....well, nearly the entire night. I was determined not to come downstairs last night when Savannah barked in the middle of the pre-dawn morning. I barely opened my eyes when I heard her bark just one time at 2:30 this morning. I lifted my head off the pillow and called out "Go to sleep, Savannah!" Then the next thing I knew, it was 6:30 in the morning and I was waking up without having had to get out of that bed and walk up and down the driveway with a flash-light while the stars were out and the coyotes were howling.
Glory be to the puppy gods. I had been reading dog-training tips on the Internet and one site suggested that a puppy barking just one time in the middle of the night doesn't necessarily have to go out... some puppies just want to know that someone else is around. They will bark one time to see if anyone answers them. Being that Savannah sleeps on the first floor and we sleep on the second floor, she probably feels lonely when she wakes up in the middle of the night, which she has consistently been doing for the past three weeks.
At nearly seven months old now, Savannah's bladder is mature enough to 'hold it in' from her late-night walk until her after-the-sunrise walk, and she proved that last night. Actually, when I came down the stairs into the kitchen this morning, Savannah was still in her bed and didn't move anything except her tail in greeting. I even fed the cats and cleaned their litter boxes before I picked up Savannah's leash and got her outside for a walk. And this puppy yawned and stretched all the way down our considerably long driveway.
Speaking of outside... after Savannah's baptism-by-pond yesterday with visiting-dog Lupin up the road, every time I walked her past Jim and Judy's driveway today she stopped and looked for that water-loving Irish Setter. Thankfully, Lupin is now on her way back to Colorado with her 'parents.' And I couldn't be happier. I noticed that in Lupin's company, Savannah turned from an old-soul mild-manned puppy into a hyper-energetic can't-get-enough-of-everything dog. Not exactly the type of canine that fits either my personality or my husband's.
After Savannah jumped into Jim and Judy's pond yesterday (following Lupin's lead) she was quite proud of herself and would have done it again and again until her pretty white and copper fur was thoroughly soaked with pond-water and mud and heaven-only-knows-what-else. If that's what Lupin's owners want for their dog, so be it. But it's not the kind of activity that I want for mine. If Savannah wants to play and splash in the water, then fine... we'll get her one of those plastic kiddie pools and I'll make sure the water is clean and snake-free before she gets into it. I was cringing in my shoes yesterday when Savannah jumped into that pond up there. Water-Moccasins love pond water around here, and I would have definitely not been happy if I'd had to rush Savannah to the vet yesterday after her pond adventure with Lupin.
Lupin's owner is very proud of his well-trained dog who has learned many commands and words in sign-language, and rightly so. Lupin is indeed a very smart Irish Setter, and her owners have put two years' worth of training into her, but the bottom line is she's still a dog with a dog's instinct. At one point yesterday morning, Lupin spotted a deer off near the woods up the hill and she chased it... her owner called her and commanded her to come back. Well... Lupin kept running towards the deer and had no intentions of coming back until she either caught the deer or got tired of chasing that deer. I heard that Lupin's owner ran off after her for a considerable distance, so far away that they were both on the other side of our hills here.
Lupin finally quit running when she realized that she could not catch that deer. Her doggie-daddy was not pleased at all when he caught up with her and commanded her with sign-language to follow him home. When I saw Lupin and her owner yesterday afternoon (pre-pond-immersion) I had to bite my tongue to not ask that doggie-daddy what the sign language would be for Lupin to not chase a deer into practically the next county. (I am so bad.)
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