Miss Cindy growing up...

 Miss Cindy is getting bigger. And still no home. I've been out walking her, showing her off to the neighborhoods and we'd thought that she might possibly have found a forever home, but it seems that it's on hold while we wait. But she's not waiting. She's growing, and learning, and getting smarter and more shepherd-like as you read this.

Here's what I have learned about Miss Cindy. And what she has learned. We've fallen into a lovely rhythm where I wake up at about 6:45 in the morning and take her outside to go potty. There are a couple of walks, one shorter, one longer, and several trips out just for potty. She is still scared of the stairs, but today I took her down to the laundry room to practice on the five stairs going down there, and she managed it quite nicely. I have a feeling that it's the darker red carpeting, the shadows, and the larger amounts of stairs that throw her off.

She's a puppy, so of course she's still in the nibble stage. She HAS, however, decreased on that one a lot. It pretty much happens now only when she's really excited. Whoever gets her will want to continue to discourage it by redirecting. I've seen many people who let her chew on them and say that it's okay because she's a puppy... but she's got to learn some time...better now than when she's big. Because she's going to be big enough that what is cute now is painful later. When she wakes up and before and in spurts she's very energetic, and loves to run and play growl at her leash, and play with her toys. I've figured out the key is to give her enough exercise. When she's able to run it off she becomes calm and loves to sit with you and just hang out. Right now she's laying under the couch. Well, she WAS. :-)

She can startle at things that she's not seen or heard before. This morning, she saw a garbage truck from about twenty feet away backing up...the beep beep beep part scared her and she wanted to run, but with a little hunkering down and calm chat she ran up and sat between my legs and was able to watch. Anything, she'll come and sit between my feet and then look at whatever it is with curiosity. Once she knows it's not going to get her, she's fine.

Once she's got her frenetic puppy energy run off (it's getting easier now) she does very well at Sit, Down, Touch, Paw (that's a great one, by the way, when she has her leash wrapped around her leg) and she's doing REALLY well at sitting on command when we see another dog coming along. Since she's a puppy and some dogs like their space, we leave it up to the other dog's non-fur parents to let us know if it's okay to play. If so, then it's on. What has surprised me, though, is her sweet side is coming out, and what I thought might be a dominant dog is sitting and rolling over on her back for pets and for play...a submissive gesture. And she loves putting her nose to the ground looking for stuff to pick up. We're using "ick!" "out!" for her to know that that's not a good thing to eat... :-)

Now if she still wants to stay where she's at, she WILL plop down and not move... and no, treats aren't really going to help. She's a bit blase about them. But she DOES love her evil squirrel squeaky toy and tennis balls. As long as you make it sound like it's the best thing ever to come to you right now she'll lay there and stare at you (that shepherd stubborn streak). So getting her to come to you solely to put her leash on or to get her to go into her crate isn't a great idea. She's smart enough to figure out that you're going to do something when you use a specific tone of voice... but if you call her over for nothing more than to give her lots of love and pets, well then she'll love you and won't mind coming over at all...

Oh, and she loves to argue with Mr. B. Until I tell them to break it up. :-D