Some re-planning is in order

When Keisha was out of her crate it was easy to keep things away from her. All I had to do was put them on the kitchen counter or table. They were out of reach, and safe. Notice how I said “when” and “were”? Well, tonight Keisha proved that she is no longer the little puppy who had came home 24 days ago. She is now more like a toddler.

When she first came home she would leap after Sophie. Sophie would then get up into the chair in the living room, knowing that she was safe form Keisha and her pointy little teath! She would look down at Keisha taunting her knowing there was nothing she could do as long as she kept her paws and tail far enough away form the edge of the chair.

I noticed these past few weeks that Keisha can leap onto the chair and couch! Sophie noticed this when Keisha leapt over the arm of the chair and started biting her, while walking over her! She got out of the chair and Keisha went tumbling out of the chair. This didn’t stop her though, and she chased Sophie onto the couch to get in some more bites!

Now she can jump onto the chair and couch, get cloths that are hanging over the edge of the kitchen counter, put her front paws on the table and get things off there, and jump at the tv! She has so much fun leaping at something she sees moving on the tv. It’s funny right now, but I have to teach her not to do it because I’m sure it won’tbe so funny when a full grown Siberian Husky puts her head through my tv!

I guess the next plan is to just keep the counter tops and table as clear as possible, and to unplug my laptop from the wall before letting her out so she can’t pull it, or anything else from the center of the table by getting tangled in the cord!

Keisha's vet visit

Keisha had an apointment with the Vet today to get her next set of vacinations. I put her harness on her along with her collar so there would be an extra "Husky Handle" to grab her with if she tried to escape the Vet, and took a towel and her puppy Nylabone.

Julian took her on her leash and I had Sophie and we all went downstairs to the parking garage. She was trying to jump on Sophie at first, but wasn't too bad once we got on the elevator. There are other dogs in the building, so there were plenty of smells for both of them to sniff.

She kept turning around to see Sophie when we were walking down the hallway on our parking level, and all the way to the car. I thought it would be better for her to walk ahead so Sophie coud keep an eye on ehr without worrying if she was going to be leapt on from behind! Keisha jumps on her and bites her ears a lot, and will run towards her with her mouth already open! I'm hoping she will out grow that stage when she stops teething!

Sophie got in the back seat of the car, and I held Keisha in my lap in the front. I had the towel on my lap in case she peed. I wouldn't want to go to the vet, or anywhere else looking like I had peed myself after all! She was pretty good on the way to the vet, looking out the window and people watching. She didn't pay too much attention to vehicles, not even buses or street cars, but she loves watching people! She also seems fasanated with people riding bikes. Maybe it has to do with my wheelchair. She tried to keep cyclists in her view for as long as possible.

When we got out of the car at the vets, Sophie already knew where we were. She hasn't been there before, but she started sniffing (she does this a lot when she visits the vets), and acted really nervous. I held Sophie's leash in one hand and Keisha's in the other while Julian parked. One of the women who passed me said "You've got your hands full there", and she couldn't have been more right! Keisha wanted to see everything, and Sophie just wanted to sniff!

We went inside and waited in the dog area, and when the receptionist told the vet that Keisha was there for her apointment, Sophie let out a sigh and flopped down on the floor! It's like she knew exactly what was said!

The vet said that she was looking great, and gave her her shots. She ran around in circles after she had them, and tried to bite her hip while spinning around and dragging her butt accross the floor! She didn't know what just happened to her. The vet said that Husky's really didn't tolerate shots well, but she did fine. She had one near her hip, one near each of her shoulders and some medicine in her nose. She was also sneezing as she sun in the circle and did the butt dragging. After a few minutes she was fine though.

She is 12.54 lbs now. She hasn't put on a lot of weight since she's been here, but she also had diarrhea for awhile, so that wasn't good. She was doing a lot better the day after she visited the vet for that, and had some medication for it for a few days. Sophie also got her nails clipped and was registered there too.

When we left the vets I was waiting outside for Julian to get the car and these two guys asked if they could pet Keisha. They were making a huge fuss over her telling her how beautiful she is and petting her, and they both told Sophie she was beautiful too. Sophei was not impressed because she usually gets all of the attention, and here were the only two people in the Greater Toronto Area who knew they weren't suppose to pet working dogs!

Keisha got tired on the way home and fell asleep for a little while. She had that glazed over look, and was really floppy and sleepy. She still tried to watch everything that was happening around her though.

When we got back, Julian carried her upstairs and she's been sleeping in her crate ever since, with a break for her supper. She hasn't howled or made noise all night. She's not herself at all. I'm sure she'll be her hyper, noisy self in the morning though!

Keisha's first bath

Keisha had her first bath about a week after coming home. We absolutely had to give her one! She had decided that it was ok to pee in her crate and roll around in it, and smelled horrible!
I thought she wouldn't mind getting a bath too much because she obviously didn't mind being wet! She also tipped her water bowl over every chance she got and splashed around in her crate. She puts her paw in her water bowl while she's drinking a lot too.

Sophie, my Lab. doesn't like getting a bath at all! If you as much as get a towel she is out of reach, and uneasy until you get into the bath tub or shower youself. It's odd how I ended up having a Lab., who is suppose to be a water dog who doesn't like water, and a Husky who loves it.

When I put Keisha into the tub she started drinking the water. I made her stop because God only knows what she had in her fur!

I used some really mild shampoo, and only as much as I needed and she was finally smelling like a little puppy again! We couldn't even cuddle her before her bath because she was just disgusting!

She did manage to escape from the tub once! I didn't think she could because it's a deep soaker tub. She was just tall enough to stand on her hind legs and put her front ones on the side of the tub. She's definetly a climber!

She's had to have another couple of baths using just water a a tiny bit of mild shampooo since then, but she's getting a lot better! She's also growing a lot! She still chases Sophie around a lot, and bites her, but we are trying to stop her from doing this. Sophie just runs away from her and growls at her. I've had Sophie for 8 years, and she has only barked a few times (if you would even call it barking), but since getting Keisha she growls at her almost every day! I bet if she could she'd give Keisha away to the Pizza Delivery guy, or pack her up and send her back to her breeder! I'm sure as she learns to leave Sophie alone though they will get along a lot better. Let's hope so anyway!

Potty training problem solved

I thought I'd write an update about how Keisha's potty training is going. She gives really suttle clues to us when she needs to go out, but she will still just go in her crate sometimes without even trying to let us know too. I was considering paper training her, but thought if she wasn't trained to go on paper, I would rather not teach her at all, and continue teaching her to go outside.

Tonight I got an email from her breeder telling me that for the last three nights that she was with her breeder she slept in a crate next to her bed with shredded paper in it, and that she spent the days in the kitchen and she was paper trained!

I had not been leaving anything in her crate because she just chews it up and tries to dig through it, but tonight I put some paper in her crate, and almost right away she went on it! She's been going on it ever since! At first she shredded the paper, but she hasn't been too bad since. I will gradually move the paper outside, and hope she will learn more easily this way.

She has also learned to "come" today. Now she knows "sit" "down" and "come". I'm making sure she has a firm grasp on the commands and are reliably obeying them before I start teaching her a new one. She also had diarrhea for awhile, and I had to stop the training. She has had medication for this though, and I am happy to report that she is completely better!

Determined to chew that bone

Keisha was in her crate today while I was vacuuming. She was watching me and "talking" as huskies do. Julian was on the phone, so I was trying to keep her as quiet as possible. I found Sophie's bone in the bedroom, so I gave it to Keisha to play with until I was finished cleaning up. It's a Nylabone, and she tries to steal it whenever she can. She played with it for awhile, but it kept sliding around her crate. I can't keep any bedding in there for her because she just digs it and chews it until it is destroyed!

I fed her a little while before this, and hr bowl was still in her crate. It's a deep bowl, and not a dog bowl because she tips dog bowls over way too easily. Then she has a crate ful of water that she wines about before she splashes it in. I can't use the other kind of dog bowls that she can't tip over because they have rubber on the bottom and I have a latex allergy.

Anyway, she was trying to chew the bone, but it kept escaping from her on the plastic floor. She picked the bone up, put it in her empty bowl and tried chewing it again. It still slipped around, so she covered the bowl with her fron leg, and then with the front of her body so she could hold the bone still and chew it! It only took her a few minutes to figure this out!

She is so smart! She is just like Sophie, my current guide dog when she is trying to figure things out. She will sit back and think about how she will do something until she figures out a way to do what she wanted. She knows that the door of her crate opens when I lift up the handle and slide it sideways, and she will try to do it with her nose and mouth when she wants to get out. She has the lifting part down, but still hasn't figured out how to slide it yet. I'm not sure she can slide it from the inside, but I know if it's at all possible, she will figure out a way sooner or later! Let's just hope that it's later, and I don't have to catch a puppy escapee all the time!

Why I Chose A Siberian Husky

When I started looking into which breed I should train I was set on getting another yellow lab. Sophie is great, and labs. are mostly used for guide and service dogs because they are great at it. Then I started exploring other breeds because I didn’t want Sophie to feel like I was replacing her (just bringing in another dog of the same breed), and I would feel guilty about it.

I looked into the working dogs group, for obvious reasons, and started looking at different breeders in my area. A Siberian Husky breeder’s site came up, and as I read it I became very interested in teh breed. I spent weeks researching them, and found out that they have been used as guide dogs and service dogs.

They have all of the qualities I was looking for. Siberians are extremely intelligent and independent, which are both qualities you need in a guide or service dog. They need to be able to make up their own minds and be able to learn difficult things like “intelligent disobedience” where if the handler gives the dog a command and it would be dangerous to do it, the dog disobeys. If I tell her “forward” at a curb and a car doesn’t stop, then she should stay at the curb and not walk out into the street because she was told to do it. I kept reading about how “stubborn” huskies are, but whenever I read that I was thinking “it’s perfect”! I’m not looking for a dog that will do everything I say without thinking about it!

Living in Canada it can get cold! I was looking for a dog that could handle the cold eather. In the winter I have a coat for Sophie. When it gets down to -30c Labs get cold! She also has boots, but this is because the salt used on roads and sidewalks can burn dogs paws.

I need a dog that has a lot of energy so they can keep up with all of the work and not get tired easily. I also needed one that could pull and wasn’t too big. A Siberian Husky is a great size for fitting into tight spaces like under the seat in front of me on an airplane, or under a table when we go out to eat.

I do want kids in the future, and will be working around kids. I wanted a dog that would be good with them, and friendly with people. In other words, a dog that thinks everyone she meets is a new friend!

They are really healthy compared to most of the breeds used for guide and service work, and from what I’ve read they don’t have a “doggy odor” when they get wet like a lot of other breeds. This can come in handy when out in public!

They are very adaptable dogs, and have the intellegence for the job. Another small bonus is that they are more likely to “talk” and howl than bark. It’s easier to stop a dog from howling than barking, and as long as Keisha doesn’t “talk” too loud while working and doesn’t howl then she can “talk” all she wants when we are at home.

Potty training problems

Keisha is doing great! She has learned how to sit, and is learning how to lay down. She's very smart, and we are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of her! The only problem we are having is teaching her not to pee in her crate! She doesn't seem to care at all if her crate is wet.

Her crate is right next to the door that leads to the patio. I have a litter box outside the door that Sophie uses, and if Keisha is put out there the first thing in the morning she will pee there. If she is left out there long enough she will also pee. The problem is she don't understand that her crate is not a good place to pee.

When she pees outside I praise her a lot, give her one of her favorite treats, and she gets to play. She realizes this because when she pees, she runs inside to get her treat. When she pees in her crate, I tell her "no" and put her right outside. She will usually hold it, but after awhile she will go. She also pees a little outside and acts like she's done, but as soon as she goes back into her crate she pees.

I have the divider in her crate and it's only big enough for her to turn around in, but she will still pee and lay down in it. I tried leaving the puddle in her crate, and thought that if she realized that it wouldn't be cleaned up right away and that she had to lay in it she wouldn't want to do it, but she just wined for a minute and layed down in it! I even tried letting ehr out with Sophie so she could watch her, but then she just wants to play after watching her intently for a few minutes.

I cleaned out her crate with stuff that takes odors away, but that didn't work either, so the next step I'm thinking of trying is to teach her to go on some paper that will be put in the far end of her crate, and gradually move it outside. I hope something works soon!

Someone suggested that she could have "learning difficulties", but I know I don't have to worry about that! She can learn other things easily, but is just having some problems with this. The same person also suggested that some dogs are impossible to housebreak, but I think any dog can be trained if you know what motivates them and can find something that works for them! I've just got to find out what works for Keisha.

I was reading about how puppies can't physically "hold it" until they are at least 12weeks old. She has another couple of weeks to go until then, so I'm not too worried about it yet. I'm sure things will work out fine. I was also reading about the Misty Method of potty training for puppies. If puppies of that age can be potty trained, I'm sure Keisha can!

And that is why her nickname is "Stinky"!

Keisha is home!

I thought I'd take some time to write an update. I did finally pick a name for the puppy. I named her Keisha. It's one of the first names we thought of, and it's been in the back of my mind ever since. It's funny how you go back to the first thing you picked sometimes.

We picked her up on Nov. 7th, and it only took her a few minutes to make herself at home! She slowly came out of her kennel, and hasn't been the least bit timid or unsure since!

She's a handful, and loves to play. She tries her best to play with Sophie, but Sophie doesn't like dogs playing with her. She just turned 10 years old on Nov. 3rd, and likes to relax for most of the day, enjoying some play time when she feels like it. Keisha, however being the hyper puppy that she is, thinks every minute of the day, or night is play time!

Julian brought her home a rope toy, and she really likes playing with it. She also likes stealing my fuzzy slippers! Sophie liked fuzzy slippers as a puppy also! It must be a puppy thing!

I'll write some longer entries later, but right now I have to go finish doing laundry and cleaning up the kitchen before Keisha decides that nap time is over.