Kunoichi: Doggie Ninja

Well, it’s been a while. At first I was waiting for her birthday to post and then I got busy with all kinds of stuff. Ichi got a football from planet dog, a tug-a-jug and a sushi plush toy set.

In the weeks surrounding her birthday she has really learned how to test her limits. She’s constantly putting a paw on the couch or the tables and has even gotten a little more aggressive. Additionally, she’s gotten sick twice because, as a part of testing her limits, she tries to get and eat anything she’s not supposed to (like banana laffy taffy).

Yesterday during the election she pretty much slept. I don’t know if they wore her out at the vet, but she definitely wasn’t her usual playful self. But at least she didn’t get sick again.

But since this was quite an occassion, more pictures after the cut.

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Well, first off, Ichi and I made our first trip to the fairly new Huntsville Dog Park. To be fair, the Huntsville Dog Park was a nice place to congregate, but it’s basically a chainlink fenced in area under the interstate. However, kudos to whoever thought of putting it there, what a great way to use the area under the interstates! The shade was nice.

When we first walked in, every dog in the area came to check out Ichi. I swear, she thinks she’s a movie star or something cause everyone loves her. Eventually, she grew tired of her puparazzi and decided to check things out, which also involved shunning the dogs. Eventually I got her back to the dogs and owners (so I felt less awkward) and she started to play a bit. Honestly, what good is going to the dog park if she just chills on her own?  And at some point, play, turned to chase. This may have been the first time Ichi ever realized she’s not a big dog.

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So, way back on Wednesday the vet told me to keep Ichi in her kennel as much as possible so that she doesn’t run around and bust open her stitches. At first, this was fantastic. I could take her out of her kennel for small portions of time, play with her, walk her, etc. and then she’d go back in her kennel and I’d play some more DMC4.

Sunday I reached my limits on the whining. TORTURE. It’s not that I particularly liked having her in her kennel, I wouldn’t want to be locked in their either, it’s just that it was nice to not be chewed on. (BTW, I’m sad to report that I think the place she scratched me hard on my wrist that is kind of bad looking is gonna scar. It’s no longer raised but it’s still bright red. Granted I thought this of the one on the back of my hand and it appears to be going away. We’ll see.)

So, after much whining and feeling horrible about keeping her in there despite taking double the amount of walks (vet said I could walk her), I decided she’d get the special treat of going to petsmart. Afterall, she could use the socialization too.

Look how big she’s gotten!

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Soooooo….today I awoke to a whole ‘nother animal. This dog sat when told to, got down when told to, even left the room without a fuss when told to. And most importantly, DROPPED whatever she was currently obsessed with after a simple “no”. I kept asking “who are you and what did you do with my puppy?” and “when did you learn to mind”.

And it wasn’t just that. We went outside for a walk and she didn’t spend 20 minutes sniffing EVERYTHING in sight or get instantly distracted by whatever noise is currently going on (cars going by, birds chirping). Our 10-20 minute typical walk was down to a measley 2-5. Amazing. Who flipped the switch?

Yesterday she made it 54 hours without an accident. That’s a new record for the apartment for anyone besides me who is counting. She didn’t go to the door at all last night, which either means she was actively trying to hold it and couldn’t, or realized that it’s raining and she’s not a fan of rain. As a reward for our excellent behavior of tackling both our 24 hour goal along with a 48 hour goal, she received a new toy and a kong filled with peanut butter and cheese cubes. Subsequently, she was pretty self-entertaining for most of the night. She did learn that it’s appropriate to whine if we can’t get the last piece of cheese that’s stuck in the bottom out and momma will get a toothpick and push it forward some. Ichi wasn’t nearly as interested in the toy as she was the kong filled with goodies.

She’s also beginning to adopt a behavior that I’m not real sure what it means yet but I’m thinking it means “where’s the pineapple” or “that’s not all is it?”. Every morning when I feed her, she looks at me and puts her left paw on my leg as if she’s tapping me on the shoulder. Clearly this means she wants me to do something but the question is what? It’s also usually accompanied by a fair amount of stubbornness.

So far it appears that I have a very food motivated dog who is kind of “meh” on toys. She’ll chew on rawhide or goodies in the kong for FOREVER but not so much on the toys. 5 minutes is probably tops on them. She does carry stuff around a bit more. The other day she went and got one of the rope toys out of her kennel and dropped it at my feet while I was getting ready for work. She also does REALLY well at fetch.

It seems that while other dog owners have to teach fetch, catching, walking on a leash and the like, I’m not having those problems. Instead I’ve got “don’t pee there”, “don’t chew on that”, “stop that”, “get out of here, you might swallow something bad”, and “stop that, we’ve met them, you know them, you LIKE THEM”.

Well, it raWell, it rained yesterday. A lot. Keep that in mind. Because yesterday, Ichi had NO ACCIDENTS. And I’m not counting this morning’s accident against her because there were extenuating circumstances on that one. So, why keep in mind that it rained a lot yesterday? Well, she didn’t seem inclined to take care of things outside, and yet still had no accidents inside the house. She ALWAYS went to the puppy pad. And when she did need to go, she first tried to get me to take her out by going to the door and barking (she’s having trouble reaching the bells, but she does try). It’s just she always forgot that it was raining.

Also on the “I have a smart dog” front. I’ve been training her. Sit, lie down, down, kennell, high five, and spin. High five, spin, and kennel are relatively new. Down is just to tell her to get down off something. Well, usually when I do the sit and spin routine, I do all the commands in the order she learned them. So…I say “sit”, she sits, I say “lie down”, she spins. Because usually the order is sit-lie down-spin-treat and she’s trying to cut to the treat. Also, this morning when I held a treat for her and said “kennel” leading her to it, she spun all the way there. She’s associated the last thing in the chain with the treat, not having to do each thing. Clearly, I need to mix things up a bit.

Non puppy related news under the cut.
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Well, Ichi survived her first night away from the familiar. Though, I don’t think “survive” is quite the right word. Enjoyed is probably more accurate. And she’s made new friends, both canine and human.

Friday night, she was approached by a yellow lab puppy. To say they didn’t get along is probably an understatement. Ichi found a way to make herself completely parallel to my leg and proceeded to hide. All the while I was like “yes, I’m the alpha…wahoo…she’s relying on me for protection”. She’s pretty scare of other dogs, so this behavior was not really surprising.

Saturday, on our way to the vet, she encountered the large dalmation puppy in the complex. Contrary to my understanding of dalmations, he was very gentle. According to his owner he was only 7 months old and I cannot fathom having that large of a dog in my apartment. But, his owner had a much better handle on him, potentially because he was older and as commanded he sat and was very very gentle to Ichi. She sniffed at him and did the nose to nose thing and was quite sad to be taken away. They looked like the odd couple with the difference in size.

Picture now, video and more story time under the cut:

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