Emily is relaxing and resting her head on my foot. It seems like a good moment to pound the keyboard and post a brief recap of the Emily universe.
- First 4 weeks of puppyhood. You should know that puppies generally do not have bladder control during their first 4 months, so you have to take them out to potty just about every hour. This means essentially no sleep for the humans.
- Spaying - for a month afterwards, you have to be extremely careful with the dog because she will try to lick at the surgery incision which could open up the wound again.
- Sickness - Emily became sick for a week. Small dogs are often finicky eaters so they don't have fat reserves to depend on when they get sick and aren't hungry. The Vet had to give Emily special liquid food to get her weight back up. Now we try to keep Emily a bit on the plumper side of life so she will have a bit of breathing room if she becomes sick again - not so easy because she is finicky.
- 12 weeks of dog class - we both have read the books on raising dogs, but it's good to see how fast the training should go by comparing to other dogs in the class. You also get a good idea of what can and can not be taught to a dog.
- Teaching Emily the critical commands: Sit, Potty, Come, Down, Stay, and No. The key is consistency in the command (both verbal and hand motion) and the reward - say the command in the exact same way each time and always give the dog a reward (i.e. a food treat) when she does the action. For me, Emily would do Potty #1, Sit, and Down on command. She would also stop whatever she was doing if I said No.
- Learning to walk correctly on a leash. This was quite an adventure. Small dogs often have weak necks for their first 6 months while they are growing up. So, most good books will suggest using a harnass or a Halti, which are devices which focus the control to other parts of the dog instead of the neck. The problem with using a harness is that it also teaches the dog that its OK (and even fun) to pull on the leash. Around month 8, Emily could correctly walk using an adult collar and leash nicely. I highly recommend Brian Kilcommons' book for help on the right technique for leash walking.
- One of the dreams of having a dog is to be able to walk with the dog (on a leash) down a crowded street or hall. This is much harder to do than one might initially think because a shopping street will have thousands of interesting smells and sounds and colors and people and in general things to get distracted by. A dog which can walk on a crowded shopping street or department store and behave in a calm manner is a very well trained dog. Around month 9, Emily was able to do this and we were very happy we could take her on shopping trips.
- Emily is also protective of the house. Anytime a stranger walks in, she will be a good little guard dog and bark up a storm until we show that we are OK with the stranger and she gets treats. Note that she doesn't bite, but she is a good alarm.
- Right now, Emily is very happy, playful, affectionate and fully potty and leash trained. She has a mixture of Orijin kibble and chicken for meals.
- For 2010, we will work on the other commands (i.e. Stay), see if there is a safe way for her to play with other dogs. Also, we'll replace the small (1 foot high) trashcans - Emily seems to think that anything within 1 foot from the floor is her domain.
