Keeper, Day 2

No idea how long I'll keep up the daily posts, but we'll see.

Just after midnight, she whined. I turned on the light, saw her sitting on the dog bed, and told her that I wasn't in the mood for a midnight potty run. Her response? That sad, lips back "smile" and a *gurk* that means vomiting is about to commence.

I fairly levitated out of bed to try to rush her past all the carpeted places to the back door. She paused about halfway there, diverting to puke on the hardwood, then did the rest out in the yard. Cleanup was surprisingly easy.

She wasn't too interested in breakfast, so I don't know if the new food, new water, or a stray bit of post-nasal drip got her. Gave her some pro-biotics, in case it was something they would fix. She's showing more interest in food (and playing with Sunny) as the day goes on, so I hope whatever it was is a passing problem. The food we've got her on now has a little less fat and a touch more protein than the Kirkland they were feeding, so her system should adjust soon, if that was the cause.

Donna from garden club came over to do some paperwork with us. I had stepped out into the garage to put out some recycling (Duncan was carrying the cardboard for me) and Keeper bulldozed her way through the door before it latched. Things Setters can't do that a BMD can do, lesson #1. The garage door was open about 12 or 18 inches, but I didn't think it was a problem... until I heard her tail hit the metal. Would not have thought she'd shimmy out like that....

Called her, stuffing things in bags as fast as I could. She came back and looked under the door like "Hi, why ya still in there?" Then I heard Donna's car on the driveway, and Keeper was gone. I hit the door open button, and Duncan joined the welcome wagon. Donna was very, very glad the large, strange dog was friendly. I didn't mean to spring mondo puppy on her like that. People hear "puppy" and don't think 24 inch fluffball.

Got the big dogs to head back inside, and then Twist came, bounced around and stuck her nose where it doesn't belong. The 10 month old has better manners than Dad's 3 year old. *sigh*

We got paperwork done, and Donna loved on lunker puppy for a while. Keeper, of course, thought this "go say hi" stuff was wonderful.

The new ceiling fan went up, and she's been fine with the ladder, mildly curious about a person standing on the ladder, fine with the fixture being carried around and the drill sounds.

I had hoped to get her to the strip mall this evening, but interrupted sleep means I'm tired and a little sore and not so interested in going out myself.

She and Duncan are sharing everything but my bed (I refuse to have that much dog in a twin, so I have scolded Keeper any time she puts a paw up.) She even crawled up with him on my loveseat last night. He wasn't too fond of it, but he let her, and they seem to be taking turns cycling from dog bed to loveseat to carpeted floor.

Keeper, Day 1

Keeper hasn't been here even a full day, and she's already settled in very well. She let me sleep through the night, woke me around 6 am because she had to pee (she's used to being up at 5 or 5:30am), went out to the yard, did what needed doing, chased Sunny around in the nice cool air, then we went back inside and I conked for a few more hours- and she let me! Because I'm a pushy asshole, I moved her food bowl during breakfast, and got a "noooo" pitiful look and that was it.

She didn't mind Dad bringing in the 10 foot ladder, didn't even stick around to watch. She followed me into the kitchen, so she didn't see the ceiling fan come down. Came around the corner, saw it sitting on the ground, and walked up to sniff one of the fan blades, all casual like.

There's been a couple moments of perimeter checking where it looks like she's trying to find her people, but overall, she seems content.

The thing that's annoyed her most is wearing a collar. She whines and scratches at it like any puppy wearing one for the first time.

Did our first work with a clicker. I'm using about halfway between Sue Ailsby's Zen and Susan Garrett's "It's yer choice". Keeper's got such a soft mouth that while she was desperate to get to the Natural Balance roll bits in my hand, she never so much as pinched me hard with her teeth. By the end of the session, she was making eye contact with food open in my hand less than a foot from her nose.

I keep trying to lure a sit, and it's not happening. This may be the first dog where I shape a sit. She's soft, but she recovers well. Like I stumbled and kind of half fell into her, and she looked mortified, until I pet her and praised her. Repeat a few times, and she's standing there letting me gently bump into her with my knees. We'll work it up so she eventually can handle my usual level of grace.

She's choosing to lay near me, head on my foot. I keep working on her in short bursts, trying to get the underfluff off of her. I don't know if I'll ever completely teach her to keep her mouth off of me, but while she slimes me, it isn't stringers.

She's not sure cucumbers are food, but green beans and sweet potato totally are. Bell pepper is not (Duncan is very grateful for all her rejects). She's not used to looking for food on the floor. If I didn't need retrieving work, I'd work to keep that obliviousness. As it is, teaching her to look down and scan her environment is part of the rewards in the clicker work.

It's really hard to tell how smart she is, she's mentally passive, like she's never been asked to work out problems for herself. I think she's plenty smart, it'll just take a while for her to catch on to thinking for herself, and what that clicker noise means, anyway. She's not disturbed or put off by it, it just doesn't mean anything to her yet.

I'm so pleased with her.

Pickup Day

Knew I was at the right place for all the Berner statues.

Big tricolor dog, laying down and grinning at the camera.

Signed the contract, paid, moved several barn kittens out of the way, and left. She's doing well with the Setters, the new home, the new people... she wasn't sure of herself for a couple hours (it's hard to make sense of Twist running up, cutting her off, then flopping over. "No! No! I have to be submissive. STOP WALKING AWAY FROM ME!") She's played chase with Sunny already. She's not sure about the dance-on-the-head Sunny does, but she's not bothered at all by Duncan trying to play bump-and-grrr. She's big enough he barely bumps her off course.

She whined a tiny bit about being in an ex-pen instead of loose in the room, but seems to have zonked out now that she's sure Duncan and I are here for the night. This is so much easier than Strider.

Ocho is content with her. She backs off when he growls. Sunny thinks she's awesome, Twist is trying to make sure everyone knows she's not boss, which is confusing the hell out of the puppy. Duncan was pretty much "You brought home another dog? And you want me to be nice to it? Fine. Lemme finish peeing on ALL THE THINGS, and then we'll talk. Oh, and I'm going to go crap on the property line, just to be sure I've marked everything." He even tried to pee on her tail! Jerk-face missed, thankfully.

So much coat. Such huge feet. I'm going to need a bigger dog bed for her. She's really fond of coming up between my knees and putting her head in my cleavage. I need to decide if I want to keep that on cue or just knock it off soon here.

She ate dinner fine, and seems interested in food. She's got play/herding drive- she doesn't want to play bump and tackle, she wants to chase.

She greeted everyone but Ocho outside, walked in, inspected the place, I had to hold the dog door for her twice, and then she's been worming her way into the pack like she belongs here. She's been awake here less than four hours. She's being AMAZING.

Tomorrow I plan to start introducing her to the clicker. And I need to come up with a name. They called her Kiara (Key-are-ah), and I can never remember 3 syllable names, so I'm planning to switch her to Keeper or Kiki, since she's aware of and responsive to the "Key" sound.

Meet-n-Greet

I got a call from a Bernese Mountain Dog breeder (Networking recap: Lady in Garden Club saw my obedience jumps for Duncan, we talked dogs, she had Shelties, she knew a man with a Sheltie and a BMD, I called him, the breed and breeder sounded like a great fit, so I emailed and filled out a questionnaire some weeks back). Cue some of the most frustrating minutes of my life as our land line to land line connection kept breaking up and cutting off as she was describing her dogs.


She talked about two dogs, Watcher http://lionheartbernese.com/Watchers_page.html and Kiara http://lionheartbernese.com/Kiaras_page.html. Watcher's already got his championship, but he lacks a little confidence. When he's unsure he hides behind her legs. If I didn't have my issues, I'd be willing to take him on, but given my issues, it didn't sound like a good fit, so I didn't pursue him.

Kiara, on the other hand, is a confident, smart, people oriented girl. Went and saw her this morning. Friendly, sweet, a little smaller than Duncan (and she's only 10 months old at this point), likes to play with/herd the cat, but seems aware enough of her own size not to harm small things. Hung out for about an hour, watching her interact with a cat, two kittens, a pink cockatoo, a preteen, a teen, and a couple of people walking into the business to pick up their dogs.

About the only thing I can think of to say against her is she's not a fetch head, and she's fluffy. I don't think I'll ever be fond of Berner coat fluff, but if that's my biggest hangup, that's hardly an issue.

Plan is to sign the contract and a check and bring her home on Friday. I don't want to bring her home only to leave for work the next morning. So, Friday afternoon. 3 days. OMG.

I desperately need to clean my room. We don't have a crate big enough for her, so she'll be in a tall x-pen.

I hope, hope, hope this works out.