Sunday, April 4, 2010

Moto's learned to write

It seems that Sam, Alina, and Chelsea the cat have been hard at work with Motzi: he's learned how to write and sends me emails and photos all the time! And he's doing awesome at his new home.

He's doing a great job of adjusting and I am so grateful for my puppy homes that keep me regularly updated.

Patrick's been lame about not sending me oodles of stuff (Kathryn does okay), but I was worried about the incoming Curry/outgoing Moto day so I begged for photos:

So, huzzah!

I will post photos of Curry (though I have changed her name back to Daca, which she still answers to) soon enough, but let me tell you that she is squishingly adorable and totally the same puppy that left. Does all the same funny little behaviors, is sweet, lovey, responsive, biddable, but needs some direction in life. I am definitely glad that she came back instead of staying at her home. 

She's going to have some work done with me, but she should still make someone a bang up puppy once she finds out that being afraid is stupid. She is fear-aggressive with dogs and people, but if both leave her alone, she approaches the on her own accord. I took her to Kathy Warrens and she gave me some good solid advice about what to do with her, and I'll be taking some of my own knowledge and applying it to her (this link shows you the basic plan: https://www.msu.edu/~silvar/fear.htm). 

She's an amazing little kid, though. She does flipping backflips and banks off the couch when she plays, it's cool to see. Talk about agile! She's fitting in great, though she and Rippa had to have some serious words to sort out that she was definitely not the alpha bitch in our household, but we're having fun in the mean time. We took her downtown and she did great walking around with cars and people and sirens, and then I took her to a bike demo and she slept through the noise and jostle and craziness, so not too worried. She just needs some space.

One thing I've learned from all this is that if I have a litter again, I will keep them for twelve weeks. Rippa, Moto, and Emma seem a lot more mature than she does. I think all the walks and gradual exposure did a lot for them in making them super stable. Moto kind of buffs at things he doesn't understand but gets over it. Rippa is friendly (with some reserve, but interactions are fine, she just may not jump out of her skin over it) and calm, same with Emma. I feel like had Daca benefited from that extra time with us, she'd be a different story than she is right now. 

Anyway, there's the realities of breeding. I had to break someone's heart, and I'm no longer empty nested. She's fun, though, and I have seen HUGE improvements in her since she got here two days ago. Just needs to know her place and learn that stranger interaction is not so bad.

2 comments:

  1. Just wondering about your thoughts of keeping them for 12 weeks: do you think it would be better for them because they'd feel safer in their original pack? Or do you think someone with enough experience could socialize them on his own, but you prefer to do it to be on the safe side?

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  2. There are certain homes that I would let go at 8 weeks. But very few, for my lines. It's not because they're safer in their original pack, but because I have the opportunity to do the early socialization and because I can really see where they're at and how they're doing. I don't think anybody is "different" from they were at 8 weeks, but that's the start of a fear period. I think I want more control. I got it with Rippa, Emma, and Moto. I think it did them a world of good.

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