Oh boy...

Nadia may or may not have gotten out of her crate while I was at work. I have no idea how, but I know how to prevent it from happening again at least!

Training!

Nadia is coming along very well in her training. She's got "sit", "lay down", "stay" with distance, sit for greeting (mostly), and "come" down very well. Now we're working on "play dead", which we're using "bang!" as the command. It's ADORABLE. She puts her little legs over her head too! Super cute.

I'll take a video of it once she's got it down perfectly. Such a smart girl!

Memorial Day fun

* (Click on the images for larger versions!)*

Growing up!

Nadia had her last set of boosters on Friday, and she's now sitting at 12lbs. She's getting so big, I don't even notice until I really think about it, or look at pictures from when we first brought her home.

She's such a pretty girl, I love her.

We've introduced her to the ferrets, although that was about a week or so ago. She's very gentle with them, she just likes to follow them around and give them kisses. They aren't so fond of it, they prefer to do their own thing, but they don't mind her. When she's calm the'll go to her and lick her face, it's pretty adorable. I'm glad to see she's so sweet to them. She loves everyone, so I'm not surprised, everyone is Nadia's best friend!

I'll post a video of her and the ferrets pretty soon. I reaaaally need to get a new camera, I don't want to miss out on getting really good pictures of her as a little pup!

Harnesses are evil

Well, we've officially entered what I like to affectionately call "Brat-ville".

Nadia naturally has a bit of a bossy personality, but she aims to please. (As most dogs.) Lately, however, she's decided that doing the exact opposite of what I want is hilarious. I've gotten her a harness, but she refuses to walk on it. We even tried purchasing a different type of harness, with little more success than the other.

She loves to be dragged around by her rope toy, she'll put her back legs behind her in a "superman" pose and we'll walk around the living room. Well, now she's decided that the harness can work for this same purpose, since it doesn't affect her neck like a leash clearly would. She'll lay on the ground and flip over on her side or back to ensure that I can't force her to walk. What a brat! That's okay though, it's funny in hindsight, but boy at the time it sure isn't. :)

In other news, we started officially learning "come when called" yesterday. We use the term "hustle" because "come" is so overused, that way we can ensure that it is never accidentally used in a negative way, or overused so she'll ignore it. Basically it's the emergency "get here NOW" command. She did very well in class and picked it up quickly, but clearly it'll take some time before it would be usable in an emergency situation.

Well, off to work!

New Friends

Nadia made a new friend today, although they're only in town for a short bit. We went out for a walk and there was a beautiful corgi/sheltie mix named Lucy Liu playing with her owner. She was off her leash, and very well behaved playing some catch in the complex. We went over and chatted with them for a while, and Nadia was SO excited! She was running around and rolling all over the place. Lucy was very gentle with her, and very sweet. I mentioned to him that I plan on training Nadia as a Therapy Dog, and he asked about the process. After explaining it, and saying that Lucy is most likely already well-trained enough to take the CGC, he said he'd definitely look into it. I hope they do!

I wish I had gotten some pictures or video, but we didn't bring a camera or phone and it was too dark anyway. Oh well! Many more friends in our future, anyway. <3

Duck Feet

Who'd have thought that duck feet would be her favorite treat? She goes absolutely insane for them, and even got a bit testy with me when I tried to take it from her!

But, in puppy class yesterday we worked on "leave it", and she learned it in a snap! Even with her most favorite treat, she will completely leave it alone if I tell her to, and stare at it until I say she can have it. What a good girl!

Boy Crazy

So, it appears that Nadia is a complete flirt with the boys. I noticed right away that she noticed men more than women, and appears to "obsess" over their attention more than women. Haha, what a silly girl.

She saw one of our neighbors the other day out for a jog, and she stared at him until he went out of sight. She was completely mesmerized. I didn't think much of it until she saw him again today, though. She's always really good on the leash, never pulls forward, and typically walks next to or beside us. Well not this time. She saw him and immediately took off after him, pulling me all the while. I've never seen her so adamant about meeting another person!

He hopped into his car and took off before we got there, since she saw him from a pretty good distance. She made such a fuss that he noticed him coming up the sidewalk, and waved as he drove off. She then stared at his parking spot for a solid minute after he left before I picked her up and directed her attention elsewhere. (And even then, she kept looking over her shoulder wistfully while we headed back inside. I think someone has a crush!

She also followed a man around PetSmart for a solid five minutes the other day. I did my best to leave him alone and direct her elsewhere, so we went down another isle, but she turned at the end of it back to where he was and kept going. He finally stopped and petted her for a while, and she seemed very pleased with herself. Such a goof.

To top if off, my dad came over earlier today and she was crazy excited about it. She was barking and jumping like mad, and she doesn't typically do that. She was even whining in excitement, begging for his attention. So cute. <3

I'm curious how she'll react when she sees the (pretty handsome) jogger again. Haha~

Silly sleeper, and playing with Daddy

Adventure of the Day

Nadia had quite an adventure today. This morning was her first visit (with me) to the vet, and got her all updated on her shots. The girls at the front desk absolutely adored her, she pretty much melts the hearts of anyone who sees her.
The vet really wore her out, her and I fell asleep on the bed for a few hours after we got home. I didn't need the nap, but it was wonderful to cuddle with her like that. She was exhausted, she didn't even want to go outside to potty. We took her out, she went, then laid right back down on the grass. Haha, poor baby.

A while later I took her to PetSmart to see Jesse, her trainer and my best friend, and she had a lot of fun meeting all sorts of new dogs and people. She did, however, learn a valuable lesson the hard way! Never take anyone else's treats.

She very casually sauntered up and stole a treat right under another dog's nose, and boy did he get mad! She immediately apologized, he snarled in her face for a second, then they went about their business. I was worried, she's my baby and I definitely don't want her getting hurt.. but they both handled it pretty naturally. He told her "back off, and never touch my things again" and she cried "uncle". Hopefully that lesson will stick with her!

Now we're back home after a long time spent at the pet store, so we're going to settle down on the couch and watch some TV.

... Once she's done trying to catch her own tail.

Endless Amusement

Apparently icecubes and corgis are a hilarious mix. Nadia got ahold of an icecube I dropped, and she ran around the coffee table with it in her mouth for a good thirty minutes. I watched her carefully to make sure she didn't choke on it or anything, and once it gets smaller she seems to just sit down and eat it. Well, okay then! Free toy!

Settling in

Nadia is adjusting to our home fairly quickly, which is wonderful. I was concerned because the first two nights were fairly rough as far as sleep goes, but last night she went in her crate and was quiet the entire night. (Including when I took her out at 2am, and put her back.) Much improved from the high-pitched screeching she had been doing previously! Yikes!

She had her first Puppy Kindergarten class last night, and she did very well! She has "sit" down to an art, you don't even have to tell her to do it most of the time. (A hand signal does the trick, or if she wants something she'll quietly sit and wait.)

She met many other dogs, which was exciting. She met a great dane, a vizsla, a dachshund, golden retriever, a black lab, and a few others.

All in all, things are going pretty well. Her personality is showing through a bit more, and man is she a bit bossy! Quite bold, and headstrong. Very sweet, though, and perfect doggy etiquette! We're learning more about each other every day. :D

Home at last!

We got Nadia home last night, after a really crazy set of events!

First, it turns out the crate I purchased was WAY larger than it should have been. I ordered the proper size, but I was sent a massive one. I don't deal with crates enough to have known. Luckily, we had a soft crate we use to transport the ferrets that fit her perfectly for nap time. But, I'll get to that..

We were leaving the breeder's house when suddenly we smelled some smoke. It turns out while they were drying off the towel that was supposed to come home with us, the belt in their dryer went out and smoked up the whole place! They had to call the fire department, and it was getting close to 8pm at this point. Whoo, boy!

Luckily there was no fire, it was just the belt burning so that was all good. But while the boyfriend and I were leaving one of the fire trucks was coming in (we didn't know what the deal was yet, but had to start getting home) so I moved my car out of the way to make room for them on this tiny street.

WELL, it turns out I had way less room than I thought, and my front right tire went into a DEEP ditch. The actual bottom of my car was on the cement, and boy the sound it made!

We thought for sure that my car was busted... and because my tire wasn't even touching the ground I couldn't move forward or back.

It was a good thing that dryer burned up, because about seven firemen had to LIFT my car out of the ditch! It's a good thing they saw me, it was SO dark out you couldn't even see the ditch or anything! AHH!

My car turned out to be fine, thank heavens, and we made the five hour trip home safely. 

Nadia was a complete angel the ENTIRE car ride. Even with the breeder being anxious about us leaving and the smoke in her house, and then us being anxious (and a few curse words may have been shouted) she didn't bat and eye. She just watched the situation unfold quietly, even though I was about to burst into tears at the thought of my car being a goner. 

We were very blessed to have her act so cool and collected during everything. She made a bit of a fuss when we got home for bedtime, but we ignored her yelling for about ten minutes, then the rest of the night was smooth sailing. What a good girl!