Here are some pictures of Willow.  I can not believe how much she has grown! She started out this big (14.2 oz)....

And now at 5 months old she is 48.1 lbs!

Here are a few other pictures that have been taken recently....

Hey, He's my softie!  Don't give me a hard time!

Are you done yet?

Stretch!

I HATE the antenas!!!

I said no pictures!

Where can I hide?  I don't want my picture taken.

Do I have to wear this?

  

Much better!  Got rid of the darn antenas!

Is it time to go yet?

I own this place

This is so Humiliating!

Sometimes Life gets in the way...

I can't believe it has been almost 5 weeks since I have posted.  My life has been very hectic and stressful.  In addition to my normal issues of fighting my MS, working full time, going to doctors, teaching genealogy classes and training Willow.  My life got crazier.  My husband had surgery to remove some skin cancer on his back and we found out they didn't get it all the first time so he has to have another surgery on November 12th.  My father got pneumonia again and nearly died and I found out his lung cancer is now stage 4.  Our family is devastated.  But enough of the sad stuff.

Here is some of what i have been doing with Willow since I lasted posted.  We continue to work on our foundation behaviors (Sit, Stay, Down, Off, Come, potty on command, touch, leave it, loose leash walking, heel).  Some days she is a star student and an absolute genius.  Other days she looks at me like she has never heard the command before. It must be her age and the preteen or teenager in her. Overall she is getting a lot better.  In fact last week I went to my local PetsMart and one of the people who came to talk to me there was their trainer.  She was asking a lot of questions and of course wanted to know what I was doing for training.  She asked if we could go into the training area and if she could see me work with her. Then she asked if she could work with her.  She said she was extremely impressed because most 4 1/2 month old dogs do not respond as well or as quickly as Willow does.  That makes me feel good because that morning was a particularly difficult training session.  It was like Willow had forgotten everything she ever knew.  She did better in the afternoon.

We have also been working on public access.  I have been picking smaller places that are less busy for the most part.  We have gone to two places that she doesn't want to go into so I don't make her. They are Quizno's and Papa Murphy's. The places she has really liked going into are of course PetsMart and PetCo, the local health food store, Taco Time, Subway, Maverick, Home Depot, Walmart, and the doctors office. When we do the public access I have been setting a timer so that I stay in no longer than 5-10 min at a time.  She is getting so much better when we are in these places.   She will actually sit quietly beside me part of the time and also walk with a loose leash part of the time.

I am hoping to have a friend tape us training a couple of times so that I can post to this blog.

Halloween was a real eye opener.  When the first kids came my husband had a hold of her leash.  She doesn't listen to him very well so she nearly pulled his arm off trying to get to the door. He wanted me to put her in her crate for the night but I wanted to see if she would do better for me. So when the next batch of kids came by I had her leash (short leash).  She pulled a bunch but not enough to turn my hand red so for her not bad. She got excited to answer the door every time the doorbell rang or someone knocked.  She had no fear of the costumes.  She and the kids and their parents had a great time saying hi. I was also impressed that she didn't try to jump on any of the kids or adults.  She did remarkably well.

I will post pictures in the next post.

Till next time my friends...

New Places, New Faces

Where have the last few days gone?  Life has been so busy.  Let's get up to date on what's been happening on the training scene.

In the last couple of days Willow and I have had a couple of adventures.  I am continuing to take her new places and having her meet new people.

Some of the places we have gone are walking in the neighborhood, the local park, the IFA Store, Maverick, and standing outside at Costco.  She has been able to meet short people, tall people, fat people, skinny people, black people, brown people, old people, young people, little kids, infants, etc.
She is becoming pretty comfortable going to new places.  She really likes seeing the people even when I don't let them pet her.  Something I am noticing is she walks much better when I walk her and use my cane rather than the walker. It's kind of odd but the walker seems to bring out the puller in her.  Whereas using just a leash she will walk loose leash 75 - 80% of the time.

Sunday our home teacher  and his son came by.  Willow did good with them.  We had a little trouble getting the son to understand that you don't want to reach your hands up to a dogs head.  With Willow she thinks you want to play and will try to grab your hand.  When she did this to the son he got scared.  We need to work with him more especially since they are thinking of getting a dog of their own.

Monday was a good day.  Willow played nicely in the office most of the day while I worked and so she only had to spend a minimal amount of time her crate.  I gave her a treat last night and let her sleep with me.  She thought she had died and gone to heaven and she settled right down and went to sleep.

Today was my birthday and I took the day off work.  Willow and I had a very busy day.  We started by going to my neurologist.  Willow was a huge hit at the office and did very well.  She did get a little antsy in the exam room while we were waiting for the doctor to come in so I worked on her training.  I was quite happy that she would still give me focus attention, respond to her name, and do the hand and sticky note touch, even when the tech and later the doctor were in the room.
After the doctor visit we went to Home Depot so the employees there could meet the dog they helped raise money for.  Again, she was a huge hit and she behaved like such a little lady.  I was so proud of her.  Especially since there were so many new and strange sounds there.

From there we went to the Ma & Paw Bakery and bought her a bully stick.  She loves it!  Then I took her to the Utah Dog Park where she was interviewed for going to doggy daycare.  She did really well and ended up staying the rest of the day.  When I picked her up tonight she was so tired she fell asleep in the car.

She and I are calling it an early night tonight because we are both so tired.

Till next time friends....

It was a UTI and...

Well, I was unfortunately correct.  Willow has another UTI.  Second one in a month.  She also has an infection, Coccidia.  Apparently it's common in puppies and older dogs.  Luckily the same medicine is used to treat both.  An antibiotic called TMS she takes twice a day.  Since she has now had two UTI's I have also started her on a Cranberry pill that has vitamin C in it as well.  The vet said this would be fine and should help her with her urinary tract health.  The vitamin C will help her with any stress she feels (new situations, new noises, getting vaccinations, being on antibiotics, etc.).

She just started yesterday but she has already started doing better.  She only had one accident and I think that was because she was pretty nervous about the carpet spot shampooer. She was busy watching it and peed.  I'm not sure she even knew she did it.

I've been told Swissys are like that. They have a one track  mind and can't do two things at once until they are a lot older (about 1 or 2 years old). Some people have told me that having a Swissy puppy is like having a puppy with ADHD.  I have to agree.

Anyway, Willow goes back to the vet in two weeks for a recheck. I'm just glad she is back to more of her normal self. Hopefully she will be completely well by then.

Bad day for Willow

Today has been a rough day.  I think Willow has another UTI. Yesterday afternoon she started drinking a bunch of water and today she can't hardly seem to stop.  She has 3 water dishes (Crate, Kitchen, Office) and I have had to fill each of them at least 3 times.  Consequently she is peeing a lot and has had several accidents.  Even with dropping back to taking her outside every half hour she still had three accidents in the house.  She has also been pretty lethargic today and has eaten less than half of the food she normally eats.  Also her stools are back to being super soft.  So it's back to the vet tomorrow to see what's going on.  We attempted some training today but she really didn't want to do it.  She didn't even want her favorite soft treats.  Not sure what is up with my girl. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and we can get her taken care of.

She does seem happy and animated if I am petting her and talking to her but if I am on the phone she gets all mopey.  I wonder, is she bored?  Could these problems have anything to do with the fact that I am pretty sure she is teething?

I guess I will find out tomorrow.  Hopefully she feels better and is back to her normal self tomorrow.  I miss my happy go lucky girl.

Till next time my friends...

Puppy Train and Play

Tonight was Puppy Train and Play.  Willow has such a good time there.

Tonight we worked on Doggy Push-ups, Walking on a loose leash, Staying at our side, Paying attention to Mom, and Scarecrow.

Doggy push-ups are where you have the dog sit, then lay down, then stand up, and repeat. When your pup begins to anticipate what is coming next mix it up a bit, do lay down, sit, stand, or whatever order you feel  like doing. Of course you click and treat when they do each piece.

Similar to this is what I call Doggy Squats.  You have your pup sit, then stand, then sit, then stand.  This strengthens the back legs.  Both Doggy Push-ups and Doggy Squats have the added benefit of being fun your pup and of using up some of their excess energy.

Walking on a loose leash and staying at our side while we walk is accomplished by teaching your pup that you are the most interesting this in the world.  You do that with food.  When your pup is walking beside you with a loose leash treat.  When they wander away, stop.  When they come back to you treat and start again.

For the paying attention to mom I had the hardest time because you are supposed to sit quietly with your dog in front of you and not say anything.  When they look at you, you click and treat.  This teaches them to look at you without being asked to.  The hard part is not talking.  I never seem to stop talking.  My husband is always asking me to please talk a bit less because he can't get a word in edgewise.

Finally we worked on Scarecrow.  Scarecrow is where you put the leash on the floor and step on it.  Show your pup you have a treat in your hand and then hold both arms out like a scarecrow.  When your dog stops looking at the hand with the treat and looks at you , click and treat.  This can also be quite hard if your pup is really concentrating on the food. It may take them awhile to get the idea and your arms may get really tired.  You may have to start with if your dogs eyes move away from your hand click and treat that and gradually work up to the full turning and looking at you thing.

At the end of  class our pups got to have play time.  The big pups went outside and the little pups stayed inside.  I took a little video of Willow and Indigo playing.  One of these days maybe I'll learn to take the video with a steady hand and smooth movement.

Till next time friends...

A Trip to Papa Murphy's

Last night we took a trip to Papa Murphy's.  My husband and I wanted to have pizza and I figured it would make a good field trip for Willow.

So once I had Willow buckled into her seatbelt (yes, she wears a seatbelt) We drove to Papa Murphy's.  Willow did great in the car.  She just laid down and rested all the way there.  It was about a 10 minute ride.  Once we got there and out of the car she of course wanted to go smelling everything around her.  I let her do a bit of sniffing and then we approached the door.  She was fine until I opened the door and took one step in.  Then she froze.  So I thought no big deal we'll just stay outside awhile. While outside a customer came to the door and walked in.  Willow just followed the woman trying to get her to pet her.  It was rather funny.  You could see the exact moment that Willow realized that she was inside and she didn't know what was going on.  She quickly ducked under the bench seat and stayed there. I sat with her and talked to her.  Luckily it wasn't very busy and I was able to call my order across the room.  While I was talking to the employees Willow got more brave and came out from under the bench.  Of course the employees started saying how cute and adorable she was.  It was like she knew they were talking about her and the more nice things they said about her the braver she became until she went over to the counter on her own and I was then able to pay for the pizza.  Of course none of the employees petted her because that was against health regulations.  But by this time Willow was quite the happy girl.

I have noticed that when we first go to a new place she is nervous and sometimes afraid.  Usually if I stop and let her take her time she will eventually take me into the place.  Sometimes it's a minute or two.  Other times it's five minutes or more. I am sure there will be times we don't make it into a place but we will deal with that when it happens.

Till next time my friend...