Syn’s Story

Today I met Hunter Sync Or Swym At Dragonair for the first time. She’s one of a large herd of Portuguese Water Dog puppies – 13 puppies!

We test Syn again. Oh! THERE’S my puppy! She’s feeling better today. She races after the ball, grabs it, and flings both the ball and herself bodily into the tester’s lap.

Great night – she asked to get out of the crate at 6:30 so hubby took her for a pee, then put her right back in. When I woke up she was curled tight in her doughnut-shaped bed in the crate, calm and happy and looking at me.

Go for a long walk? Apparently I have no brain at all. I dreamt of being tortured all night and woke up in agony. Syn is still sleeping, an hour past her normal second-get-up time, and didn’t pee when she was taken out at 6. Maybe next time we’ll go for a SHORT walk.

I’m beginning to feel like one of those madly grinning bobble-head dolls – everything is FINE, isn’t this FUN, aren’t we having a good TIME!

First puppy class – EEEK! PUPPIES!!

Whee! Fear period! Stitch left on a 3-week working vacation this morning. That’ll give Syn a chance to be an only dog for a while and learn to rely on me more than the obvious draw of the other dog.

Syn is turning into a young dog before my eyes. Her legs are growing an inch a day and she has paws that would do justice to a St Bernard.

The beginning of New Teeth: I had to get this photo before all her baby teeth fell out – one’s gone already (middle bottom). I love this stage – the huge mouth and the ridiculous little tiny teeth.

4 months! Has she lived with me 8 weeks already? THEN WHY IS SHE STILL CRYING IN THE CRATE WHEN I LEAVE HER ALONE?

Ahem. Possibly because I have taught her to be happy in the crate when I’m there, and when I’m not there, but haven’t done anything to explain being happy in the crate when I’m LEAVING her alone? Nah, that couldn’t be it…

My baby’s growing up. Very few puppy incisors left, and she’s chewing EVERYTHING.

I decided to work on Go To Mat. This was precipitated last night when I was trying to do some heeling with Stitch and the Flying Squirrel kept hurling herself between us a foot off the ground.

Yep, she’s a teenager.
“WHO PUT THE EMPTY MILK BOTTLE BACK IN THE FRIDGE?”
“I did. Did you buy CocoPuffs when you were out?”

A very strange day today. If I ever think teenagers don’t have a rough time of it, I can remember today.

Yesterday we did 2 sessions on Rally behaviours – walking around behind her while she was sitting and down (it’s getting better, but not great yet), and a bit on SHUTTING UP while I worked with Stitch.

I’m quite sure I’ve mentioned how every bit of training you do is guaranteed to interfere with some other bit of training.

It’s utterly amazing what an improvement I got when I (dare I say it) made a plan and actually taught the little muffin something instead of just trying to get her to do it. I have a vague recollection of having made this discovery forty or fifty previous times in my life.

She’s eager-eager-eager to do something – anything, in fact. She’s apparently been getting bored with shredding every shredable object that wasn’t nailed down (and a few that were) in the dog room and the small outside pen while I’ve been gone.

I happened to catch a look at her in a mirror in the training hall and hey, she looks GREAT in her new retriever trim, and she’s really grown into all that leg she was having difficulty knowing what to do with 3 months ago.