Snow and Christmas

Trying to get an update online finally. These are a few pictures of the girls in the snow right before Christmas and at Christmas.
















DH got a Nano Bug for Christmas. Molly is sure it is a dog toy.



The girls will do anything for MARSHMALLOWS!

Buddy Cube

The other day it occurred to me that Shawnee might like the buddy cube. I don't think we'd had it out since Molly was Shawnee's age and she wasn't very interested in it. It is also very noisy, which can get annoying.

The buddy cube is basically a die with a hole instead of a dot for 1. You fill treats or kibble into the hole and it gets put into an internal maze for later release. You can adjust the difficulty by turning the hole insert to modify the size of the release holes.

Shawnee loved it and Molly even got into it more than she had in the past. So this is something they'll be getting to play with once in a while when we can stand the noise. (in other words, NOT on migraine days!!)

The added advantage with Shawnee is that it got more food into her. She hasn't been eating well, although crating her at meal time over the past week has helped some.

In case you are wondering about Molly's unusual attire, she is still generally stuck in a sock or bootie or at least vet wrap to protect her one toe. The vet thinks it started with a small injury, but she keeps licking it and making things worse. It is mostly healed now, but she is not yet ready to leave it alone.

The Girls in the Snow

Please forgive the insane lack of updates lately. Bex has been down with a concussion since before Christmas and still isn't right.

Description limited because of writer's health. Suffice it to say, we have too much snow. No picture of it, but Molly has been helping water the ponies. I put on her seat belt harness because it is comfortable for pulling and tie her to one of the smaller water jugs. She drags it out to the ponies' trough so I only have to pour it in. She sometimes needs help getting it moving again after a pause, but she is VERY good and loves the job. Shawnee helped once, but has an injury on some of her pads, so is off duty right now.

Name Recognition

One of our primary goals with training for the past few weeks has been to get the girls to learn to respond only to commands directed at them. I have worked a lot of puppy push-ups with both girls at once, rewarding only the one I ask to do the behavior. We also played the come game using the girls names, rewarding only the one we called. DH has spent many evenings in the pasture, incorporating play into the training.

We MEANT to Train Today...

After posting training videos to the training levels list yesterday, I was feeling really inspired to train today. But things don't always go how we plan. DH was off work for the day. So we ran some errands (the girls came along in the car.. they love car rides). By the time we got home, I was beat and aching.

We had lunch late and relaxed for a while inside. Then the rain finally cleared so we took the girls with us out to the pony pasture (the ponies are on summer grass). They got to run around and sniff and play while we set up poles in prep for some horse training I need to do. Been using the pasture as an arena when DH and the girls aren't playing in it.

While out, we premacked some recalls (Called them to us one at a time, praised the come, and sent them back out to sniff). Both are coming better after last night's hot dog training. Then DH went in to get the frisbee and ball.

While he was gone, I got the bright idea to pull my hat off my head and throw it like a frisbee. Both girls caught on to the game fast. I did some stay training. While Molly held a stay, Shawnee fetched my hat and did her FIRST EVER deliver to hand. She usually drops things at our feet. It was a one time thing, but I am optimistic she will learn it eventually--maybe not until I train her formal retrieve, but some day.

Then they played for a while with DH. Both brought the toys to me intermittently to include me in their games. As usual, copious stays thrown into the mix. It was fun and it did use their brains as well as their bodies. Now I am aching horrendously and feeling just about ready to bed.

So even though we didn't do the training I wanted, it was a good day for the girls filled with lots of real-life practice.

BTW, Shawnee peed on command a strange place again. she's done it in the past, but I feel more confident that she "gets" it as she gets older--not just that she is so desperate she just goes.

Playing with Water

These pictures are a week or two old now, but I am slow getting things posted. Can someone PLEASE explain to me how Shawnee can be so happy doing this but so upset when I put her in the shower or a tub in the yard and give her a bath??

Molly, on the other hand, makes sense. She hates baths but she also tries to avoid the water from the hosing, scolding it with her barking from a safe distance.

Play Fighting

The girls love to play fight with each other. Here is a little video clip of it. Note that the noise is Molly or the wind.

FAIL: Shawnee Style

I have a zillion (okay, I narrowed it down to less than 40) pics of the girls from playing in the pasture two nights ago. It took me two days to sort and trim them and get them online. It will take me even longer to get them into the blog. To make matters worse, we took the girls out to the fence again last night only I put the big lens on the camera. I haven't even looked at those zillion pictures yet. So I will be posting small batches of pictures from this weekend for a WHILE.

To start, here is Shawnee showing a failure in her own little way.


She went out after the ball like she should. As usual, she overshot. See the yellow tennis ball lying there waiting for her to pick it up?




Here she is running back to Daddy. What's that in her mouth? Where's the ball?




Here she is spitting her prize out for Daddy, wanting him to throw it. Molly is turning around to watch the game. She's been in a stay for this throw.

What did Shawnee retrieve? Have you guessed it? PONY MANURE! I guess she somehow mistook that big brown chunk of poo for the yellow slobbery tennis ball?


We had to send Molly out to retrieve the real ball. Shawnee did not even try to eat her find. DH took it away.

Silly Shawnee

ShawShaw still hasn't figured out giving a toy TO a person when she wants to play. She puts it on the floor. Even if Molly puts it on furniture, Shawnee takes it and throws it on the floor. She doesn't just drop it, but throws it down forcefully.

I've done the "I can't reach" trick that worked so well with Molly but to no avail. I've even put Molly into a stay to try to get Shawnee to try again.

But what Shawnee has figured out is to put one paw on the sofa and the other on my SHOULDER to get my attention to the fact that she wants to play! She also has nudged me with her nose sometimes.

These could turn into great alerts if I needed one. She may be too stupid to deliver a toy, but she's definitely creative!

She just pawed my shoulder again...

Taking Turns

Initially we had the girls taking turns by putting Molly into a stay. But recent play sessions have shown that that is not necessary. Molly holds back on her own to let Shawnee have a few turns. She seems to have her own sense of fairness that wants to make sure that Shawnee has enough chances to play.

I am very proud of Molly for figuring this out on her own and I try to encourage the behavior. It is usually Molly that has to return the toy, because Shawnee can't figure out to do anything other than put on the ground and not always within my reach. Although she's the one that returned the toy, she often lets Shawnee chase it again.

We were playing fetch the kong this morning. It was very cute the way Molly would hold back. Molly definitely could easily have overtaken Shawnee and gotten the toy, but she didn't. Shawnee has not yet developed the same sense of fairness. Even after Molly had given her a few turns, she would go after the toy when Molly did and Molly would have to growl to scold her because it was Molly's turn.

Playing Together

With my DH off work and doing much of the housework, Molly is mostly off-duty as SD. This is great because it is giving her plenty of time to adjust to her added role of big sister. Here are some pictures of the twosome playing in the fence outside.














Overall, things are going well with Shawnee. She is having fewer accidents and getting better at pottying more-or-less on command outside. She and Molly are pretty inseparable with Molly taking a very serious protective role with her little sister. Shawnee has passed L1 sit but nothing more on the levels training. We're having trouble luring a down, so we'll have to capture it. She definitely understands the clicker though.

Initially Shawnee was very quiet in her crate, but she is in a screaming and trying to dig her way out phase. We are trying to be strong and hopign it will pass soon.