Happy 1st Birthday Keisha!

It's hard to believe, but Keisha turned 1 today! It only seems like a few months ago that we went to pick her up.

She's grown so much! She's almost as tall as Sophie now, and you can probably tell from the photo that she's no longer a little puppy. She even has her "big husky howl" now. Her voice has changed and gotten deeper.

She has calmed down quite a bit too! She still runs and leaps and can't seem to stay still, but every now and then she lays down for awhile. She even likes cuddles now! She also likes sitting up on my lap and watching Sophie. She looks down at her like she's saying "I'm up with mom and your not!" It's like she thinks my lap is shrinking! She doesn't realize she is growing. Pretty soon I'll have a fully grown husky on my lap trying to cuddle! She's even treating Sophie a lot better now! That's an accomplishment on it's own!

I went to the store earlier today to buy her something for her birthday. It's a small store, and the only think I could find was a package of Busy Bones. They are for small to medium dogs and have two in a pack so I thought they could share them. I gave the package to Keisha and she carried it around a bit before I opened it and gave them a bone each. Keisha loved hers. She ate most of it before I took it away. I didn't want her to be sick from eating all of it so she'll get the other half tomorrow. Sophie sniffed hers but didn't eat it. She don't really chew on anything besides her Nylabone.

They laid down together for awhile with their bones before supper. They are both laying down to have naps now. I also made a video of them earlier and I'll add it to an entry when I edit it. Right now I'm going to go make supper for myself. It's almost 10:30pm.

Upset Stomachs

I did something I'm regretting yesterday evening. I went to the store and had to get some dog food there for Sophie and Keisha to eat for a day until I did a grocery order. I knew the store wouldn't have a lot to choose from, but it's the best I could do at the time.

They had Dog Chow, Puppy Chow, Purina and Beniful. The tiny bags were like $8 and I really didn't want to pay that much for dog food that isn't actually that good. After all it was just for a meal.

I decided to get a couple of cans of Pedigree instead. I got beef and chicken and thought it would be fine. When I got back home I let Sophie pick the can she wanted open and she choose the beef. I gave her and Keisha half a can each and they seemed to really like it.

Keisha went outside right after she ate and had some diarrhea. It wasn't watery or anything, but wasn't really solid either. I didn't think it could have been the food because it barely had time to even enter her stomach! I decided to just keep an eye on her and see if she had any more. It's been hours now and she is still ok. She had a bath and is happily laying in her crate.

Hours after they ate Sophie got up from the floor and ran towards the door. She layed down with her nose up againt it and I quickly let her out. She ran outside and had quite a bit of diarrhea herself! She has gone out a couple of times since. I bought her bed out into the living room for her and gave her Duckey (her favorite toy). She isn't drinking any water, but had some ice cubes earlier. She doesn't drink a lot anyway, so that's not really worrying me. She has a full bowl of cold water next to her if she wants any.

She's laying on her bed next to the door with Duckey under her head now. She's not happy because she is on a leash so she can go in and out whenever she needs to. There are openings at either end of the fence that goes around the patio area here where she could get out into the neighbours areas.

I know now that it was the food that made their stomach's upset. Neither of them are use to canned food and I definetly won't be making that same mistake again! Sophie's stomach is pretty sensative, and I feel really bad about making the decision I made!

I really hope she is feeling a lot better soon! I'll make her some boiled rice and chicken when her stomach settles down. Hopefully she will be better today!

Things have been busy around here

I know, I know I haven't written in awhile. Things have been really busy around here. Things are going well though. Keisha and Sophie are even getting better! Sure Keisha will still tackle Sophie when she gets bored, but as long as she has something better to do she totally ignores her!

I just finished giving Keisha a bath. She's been shedding a lot lately and it's really hot outside so I thought I'd give her a nice cool shower. She even sat under the water and relaxed a bit cooling off. I didn't ask her to, but she decided that it was a nice way to cool herself off.

She's in front of the door right now and has been going in and out since her bath. I'm going to sit down and groom her when she dries off, but for now she seems happy just to be cooled off.

When Julian gets back we are going to take her out to one of our favorite restaurants with us and Sophie. That's going to be an experience for sure! I thought I'd take her when it's not busy and sit outside on the patio with her. By the time we walk there she'll be tired out a bit and want to lay down, so that will work on our side! I'm sure she will be great though. We were in for a pleasnat surprise at the Wheels In Motion event, and I'm sure her first time at a restraunt will go just as well!

Thunderstorms

I was sitting here earlier and all of a sudden it started raining. I wasn't expecting it at all, because it was so nice earlier in the day, but I didn't pay too much attention to it because Sophie was sleeping on the couch, and Keisha was asleep in her crate.

All of a sudden I heard rumbling in the distance, and convinced myself it must be a train because the rain had either stopped, or calmed down a lot. Then there was a huge clap of thunder and the thunderstorms started!

I had been in the middle of doing laundry, so decided to wait a few minutes and see what happened before shutting off the washing machine, but I turned off the tv, and anything else that was on and unplugged my laptop. I wasn't in the mood for any type of freaky disaster tonight, and anyone who knows me knows what kind of magnet I am for weird, unexpected things happening to me!

There was quite a bit of thunder, and I knew there was lightening because the air felt really staticy. I was half expecting Keisha to start howling, or getting upset. She lets you know when she's unhappy about something believe me! Whenever the fire alarms go off, she will wait a few minutes and when they don't stop she sits down and howls the most mournful sounding howls you have ever heard!

Tonight, she just watched me, and slept! I was so surprised I didn't know what to do! I've come to expect this frome Sophie, but it's such a nice surprise when Keisha stays perfectly calm in a time like that. I just felt like I had to write about it.

We are suppose to have thunderstorms throughout the earlier part of the day, but seeing how they started around midnight, and were about eight hours early, I'm hoping we don't have any more. I'm planning on cleaning the kitchen today, and would like to open the patio door while I'm mopping the floor and things. It's so hot here now, and the air conditioning isn't working right. I think we may need new batteries. That will be a job for Julian when he gets back.

I guess Keisha just proved that she can be a nice calm dog when she wants to be!

Keisha and the cats next door

There are two cats next door. I'm sure I mentioned them in earlier posts. Before I got Keisha they would come onto our patio and watch us through our windows, and one of them even came inside and wandered into the living room. Sophie just watched them with curiousity from afar and they would look at her wondering what she was.

Then Keisha moved in. A rambunctious little ball of fur, that barked at them and tried to run after them, even at nine weeks old. Boy, were they surprised!

Of course a guide or service dog can't walk down the street eating every cat it sees. It just wouldn't work out. I took advantage of our neighbours cats right from the start. Whenever they came around I would show them to Keisha and sit in the doorway with her on a very short leash. She knew she shouldn't hurt them, although I'm sure her instinct said different, being a husky.

I'd sit there, with her leash in my hand letting her watch the cats, and letting her get closer as they got use to each other. At this point she wasn't much bigger than the cats. She kept watching them, and they would move closer. Eventually one of the cats would come within a foot of her, and they would just stare at each other.

Now, one of the cats won't come near, but the other one comes to the end of the railing that seperates our patio from the one next door. The cat lays down and Keisha goes to the end of her leash and they just watch each other. If either of them makes a sudden move, the other one runs away. Have you ever seen a husky run away form a cat?! It's funny, because Keisha is a lot bigger now.

They also play a game sometimes where the cat will lay by the railing, and they will watch each other for awhile. Then the cat will get up and move around the other patio, looking under the railing. Keisha jumps around, looking under the railing to find it. They play their litte game of hide and go seek for awhile until the cat gets hungry, or Keisha gets bored and they go inside again.

It's great that these cats live next door. They really come in handy for training Keisha.

A very productive morning

It's 9:37am on a Saturday and I already have the living room re-arranged and cleaned and a load of laundry almost washed. I also emptied the dishwasher and loaded it again.

I couldn't sleep this morning, so I decided I would get up. I started thinking about moving a couple of things in the living room. I had been thinking about it for awhile now, but couldn't decide what to mvoe where.

I decided this morning that Keisha didn't really need her crate in the living room. In the day when she's out it just gets in the way of her running around. I haven't decided evactly what to do with her crate yet, but for now it's in the hall by my office. She's laying accross it trying to get as close as she can to me right now having a nap.

Since I got her, her crate hasn't really moved. I turned it around just before Christmas for awhile until the tree was put up, but she's always been in the dame corner. I'm not sure what she will think of being in a different room. If she really doesn't like it, I could always put her crate in the corner next to the couch. I tried this earlier today, but then decided to put Sophie's bed in front of the window instead. I thought both of them would like to use it then. Not together of course! Sophie would not like that at all. She's sleeping in the chair right now, so I might move her bed back into the bedroom and put Keisha's crate in that corner anyway. I could put Keisha's small bed in front of the window where Sophie's bed is now and they can both use it. Problem solved!

I could also leave her crate where it is right now for awhile until Julian gets back. I don't use the bathroom that it's blocking off, and it will get her use to sleeping in a different place. I guess I'll figure it out when I'm done cleaning up. I still have to clean off the table, finish doing tha laundry and tidy the kitchen. I also have a DIY project going on in the bedroom that involves Loctite and an Ikea bed.

Before I end this post here is a question for dog owners that use crates.

Where do you keep your dogs crate?

When do Husky's stop growing?

A few days ago I measured Keisha. She is 18 1/2 inches tall at her shoulders. Female Siberian Husky's are suppose to grow from 20 to 22 inches tall. This would be a great height for a service dog for me becuase she would be high enough to hold her harness without having my arm resting on her back.

Sophie is 20 1/2 inches high, which is pretty short for a Lab, but the perfect height for me. I'm getting a bit concerned about Keisha's height though. Even though she is not that much shorter than Sophie, because she is smaller around her body she seems a lot shorter. Lab.'s are a lot more solid than Huskies in their body.

I'm hoping Keisha grows taller than 20 inches. Although if she stops growing at 20 inches and she is at a good height, that would be ok too.

She's had a couple of major growth spurts so far, but her growth seems to be slowing down now. I'm not sure at what age they are suppose to stop growing, and when their growth slows down. If anyone knows this, and feels like leaving a comment that would be great!

She's running in and out of the living room right now playing tug with the extra leash that is connected to the door handle. It's great that she's interested in playing tug because it will come in handy for a lot of tasks she will do later.

It's funny because her breeder said that Husky's are usually not interested in retrieving and I'd be lucky if I could get her to retrieve things for me. Then awhile before I got Keisha the breeder said she had been playing fetch with her!

She';s so much like a Lab.! I guess it's because she's been around Sophie since she was 9 weeks old and a lot of Sophie's Lab. ways have rubbed off on her. It's great because Lab.'s have so many great qualities for guide and service work.

Little thing, big fuss!

Keisha had been outside most of yesterday. I had Sophie's FlexiLeash attached to the handle on the sliding door so she could go out and come in as she pleased.

She was running back and forth most of the day. Then all of a sudden she started barking. When I called her, she stopped and came inside, but would go back out and bark again. I didn't want the neighbours to get underwear in a knot about it, so I took her inside and put her in her crate.

It was getting late anyway, and I thought it was bedtime Ms. Husky anyway. Sophie was already asleep on the couch. I put Keisha into her crate and went back to watching tv.

All of a sudden she started barking again. She usually makes all kinds of "Husky noises", but only barks when she's really excited, or wants supper really bad. I told her to be quiet, but she continued barking away.

I went over to her crate to find out what she was barking about, and couldn't find anything. She was looking out the window though. I thought it might be one of the cats that live next door, but couldn't hear anything.

It was beginning to freak me out a little. Our balcony is on the same level as the barbecue area that is shared by these two buildings. Now that the weather has warmed up, people are out there quite a bit. I could hear some people in the distance, but couldn't tell if they were out there, or on a balcony. I have had a problem with balls being thrown onto our balcony and people always jumping over to get them, so it wouldn't have surprised me too much if someone was on my balcony.

I closed the door and locked it, and felt pretty uneasy until Keisha finally decided to go to sleep. When I went over to her, she sat down next to me and just kept watching whatever it was that was outside. I still thought it was one of the cats, or something that was blowing around when I went to bed.

Today as I was cleaning up outside I found out what all of the comotion was about. There was a drink can outside! People above us always throw their trash onto our patio. It really gets on my last nerve! I guess Keisha saw it and didn't know what it was.

Now I've got a real dilemma on my hands. Do I teach her not to bark at things at all, or do I let her in certain situations. I have to admit I was thinking it was nice if she let me know something was happening outside my door that wasn't suppose to be. Maybe I can teach her to alert me of things like that. It could really come in handy when you can't see!

Sleepy Husky

Until recently, Keisha didn't feel comfortable sleeping out in the open. She would sleep in her crate, under the end table near her crate, or under my wheelchair. I guess she felt protected in these places. If her crate door was shut, she would sleepily stagger around until I let her in and she would finally collapse in the corner of her crate for a nice long snooze!

Lately I've had the sliding patio door open and she's been on an extendable lead that is attached to the door handle. This way she can go in and out as she pleases, and Sophie, my guide dog can have a break from random husky tackles as Keisha tries to play with her. It has worked out really well! She hasn't had an accident inside since I've started doing this!

She hasn't had bedding in her crate since I got her because she keeps eating it, and seems to think it's as good a place as any to pee on! I've had a nice crate pad for her since I got the crate, but the only time it's been used is if Sophie happened to lay on it. I put it on the floor outside of her crate last week and she's been playing with it, tossing it into the air, chewing on it, and basically doing everything with it except sleeping on it. Today after I vacuumed I put the pad on the floor next to the side of her crate and as soon as I let her out she bunched it up and started chewing on it again. I was beginning to wonder if she would ever have a nice bed to lay on! Then tonight, to my surprise she bunched up the pad and had a nap on it! She's had a couple of naps on it since supper, and is sleeping on it right now.

I guess there's hope after all!

Keisha’s first Christmas

I haven’t written in awhile. Christmas went well. The tree was left standing, and I only had to re-decorate the bottom of it because Keisha runs under it sometimes, and the only ornament that was broken was by me! I don’t think that’s toobad at all! I even decorated the side of the kitchen counter and Keisha didn’t bother it at all! I’ve been very impressed!

On Christmas morning my mom called and I sat in front of the tree while I was talking to her to open our gifts. I helped Sophie open her stuffed snowman that my mom gave her, and then I let Keisha out of her crate. I put the short leash on her to keep her from diving into the gifts! She had been wanting to get at them when I was putting them under the tree the night before! I gave her the gift my mom sent her and she ripped it open herself. She tore at the paper and then shook her head really fast so the paper flew off. It was a stuffed gingerbread man that smells like gingerbread! She loves it! It actually smells really good. My mom also sent them a huge box of treats in the shape of a dog house. It has ten bags of treats in it. That should last them awhile!

On Boxing Day my uncle and cousin came to visit. It was the first time Keisha met them and she was so excited I had to keep her in her crate for most of the time they were here. Sophie was really excited to see Uncle Glen again too!

I’ve noticed that Keisha is growing out of her biting stage lately! I’m so glad! She use to try to bite everything! Now when she’s really excited she will still bite at my hand a bit, but she mostly licks now. I think some of it has to do with working on targeting with her. I use my hand as the target because I thought that I could teach her both the targeting and teach her to not bite at the same time.

She has also learned “sit”, “down”, “come”, “stay” and we are working on “heel”. She will have “heel” completed really soon and we are continuing to work on staying for longer periods of time. I know it might seem like a painfully slow process, but I am making sure she knows one command and has a really good grasp on it before moving onto the next. I need her commands to be “solid” when I start teaching her guide work. Over the weekend I’m thinking about teaching her take clothes out of the dryer. I thought this would be fun for her, and that it’s easier to start with than teaching her to pick up something and bring it back to me. It’s in a smaller area and she is just the right height to reach inside of the dryer now. I’m trying to decide if I want to use “get” or “take” with her though. I taught Sophie with “get”, but I’m thinking I will use “fetch” with Keisha. It will also be a word that sounds a lot different than “give”. She will also learn to “find” things, but I think “find” and “fetch” also sound different enough to use and not confuse her. She love playing fetch and will bring her toys back to me, so it shouldn’t be too hard to teach her to do the same with other things.

It’s almost 3am and Julian will soon be calling me, so I guess I better go for now. I’ll write more about how Keisha is doing with the clothes and dryer later. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

The Christmas tree is up!

I put up the Christmas tree on Dec. 15th. I would have put it up earlier, but I was sick for 4 days! I’m feeling like a human being again now, but I spent over 3 days on the couch! Keisha was really well behaved when I was sick! She usually whines and howls if I’m out of the room for any length of time and she is in her crate, but I guess I madesomany trips to the bathroom she got tired of moaning about it! I don’t let her out of her crate while I’m not in the room with her because she is tall enough to get things off the table now, and I usually have my laptop there.

So far, Keisha hasn’t been too interested in the Christmas tree. She still dives at it every so often, but I think it’s mostly for attention. She’s also a lot better around Sophie now! She still wants to play with her, but when I call her she will come now. That’s really helpful! Now when she runs after Sophie I tell her to “come” and instead of nipping at Sophie first, she turns aroudn and comes running toward me!

We also had a snow storm on saturday and sunday! Keisha loves snow! She digs in it, leaps around and buries her nose in it. She even barks and howls when it’s snowing and she’s in her crate because she is suppose to be sleeping.

She’s sleeping in her crate right now, and Sophie’s sleeping on the couch. It’s nice when it’s this quiet here! It doesn’t happen very often since Keisha’s been here!

A hyper puppy and a yellow lab.

I took this photo tonight. Sophie was relaxing in her chair, and Keisha decided to leap on top of her. Sophie just turned 10 on Nov. 3rd, and she was never a dog to play a lot. Sure she has her moments where she wants to play, but 10 minutes later she’s back to her calm, relaxed self. Keisha on the other hand is a little bundle of energy with pointy ears! She constantly has to be moving!

Keisha jumps all over Sophie and tries to bite her. She always wants to play, and don’t seem to understand that Sophie doesn’t want to. Sophie growls at her when she bugs her too much, and has even barked at her! She only ever barked a few times in the 8 years we’ve been together before Keisha joined us!

I’m hoping Keisha will learn to leave Sophie alone eventually. Until then I guess I just have to do my best to keep her from bothering Sophie too much!

Keisha broke a bowl

Keisha broke a bowl last night! I was in the bathroom and heard a crash. For a few seconds I thought she had somehow broke out of her crate! When I came out there was a broken bowl on the floor. It had been on top of her crate, and she managed to push it off the top. I had been keeping it there to put her water in. She tips over dog bowls too easily, and I can’t use the ones that have rubber on the bottoms that are harder to tip over because I have a latex allergy. I cleaned up the bowl, and vaccumed to make sure there were no small pieces of glass in the carpet, and I guess I’ll have to find somewhere else to keep her bowls from now on!

She’s sleeping in her crate now, and Sophie’s sleeping on the couch. It’s one of the rare moments when it’s quiet here! When Keisha’s awake she’s usually howling, talking, being hyper, or chasing her tail!

I’m not sure how I’m going to keep her from destroying the Christmas tree yet. I’m going to wait for awhile longer before putting it up, but I know she’s going to want to jump at it and eat it! I’ll let everyone know how it goes once the tree is up!

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.