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?

The beginnings of "tug"

I worked on "tug" with Keisha earlier today. It didn't take her long to figure out what to do. I've noticed that when teaching her something new for the first time she does a lot better if she is on her lead or if she can't run around the whole apartment.

She was in her crate, so I thought I would start out with her in there. I have an extra leash I had when she was a little puppy that has a broken clip. It's been on the door handle to the patio for a long time now, so I took it off and used it for her to tug with.

In a very short time she was tugging and having a lot of fun. She concentrates a lot better when there are not a lot of distractions and she knows she can't run around wherever she wants to. The next time we work on this, I will use her lead and then maybe go into the kitchen and work off lead., until we work up to doing it when she is free to explore the apartment and do whatever she wants.

I do keep the sessions short, and when she quits showing interest we stop. A lot of people wont agree with not letting her off lead from the beginning, but this is what works best for her. It's so hard to keep her attention at first if she is left to roam around and find other things that interest her.

She is "practicing" her "tug" with her leash on the door handle now. This one is going to be a very easy command to teach because she is really interested in doing it and has a lot of fun with it!

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!

New Backpack and Patch

Keisha got her new backpack yesterday. I had ordered it last month, along with a patch. The patch came weeks ago, and I like it a lot. It says “Service Puppy In Training”. I didn’t want a “generic” patch saying “service dog” and another saying “in training”. I wanted something different. I attached the patch to her backpack last night, and now it’s ready for her to use!

The backpack is the Approach Pack II. It is made by Ruffwear. I have a collapsible bowl from them for Sophie and it is really well made. I’ve had it since Aug. of 2000 and it’s still in great shape!

When I opened the package today, I was suprised because the backpack was so small. I was expecting something much bigger. I had my doubts for a minute or two that it would fit Keisha, but after getting on the floor and holding her I realized that it might fit after all. I gave her a treat to chew on and started the task of actually getting the backpack on a hyper husky puppy! Not an easy thing to accomplish! I had to hold her with one of my legs wrapped around her to keep her still enough to get her head through the opening. She wasn’t impresed with this at all, and tried to push it away with her paws, chewing on her treat the whole time. Sophie was watching the whole thing while she layed next to me. Once I got her head through the opening, the rest was easy. I clipped the two belly straps shut and she didn’t notice she was wearing anything! She layed on the floor eating her treat, and I took a bunch of pictures before taking it off again.

I think part of the reason she didn’t seem to mind it was because of the design. There are cut outs in the back of the harness where her shoulders are to allow for movement, and the straps are covered in fleece. The packs are also only attached at the top, so she can lay down on her side without having to lay on a pack, and it is very light weight.

There’s a handle on the back of the harness, nad a pulling loop along with an extra loop. It’s a very well made and well designed backpack. The packs are also not too big and bulky, so they don’t get in the way.