Sunday Update

This past week has been full enough and we have a few updates for Elsie, including surgery and tricks.

Vet Visit (Surgery)

Elsie visited the vet again this week. Instead of shots this time though, she had to have her rear dew claws removed. Dew claws might cause issues in agility and activities like search and rescue and hunting. So, to be safe, we had them removed. The front dew claws normal are not an issue, but Elsie was born with rare-ish rear dew claws.

Happily, the surgery went well. Elsie came out of it and is just as playful as ever!

Tricks and Basic Commands (Little Improvements)

I can happily say now, Elsie has mastered sit and down to almost perfection (not so much on the down, and she already knew sit.) Along with common commands, Elsie is learning to shake hands. She has almost got this all good and will lift her paw (sometimes accompanied with a bite..... OW!) Coming is getting much better. Sometimes a chicken or something else distracts Elsie, but she is doing very well with it.

Crating

YAY!!!! Elsie rarely whines now. She is still crated at night and on Sunday morning (and evenings sometimes). Her whining has gotten very minimal and only comes occasionally in circumstances like time to get up or go out.

Feeding

We have upped her to about 1 1/2 quarter cups of food a day and at 7, 1, and 6 or 7, feeding times. She has such an appetite since not eating for almost 1 1/2 days due to surgery.

~Western Belle

Before the Weekend Update!

WOW!! We have almost owned Elsie three weeks. This next week, LORD willing, she should be getting her next set of shots...... I wonder if she will scream as loud as she did the first time. Silly Elsie always over reacts.

This week we have once again seen that Elsie has a huge amount of energy for being a nine week old puppy! She ran about 1 mile today and all together has gone about two miles so far. Both me and her are learning to run along.... she makes me exercise so much more then I had to with my horse (which is good). I enjoy running with her, Skia, mom and my older sister! Such fun! I walk her about a mile to two miles a day and she has been sleeping very well.

As far as sleeping... I cannot complain. She has been sleeping around from 9 till 6:30 AM, with a break at ten thirty PM to go out. So far, she has not had an accident in her crate since over a week. She rarely whines and only gives little ones when it is time to get out.

We are still feeding her on a breakfast at 5-7 AM, a lunch at 1ish PM, and dinner at about 7:30 - 8 PM. She is doing fine on it.... but rarely does she seem hungry enough to actually eat without distraction.

Elsie has been learning to sit (just daily practice she has already learned), to lie down, to role over, and fetch toys by name.

Over all, after two days of no updates, she is still doing well.

~Western Belle

Sunday Afternoon Report!

We have almost owned Elsie for two weeks! And she is a super dog. Super in energy, smartness, and just being Elsie.

CRATE TRAINING!

She is getting very crate trained and will enter her own crate (she does not mind at all sharing it with Skia. Skia does.) Yesterday was very busy and she had to spend part of the day in it. Skia and her were both lying in it (not really locked in) and I tried to get a pictures but I was not able to and Skia got tired of it. She did not howl at all really.

This morning, we had to go to meeting, so she was locked in there another 3-4 hours. She had not made a single mess (YAY!), or at least I did not find one, and she was very calm. Of course she was thrilled to see us all. But we cannot be super excited with her when we let her out.... It can cause negative affects on crate training.

She is doing so well! Which is a huge relief from hours on end of barking! YAY! I was also pleased that she slept from 9 PM (with a potty break at 10:30 PM) to 6:30 in the morning. She is soo good!

WALKING!

Walking... and walking. WE talked to a friend today that owns a poodle, and has some dog knowledge. We know we have an extra hyper dog and we also know that she needs long walks. The friend's way of saying that was: "Walk a Border Collie one mile one day, and it will want to walk 2 miles the next day." It was something along those lines and yes, Elsie has energy.

At only eight or nine weeks old, Elsie walks 1 to 3 miles a day (besides playing a bunch as well). OH! You can already imagine how many miles she will be walking (maybe) in the future!

Today I walked/ran her up and down one of our lanes. She whines a little (she has a tendency to whine when she does not want to do something), so to help make her walk I carry kibble and a couple of extra dogs. (Seriously, Poimein and Skia both enjoy and should have the exercise). She also graduated from a piece of twine for a leash to a leather leash (only when the big dogs don't need them).

Me and my sister have made a habit to walk about 5/8th a mile every day with the three dogs and Elsie has always done well on these little trips.

That is her walking update!

FEEDING!

We also changed our feeding times for Elsie.

5-6 AM (First feeding).

1 PM (Second feeding).

8 PM (Third feeding).

Our schedule of 5, 11, 5, and 8 was not working very well (ending up in a dog that needed coaxing to eat) so we will see (maybe) if this will work!

~Western Belle