As I type, it is five o'clock in the morning. This is the second time I've come downstairs since I got into bed just before midnight. Savannah has been waking up when the train goes by, which starts the coyotes howling, which gets this puppy to barking. The train is not in our backyard, it is in the next town. But because of the wide open spaces out here, sound travels without a buffer and I guess Savannah must think a train filled with coyotes is right up on our back porch. So she barks.
And, as my friend Janice has told me: "Isn't that what you wanted?" Yes, indeed. But not exactly at 2:00 and 5:00 in the morning. I wonder if we can teach Savannah to tell time...
Speaking of teaching, this puppy is a quick learner. She quickly mastered 'Sit!' -- both with the spoken word and my hand signal. She also knows how to 'Shake!' and I've noticed that she most often lifts her left paw to shake hands-- also responding to both the spoken command and the hand signal. Savannah has also learned where I keep her treats: in three glass jars in a corner of a kitchen counter-top. When she's in the mood for one of those treats, she will walk into the kitchen, look up at the counter to see if the jars are there, then sit down in front of that particular counter and then offer me her paw when I look at her. A somewhat subtle way to attract attention and get a treat because how can you ignore a smart puppy who's also cute.
I think the next thing to teach her will be to 'Stay!' and that should be a puppy-challenge for her just as it was for Gracie. When we were teaching that command to Gracie, along with the help of a very good dog trainer, we made her stay for 5 seconds, then 10 seconds, then 20 seconds.... continuing to increase the time until Gracie learned that when we said 'Stay!' she was not allowed to get up and move until we said 'Come here Gracie!' Which reminds me..... Savannah must also learn the command 'Come here!' (which should be easy for her to learn as long as I'm holding a treat).
On the flip side of the puppy coin, Savannah has taught me that she likes to carry around a small pillow and a baby-sized blanket. When we first got her, I had a cat-shaped pillow on one of the kitchen chairs. I had found it in a thrift store and bought it because it was so cute, even though it wasn't made of the best fabric. But for fifty cents in a thrift store, one can't be too picky, especially when the 'cute factor' wins you over. Within Savannah's first couple of days here, she plucked that pillow right off the chair and started to carry it around the kitchen. I took it back from her, saying 'No Savannah No!' and within minutes of my reuniting the pillow with the chair, Savannah would have it in her mouth again and would be parading it around the kitchen island. Once again, that cute puppy factor was hard to resist. And I have pillows all over the place... it was just the little cat pillow that attracted her attention.
Savannah won that battle and I just gave her the little pillow. The cheap fabric, however, couldn't stand up to puppy teeth and it started to tear, not because she chewed it, but just from her grabbing it and tossing it around the kitchen and breakfast room. Into the trash that pillow went, before the stuffing ended up all over the house. I honestly think she's still looking for that pillow and I'll have to see if I can find something suitable at the thrift store for her to rest her chin on, which is what she did with that other pillow after she tossed it in the air a few times. As I type this, Savannah is in the breakfast room with me, with her head on the blue and white baby blanket that she drags around with her from time to time.
One habit we have to break here is Savannah's tendency to bark (roar!) when I'm sitting in a room and my husband walks into the same room after being outside or upstairs for a while. It's almost as if Savannah forgets that I am not alone in the house. She has to learn that more often than not, my husband is indeed here and just may walk into the same room that I happen to be in. Savannah's bark is loud and roaring and threatening, and yes, that's what we wanted. However, we didn't want that barking aimed at one of us, or at our friends who come to the house every week.
To be fair to Savannah, she also barked at me one night when I had been upstairs for a while and she was playing in the TV room with my husband. When I walked into that room, she jumped up and gave me her best barking roar and continued to do so until I said "It's me, Savannah, it's me!" It was the perfect opportunity for me to tell my husband "See! She barks at me, too, so she's protecting you as well as me!" (I wanted to point that out because my husband had been taking it personally when Savannah barked at him.)
It's nearly six o'clock in the morning now, right about the time I usually get up. As I type, Savannah is sound asleep... exhausted probably from the two after-midnight bark-fests that began with the train going through the next town and the coyotes howling in our woods. I may as well just go upstairs and get ready for the day rather than go back to sleep at this point.
.... It's nearly eight o'clock in the evening now. Savannah has had a big day... the tea ladies were here at 3:00, and I took her for a walk down to Gloria's at 6:00. The walk down the hill went fine until we got to the stone and gravel driveway at Gloria's house. Princess Puppy does not like walking on that driveway ('loathe' might be a better word) and I had to literally pull her so she would follow me to the smooth concrete of Gloria's car-port. That was one battle that Savannah was not going to win.... where I walk, she has to walk, and that's just that, whether she likes it or not. Savannah just has to learn to trust the fact I wouldn't let her go where it wasn't safe for her.
I stayed there for a while talking to Gloria and Cindy, with Savannah continuing to be restless and anxious in the very comfortable shade of that car-port. We all just talked, and I kept an eye on Savannah, and when she finally seemed to be at peace with her puppy self, we said goodbye and off we went, for the walk towards home. She is fine with all the walking, it's the unexpected elements of any given walk that get her serene puppy self verging on a puppy melt-down.
This too shall pass. I certainly hope so. Surely Savannah must trust us by this time? Until next week, that is, when I have to get her into the car for a trip to the vet, to have her spayed. Oh my. That will be another adventure.
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