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Wow, a lot has happened in the last three days. Saturday the animals went to the vet for their shots, and Kitty got to have her anal glands expressed, boy, that was fun. She *really* enjoyed that. Jilly weighs 4 pounds now.
We've been working on sit, down, and stand more. We spent a whole training session on Saturday working on doing it off of just hand signals and just voice. Jilly is excellent at doing them based on hand signals but not so good at doing it based on voice. We also worked a bit on crawling. Sunday we worked more on the regular stuff, and added rolling over into the mix. It is *really* hard to get her to roll over! I watched a video on youtube showing how to do it, but she doesn't want to follow it over with her nose like the video, so far I've gotten her to roll over a few times, both yesterday and today. Then we work on sit and down a lot because getting her to down without a treat confuses her a lot. I can't give her a treat after down because then she sits after she gets the treat, so I just have to get her to down again anyway.
But, no more working on rolling over for a while, because we're going to Puppy Class!!!! Starting Wednesday, I'm soooo nervous, what if we do badly? What if we're behind with Jilly? What if she goes insane and won't focus? She needs her harness and leash and treats and toys. Apparently the puppies get to play during class. We'll see how Jilly is sharing her toys. She never growls anymore when we take one from her, and she doesn't bark like she used to whenever the cats played with them, but she'd never had to share a toy with another dog.
And final good Jilly news, she has taken to standing by the door when she needs to go out. It's only if she's been playing on the floor, sometimes she'll go to the door and we take her straight out, but she potties every time. We also still take her out as soon as she begins to leave the couch and if she doesn't potty she goes in her crate and is taken out every 30 minutes until she does go. It seems to be working. And she's loving her free time in the back yard whenever she does go potty.
And the last of the preChristmas pictures, or at least the December 22nd and earlier pictures.
These next two are Elphie and Kitty watching Jilly play with the spinny thing.
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!
Jilly is home, safe and sound. We arrived at the breeder's right on time. We spent about an hour visiting with the breeder and Jilly and Jilly's parents. She was so much cuter in person than the pictures! Which is saying a lot, because she's pretty darn cute in the pictures. Her little face stripe has gotten thinner and is simply adorable. She greeted us along with the other dogs and her parents were very friendly and loving. We took a couple of toys in for her to see and had a really good time. I did take some pictures of her parents, so I'll get those posted in a bit. After a little more than an hour, we hit the road. I think Jilly knew something was up, because she started whining while I was holding her. We got in the car and headed out after getting a few treats out for her. Then the crying began.
She cried and cried and cried, and whined, and whined. She sounded so sad and pathetic, and she was shaking. I tried talking to her, offering her toys and treats, petting her, you name it. Then I tried singing, for some reason the first song that popped into my head was The Hokey Pokey. So that's what I sang, while making her little crazy bird toy dance. She quieted down almost immediately. So I tried a couple of other songs and she started whining again, howling, almost. I went back to The Hokey Pokey and she quieted down again. It was so weird. I must have sung The Hokey Pokey to her at least 40 times. As soon as I stopped or tried talking to her or singing something else she'd whine again.
At one point her cries got really frantic, so we stopped in a parking lot and took her out to go potty and she went right away, we were so proud of her. After we'd been driving for an hour and a half she started to doze off, her head would drop, and then bounce up all of the sudden and she'd whine a little. The last 20 minutes to PetSmart went like that, and I didn't have to sing nearly as much.
We went to PetSmart to get her a big pen and a couple of jackets. My sister works next to PetSmart, so she met us there (we arrived just as she was getting off work) so that she could meet Jilly and help us pick things out for her since she knows a lot more about dogs than I do. She seemed to like her a lot, she carried her around most of the time in PetSmart. We also got Jilly a soft, cushy pink bed.
Jilly did really well in PetSmart though. She didn't whine at all, she did shake a little in the beginning, but stopped quickly. We headed home from there and the last 2 hours of the drive went really well. She slept most of the way and when we stopped to let her go potty she didn't even shake while outside, or once back in the car.
Then we arrived at home. We gave her the chance to go potty outside and she didn't want to, so into the house she went. Kitty was waiting. Jilly saw Kitty and gave a couple of "arfs!" and Kitty growled. Jilly growled. Kitty puffed up her tail. And that was about it. They've touched noses a few times. Kitty sat in Jilly's pen with her (on the other end) for a while, while Jilly ate and then whined about being in her pen. Elphie jumped on her once, accidentally, because she didn't know Jilly was on that end of the couch until she practically landed on her. Mainly, Jilly and the cats watch each other, but Jilly hasn't done anymore barking or growling. Though she did bark at the neighbor that was outside grilling when I took her out to go potty.
She's passed out on the couch right now, on the empty cushion next to me, and Kitty is curled up on my other side. Jilly did go potty on her litter pan, despite our taking her outside every 45 minutes. But that's ok. As soon as she went potty we let her out of her pen (the last hour before she went potty she was kept in her pen and taken out every 20 minutes). She still gets too excited when going outside to think about going potty. She doesn't like being in her pen, but it's in the living room and we sit in here too, quietly working and ignoring her. She hasn't whined very badly at all, and quickly settles down to chew on her toys or sleep. We'll see how she is tonight, since she's done a lot of sleeping this evening.
Craig and I have both been working on encouraging her to come with us while on the lead. And tonight I was crawling from one end of the living room to the other, calling her once I got as far away as possible and then praising the heck out of her when she came to me. Craig came up with the idea of using a piece of my model horse shelving (the kind that sits on brackets drilled into the wall) to block off the kitchen/entryway doorways. Worked like a charm and they're only 14 or so inches tall, so the cats can jump them easily. So far Jilly hasn't tried to jump out, though I don't think it will be long before she can if she wants. She still needs us to lift her up and down on the couch, but she makes it pretty apparent when she wants up or down.
The cats are handling her appearance much better than we thought they would. Kitty will sit within 2 feet of her on the couch, Elphie isn't quite as friendly, but she also isn't hiding, so overall we're really pleased. Craig and I have both fallen in love with Jilly in just one day. She may not go potty when we take her outside but she looks so cute diving into the grass and chasing leaves. And I'm sure the potty issue will come along soon, plus, as long as she's using the litter box, we're happy!
Elphie is a year younger than Kitty and came from a Jack's Aquarium and Pets. We picked her out right after closing on our house, she was the friendliest kitten in the pet store, and reminded me of Anya, the cat I had while in New Jersey that died while I was in Korea. We asked the pet store if we could pick her up in a week, after we visited Craig's parents. We stopped by my parents house on the way back to pick up Kitty and then Jack's to pick up Elphie. Then we went on to the new house, where the two cats could meet for the first time.
Elphie's real name is Elphaba, because Craig and I got engaged the same weeked we saw Wicked on Broadway. We have since seen Wicked off Broadway two more times. (Elphaba is the name of the Wicked Witch in the book/musical). Fortunately Elphie was small enough that Kitty didn't find her too threatening, and Kitty mainly avoided Elphie while Elphie followed Kitty like a shadow.
Elphie is still in love with Kitty, though she comes to Craig and I when she wants petted. She'll sometimes sleep with me, or curl up on the couch with me, but not nearly to the extent that Kitty does. She plays fetch with Craig but otherwise he's kind of petless in a household full of pets. Hopefully Jilly is a more neutral pet, looking to both of us for affection.
Kitty wasn't quite sure what to think of this little black furry thing. I expect we'll be seeing this look a bit once Kitty lays eyes on Jilly too!
This blog is a spinoff of my other blog, Dressage Beginnings. Here I'll post my non-horse pictures, and about my non-horse life. Topics will include my husband, Craig, and our pets, Kitty, Ephie, and Jilly. Jilly isn't ours yet, we're picking her up on Sunday, but she's a Papillon puppy that was born on Craig's birthday (though years later!). Kitty is the cat we got while stationed in Korea. We hired a professional pet shipping company to transport her from Korea to the States and she's lived with us ever since. Elphie is our "kitten", though she's full grown now, we got her to keep Kitty company for while we are gone during the day.
It'll be interesting to see how Kitty and Elphie adapt to Jilly. Heck, to see how Craig and I adapt to Jilly! As she is our first dog. We're planning on teaching her basic obedience commands, and trying agility and clicker training, depending on how she likes those things.
And of course, poor Craig is now completely outnumbered by girls, me, Sophie, Kitty, Elphie, and now Jilly. Poor guy!
