This Blog is about over....

When I started this blog I thought there would be a lot to blog about on our journey with Daiquiri.  As it turns out she is not the project that I thought she would be.  On the contrary she is rather easy to live with.  She has been here for just over nine weeks now.  In those weeks I did not "fix" her, I am not a miracle trainer as all of you know training takes lots of time and 9 weeks is not even close to enough time to do much in.  I attribute a lot of what she has become to three things....

1.  Our family is full of strong leaders, ones that Daiquiri can respect.
2.  She has grown up a lot just with time alone.  
3.  We accept her for who she is and do not try to change what is in her, just manage it.

She has learned more self control which I think has come with age.  She thinks before she reacts now and even has a nice call off.  She is just doing as her instincts tell her....to protect her family and home.  She is still working to perfect on how to do that but I know she will get it in no time as I see it with this new self control.  

She is doing great at living peacefully with another dog.  We have only had one fight in which her call off went completely away.  I learned a great deal from the fight which gave me the tools to understand her even more.  I can see when the girls need a break from each other.  When Ariel has had enough of Daiquiri's puppy tactics and when Ariel's challenge gets under Daiquiri's skin.  We let them cool off apart for a bit then all is back to normal.  Daiquiri has already taken on the lead dog role.  Ariel knows it and accepts it without much of a fuss.  Ariel acts more of the nurturing role with Daiquiri.  Just this morning Ariel was back to trying to teach Daiquiri how to share a toy in a fun way.  It was so cool to watch them interact and see Daiquiri getting it.  I am so blessed to have such a patient dog as Ariel.  She plays a huge role helping me show new dogs how things can work peacefully (she was raised with a bunch of fosters that always needed a little help in one area or another).  

I was going to list some of the little things that I cherish about her but that could turn into a book because she is so close to perfect in our family. So just to list a couple...I love how in the morning when she hears me stir she lets out her "get up" grunt and when I tell her not yet the big huge sigh she lets out as she lays back down.  I love the way she patiently waits for my oldest to climb all the way down from his bed so she does not make him fall before tackling him for loves.  I love how she will come up from behind to nudge me as if to say "hey take a love break there."  I love to watch her entertain herself with a toy, especially a ball.  She will roll it so it hits the wall to come back to her...playing fetch all by herself.  I love to watch her interact with the boys, she knows they are hers.  And most of all I love the way that she looks at each one of us like we are the light making her world shine.  


So not really much to blog about at this time.  I am headed to watch a lady work her BC herding.  I know that it is totally different than an Aussie but I am told the lady that she works with also does Aussies.  I am going so that I can talk with the lady for myself to get a feel if I think she knows Aussie (of coarse I will have to come home and e-mail Kristin to actually know if she does).  Until we start that or get to the point we start competing in frisbee there is not enough publicly interesting stuff to talk about.  I am sure I will put an update on here from time to time.  


Lets end this last one with some pictures....

 I love this one.  It cracks me up every time she pants hard!!

See she can lay with Ariel while Ariel chews the toy that she wants.  It took a bit to get to this point but finally SUCCESS!!

I am sure many of you saw this one on Kristin's blog but my all time favorite!!

As usual she does whatever the boys do!!


Of coarse the boys love this short video.  She did this over and over with the biggest grin on her face.  When it was time to go in she stood by one of the leaf piles with the smashed ball in her mouth hoping for one last toss!!!

Last I want to thank Kristin once again for choosing our family for Daiquiri.  We know that she was taking a chance flying her all the way here.  No one could ask for more dedication and faith than Kristin gave to this puppy!!  We are also thankful for the immediate trust and faith she had in our family.  Daiquiri is definitely where she is meant to be. 

Until another time..........

Hike by the river

The weather is finally cooling off so it is time once again for our weekend hikes!!  Daiquiri thoroughly enjoys the hikes (thanks breeder Mom!!).  No terrain phases her.  She likes to lead the way but makes frequent stops to make sure the family is all together.  This was the first time we had taken Daiquiri down to the river.  She had an absolute blast!!  She could not stay out of the water for more than a couple minutes!!  The down side was that I am not used to having a dog that likes water so we failed to bring a long line to give her more room the get out into the water (I am sure eventually we will not need a line at all).  She was able to actually swim in one small area close shore.  My husband's take on our family hike..."Finally we have a dog that enjoys things we do!".   Here are a few pictures at one of our stops....

Stepping in because she just could not stay out!

 
Just to the right of this is where she could actually get out far enough to swim for a bit.

"Are you taking pictures of me?"

We were just enjoying the view.  And of coarse she had to stand in the river :-)

 "The killer shake"


After the hike we took the kids to the nearby playground.  Daiquiri and I sat on the bench on the edge of the playground to watch.  She was such a good girl sitting there taking it all in.  She really enjoyed watching all the kids run around.  We were even talking to a lady that was there with her kids.  The only thing Daiquiri did not like was when the woman decided to face us direct on and take a couple steps toward us.  I immediately pulled her off the bench to put her in a sit stay a couple feet back.  SCORE!!!  She sat there nicely while we finished our conversation!!  All this with no gentle leader!!  Daiquiri gets things so easily!!

On another note.  I am really happy to report that Daiquiri has earned the rights to be with Ariel on a constant basis.  We have slowly worked up to this, adding more time each day/week as part of our training.  Daiquiri will have been here for 6 weeks on Tuesday and so far no fights!!  We had an "almost" fight but I was able to quickly dissolve it before it started.  I am very fortunate that Daiquiri and Ariel actually compliment each other.  They are very respectful to one another and seem to be a perfect match in every way.  It helps that they listen too!

Daiquiri Playing Soccer

Three short videos of Daiquiri playing.  I apologize for "ready" over and over...it gets rather annoying so you may want to turn your volume off!  We recently had to change soccer balls so she still struggles to pick the new one up.  

This first one is Daiquiri's version of a full retrieve.  Pretty good but she still veers one way or the other to see if she can get away with chewing on it for a while.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAKG31-s-Lc&feature=player_embedded

I like how this one shows her back up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvmIgEdS-YU&playnext=1&videos=wESA_6NnGOU&feature=mfu_in_order

This one is the reaction I get before the first ball is kicked.  I love her exuberance!!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf3mu6cLcx8&playnext=1&videos=E2KdQeAwtEY&feature=mfu_in_order

Making the Right Choices

Daiquiri is getting very good at this.  When she first arrived she always made the choice to ignore me when she went into defend mode.  But now when I call her off she always makes the choice to come to my side.  She used to always make the decision to defend but now she chooses to remain calm majority of the time.  She almost made the right decision to not bark at the neighbor kids today when they were running but as soon as I reminded her she calmed immediately back down.  She does choose to remain calm more times than not now.

When Daiquiri met the first person outside of our family she did much better than I had expected.  It was even a tough situation for her.  I had her put away before the company arrived but little did I know when I went to get her they had followed me and were just on the other side of the door.  So when we opened the door it surprised both of us. She charged and barked but when I called her off she came back to me.  At that point she decided it was safe to just sniff to check him out.  I was really proud of the little girl!!  I did not see fear but her guardian instincts come on strong.  I have a dog that reacts out of fear and Daiquiri's posture has no fear present.  She is still learning control of those instincts but I could not ask for more.   Daiquiri is just an Aussie doing her job a little over the top.  Exactly what I wanted :-)

Daiquiri also came to me with resource and space guarding issues.  We worked really hard to nip the space issues in the bud from day 2 so this has really not been an issue here.  I can see it is still in her thoughts but again she chooses to behave.  Daiquiri does not get nasty when Ariel is getting her loves, mostly just stays back.  However every now and again she will squeeze herself between Ariel and myself.  I give her credit though because she seems to know when I will be OK with it and never gets nasty toward Ariel for staying there.  She is learning that I do have more than one hand to give love with!

At our house all toys are mine and I rule them at all times.  We also have a rule that we buy no single toy, meaning if I buy a Nylabone I buy three never just one, always one for each dog (same goes for tennis balls, stuffed animals, etc.) so that each can have their own at the same time.  Of coarse toys get lost outside and under things so there are times there may only be one laying around.  Rodeo and Ariel both know they are not to take a toy away from another dog.  They know the consequence if they try - they all lose the privilege of playing with or chewing on my toy.  They can sit there and watch the other one but better not take it away.  It only took Rodeo about two weeks to get this when he arrived so I knew it would be much easier with Daiquiri.  To this point we have not really had a chance for learning in this area as it has not come up.  But today with the new Nylabones she was certain she needed Ariel's along with the other two.  Of coarse Ariel let her have it but I intervened, took it away from Daiquiri, gave it back to Ariel and handed Daiquiri a different one.   Still yet Daiquiri did not want hers, she wanted Ariel's but again Daiquiri made the right choice!!!!  She did not chew on hers but chose to lay there and watch Ariel.   She got up a couple times looking intent on getting that bone but each time she made the choice to lay back down by her bone without me having to remind her.  I was VERY proud of her!!!  She gets things so easily!!!  

I know taking the toys away from all of them for one's behavior seems harsh but it has really worked for me.  The ones who already know how the system works only have to suffer thru the new one messing up a couple times before there is an understanding among all of them.  We do not have fights around here over toys, I just won't tolerate it.  Rodeo used to get a toy to take on the couch then sit and growl at Ariel if she came within two feet. It was amazing how quickly he understood that he lost the toy the instant he did that.  No dog likes to lose their entertainment like that!!  I do not mind if they share a toy nicely so long as no one ends up guarding the toy or being a bully over it.  Disclaimer:  I do not push it with high value items like their food or pork raw hides :-)  


Overall I could not be happier with Daiquiri.  She is just so much fun.  She has quickly stolen my heart.  I can see how bonded she is to me now.  She makes me laugh on a daily basis with her silly tactics.  I love to watch her interact with my sons.  She knows to be gentle with them.  Her frisbee training is coming along.  I see improvement each time but we still need to pull some drive out.  It is in there but not quite as intense as I need it to be.  I know it's there because I see glimpses of it.  Once we get that to come out all the time it will be on!!  In the off chance she decides frisbee is not for her no big deal we will just have to find something she loves.  Maybe freestyle dance or herding.  

One fun story...the girl makes me laugh daily.  Daiquiri likes to steal wash clothes out of the bath room to bring in the family room to toss around.  So  here she come with one shaking it back and forth to kill it.  As she did this it flew out of her mouth and hit the couch where a beam of sun light was hitting.  The wash cloth had knocked a single dog hair into the beam of light.  She saw it, gave it the eye then "grrrr....",  snap and caught the darn hair.  Then it was back to silly fun with the wash cloth. I laughed so hard at her :-)

Disc training and other

We decided to get back into some disc training.  We have just been working on full retrieves with the only toy that she would bring all the way back which was a soccer ball.  If Daiquiri would find a Frisbee somewhere she would pick it up and look at me like "please play this with me".  So after a couple days of her wanting it we went back to working on it. 

This time we took two discs out with us in hopes of using one as a lure to get her all the way back to me.  We had tried to use a long line in previous sessions to help with her retrieve but when I would go to pull her back she would drop the disc as if she were in trouble.  I would much prefer her to view all things fun with frisbee.  One disc was a regular hard plastic and the other was a SofFlite (a little softer plastic).  Miss Daiquiri decided right away she did not like the softer disc.  She would play with it but much preferred the regular disc.    So this time we started with short tosses within just a few feet because I knew she could be successful at those and still be in reach to get the disc back.  She was doing rather well with this so we moved to some longer throws.  I am super happy to report that she can consistently catch 20 yard throws with ease.  She is such a natural.  Her return needs lots of work as it is super slow right now.  I know with time we will get there though. 


At this point we were still struggling with the hand off.  She returns all the way but turns to the right just before getting to me.  So after only a small handful of those I decided to bring it back in close for some baby freestyle stuff.  That girl is CRAZY!!!  She LOVES close up work with a passion.  While I was holding the discs up high so she could not grab them she was leaping up to my head then trying reverse chest vaults (more like reverse stomach vaults) off of me.  She was not understanding when I told her she was not old enough for all that jumping so I decided it best to just sit on the ground for her safety.  I did not want to correct her for all that jumping as it would make it much harder to teach when we are ready.  We started baby "overs" with my legs flat on the ground.  It was game on for Daiquiri!!  To this point she has never been so intense on playing frisbee.  She stayed right with me, dropping one disc in preparation for another.  She has the most beautiful tucks when she jumps.  I had gotten to see them when she would jump up on the deck or couch but she even does it when she baby jumps during play.  Once she is old enough she will fly thru the air ever so gracefully!!  


With Daiquiri's disc training I am having to dig deep into my training techniques.  It has been such a long time since I have had to start from scratch.  Ariel was such a complete natural in every area from over the top, intense drive to full retrieves to catches.  With Ariel we just flowed onto each stage of training.  Daiquiri is taking me back almost 7 years ago when I started with my first dog.  I appreciate that as it really signals to me the great control that she will have as a disc dog.  Ariel is so crazy that we struggle because of it.  At four she is just now starting to calm enough that we may actually start being competitive at the level that we have to compete. It will be at least another 18 months before I start competing with Daiquiri in freestyle and boy I can not wait!!!


In other areas we are doing so good I could not be happier.  She does not go into automatic defend mode anymore.  Her focus on what we are doing is starting to override her previous need to see everything that is going on around her.  I think she is gaining so much trust in her family she is not feeling the need to be a protector every minute of the day.  The other day my 4 year old and Daiquiri had stepped outside together.  I was on my way out with them but by the time I got there (no more than 30 second later) they were headed back in.  I asked my 4 year old why and he told me that Daiquiri was barking at the men working next door so he told her to stop and come back inside.  It really cracked me up that she had actually listened to him!!


Ariel and Daiquiri are starting to "dance".  It is the funniest thing to watch.  They both get their hackles up and just jump around each other, never touching in an effort that neither lets the other behind them.  Ariel usually ends it by just walking away, ignoring Daiquiri.  If they do it close to me I stop them and to my surprise Daiquiri already calls off with ease.  Daiquiri likes to give Ariel the stink eye but she is not getting anything out of Ariel with it beside being ignored.  At this point I see Daiquiri being on top of my little pack as she matures with no problems.  Ariel is the alpha bitch here only by default, she really does not have it in her.  I really think they will get along with no problems in the future either.


Daiquiri thinks the sun rises and sets on my oldest son.  She can not wait for him to return from school.  She is not too fond of the rocking recliner yet when he is in it she willingly jumps up to sit with him.  He was sick over the weekend and she became the nurturer.  She gently climbed into the chair with him to give him the sweetest of kisses.  It was as if she knew she had to be gentle.  He told me the next day just how much better she made him feel.  I see an ever lasting bond being created there.  Daiquiri will be the dog that will pierce his heart for the first time.  He loved Tess very much but I can see something even more special between these two.  


Well I do guess I need to post more often in effort to not write a book.  Sorry no pics or video this time.  I am hoping to get some of her playing soccer with me.  She will back halfway across the yard on command.  It is so cute!!  


Oh - she did get the leg weave we were training by the end of the week!!  We have started the base for another trick (secret until we get it and then I will post video).

Some things we have learned.

Still not a whole lot going on.  I can officially say she is happy.  The tension she carried during the transitioning days has completely disappeared. I love every part of her personality. I am learning very much how Daca ticks, why to this point she has seemed to be such a challenge.  I really think she is very good at buffaloing people so that she can have the edge, be the one in charge.  Don't get me wrong, she is a challenge but oh what a joyful one!!  She is learning very quickly that I am the leader of the pack in this house.  She does test her limits now and then but within a few seconds she realizes that I am not giving in and she readily does as I ask.  I can also see that she is comfortable in the fact she has stopped reacting at everyone she sees.  She stops to see if she knows the person before going into automatic defend mode.  Even just this morning a new, strange man was cutting the grass next door and she just observed without going into defend mode.

Within another week or two we will be ready to start meeting people outside of the family.  Mostly observation at first to try to work some of her reaction away.  Help her to understand that things will be on her own time and that she does not need to show everyone just what a bad apple she can be.  She can make the choice not to be friends but she needs to learn that she can be respectful and no harm will come to her.  No one will pressure her to be petted or to go into a space she in not comfortable with.  I have learned a great deal about her just from the process of adjusting to my family.  It appeared to me that Daca related treats coming from someone to automatically mean that was someone she needed to be afraid of.  That goes against every type of shy canine training that I have ever heard of.  Here are my thoughts on that.  I flooded her with treats the day I picked her up.  It took her a few hours to warm up to me.  My husband gets home, he does not like treats so he did not grab any and boom she was his instant friend.  When we decided to start with my sons, my oldest had only given her a treat on the first day and she befriended him after the first game of soccer on day three.  Still at this point I had not thought a thing about the treats.  She was much slower warming up to my 4 year old.  Everyday I would have him feed her a bunch of treats.  She was very leery of him continuing into the 5th day.  Our schedules got busy so for about a day and a half I did not have him feed her any treats.  On the 7th morning after one whole day with no treats he became her new fun friend.  She is great with him now, loves their silly games together.  

I talked with a pro dog trainer friend of mine about this.  She agreed it was odd too.  We talked thru it.  We think that the reward (the food) is not higher than the fear to make her understand the concept.  We think maybe chicken or steak may do the trick a little better.  But I am still torn on how I want to handle new people.  I think leaving the treats out of the picture completely is the best option.  I guess trying will be the only way to find out.  I want the least amount of stress on her around new people and I think asking her to take treats puts too much on her all at once.  Maybe a toss of one here or there.   I will let you all know how that goes once we get to that point.  Just thinking ahead a little there.  I really could care less if she ever befriends anyone else.  I really just want her to be respectful which I know she has in her!!!


The space issues that I posted about in a post early on are almost nonexistent now.  She has not been nasty toward my family (dogs included) for being in my space.  She got that so easily.  I have only seen her react about space once  when she was spending time with my husband and a resource was envolved.  Ariel and I rounded the corner.  Daca thought my husband had a treat for her and turned to guard the entire area from Ariel.  My husband took action to calm her right back down (rather he knew it or not he was giving her the "calming hug" that I learned at a seminar while drawing her attention away from Ariel).  She understood quite well.  I could not ask for her to be doing better in that area.  I know she will test the waters now and then but I am up for it!!  


We started a new trick today.  We are starting the base of teaching her to weave thru my legs.  She got the first part of just walking under me to the right for a treat easily.  She even related the command without having to be lured.  I think next session she will be ready to learn to go to the left.  Heck from what I saw today we will have four consecutive steps by the end of the week!!!


Still no new name.  We have a short list but nothing seems good enough for her!!!


We will end with a picture again.  It only took two sit stays to get this.  I had to laugh at her.  Right after the click of the camera she "woofed" her disgust in a low tone and slowly strolled off.  It was the entire scenario that cracked me up...someone not wanting their picture taken, I was taking her romping time up with a dumb picture...the whole nine yards.  

Juat a couple pics and a video.

Not too much to report on these past few days so I thought I would share a couple pics and a video.

We bought a couple new Nylabones this morning.  My dogs have never been interested in them until Daca came along now all three love them.  

Here is Daca loving hers.....

I thought it too cute when they decided to lay together to enjoy their new chews.....

This is for you Lisa...your video fix :-)  The girls had just played a game of chase so I was standing ready hoping she would get in.  It was not that hot out this morning so this is laid back compared to her splashing when it is extremely hot.  We live in a heavily wooded area in case you are wondering where the grass is at...lol.  Only about 1/3 of of yard gets some sun during the day so in that area is the only grass we have.   Since neither my husband or I have a green thumb we have given up on growing grass :-)  So long as my frisbee fairway stays intact I am good!

Now that we have a dog that likes water we will have to invest in a bigger plastic pool for next summer!

I am sure that you have noticed she is dragging a lead.  That is one of my tools for training so you will most likely see that attached to her for quite sometime.  We have a homemade one that is much longer and lighter than a regular lead but yesterday while I was not looking Daca decided to chew it in half.  That is my fault since I should have made a shorter one for in the house!  Oh well out to the store for more supplies to make two more.

We are ready for a new name for her but just can not all agree on one.  Our goal is to have one firm by the end of the weekend.  Any suggestions are welcome even though I know all of you have come to love her as Daca.  

And the plastic flew.....

I decided it was time to take the plastic disc out to see how she would react to it.  Some dogs are a little hesitant at first, not really used to the feel of the hard plastic in their mouth.  I grabbed a frisbee and headed out with her.  She was so excited to see it like she knew exactly what we were headed to play.  

We started with a game of tug just to see if the feel would turn her off.  Heck no, that was easy for Miss Daca since tugging is officially her favorite game.  So I rolled it on the ground which she happily chased, picked up but headed the opposite way.  We laughed that off.  I decided some close up work until we get a firm full retrieve was our best option. She learned what a "take" was which she enjoyed with no hesitation.

Then our big moment came.  I decided to toss one about 5 yards out just to see if she would catch it or even attempt to catch it out of the air.  WHAT WAS I THINKING...of coarse she caught it!!!!  At this point I got a little over excited and threw one just a little longer.  She did not catch it but I am VERY impressed with her tracking skills.  She gave it her all so what more could I ask on our first practice??

At this point I am thinking some observation of Ariel playing will go a LONG way.   So far she has picked up on a lot just by watching.  She is one smart little girl that is for sure!!


Once we get a full retrieve down pat she will be smokin' ;-)

Just settling in...

We have not had much exciting news the past few days.  Daca is just spending some time settling in with the family. 

Today she discovered just how fun that baby pool in the yard can be.  To this point she thought it was just a big water bowl.  Today she decided she would test the waters by slowly climbing in.  She could not stay out of it from that point on.  She would wade thru it, attacking the leaves under water then get out to roll all over the ground.  She looked rather silly with a mud mustache.  Needless to say it needed a good cleaning by the time Daca was finished.  

We love to work our trick training.  She is so fun to work with.  I can just see that little brain of hers clicking as we work.   When she arrived she knew all the basic commands.  She also knew spin but we have officially added "other way" to that so now she knows both directions.  We are working hard on "sit pretty" but it is oh so tempting at times to lift that butt off the floor when the front paws come up.  My bet is next session she will have it down.  

We have been working on our fetching skills.  I could not ask for more.  She has a super strong game of tug which we use to get the full retrieve.   She got so into the game we accidentally ripped her squirrel a little.  Guess it is time to head to the plastic soon.  She has the game of soccer down except when she decides she needs to kill the ball.  She is coming along way better in this area than I had anticipated!


We have started taking her for walks thru our neighborhood.  Our neighborhood is quiet but we usually run up on a low key stimulation to work on some focus and redirection (people mowing lawns, weeding their flower beds, dogs laying in their yard, etc.).  She has done very well with this.  It is hard for her still but she knows what I expect and has been very good to this point at obeying.  We have only had one incident but it was a super over drive stimulation but 10 feet past and we were able to focus again.  On her defense it was a puppy running toward us and a large woman running behind with her hands out to the side.   I think I would have taken defense too had I not known better.  We moved on about 10' on past to work on focus to me.  She immediately calmed again even with the people still in site and we were on our way to finish our walk.  I would say that being our only incident on all of our daily walks we are off to a great start.  My husband and I laughed about the lady/puppy incident when I got home (long story why but it was comical to us).  


While on our walk today my 9 year old son says..."This is the best dog we have ever owned."  I will leave it at that :-)

Daca's first soccer play...

We decided today was the day to start her interacting with our sons.  What a better way than a fun game of soccer!  We had to let Ariel show her at first just how fun the soccer ball was.  Once we got her started it was Ariel inside, Daca's game on!! I ran in to get the camera to take stills but there just was not enough light left for my camera.  I put it on video mode and was able to catch some at the end.  By this time she was rather tired.  She ventured away to visit my 4.5 year old just out of frame but once called back into the game it was ON again.  You can see she was very relaxed in their presence.  Yet again another success!!!  Enjoy...sorry it is so grainy....it is a still camera after all :-)

Space and rescources- Whos are they anyway?

That is a question that Daca's answer to is wrong, she thinks all of it is hers and needs guarded with all she has.  This became very clear to me yesterday.  My original plan was to keep her separate from the dogs completely until she has bonded with me.  As part of learning behaviors I took her out with my best mannered dog, Ariel.  I wanted to see exactly what I was dealing with as far as dog to dog interaction skills.  A week from now Ariel would have been old news.  As soon as we stepped outside Ariel came into my space and Daca lunged with great warning.  I stood and observed for a moment.  With her lunge Ariel had backed away.  As soon as Ariel took a step toward me again Daca lunged to back her off again.  I knew right then she was space guarding me.  


At this point I took out the treats and the behavior became worse than ever.  Right then I learned that now she not only felt she needed to guard me but also her favorite resource, food.  We then spent about 20 minutes working a few exercises trying to show her that my space is mine and any resource is mine.


After this bit of learning about Daca I have decided that Ariel will need to be a part of her training right from the beginning.  Only about an hour or so a day learning about resources/space.  I still will not allow much fun interaction as this is all about learning who rules the roost around here.  


Daca is getting it already.  Our session this afternoon in the yard went much better than I could have expected.  We only worked on space (I left the treats inside).  I won't bore you with details but here is how things were going by the middle of our session....

When Ariel would come to me for pets Daca would not come over unless I invited her.  She never lunged at Ariel.  She did try to give Ariel "the eye" a couple times.  Since I would not allow that in my space or allow her to be in my space anymore when she acted that way she quickly knocked it off.  I think that since I was able to pick up on her guarding in the very beginning that we will kick that in the bud easier.  I do not unrealistically think that I will make it go away but she will not guard against anyone that is part of our family.  Now outside the family will be a different story but we will tackle that one when we get there.  


I did allow them just hang together for few minutes.  Ariel is a people dog and really could care less about play with another dog.   Daca initiated a play bow to Ariel and took off running.  Ariel gladly chased her around one loop of the yard.  But that was enough play for the day for Ariel.  Daca would walk over to Ariel to give her kisses and she got a "good girl" from me every time.  Ariel only felt the need to correct Daca once and I was so very proud that Daca took the correction and went on with herself.  


I know it is not fixed by any stretch with a long road ahead of us but I am once again so proud of the progress she is making.  She is so very smart and gets things so easily.  I can not imagine it being a rough road at all.

I already love her dearly.  So far she is everything that I love about an aussie.  She is so smart, a great problem solver, very dedicated, a quick learner, tough, challenging, just to name a few....everything I LOVE. She has some funny behaviors and some silly noises too.  She is just a joy to be around. 


Let's finish with a pic....here she is resting next to me while I typed this....

Daca Arrives.....

Since I have some time this morning I thought I would start with this blog.  This is a completely new concept to me so bare with me.  I sent Krisitn so many updates yesterday that I am going to share some of them here.  

Daiquiri arrives.....

You can see she was really stressed when we arrived at Delta to pick her up.  But by the time we arrived home she was already starting to calm a little.....

She was scared but not carrying herself as overly stressed.  She had shut down, which I expected.  She did not growl or bark at me yet she did not want me to touch her.  So I took her down to the semi-finished part of the basement where there is no chance of escape yet a large area and opened the crate door.  I sat on the floor with treats in hand.  We sat together for about a half hour.  I laid treats on me in different areas each time asking for her to invade my space more and more, all without me attempting to touch her to gain her trust.   We went thru her commands all of which she did wonderfully, even "down" within inches of me.  She also gave me her paw which I liked to see happen already.  I put her back into her crate for more decompressing after the flight.  Then I went back down with her dog food in hand this time.  I fed her a few pieces at a time while I used my other hand to softly touch her while still crated.  Then I moved her collar around to where I could attach the leach easily.  So now we were on leash and headed outside.  She pottied and walked around with me, coming over for food and some command work.  I released her in the fence with leash in tow and she did well, she never tried to hide nor did she feel a need to keep a constant eye on me.  So after some time I took her back to her crate for more decompressing.  She had been thru a lot the past few hours.  She still did not want me to touch her at this point bit I let her have that.  I knew she would come around all in good time.

I got Daca back out to meet the husband for the first time outside.  He had sat on the ground about 10 feet from the door we would be coming out.  Daca surprisingly started wiggling her butt all over him and giving him kisses like it was her long lost friend.  He did not even have a treat in hand!!  She was still hesitant with us but getting better by the minute.  At this point we brought her squirrel out for some play.  She brought on a killer game of tug and even played a light game of fetch for me.  

So after so more playtime I needed to work my other dogs then take time out for some updates to CA.  The entire time Daca was pitching a fit in her crate so I headed down to get her.  I did my routine of getting food and offering prior to opening the crate door.  She turned her head like "no thank you".  I though oh crap, set back.  I went ahead and opened the door held the treats in one hand while I hooked her to the lead with the other.  She came out of that crate like never before.  I do believe I was officially licked to death!!  Then she started pushing her head on the ground rooting, smiling away all while wiggling all over.  She finally flipped completely over on her back all happy with the world.   I could not stop laughing at her tactics.  At this point I knew that she was my friend!!!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.  We spent time just sitting observing my sons so that she can learn that they are no harm to her.   She is doing very well in that area too, as good as can be expected really.  She does not want to be their friend yet but is being very respectful of them.  She takes treats every no nicely and even does her commands for my oldest.   My sons are accustom to having to work with pups like this so it is not new to them.  However this time they know it is for a dog that is theirs forever!!!  

To sum it up 24 hours into our "Daca Adventures" and I feel we have been very successful to this point!!  It is going much better than I ever anticipated!!  Updates from here may be slow coming as I do not expect much more to happen the next week or so.  Here is a happy face at the end of the day...