Onyx in the New Year

SSD Onyx spent a week with her brother SSD Denim, and they rang in the New Year together.

Or, they would have rung in the New Year if they had been awake. Both Onyx and Denim curled up in their crates and fell asleep around 7 p.m.! Demin's puppy raiser actually had to wake them up so she could move their crates into her room for the night. The dogs went right back in and fell asleep again.

When they weren't sleeping, Onyx and Denim had a great time together. They would play, and play, and play, and then collapse into sleep. When they woke up, they'd start the cycle all over again. Onyx used her stalking skills on her brother. He was lying under the table, and she sneaked up on him. She pounced, he jumped, and off they went, tearing around the house!

Denim's puppy raiser got the two dogs into a routine. She found that she had to feed them separately, otherwise they turned it into an eating contest! At the end of the week, after Onyx returned to her own puppy raisers, Denim moped around the house. He missed his sister!

Since our last post about Onyx, her puppy raisers, Mark and Carol, have been working on leave it with her. Onyx has nice self control! Carol can put a piece of chicken, Onyx's second favorite treat (next to cheese whiz), on a chair and tell Onyx to leave it. Even when Carol walked about ten feet away, Onyx still left the chicken alone! Leave it when the tasty chicken is on the floor is a little more challenging. The first time they tried it, Onyx lunged for the chicken and Carol had to quickly cover it with her hand. After that first lunge, however, Onyx did much better.

When she thinks one of her puppy raisers has cheese whiz or chicken in their hands or pockets, she'll throw herself into a down and look up expectantly. In fact, just last night she tore down the stairs and threw herself into a down at Carol's feet, looking up as if to say "See? I'm doing something good! I deserve a treat!"

She still likes to chew, especially on the metal legs of the coffee table. However, she is starting to release faster when asked to leave it. Progress!

This week, Onyx visited the chiropractor with Mark and Carol. After making sure that the chiropractor didn't mind if they brought Onyx inside, Carol decided to try practicing some skills with her in the waiting room. At first, the puppy wanted nothing to do with training, not when there was a whole room full of stuff to investigate. She eventually settled down and was able to get down to business. However, Carol discovered that it's much more challenging for Onyx to give behaviors in unfamiliar environments, and they're going to really start practicing skills in new places.

All of the dogs and puppy raisers are required to attend puppy classes, where they can ask questions and learn new skills to work on. In the last class, we started woring on shaping. Carol has been working with Onyx to shape visit, in which the dog puts its head on a person's lap. Onyx is still a little confused about the concept of shaping, but she's starting to get the hang of it.

In our last post about her, we mentioned that she was growing quickly, and she certainly hasn't stopped! She is losing her puppy face and now has a small adult face. But even though she's starting to look like an adult, she still acts like a puppy. She seems to be looking for trouble all the time. Lately, she has started countersurfing, especially since she's now big enough to reach. She usually countersurfs when Mark or Carol are doing something in the kitchen, and she seems to be more curious than interested in swiping things off the counter. Her puppy raisers have to be vigilant to keep her from investigating.

She still likes to "help" load the dishwasher, and she's sure that the dishwasher door is her very own special spot, even though she's starting to get too big to fit up there

Every morning, Onyx walks down the pier with her puppy raisers. They live on one of the off-shoots of the Chesapeake Bay, and Oynx loves to look around. Once a flock of honking geese flew overhead. Onyx took one look at these strange loud creatures in the sky, decided they were too scary, and bolted - right into Carol's legs! Later that afternoon, another flock of geese flew by, but this time, she didn't bolt.

Onyx is making progress, sometimes slowly, sometimes very quickly. Come back next week to check in with Onyx and her puppy raisers again.