Sit Jilly!

Today I worked on "sit" with Jilly. I would hold a treat in front of her and move it back toward her head and she would beg and then finally sit. I would say sit as I did it and she did really well. I think she just thinks she has to sit to get a treat, not sit when I say "sit", but that's ok. We only did it about 10 times. She really wanted her treats because she refused to settle down and eat her breakfast this morning. She used her litterbox last night and she peed outside this morning, which was very good. After she went outside she got to play in the drain water next to the house and go for a walk around the yard. She's already doing a lot better with coming back to the house with us, on her own feet. She made it as far as putting her front feet up on the ledge leading into the house this morning.

Kitty has been growling at her more today, probably because of the whining last night, lol. She didn't whine for very long after we went to bed though. She whined some this morning, but since we're leaving her in the living room it wasn't very loud and she got tired of it quickly. She's passed out on the couch right now, having a nap. Kitty jumped up on the couch next to her and sniffed her feet, Kitty is now sleeping on top of the couch, right above Jilly. Elphie went in and examined Jilly's pen again.

Jilly has been learning fetch today. If you roll a miniature tennis ball or throw her stuffed pig she'll bound after it and then run back. Sometimes she only runs halfway and lays down to chew on it, but she generally brings it the rest of the way after she chews on it a bit.

Right now Craig and Jilly are playing fetch. I hadn't realized how far she'd come today until Craig came home and she wouldn't do anything she and I'd been doing all day with him. Instead she would just run to me. So ever since he came home we've been having Craig be the one to interact with Jilly, as far as taking her outside and playing with her after she goes potty. Then when she's tired enough to be on the couch she sits on the cushion next to me after sitting on Craig a bit. She's been such a good girl. We've been practicing putting her in her pen. Whenever we eat she stays in her pen, and then an hour after she ate dinner we put her in her pen and praised her when she was quiet. When she was quiet the second time we waited a little longer, praised her, and let her out. I'll probably continue that during the day tomorrow, to help her get used to being in her pen and waiting quietly to be let out.

I brushed her and she's so fluffy and pretty. We'll probably give her a bath tomorrow, once Craig gets back, or before he leaves. I could probably handle it on my own, but for her first bath I'd like to have an extra pair of hands, until we know what she's like for baths. I'm debating whether I should try a drier on her, it might give her a heart attack. I ran the vacuum today and she was barking at it while in her pen, it was cute. She arfed at Kitty a couple of times today, but that was because Kitty was growling at her, but she really hasn't barked much at all.

Jilly is also proving to be smarter than even we imagined. Tonight she whimpered and pawed at the backdoor, so Craig took her out, where she only wanted to play (he doesn't let her play, just stands in one spot and waits for her to go potty). So he brought her back in and within 5 minutes she was pawing and *really* whimpering at the door. We debated if she really needed to go out to potty or if we'd just taughter her to paw at the door when she wanted to go outside and play. She answered the question for us by peeing right next to the door. Oops. So now everytime she asks to go outside we're going to take her, and just be vigilant to stand in one place so that she doesn't get much playing done. And then if she does go potty we praise her, give her treats, and take her for a lap around the backyard, playing and acting as crazy as she wants the whole time. Hopefully that will lead her to only ask to go out if she needs to go potty, or at least to go potty every time she goes outside so that she then gets to play.

We were just surprised that she'd figured out so quickly to paw at the door to go out, and that she was doing it at appropriate times! Tonight I started asking her to sit before I threw her toy for her. She did a *very* good job of sitting before I threw the toy, though I still don't think she knows that "sit" means sit. Most of the time I need to hold the toy in front of her and move it toward the back of her head. I still can't get over how adorable she is, she keeps doing the cutest things!