Echo came home today! She seems to have gained some weight. Amy thinks she is taller than when she left.
I was worse for wear, when Jean and Pan showed up. It's been a long couple of days. I was able to accomplish a lot of things, but with considerable wear and tear.
Echo seemed happy to see me.
Jean and Pan gave me some instructions on what they had done (which will, probably need a review later). Pan's notes in Echo's journal book are AWESOME! There is, obviously, something of a language barrier, but her sketches and doodles make it obvious what she is talking about.
Apparently, the car sickness issue has gotten worse. Jean found out that "ginger snap" cookies help with that. She brought a bag of them for Echo. (Which I need to mark, to insure the kids don't get into them.)
She came in, wanted to explore the house a bit, and went out to pee, pretty quickly.
I took her back to the bedroom, thinking I was going to have a chance to clean up.
Echo wanted interaction. So, we played on the bed for a bit, very similar to her first morning here. (If you follow the link, it's the story that starts in the 12th paragraph.)
After about 5-10 minutes of this, with Gimli assisting, Echo "CRASHED". Apparently, the last few days for her, like me, have been heavy "brain" days. She slept for about 3 hours.
After that, it was a lot of time following me around with her lead connected to a belt loop on my jeans with a carrabiner. That seemed to work well.
In the middle of all that, Amy asked me to open the front door. She had heard something outside. I put Echo in the xpen, and went out the front door. I didn't see anything. Then, I turned to go back inside, and a black blur sped past me, and went in the front door.
Our neighbor's dog, Cody(Cody is a Labrador/Chow mix.), had gotten loose, and "came to visit". When he saw the front door open, he launched himself through the door, did two laps around the "great room", and headed into our back yard.
I won't get into my thoughts into Cody and his family, much, but I don't think much of their idea of "pet ownership". We have "dog sat" Cody on several occasions. ... and when Cody breaks free of his confinement, he heads straight for my front door. I'm not sure if it's because he would rather come live with us, or he considers Gimli to be his "buddy".
Once dinner was fixed and things settled down, I started to work with Echo on name recognition, "sit", and "kennel". That went pretty well, until Gimli decided that he needed to be a part. Then, training became a "juggling act". (It's interesting to me that Gimli will not eat a "Cheerio", unless a) he sees Echo eat one first, AND b) it comes from Echo's treat pouch. ... Then, he LOVES them.) I think all three of us had fun, though, and I think the time was productive for both dogs. They did not focus on each other, and stayed focused on me. The only problem came when Gimli decided that if Echo was not going to follow the "kennel" command, and get the treat, he would. (Gimli has known the "kennel" command for several years, now.) If he was between the kennel and Echo, she would not even try to follow the "kennel" command. Which made things interesting, with Gimli, we have worked hard to establish Echo's crate as "her spot", that he cannot violate.
She went to sleep a bit later than normal, tonight, but I think that might be due to the long nap she had this afternoon. (It was after 11.)
My only concern is that it was after midnight when she pooped for the first time since coming home, and, at the end, it was soft. (She woke up and it was "Two exits, no waiting". "Little Girl" had to go, and go NOW. It woke her up. She was sleeping in her kennel, and when she woke up, she told me about it.)
I'm not too concerned about the softness. While she was with Jean and Pan, her food was switched from "Taste of the Wild" to "Nature's Recipe". Adapting to a change in diet, normally, means that there will be some irregularities in the stool. So, I'm not too concerned about that.
That will be an ongoing issue, however, because once she finishes this small bag of "Nature's Recipe", she is switching to Nutro's Puppy Recipe.
I'm hoping, at that point, we can stabilize her diet for a while.
The upside is that her stool no longer smells like a mix of toxic chemical waste and decomposing animal corpse. It's not a pleasing scent, by any means, but it's not an "eye-burning" stench, either.
After that, she wanted to come back in and sleep. First, she "asked" (did not climb or jump) to get on the couch and curl up with Amy, where she was asleep. ... Then, she moved to the floor, on a pillow, and has been there ever since.
Once she moved to the floor, I followed Jean's suggestion. Using a carrabiner, and the lead she hates, she is fastened to our coffee table. That gives her plenty of lead to crash on a pillow, on the floor. Very much in an "at your feet" situation, like the collie write-up that Jean has given us talks about.
Okay, I lied about the lack of pictures. I just took this one of Echo, in the floor, on the pillow, more or less at Amy's feet.
No comments:
Post a Comment