Fetching for a Break

Well it has been a longer Summer and yes, Ilse and I are still here and doing well.  I apologize for not posting more often.

I wanted to have a good post today about Ilse going to vote today in the KW By-Election, however, you're not allowed to take any photos inside the voting stations.   So, we went together and she was very well behaved.  I even had her sit and stay in the room with volunteers all around, as I walked away to cast my ballot.  I didn't want her to know who I was voting for after all.

This afternoon, I was sitting at my desk (I work from home) and was finding myself getting a bit stir crazy.   I decided and Ilse agreed that it was a good time to play some fetch in the back yard.  In the process we even found her lost Kong toy, so it was a win-win-win!

Here are some of the photos I snapped as Ilse would run back to me.

Making Friends

Well it's been a busy week with work, the house, and uh... what was that other thing?  OH RIGHT.  Ilse.   I guess I should start this post of with a moderately embarrassing correction.  Before I mentioned Ilse's name was pronounced "Ill-see", well in reality it is pronounced "Ill-sah".  My apologies to the sponsor of the puppy, we have made the switch and she is getting used to it now.  So, without further ado.... everyone meet, Ilse ("Ill-sah").  Haha.

"What do you mean, we can't play right now?"

This is what kills me about Ilse, her eyes always look like she is sad, despite being a pretty happy puppy.   It's hard to not give in to whatever she wants.  But I must stay strong! 

She is making excellent progress (in my opinion) in terms of training.   She will sit on command 100% of the time when focussed and slightly less so when moderately focussed.  However, we do still need to get her working on the focussing part.  But... we'll get there in time.   My goal is to have her responding to the 'down' command by Monday, so that is on tonight's agenda and this weekend.

Aside from training, she is just being the usual puppy and wants to make friends with anyone and everyone.  One of the good friends that she has made is my friend EW's 3.5 year old beagle named Boomer.   The two have played together a few times now, and they get along really well.  Boomer is very patient with Ilse and will play along, but keep her in check.  They are a lot of fun to watch when they are playing and here are some photos of it, courtesy of EW.

Another Day Down

I've now spent two complete days with Ilse and we are both starting to get more comfortable around each other.  I starting to develop a sense for when she has to go outside, and she is getting better at informing me when she needs to go.  I'm writing this just after she went to my office door, pawed at it and let out a small whine.   We quickly headed outside where she found a spot on the lawn.  So far no accidents in the house today (hopefully I didn't jinx it).

Well last night, as I mentioned before, my friend RB came over to visit and she brought her 2 year old Shih-poo "Maeby" over.  The two got along reasonable well, and the four of us went for a walk around the block.  It still amazes me how well Ilse is walking at her age.  She follows right behind me, sometime right beside me, and generally pays no attention to anything else.   Although this morning she wanted to go play with some kids who were walking to school.

After the walk we came inside and Maeby & Ilse played together for quite some time.   It was quite funny because originally Maeby was not interested in playing with Ilse and let that be known through some growling.  Ilse just looked at her, didn't make a sound back, and kept trying to play.   After several unsuccessful attempts of initiating play, Ilse gave up, and came to lie down beside and go to sleep.   This was when Maeby decides "Oh, well she's sleeping now, so.... let's play!"  and would run over to Ilse and wind her up to play. Here's a video of them playing nice.

Also, in between writing this today. I was able to get Ilse to sleep in her crate. As I think I mentioned before, she has taken to sleeping at my feet. So, I moved the crate to my feet, got her to go into the crate, then stuffed a foot in there with her til she fell asleep. Hopefully this will help her to associate the crate as her "den".

Oh and for the record... there are 2 red tone blankets in there, its not darker due to wetness.  (I thought it kinda looked like that at first).