What's been going on!:
To start with, she is an amazing traveler. She sleeps most of the time in the car. She will eat and drink in the car... Elsie is also fine going about 4-5 hours without an outside break! She does excellent in the car. A few time she got upset with my little brother which she sometimes does (something we need to work on).
On our first night out, we stayed at an inn, Elsie slept in the hotel with us. She did very well. We have a small brown traveling crate that Dad bought me on my sister's wedding day. It is a little small but it works alright for a little while. She got some new experiences there too. I have to say, she seemed pretty comfortable just about anywhere (besides one place). Elsie is very good about settling here and there were ever we are.
The second night we stayed at some old friends' house. Here is were I learned that too much Salmon can be bad for dogs. These people knew of a couple dogs that got into salmon and died. Elsie slept out of the kennel that night due to the fact she wasn't settling down very well in a smallish blue crate the people possessed. She was very good outside of a few time she started woofing. That day we took her to my Grandpa's house. I allowed her to run free a little bit there, as there was 15 acres of fenced in property. She didn't like it very much when I decided to jump on the trampoline.
Next day we went of to my sister's house - a couple of hours away. She was so thrilled to see her! She must have remembered Lisa. The first night there she slept in her crate again. She is now basically entirely kennel trained. She doesn't always enjoying being placed in the brown crate, but she will got "Nite, nite" when told in the night time to her home crate. I had to take her out on a leash there as the fence wasn't fully around the property - the house was in the city. I found out that she can climb up partial rock walls if she wants to (if situated correctly). I didn't do a lot of training with her there. My dad (with the assistance of my older brother) helped fix up the house. My brothers helped fix up the yard. I allowed Elsie to wander around a little bit. I tried a little bit of "ignore the neighbor dogs" with her, as a little Chihuahua dog and another dog were hanging around.
On Wednesday we went and saw lighthouses and a smaller beach. Elsie is very interesting. Sometimes she hates the water and other times she doesn't mind it very much. The first little beach we went to was a pleasant, warm little beach. I let her run loose till other people came along. She can be quite a handful to capture. At this beach she enjoyed the water (or seemed to). That night we went to a real, big beach. It was cooler there and the waves were a lot more rough. Elsie decided she didn't care to go in. Even though I tried to get her to many times.
Thursday: We went to a Coast Guard picnic. She some dogs and kids there. She actually did reasonably well. She barked one or twice. I had to keep her under hand due to kids. She, for some reason, has an issue with younger kids. I am trying to get her over it. She did very well though. She was very interested in the CG helicopter at first. That afternoon we went to the beach again. This time she seemed to like it a little more. My older brother and her chased after seagulls while I played in the waves with my little brother. :)
On Friday we left my sister's house. We arrived in the evening to some old friends' house. Here is were Elsie seemed to feel rather uncomfortable. To start with, they had a wriggly, cute Golden puppy. Rather like Elsie. Daisy rather bothered Elsie for some reason. Simba, the adult male dog, wasn't Elsie's fav. either. She did get used to him eventually. But she never really liked Daisy. Along with that there were three little kids under the age of 7. Though they did not provoke her or anything, I think that might have added to Elsie's agitation. She was also tied up to a stake and left alone for a little while, which might not have helped either. However, she did reasonably well. Tolerating the minor attention from the younger kids, and doing well with the older kids. I also have noticed that she doesn't really like the higher brands of food like Purina or Beneful. She seems to prefer Member's Mark or Ol' Roy dog food.
Saturday she spent a lot of time with my dad while I did different things - including riding horseback and later in the evening, water rafting. 7 of us kids rode home from water rafting in the back of a trailer and Elsie came with us. We left that evening and went to the first house again were I allowed Elsie to stay out of her kennel again.
On Sunday she was very good as we traveled for 12-13 hours back to the hotel again. Mom, Dad, and I thought she would do alright loose that night - she ended up being over happy at about 1:5o AM so she was stuck in the kennel.
On Monday we went home and she did well. She must now be pleased to not always have her schedule changing! :)
Yesterday I gave her a bath. I gave her a bath the Friday before we left, but she had been at the beach and all so I gave her another one. She still does not like them (as well as getting brushed). But she behaves well enough.
As far as training goes:
I am trying to re-enforce "heel". She will come back to me (most of the time)... but then walks ahead a lot of the time. She has been doing pretty good the last two nights Mom and I have gone walking. Elsie also needs to learn to walk with other people. It is almost as if she wants to walk with anyone who is not holding the leash. Yesterday night I allowed a younger girl to pet her. I turned her kind of back wards. Instead of allowing the girl to pet her head, it seems to work better to have Elsie be petted on the back.
Anyways, Elsie is doing well. I am planning on taking her in sometime to get her spayed soon!
~Western Belle
