Progress.

[Jamie]

Well Lola turned four months old on December 21st. She really has surprised us in the past two weeks. Just when we thought we were going to lose all of our hair she has made some real progress. The most amazing is that she started ringing her bells and she seems so proud that she gets it. She does abuse it a bit in the evenings when we are busy, but I prefer this much more than pee on our floors. Once she got it, she GOT it!

Lola also started obedience training. Today was only her second class, but she is definitely doing very well. She is giving the Standard Poodle in her class a run for her money. Lola has really mastered sit in most situations, except around groups of children. She will sit for a second but then it right to pulling on the leash. She is also learning how to loose leash walk and she seems to be catching on very quickly which is good since we have a lot of ice around right now and she is a very strong pup. Today she started learning down and her teacher was amazed at how fast she got that one. She seems to figure out what you want from her quickly.

And finally her personality is really starting to show. She is very playful but also mellow and laid back. She takes just about anything my daughter throws her way and if it gets to be too much she comes looking to us to get her to stop by hiding behind our legs.

We are still working on her separation anxiety when we leave. We learned that we, and by we I mean my husband, ;) encouraged this behavior by rewarding her excited behavior when coming home. Now when we get home we ignore her for five to ten minutes before playing with her. We do this before leaving too and of course we have been giving her Kongs to keep her busy while we are away. We tried covering her cage as well, but blankets end up in the cage with her so we have stopped doing that. We are also putting on our coats and staying at home or getting our keys and not leaving to get her to stop associating this with our leaving. The vet has said that the first twenty minutes is when the anxiety usually occurs, so if we can get her through that part then she should be fine. So we have to start leaving for five minutes at a time until she is ok with this and then gradually increase the time. It really is a lot of work and a couple of weeks ago I was not sure if it was going to be worth it. But in the past two weeks she has shown us that she is learning and just how smart she is. I am so glad we made it through . I see brighter days ahead.

[Adina P]

sounds like you are doing all the right things to help her cope with separation. Look forward to updates to see how she is doing.