Oh, its been a long time!

Lacey is now 16 months old. We haven't posted any pictures or written about her in a long time. Maybe (no promises) we'll get around to posting some current pictures that show that she has grown into a lovely young bitch ;).

The main reason for posting now is to officially announce that she is housebroken! This has been a long trial. She has been on very thin ice at times and we were not sure we could keep her. There even was a draft email created to Fox Terrier Rescue that sat in the computer for a long time. But she is soooo darn cute that she was always forgiven.

She was even sent to in-residence training with a trainer in the area to try and pattern her on relieving herself outside. At the same time they built on her general obedience and response to command skills. When we got her back her improvement was remarkable, but more so in the obedience and response to command than in her bathroom habits. In fairness to the trainer, he had done some good patterning but it was reliant on creating a similar physical environment -- something that we could not successfully do since our home layout is what it is.

So we just persevered in training her as we had successfully done with our two terriers in years past. And finally I can announce success. What a relief!

Even as I was composing this note, Lacey ran to the door to let me know she needed to go out. Oh what small joys life can bring!

Six Months!

Lacey is now six months old. We took her to the Brentwood dog park today. She had a great time romping around with the other dogs. She was little too frisky with a couple of toddlers and that worried us a little bit, but the mother didn't seem to mind.

It was amazing to see her speed compared to the other dogs. Now there were some older dogs that couldn't be bothered to run. But there were a few other dogs that liked to go for a romp and Lacey would be running along with them and then kick it into another gear and leave them in the dust.

We bought Lacey a new leather collar and leash today. She looks quite pretty with the new accoutrements.

She is still not perfect in the house and we keep a keen eye on her. But she is a dear.

Making Good Progress

Lacey has been showing signs of maturity. Although not perfect she seems to be getting more reliable. Her obedience training is beginning to show dividends. She has demonstrated knowledge of "sit", "wait", and "down."

Her staples came out last Monday and she is acting like nothing happened. She doesn't have to wear the plastic guard anymore. But we put it on her when she is on the deck unsupervised, because without it she can squeeze under the railing to get out; with it she isn't going anywhere.

The Spring weather has been pleasant except for the onset of allergies. We still get some rain, but there are now more pleasant days than rainy days. This gives Lacey more opportunity for outdoors time.

Lacey's Been Spayed

Lacey was spayed yesterday. I took her to the vet at 8:30a and then picked her up at 4p . The vet said everything went fine. She has a plastic disk around her head/neck to keep her from licking her wound. The incision is about 6". It was extended to repair a small hernia she had. Because the incision was longer the vet used staples to reinforce the stitches. She needs to keep the plastic guard on until we get the stitches removed on the 12th.

Here's Lacey with her plastic guard:

Progress at Last!

Blogging has been very light over the last month as we have been struggling with Lacey's behavior. She is a very energetic pup and it was difficult to get her focused for training. It was like one step forward and two steps back all month until last Tuesday. We attended our second training session with all of the puppies in the puppy training class. Just as before Lacey was all over the place and demonstrating all the bad behaviors. We had placed the choke collar on for training but it didn't phase her one bit. I suspect she would have pulled until she passed out if I would have let her.

So we gave in to the pinch collar. The puppy classes are held in the parking lot outside of a Pet Food Express. After consulting with the trainer I ran into the store and bought a pinch collar. Even with it on it seemed to have only a minor effect. Then the trainer showed me that there are two places you can attach the leash to the collar, one is the "live" ring the other is a "dead" ring. I had attached the leash to the "dead" ring. When it was moved to the "live" ring -- wow! Lacey immediately started giving me her full attention. She didn't jump about. She immediately started responding to training. We made more progress in the next half hour than we had made in weeks.

Lacey is now behaving like the lovely dog she is when she is all tuckered out. The pinch collar will be in use for only a short time to get her behavior patterns well set. I had always looked at the pinch collar with some horror, but now I know it can be a great tool to keep control of a high energy dog (or bitch) and get them focused for training.

One of the things you have to be careful about with the pinch collar is that if you put it on after you have been struggling to control a dog with regular collar or choke collar you have to get used to how gentle you can be in correcting behavior. Only a light quick tug will get the dog's attention to correct an unwanted behavior. And the dog will not pull against the leash.

In short, for us (and Lacey) the pinch collar is a miracle worker. Here's Lacey modeling her jewelry:

Lacey went to the vet today for her rabies vaccination. This completes her shots for her license. She is now 10 pounds! The vet projects her adult weight will be about 15 lbs. That is about the same as the Westie we had for many years. The difference is while the Westie was squat and thick, Lacey will be taller and longer.

Lacey seems to have made real steps in maturity this week. Here she is happily playing with a chew toy:



Her obedience classes are starting soon!

Happy Birthday to Us!

Lacey gave Momma and Poppa a four month birthday gift -- a flawless and happy day! Today she has been everything we hoped she would be: playful but not frenzied, a lapdog when quiet, and going to the door to signal her needs. Wow! If we can string of few days like this together life will be sweet.