Alerts

Baby is making really good progress with bringing me the Kong to ask for food. I still think I'm going to have her do that, just so I can eliminate one thing she's communicating that I can't figure out. :) But I will make sure that I only feed her at what I decide are mealtimes (which will be after our meals).

I just fed her after I ate breakfast, and without her asking to be fed. I am handing her the Kong and saying "take it" as she opens her mouth to take it. Hopefully that will begin to teach her what "take it" means. She brought me the Kong after she finished, and I filled it up again for her. Now she has finished it and is trying to tell me something else.

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A few minutes ago she came to tell me there was a cat in the front yard, but I can't figure out what she wants this time. It wasn't potty, and she didn't settle down when I told her that we weren't going for a walk or eating any more food right now.

I can see this girl is going to keep me on my toes. I'm going to have to figure out how to tell her that I don't need her to alert me to every single squirrel or cat that comes into the yard. And, I am definitely going to have to keep her busy. I think that once she's feeling better she's going to be easily bored and want to be doing something constantly.

As I was writing this she was very clearly trying to tell me something, and I kept getting up trying to figure out what it was. Finally she led me to the room where DH is sleeping. We often sleep in separate rooms because of his snoring/tossing/turning issues. Apparently she thought something was wrong because he was sleeping somewhere other than my bed. Now that I have acknowledged her alert and told her that DH was fine and it was OK for him to be sleeping there, she has calmed down. DH said that she came into the room and tried to get him up just before she started alerting me.

She settled down after that, until all the kids got up and both M&M and Ebee had been in here with me for a while. Suddenly the dog seemed to realize that one was missing and tried to get me to go find AJ. Once she saw that AJ was up and fine, she settled down again and now is lying peacefully on the floor.

With this dog it's not a matter of teaching her to alert, apparently. It's going to be the task of figuring out what she's alerting to, and then teaching her what things do and don't require an alert (for instance, I don't need her to alert me to squirrels and cats, unless they're actually inside the house).

So far, she doesn't seem to continue insisting on something once I figure out what she's telling me and I acknowledge it, even if I then tell her no. She will become more and more insistent until I figure out what she is telling me, but once she knows I understand and have said no or not now, she's fine. For a minute, anyway, until she decides to try to tell me something else.

She seems to be settling in very well here. Ever since we got home she's wanted nothing to do with any of the things we brought from her previous home, but has been happy to use and play with her new things. She seems to already be getting over the separation anxiety, and is OK with us being in a separate part of the house or going where she can't see us now. She slept all night on her bed in the master bathroom and didn't wake me until 7AM when she barked to tell me she needed to go out. She's making good progress on the kennel training.

I'm going to start carrying treats on our walks and having strangers give them to her, so that she'll learn that even strangers can be friends.