Bailey's Progress Report

I know this is late. We went home this weekend. I had plans to post this Thursday night but blogger was down :-/ Anyway...here’s Bailey’s progress report for the past week :-)

Training

This past week has been pretty good with Bailey...with a few minor exceptions. As I mentioned before, we took her to the park on Sunday. I already talked about some of her encounters with dogs so I won’t really talk about that. We didn’t want her walking all that distance at one time so we made frequent stops. We decided to do some training during one of them. She does great with her training in our apartment but she hasn’t been around many distractions. There were plenty of distractions this time! People, dogs, bikes, strollers, kites and all sorts of things. She did surprisingly well! She did start to walk away while we were working on “Stay” a few times. Other than that she did very well! We were both very pleased with her.

She has been showing lots of improvement in the apartment. She does well with “Stay” as long as she isn’t super excited & playful (we try not to train during those times anyway...it gets too frustrating). We’ve gotten to the point where we can leave the room & make random noises and she will still stay. We haven’t pushed her too far with this. I think we’re up to about 40 seconds. I like this because I can multi-task :-) I’ll tell her to stay...go fold a towel or something, slam the dryer door closed & come back to treat her. During the end of her training sessions, when her attention span starts to deteriorate, she’ll just start to follow us.

We’ve just started on “Down” and she’s doing OK with that (we haven’t given it a command yet, but she understands the hand signal). I got her to do it the first time! When she’s doing this, she doesn’t like waiting for her treat. She’s actually gotten pretty bad about that in general. Unless she’s pretty tired, sometimes she’s very rough when she takes treats & she’ll even jump a little. I know she’s a energetic puppy & it’s normal, but she wasn’t doing that before. I think she’s getting more comfortable around us & testing her boundaries.

We make her sit & wait until we tell her she can eat before she has her food. She’s pretty good with this but she doesn’t understand the “Go eat” part yet, she just sits there and waits. I just click, treat & shake her food bowl then walk away. I’m not sure if this is how I should do it or not, but it seems to be working. We also randomly take her food away from her and give it back to make sure she isn’t aggressive when we come near her food. This might seem silly right now, but I don’t want her to be food aggressive later. That can be really bad with small children or other dogs around.

And...we finally have her enrolled in an obedience class! I’m super excited about this! Her first class is on the 24th.

Potty Training

The accidents have been getting less frequent over the past week. She rarely has accidents when we’re home. We’ve been monitoring her water intake a lot closer, so I’m sure that helps. She has started tearing up her potty pads again though. She’s getting a little better about hinting that she needs to go out. She will look at us and whine. Sometimes this might mean she wants us to get a toy she can’t get to or that she just wants to play. To be safe, we assume she has to go out. Even if she doesn’t really have to go, she’ll at least dribble.

This is what I come home to most days. I can't complain...so far (knock on wood!), this is all she's torn up.

As far as the vinegar and water mixture, it seems to be doing pretty well. I haven’t noticed her sniffing the areas she has gone it (except right after I spray it, I think she enjoys the scent of vinegar) and she hasn’t been using the same areas. I’ll continue to use this for a week or so then re-evaluate. I’m definitely loving the price a lot more!

Socialization

We have a dog park in our apartment complex. It’s very small but it’s an outdoor area where she can just run. We never see other dogs when we go. I did get lucky earlier this week. I took her to go train at the dog park on Tuesday. Just as we were getting started, 2 other dogs came! We have seen them in passing while going on walks, so Bailey has met them briefly before. She was a little scared of them the last time we met. The smallest is a 4 lb Yorkie & the other is  Schnoodle about her size. She was really good with them this time! She wasn’t scared at all & she barely barked. I was a little worried she was going to hurt the Yorkie because she was so tiny & fragile looking! The dad told me they have a Labradoodle too & she’s used to having to take up for herself. They ended up playing really well together :-) Hopefully I’ll think to take pictures next time.

This is what happened when Josh came home from playing basketball last Tuesday (the same day we went to the dog park). She'll kick it with her feet then jump on it. We have given her an old basketball to play with. She's an athletic little puppy.

First Trip Home

We had our first trip home with Bailey this weekend. It was tiring, but we had a lot of fun! She slept the majority of the time both ways. She got along with all the dogs she came in contact with (and that's a LOT). She did very well in her crate during the night & she didn't have any accidents in my mother in law's house :-) She got to visit my dad Saturday while we were at Matt's graduation. I'm glad she got some canine interaction. she got to see her mom again, which makes me really happy. My dad said she was VERY excited to see her mom & tried to get some milk. Haha. Her mom wouldn't have it though. The visit with mom wasn't all good though. Bailey was covered in fleas when we picked her up. We use Frontline, which is a great product, but it only kills when the fleas bite. I couldn't wait for them to bite her. We washed her in Dawn, just like when she first came home, and we were able to get them all off...after lots of washing & picking! We had washed her Friday before we left home so she would smell good the first time she met Josh's side of the family. As a result of 2 baths in 2 days (I really hated to do that, but it was better than the fleas...I know they were driving her insane) her skin is pretty dry so she's itchy. We started adding a little oil to her food yesterday morning & she's already showing a little improvement. Hopefully, after another day or so, her skin & coat will be back to normal. 

Yesterday, we went to my mom's house on the way back up here. My cousin was there with his little puppy. This was their first time meeting & it took a little while for them to warm up to each other. Eventually they were chasing each other around the yard. They were so cute. 

Packing up for the trip home.

What happened to my house?!?!?!

She did this for the majority of the trip. I love that she's using her chew toy as a pillow. Haha

Vet Visits

While we were in NC this weekend, we got Bailey’s 3rd set of shots. She got to go to the same vet she’s seen for her last 2 sets. This is the same vet I used to work at through high school. She did really well. She didn’t even flinch when Dr. Deese gave her a shot.

Her next set of shots will be in 4 more weeks. We’ll have to decided on a vet up here pretty soon because we won’t be going home around that time.

Growing

Bailey is growing up so fast! Her little personality is growing just as fast as her body! She’s up to a little over 17 lbs now! I had to loosen her collar up a notch and it made me a little sad :-/ I wish I could keep her a puppy forever...but that she would still eventually act like a big dog. I love her little puppy personality & she’s super entertaining...but I don’t think I could deal with it her whole life. Haha.

This is her goofy face. Sometimes her lips get stuck like this. I think it's adorable.