Churry Goes Bowling!

    Churry had an exciting week this week.  She is improving by leaps and bounds on her Gentle Leader since the beginning of the week when she was regularly throwing herself on the ground and rolling around protesting wearing it.  She now is walking very nicely with it on and definitely knows that the tantrums are unacceptable!  She is a fast learner!  I was also excited to see her do a Sit and Stay command for Kinsey.  Kinsey gets irritated because Churry is always following her to the basement and she doesn't want to be responsible for watching her while she's down there.  So when Churry followed her over to the stairs, Kinsey put her in a Sit and Stay command, walked down the stairs, disappeared into the basement, and STILL Churry just sat there waiting to be released.  I finally had to release her myself because apparently Kinsey wasn't returning anytime soon and Churry was starting to look at me pathetically. 
   On Saturday, Churry got to go see horses for the first time at Rocking V Ranch in Auburn.  It was a great place to take her because she could observe horses up close and personal both being ridden and in stalls, lots of people, a loudspeaker, and a store with lots of new smells all in one trip!  She didn't have her best trip because she was a bit nervous about the horses.  She didn't hide behind me or anything, but did whine a few times.  I was relieved she didn't bark, but would have like if she could have relaxed a bit more. 
    Judging how she did on that trip, I hesitated to take her to the bowling alley on Sunday for my kids' activity they had planned.  I decided I would just walk her in there to drop the kids off and then go do some sightseeing with her at some places close by.  As it turns out, Churry was quite relaxed at the bowling alley.  She was PERFECTLY BEHAVED!  I decided I would just stay until she started to act stressed, but she never did so we ended up staying the whole time.  She did "down" when I asked, totally minded her own business when people walked by, left things on the floor alone, and basically just sat and calmly watched everything the entire time.  I don't know why a loud bowling alley would be more relaxing for her than the stable, but maybe those "big dogs" and all of those very different "stable/leather" smells were too much for her.  We'll definitely have to put in some training time at Grandma's house to have some more experiences with those things! 
     I'm excited for tomorrow night with all of the Halloween activities in the neighborhood.  It should be a great training/socialization opportunity for her.  She also gets to go visit Kinsey's classroom later this week for Kinsey's Star of the Week activity.  It will be her first trip to a classroom and will be a test run for seeing how close she is to being ready to visit work with me.
     Have a Happy Halloween!

Beds can be multi-functional!

     Churry has proven herself to be quite a problem-solver with her bed!  Apparently, it's quite useful as a blanket as well.  She has done this several times the last couple of weeks, but have not been able to get a picture because I'm usually busy when she's "relaxing".  But, tonight I managed to get some.  So, enjoy a midweek post!

And sometimes, she completely turns the bed upside down so the soft part is against her.

And just because I never want to forget this beautiful face...

I love you Churry!  You add so much love, happiness, and adventure to our lives!

Churry's very boring week!

    Churry had an exceptionally boring week!  I had Parent Teacher conferences and worked until 8:00 2 nights and spent a lot of time preparing for the conferences in the days before them.  It did make me feel so good, though, to see how excited she was to see me when I got home each night.  Just wish I had more time to spend with her.  Today we went to the lake to make up for the boring week.  She did awesome on her Gentle Leader and was a very good girl when we got really close to all the geese.  She sat down and watched them very intently, but didn't try to pull towards them at all.  She also did a great job of ignoring the other dogs and people who were walking everywhere.  She also did a really good job of ignoring Cooper, my dad's dog, who stayed with us all week while he was in the hospital.  Cooper barked at her quite a lot and she just sat there and stared at him without barking back.  I must say Churry has much better manners!  :)   They didn't get to play a whole lot because Cooper is recovering from a broken leg and couldn't play rough.  Keeping them seperated was quite a chore, which resulted in both of them being kenneled more than I would prefer.  Having two puppies in the house was a LOT OF WORK!  Thank goodness Bailey is pretty much self-sufficient and mature.  Hopefully, Churry has a better week next week!

Churry goes to work!

   Churry had her first opportunity to go to work with me on Friday.  We had a workday, so there were no students there.  She did a good job with sitting to greet people when we first got there.  Then, while we were working in my classroom she settled down pretty much right away and slept the morning away.  She was a bit alarmed at the announcement on the intercom because she could not figure out where the voice was coming from, but settled down right away after the voice was gone and went back to sleep.  I was relieved she didn't start barking at the mystery person! 

    Today she went on two more outings.  We walked around a VERY SMALL mall that just has a few stores in it.  She was good about ignoring the people, screaming children racing past her, and all of the other distractions that were in there.  We were introduced to automatic sliding doors again and she still doesn't get bothered by anything at all.  We walked through the aisles at Office Max where there were many interesting things at eye level for her.  I was worried she would try to grab something up, but I think she's so irritated by her new Gentle Leader collar that she's not noticing much of anything!  Then we walked through the Goodwill store where there were lots of clothes hanging.  She did really well at ignoring them, too.  One bad thing she did do was have a little tantrum in the store.  Her coping mechanism with this new collar is to throw herself on the ground, roll around a bit, and then refuse to get up.  And when she's on her back with her feet up in the air, it's difficult to get my arms around her to make her stand up.  Luckily, the tantrum didn't last long and she walked very politely back out of the store.  Then we went to the park where there is a kids train that runs.  We didn't ride the train because I didn't have any cash with me.  I actually didn't know it was still running at all.  I thought it shut down Labor Day weekend.  We just sat and watched it pull up and leave again.  I thought maybe it's loud bells and engine would bother her, but no, she just yawned!  Just those darn dancing monkeys that bother my cool as a cucumber Churry!  And I thought we were over the car sickness, but apparently the extended outing today was too much for her because on the way home...But on a positive note, she will load herself into the car!  My back appreciated that!  This doesn't help with the Expedition...so maybe I'll just take the car for awhile until she's big enough to get herself into the bigger vehicle. We are babysitting my parent's dog this week while my dad has surgery so Churry will have some fun company!  Have a great week!

Dancing monkeys!

Churry visited her first store tonight, Lowes.  She did a pretty good job.  I really need to learn how to work her Halti correctly so she can start wearing it or I need to find something else to help with her constant pulling!  Puppy raisers...any advice?  Other than the pulling, she behaved well.  As soon as we would stop to look at something she would immediately sit down and wait for us very patiently.    While we were there we looked at the scary Halloween decorations, but she didn't think they were very scary.  She just sat and had her "no reaction to anything" attitude she usually does.  So we continued on and found some Christmas decorations.  There was a nice variety of those stuffed animals that sing and dance.  She was quite interested in these.  She just did not think this was normal and didn't really want them to get too close to her.  Particularly the monkey that danced to Tic Toc.  She hid behind me and peeked out to see that one.  The others she just backed up a bit and stared at them.  Her tail was wagging the whole time, though, so I don't think she was terrified, but I do think we will be paying a return visit to the dancing monkeys!    We have now gone on a car outing three days in a row with no car sickness!!!  This makes it MUCH easier to take her places. 

Churry hits Mass Street!

Yes, I know, I know!  I took her on her first official outing to a KU place!  That's only because I thought it was urgent she be warned about them!  Actually, she attended Dogtoberfest in the park and had a fantastic time.  First, we visited the KSDS booth and tried to help out, but she wasn't very interested in sitting and observing.  She had dogs to meet and places to see!  She played Doggie Limbo, which the lady was very impressed with her skills of "down and under".  She said it's the best anyone had done all day.  Good job, Churry!  And then she discovered the fountain, which she had a ball playing in.  And I find that one very interesting, because when it is bathtime at home it becomes a war zone in the bathroom with me being just as wet as she is. Hmmm....Then she saw a very scary looking man, who did NOT have a dog, who did NOT appear to be with anyone except the white dummy he had wrapped around his head that I saw him kiss at least twice.  The scary part is he was wearing a cat leotard, complete with a tail.   Yes, I'm talking about a skin tight leotard like Kinsey wears to ballet.  I told her, "This is what I'm talking about when we visit Lawrence."   I'm hoping there was a good explanation for him that I just am not aware of.  This is after we had already walked through a group of people on the way to the park who I sincerely hope were going to a Halloween party, but I"m thinking were just dressed for the day.  Other than the alarming people we saw throughout the day, Churry had a great time seeing the sights and meeting TONS of very nice people who thought she was the cutest thing ever.  Even the lady who asked about her career and then burst into tears thanking me for what I was doing.  I reassured her Churry was not leaving me tomorrow and that yes, Churry DOES have a very important career ahead of her!  And judging from her behavior today, she'll be a champ at it!  I was shocked at how well she minded her manners and quite relieved, too.
     Then, we went to Pat's work where she was able to experience the sights and sounds of the cabinet building shop.  She handled it like a pro, too!  Sometimes, I worry that she's deaf because she's so calm.  She does look up and notice sounds, she just doesn't react to them.  So that's a good thing, I hope.  The only thing she didn't care for at his work was the paint room.  We determined she must not like the smell coming from it.  That was fine because it's not my favorite place there either.  She was so exhausted that she finally just laid down on the floor and slept through all the racket of the huge generator coming on and off and the really loud air hose thing Pat was using. 
    And the best part of the day was she went all the way from Lawrence to Topeka without getting sick!   

Do I seriously have to wear this thing?

Churry received her puppy cape in the mail today!  We have gone for a couple of walks with it on and she has been very good with it.  She sniffed it a bit and tried to chew on the front, but after just a couple of corrections she left it alone.  I can't wait to take her on her first official outing as a service puppy!

Since she was behaving, I allowed her to sit by my flowers to get her picture taken.  She's usually not allowed in there, but she handled herself very well with just sniffing them and not eating them!

She's such a pretty girl!

2 months!

Miss Churry has been with us for 2 months today!  Here is my favorite thing that she's currently doing.  She loves to sit and get petted, but here in the last week she has started wrapping her front legs around you and sitting up as you pet her.  She just sits in this position until you're done petting.  It's very sweet!

So far Churry has almost mastered:
Sitting until released (at home anyway)
Staying until released
sitting until being released to eat her food when I feed her
ignoring her food if I drop it in front of her, etc.  We're still working on ignoring floor crumbs in general. 

Things that Churry knows, but chooses to ignore:
Down
Heel (unless there is absolutely nothing entertaining to pull me towards)
Kennel Up
Come

The difference between Bailey and Churry

I stayed home from work today because I was sick.  So this morning when Pat was getting ready to leave for work, Bailey refused to get off of her bed, which is beside ours, to go out to her kennel where she stays during the day.  She just sat there and kept looking up at me and refusing to move.  Every now and then she will get up and lay her head on me.  Bailey has always been VERY perceptive of our moods and knows when we are sick.  Churry, however, being the puppy she is, kept sprinting in to our room and jumping up on top of me and trying to pull the covers off.  At one point she got so irritated at me for not getting up that she BARKED at me!  :)  She had no sympathy for me whatsoever!  At least she misses me!

What in the World is that Giant Bath?

We finally got to take Churry to Bailey's favorite place, the lake!  She was very curious about it when she first saw it and was pretty timid about going in.   Pat dumped her in a couple of times in the really shallow part and she just stood there and stared at him like "Why in the world did you just do that?"  She didn't rush out, but she just didn't know what to think.  One thing she did do was run from me, and fast!  I thought she was running away, but we figured out she was chasing the waves down the shoreline.  She just couldn't quite catch the wave!  It was a pretty busy weekend and everywhere I wanted to take her required her KSDS Service Puppy vest...so I hope I get it soon because she ended up being stuck at home when she could have been with us.  :(  She is getting so big and more energetic by the day!  She's really needing a LOT of run and play time these days!   She and Bailey have a great time in the backyard each night, but we noticed she is trying to chew poor Bailey's neck off.   So maybe she needs to calm down just a bit with her rough housing!

Churry's brother Perdido and her sister Avalon also have a blog I follow if you are interested.  They are in my blog lists.   Perdido must be a very good boy because he goes to church every Sunday.  I cannot imagine taking Churry there!  Great job Daisy (Perdido's raiser)!