
We did an exercise where someone else held our pup, we had to hold a goodie in our hand, let Wesha sniff it, run away and keep her attention (making silly noises), then stop and squad down, then call Wesha. The other person let go of Wesha and she ran to me. I praised her, fed her the goodies and put her on her leash again. That exercise went really well. Wesha will do anything for food. That does make training a lot easier.
We also had to practise toweling the dog without the dog seeing the towel as a toy. This worked surprisingly well with Wesha. At home, she usually immediately bites the towel. But then I never give her goodies and now I was feeding her goodies with one hand and patting her dry (not allowed to rubble, because it just pushed the water closer to the skin) with the other hand. Having said that: Wesha wasn't wet, except her paws, LOL!
When we got home, I was surprised that Wesha didn't fall asleep immediately. She was a bit restless and started to bother Reto, who was stetched out on the sofa. She wanted in the garden, but didn't stay there very long. After a while she gave up and fell asleep. And she is still asleep now:
There were two groups of puppies. One group with puppies of small sized breeds and the other group with puppies of medium/large sized breeds. We were in the second group with Wesha. But during the first play session, Wesha got very scared. A Berner Sennendog wanted to play, Wesha got scared and ran off, the Berner Sennendog chased her. So we interrupted the play and took Wesha to the other group. I was really surprised that Wesha got scared so quickly, because when she plays with Iggy, she is very ehm... pushy and sure of herself. I think Iggy is so sweet, almost a bit too sweet. He is very submissive and Wesha very dominant when they are playing.
Anyway, I carried Wesha to the other group. She was really very scared, because she tried to climb onto my shoulders. That is a sure sign for her being scared. In the other group there were only 2 dogs of similar size as Wesha. The others were tiny. (Jack Russell Terrier, Westy, and some breeds that I didn't recognise.) One of them was so small, it could hardly walk on the long grass. Cute to see.
Even with the small dogs, she was pretty timid now. The dogs were allowed to play twice for a few minutes. Wesha was often distracted by nice smells and so didn't even play with other puppies that much. She was sniffing here and there. She was also distracted by people with goodies in their hands or pockets. She sniffed them and sometimes jumped up to them. But the people didn't pay her any attention (as instructed) and then she went off again. She tried to play with a really small dog once, but it ran off and she went after it and then lost interest. Towards the end, she played a bit with a Border Collie (BC). This went really well, because the BC was also very timid. So they invited each other to play, danced around a little and hardly engaged in a physical way at all.
In between the play times, we did some exercises. One was holding the pup to calm it. That was a very tough exercise for us, because Wesha tends to struggle and not go calm. One of the teachers told me to increase the pressure and wait until she was quiet before putting her on the ground and putting on her leash. And after a while, Wesha did relax a little. But in the beginning it was hard to hold her!
Then the teachers explained a few things and we had to stand on the leash, to give the pup no room to go anywhere. Wesha was very nervous and kept whimpering, trying to go to other dogs, barking, sniffing around etc. As soon as she was sitting quietly, I gave her goodies. And at the end of the lesson, this worked well. I think she was also tired, but at least she wasn't so nervous anymore.
We did an exercise where someone else held our pup, we had to hold a goodie in our hand, let Wesha sniff it, run away and keep her attention (making silly noises), then stop and squad down, then call Wesha. The other person let go of Wesha and she ran to me. I praised her, fed her the goodies and put her on her leash again. That exercise went really well. Wesha will do anything for food. That does make training a lot easier.
We also had to practise toweling the dog without the dog seeing the towel as a toy. This worked surprisingly well with Wesha. At home, she usually immediately bites the towel. But then I never give her goodies and now I was feeding her goodies with one hand and patting her dry (not allowed to rubble, because it just pushed the water closer to the skin) with the other hand. Having said that: Wesha wasn't wet, except her paws, LOL!
When we got home, I was surprised that Wesha didn't fall asleep immediately. She was a bit restless and started to bother Reto, who was stetched out on the sofa. She wanted in the garden, but didn't stay there very long. After a while she gave up and fell asleep. And she is still asleep now:
Friday, 5 September 2008
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Size
Does size matter? Well no, but it is just interesting to know how tall (high) Wesha is. I haven't measured her yet. However, yesterday I saw that her back is higher than our salon table now. (The same table that she walked easily underneath when she arrived here!) So I measured the height of our salon table. It is 35cm (13.8 inches) high!
Nicole already said that Wesha would probably get long legs... well... she is right!
Wesha pretending she is a rabbit:
I tried to get a picture where you can see her long legs:
Fav toy at the moment:
Nicole already said that Wesha would probably get long legs... well... she is right!
Wesha pretending she is a rabbit:
I tried to get a picture where you can see her long legs:
Fav toy at the moment:
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
A small reunion
We are planning a small reunion for Wesha, with her sister Weta. I have been in touch with Angi, her owner, since mid July. We mailed back and forth and now we are setting a date to get together. I am very excited about it. I wonder whether Wesha and Weta will recognise each other? Do pups remember their siblings?
Sunday, 31 August 2008
First swim
Wesha had her first real swim today. It wasn't quite voluntary... LOL! We went for a walk along the Rhine and Wesha smelled something that was very interesting in the scrub that grows down to the water. There was like a little stone wall down to the water, so no easy way to get in. She just put her front paws over and smelled and smelled and then she fell into the Rhine!
She didn't give a sound, she just frantically started to swim (luckily it was at a spot where there isn't a strong current!!) and climbed back on dry land herself. Reto already had his shoes off, ready to jump in, but it wasn't necessary.
We just laughed (partly from relief). It all happened too fast to take any pics. But when she was back on dry land, I HAD to take a pic. All wet, Wesha looked like an underfed stray dog:
She didn't give a sound, she just frantically started to swim (luckily it was at a spot where there isn't a strong current!!) and climbed back on dry land herself. Reto already had his shoes off, ready to jump in, but it wasn't necessary.
We just laughed (partly from relief). It all happened too fast to take any pics. But when she was back on dry land, I HAD to take a pic. All wet, Wesha looked like an underfed stray dog:
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