Thursday, January 3, 2008

Presenting... the handsome Benny!





Benny's favourite Xmas pressie was his froggy (thanks Auntie Anneli!!)



Benny is doing really well at my house. He gets along well with my two and is pretty good with Apollo the cat - he is definitely interested in him but if he starts to get too interested, he is easily redirected. He has gone to daycare a few times and to the offleash park (but he is onleash). He is fine with other dogs unless they rush up to him from behind and get too close to his rear end -he does not tolerate that behaviour. Benny is enjoying the snow and loves to roll in it. He settles really well in the house and does like to be close by.
As stated above, he is demonstrating some mild seperation anxiety - I did have his crate downstairs but brought it upstairs so that my two were around him during the day. I crated him for the first few nights and he did a fair amount of yipping and whining. I moved him into a soft crate in my bedroom and he didn't make a sound. He is now allowed to sleep out of the crate at night and he sleeps curled up in a chair in my bedroom.


During the day he is crated in the lounge and my two are loose in the house and he is fine with that set up. However if I take my two out and leave him alone in the crate, he has demonstrated some mild destructive behaviours (the bedding took the brunt of it!). I am working on building up the length of time that he can be left alone and am also making the crate a wonderful place with frozen, stuffed kongs. He has never shown any destructive behaviours around the house so I will work up to leaving him alone loose in the house for short periods to see if he is better with that. However, when we are hanging out in the house, he is loose and he will go and lay down in the crate with the door open and sleep.

He is a good boy who wants to please. We are working at speeding up his response to cues and he is quickly learning to sit and wait for his meals and before going though doors and gates. He is food motivated and once in training mode, he is really focussed and offers his behaviours to try to get the treats!


1 February - I am working with Benny and his issue with being in his crate. Currently I have solved it by not putting him in a crate!!! He is fine if he is left loose in the house - he has not demonstrated any destructive behaviours and now has free reign of the house whilst I am away. I will continue to try to make the crate a fun place to be and gradually increase the time he is comfortable being alone in the crate.

























Sadie has a forever home!

Sadie went to her new forever home in Calgary on December 14th. Her new home is perfect - such a wonderful fit and I couldn't be happier. It was really quite hard to part with her and I did shed quite a few tears as she drove off with her new family. However, I am getting lots of photos and updates and knowing that she has a wonderful new life makes me very happy!!