[PyrNet-L] LUCY

Hi Deanna, Wow! you have come a long way with Lucy considering she's only 3 mos old. We only started with Heidi at that age. I was about to tell you that Heidi doesn't "play-bite" when I realized that she most certainly does - with our 16mo. old Samoyed, Chewbear. He takes care of disciplining her when she gets too rough. She comes to us for hugs & cuddles. Our biggest problem to date is THE PYR-PAW. We are trying to discourage her from swatting us with her paw for attention. I have trouble imagining a dog who weighs 125 lbs. whacking me with a paw!!!

Did you read the suggestion re the digging problem? It sounds like a possible solution. We just finished resodding a whole area of the back yard that had interesting dirt (to Heidi). We also put down white stone in another area to discourage her. The first day she tried to eat the stones. Our Vet says that puppies are just vacuum cleaners on four legs, er, paws.

It's very interesting to me how alike puppies & children are in certain aspects of their behavior. FOR ALL OF YOU OUT THERE....I AM IN NO WAY SAYING THAT CHILDREN ARE LIKE DOGS SO PLEASE DON'T SEND OUTRAGED E-MAIL TO ME.

Having raised 3 children, I can tell you that our Samoyed displays jealousy as well as other behaviors of siblings so if you think your dog is lonely & you want to rectify the problem, send he/she to doggie daycare. It's a lot easier & probably no more expensive.

Deanna, I don't know if you have a PETSMART where you live. If you do, they have very reasonable prices for puppy training. Heidi's trainer shows her dog, Laddie, a border collie & has won all sorts of prizes particularly in the fields of behavior & socialization.

Both our Pyr & our Samoyed would rather be with people than with other dogs, Heidi more so. I imagine they think of young children as neat toys.

A funny story.....our Samoyed loves to go for car rides. His day is made whenever someone in another car waves to him. And if we're on a walk & someone stops to admire him, he can hardly contain himself. If we are riding & he is not getting waves, he starts whining & pacing on the back seat. This is to indicate to us that it is time to hunt down people to coo over him. Heidi is right there with him to get cooed over but she doesn't deign to beg for other people's attention....she leaves that part to him...he does it soooo well.

On the subject of the car, Heidi still has a problem with motion sickness. She has tossed her cookies the last 2 times we've been out. I'm hoping it has much to do with the heat, even tho' our vehicle has AC.

For that play-biting problem, there is a suggestion involving yelling OUCH or something. All I can tell you is that if I yell at Heidi, she ignores me completely (unlike Chewbear, who will do anything in his power not to hear me yell). I have to get down in front of her, try to imitate a baritone & speak to her sternly. Not to says this works well, but it does work sometimes.

One last tidbit....the trainer says that all new lessons at this point should be started indoors (away from such distractions as blades of grass, ants, wind, etc.). And, under no circumstances should you use the come command off leash yet. The pup must have the command down pat on lead first. If you use the come command & are unable to enforce it after one call, you have undone all preceeding training. When practicing lessons, a command (no matter which one) should only be given once. If it is not obeyed & you must repeat it, enforce the command by hands on demonstration ( such as turning head toward you for "watch me" command).

Oh, I think Heidi recognized her name about three wks ago. The best thing I can tell you is to love her & love her & spend time grooming her now so that she'll be used to it when her real hair comes in, probably about 9 mos. from now.
Kathy, Joe, Chewbear(Sammy) and Heidi(pyr)
Wish you well.. Woof, Woof