Progress (Part II)

My favorite husband and I talked last night about how Kira is coming along. Wait, before I go on, let me explain about the reference to "my favorite husband." Whenever I say that, people often ask "how many husbands have you had?" ... which appears to be the obvious conclusion. Or is it? Well, let me say that I've only had one husband: Out of all the husbands there are in the world, H is my favorite one. He just happens to be mine. It's so simple. The English language is a wonderful thing.

OK, so back to the conversation we had about how far Kira has come in the last three and a half weeks. Here are some mile stones.

1. She comes instantly when called. We can let her go off leash when we are in the back yard. I've also let her off leash in the unfenced park that all my neighbors use as a dog park. But I’m not quite ready to leave her off leash when we are far away from the house.

2. She is not a wild child any more. She no longer runs through the house between the front door and back door, barking madly. She is very calm with us and loves to stretch out on her bed in the living room when we are there. When we are outside, she doesn’t instigate other dogs into a frenzy like she did her two brothers at Karen’s house. She barks and plays, but she's not crazy and wild. Following Caesar's Way, we give her lots of affection when she is in a calm state of mind. And it’s a good thing that she is almost always calm now because it’s impossible to keep your hands off of her. She is an absolutely beautiful, loving dog, with silky fur that must be touched.

3. She doesn’t wolf-sing all night. She sings for about a minute before she sleeps at night. I like that, because her singing is very pretty,but I confess I don’t want to hear it all night. I got an e-mail from Karen who says that Kira always howled when she wanted to be in the same room with her. Kira does seem to be learning that, even if we are out of her sight, we are still her pack.

4. She does not get on the furniture. Well, we had one funny incident early on when H scared her by clapping his hands at naughty Wolfie (who was about to knock over the Easter cactus), and Kira flew onto the sofa next to me and curled up into a ball as small as Daily, all within two seconds time. I got her off the sofa and put her on her bed and she realized no one was mad at her. I really wonder what happened to Kira before Karen got her. There was another incident right before I went to Houston. I had gone upstairs to take a call from my sister. H was out of the room, too. I don't know what happened, but suddenly we heard a terrible racket and raced down stairs to see a frightening sight: one of my Tiffany-style lamps was moments away from hitting the hardwood floor. Kira was sitting nervously on her bed. The lamp was propped half against my sheet-covered loom and half against the sofa, barely holding on. Certain items (loom, piano) are still covered with sheets in the living room because we are not quite finished with the dining room rennovation project. Anyway, I have no idea how Kira managed to knock the lamp over, but I think she may have scared herself off the furniture for now. So I call this a milestone.

5. We can now brush her. The first time we tried to brush her, she got so nervous that she peed…thank goodness she was in the back yard at the time. NOT brushing her is not really an option because she has longer fur that must be groomed. At the same time, I don’t want to frighten her. So we have been very careful to use the soft side of the brush and at the same time use our free hand to stroke her. It's funny to see a big GSD so afraid of it, when my little Wolfie Devil-Cat will grab the brush in his two front paws and hold it in place so that he can rub his face all over it. If you even say the word "brush," Wolfie comes running. I do think Kira might actually like it now. She particularly loves to have her face stroked. I give her face massages. Again, I wonder what happened in her previous life before Karen. Did someone try to use her as a show dog in her early life? I understand that show dogs must constantly be brushed. And she is so boney that it must have hurt her. Anyway, I consider it a milestone that she now likes being brushed.

6. She does her business outside now, and this week, she has been very good about going in the morning and in the evening. We have not had any accidents for a week. I really expect her to figure out this aspect of life very quickly. She is an incredibly smart dog. And I don’t blame her for any of the accidents. Although I’m glad we have a tiled family room and kitchen, I think it has caused a bit of confusion for her. At Karen’s, she used the tiny townhouse back yard, which was entirely paved/bricked, and Karen said Kira didn't like to go while on a walk. So, we think she thought she was supposed to use the tiled area in the house. Thank goodness for this milestone.

7. We think we have broken her of the habit of getting up on her back legs to push open a door. It is frustrating that we now have scratches on two of the doors in the kitchen. They are not horrendous scratches, but it bothers us that the house has managed to go for a hundred years without dog scratches on the doors, until now. She still manages to push open the door from the kitchen to the family room to let the cats out (we close them into the family room while she eats because they REALLY like her food). I think she uses her nose to open the door now, because she's quiet about it.

8. It’s SO easy to clip her claws! She is such a princess! Technically, Karen accomplished this milestone with her, but I just wanted to include it in the great Kira accomplishments.

9. She is great with kids and adults, and other dogs. Where Ziggy was unbelievably dominant around other dogs, Kira is willing to be everybody’s friend and loves playing. She is intimidated by some dogs. Ziggy was completely fearless; no dog or person ever scared him. He was very confident, but not mean in the least. He was aloof, but willing to meet people. Kira is a total kid magnet. She loves the attention. I think that the elusive offspring is going to find her to be a “chick magnet” too, if he ever returns from his elusive university life.

10. She smiles now, that big smile that is so typical of German Shepherd dogs. And she does the puppy ears when I lean down to hug her. That is one of my all-time favorite things. I love to see those giant (and I mean GIANT) pointed ears go down over her neck like a puppy, and her big grin, with tongue hanging out. Damn, that’s sweet!

Things aren't all coming up roses just yet. Here are things we would like to accomplish with her:

1. We’d like to put some more weight on her. Ideally, at her height, she should weigh close to 80 pounds. She's only 58-60 pounds right now. We plan to take her in and weigh her soon, but we don't want to be disappointed again. It’s hard to get her to eat. It’s never the same any two meals in a row. No two breakfasts or dinners are the same. Karen suggested that we try using some low-fat peanut butter (apparently low fat is necessary because dogs don't do well with fat; they need protein). So, we will continue to be as patient as we can. I give her little bits of cheese and egg sometimes. And I have discovered some treats that she likes. She is such a spoiled little brat. What I'd REALLY like in the long run is to get her on the dry food exclusively. It's so much better for her teeth and regularity. The frustrating thing is that the cats are sneaking her food (even at the same time she is eating, which tells you how sweet she is with the cats), and the cats are getting fatter and Kira is still skinny!

2. We’d like to know for certain that she will do her business outside in the morning and at night before bedtime, so we can get her out of the crate. Karen said she would wake her at midnight or one in the morning to go outside. We’d like not to have that. I feel like we are making great headway on this issue. No more about bathroom habits, please.

3. She still wants to put her paws on us when we are seated. It’s cute, but it just ain’t right. For one thing, you don’t want muddy paw prints on your nice clothing. For another, it’s a form of “domination.” Also, she can scratch you accidentally. This is a very hard habit to break.

4. I’d like to completely break her of the habit of jumping up on us when we are standing. We are doing well with this by taking a step forward and bumping into her as she jumps up. It throws her off balance and she doesn't like that. We have gone a good way toward breaking this habit. I think she would do well with some agility training. We could both use it!

5. I'd like to have control over her barking. But then, this is a universal desire when it comes to most German Shepherd dogs. I don't mind if she barks once or twice when someone comes to the door, but I'd like her to stop when I tell her to. She barks so much when she is at the dog park, too. It's like she thinks it is part of the play process...maybe it is. Heck if I know. I have absolutely no idea how to stop the barking.

Almost ten years ago, my friend Patti (suburbanlife-patti) suggested that we really needed a dog. She suggested this many times. My response was always "No, no, no, I'm sure we don't need one of those. We have cats. I'm a cat person." Then came Ziggy, and my life changed. As I explained in an earlier post, we "rescued" him, and I figured he would probably be the only dog we ever had. It would be good for the then-not-so elusive offspring to have a dog. And the hub really needed a companion to go and do guy things with on weekends. But I really didn't think I needed a dog. I had my cats; they go so well with books and music and tea, right? Hah! I have discovered that you just gotta have both! Cats and dogs really DO go together. That's all there is to it!

I know this is another long post. I seem to do that. But it may be the last one for a while, because I'm going to have a very busy weekend. I'm taking a needlepoint workshop and probably won't even touch the computer during that time. Instead, I'm going to be turbo-stitching, trying to finish as much of the project as I can before the end of the weekend. If I figure out how to do it, I'll try to post a photo of the project. It's a really pretty design.