The pups from the Cartoon Litter (Tess/Rush) have all gone to their new homes except for one special pup who has wiggled her way into our family. Ms Wilma whom we now call Trinity is now part of the Pine Springs Pack. Yes, that makes 7 dogs at our house !
She is a sweet puppy with a lot of energy and a little bit of naughty, but she is fitting in nicely. The other pack members seem to be getting use to her and though they occasionally accidently on purpose sit on her, squish her or knock her down there is no real malice in it. I consider this an adjustment period and once everyone reclaims their status they will stop picking on her. Things have mostly settled down this week because Cameo has decided that she likes her and doesn't need to tell her off every second. You know what they say about nana's, once you're the favorite you're a shoe in !!! Since Cameo is the fearless leader of the Pine Springs Pack once she says a new member is good, she's good and you better not argue ! All the rest follow her lead.
Housebreaking is going really well, no accidents in the house so far and only 1 in the crate which was our fault. There was a miscommunication between children and each thought the other had let her out. Thanks to the boys this has been the easiest puppy to housebreak. Mark gets up at the crack of dawn and his job is to walk the dogs, so we can thank him for saving us from that brutal cold early morning trip. The last walk is usually around midnight or after so she is now holding it 5 or 6 hours. She's been a quick study so far. During the day she is getting the hang of going on cue and mostly goes right away when we let her out. We've named it "hurry, hurry" and she's really starting to get it. This is a bit labor intensive at first but she's getting good at it which means by the time it snows I'll be able to just open the door, let her out, tell her to go and let her back in. No more standing outside and freezing ! Raising 7 puppies in 7 years I'm getting good at finding short cuts and making life easier.
Trinity has had 3 trips to Maine and she is really settling in to traveling in the car. We drive a Honda Odyssey and everyone has their own spot. The dogs each have a tie down so that if we stop short no one goes flying. Right now Trinity's spot is on the back seat between Bode and Mark. She seems to like her spot although she does take advantage of Mark when he falls asleep. On one of our trips I looked back to see that she was using him as a step stool to get a better look out the window. She had a big puppy smile on her face and was having the time of her life while Mark snored on ! She also is learning to leave him alone if he has a snack while we are driving, this is tough on her since she is tethered right next to him but Mark is a good trainer and she is a smart pup so she's getting it !
We've started taking her to the woods to walk and run off leash and she is getting the hang of exploring without wandering too far away. She's learning to come to a whistle and checks in with us often. It helps to take along an adult dog or two because she learns to stay with us and copy her pack mates who all have excellent recalls.
On one of our woods walks she even got to swim for the first time. She surprised herself and fell in while in pursuit of Cameo but she ended up liking it after the initial shock wore off and she got the paddle down. Luckily it was a warm day and she wasn't too cold afterwards.
The kids were excited to take her to the stream where we have spent many hours messing around and playing. She loved watching them float sticks, dig leaves and make dams. The water here is shallow but very cold which didn't faze her at all. The adult dogs played tag and raced eachother through the woods and seemed to like having a new kid to show the ropes to. It was comical watching her in hot pursuit, ears flying, little legs pumping to keep up with them. She was one tired pup by the end of our walk.
This week was highlighted by two excellent adventures. The first was a trip to Singing Beach in Manchester,Ma. The surf was wild on the day we went and she got her first dose of ocean waves chasing her which only scared her for a minute. She met quite a few dogs, many of which were toy breeds which was a great experience for her. Many puppies assume small dogs are also puppies and they make alot of mistakes when they attempt to interact with them. It's comical to watch their faces when the little dogs tell them off, the look of bewilderment is priceless. It's an important lesson for a pup to learn though, little dogs hate to be tackled and rolled around and the sooner they learn that the nicer their interactions will be. Trinity learned this quite well that day !
The second adventure was a trip into Boston and a walk around Faneuil Hall. The kids loved showing her all their favorite spots and she got tons upon tons of attention from the hundreds of people milling about. She was fascinated by the pigeons who refused to be impressed by her stalking them. Like well seasoned city dwellers they just ignored her unwanted attention. The traffic, busy sidewalks, noise, smells and general city chaos tired our pup out within an hour and she slept for quite a bit after her adventure. She even learned to use her "hurry, hurry" cue on pavement, an enormous accomplishment to say the least.
Well as they say "a tired pup is a good pup" and I think we are definitely accomplishing that goal. Off to have more adventures...stay tuned !!
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