Monday, September 3, 2012

New Dog in the House: Dickory

It never fails, I don't stay fosterless long. So, welcome Dickory, a spayed seven month old Collie?? mix who found herself too much puppy energy for her new family.

I'm pretty sure there's some husky, and probably some Shiba Inu in there as well, possibly with a basset or a corgi to make the legs slightly shorter -she's a little long and low, but not drastically-. She's a sweet little thing, very friendly with a medium-high energy but so far, not a really high energy. She doesn't have a thing on Beckett when we first got him. Mostly, she's just a curious, busy puppy! She is probably about 30 pounds, should stay under 40.

A photo from her previous home (until I get some later today).




As of right now, she is doing her crate time for not peeing or pooing outside on her 7:00am pee break. At 8:00 we'll try her again. The key to good housebreaking is not to allow them the opportunity to fail for the first while. If you go pee outside, good, you can come back in and play. If not, it's back to bed with you. Rinse and repeat. Chowmein and DimSum both gave me a run for my money though, as those two girls in the beginning would hold it until almost noon, sometimes later! Persistence and within about a week they understood the routine. No pee, no play. Simple. I'm sure Dickory will learn fast as well.

What I know from one night:
  • She's very affectionate, very cuddly. She likes to nap on the couch with you.
  • She is pushy and will try to run you, but isn't very stubborn about it and you put any rules in place and she gives in straight away.
  • She has very good dog social skills. She left the older dogs alone and gave them space.
  • She has poor leash manners, but is already listening to leadership. She is interested in everything, which makes it hard to get her attention sometimes. She is sensitive to correction and direction, so doesn't have that really stubborn streak of a husky or shiba. In that way, she's more of a collie type.
  • So far she hasn't seem too interested in the barn cats. Granted, they are big, burly, mean Toms so really haven't had any dog want to pick a bone with them. My guess would be she could live with a dog-savvy cat that will tell her off, probably not on the scaredy cat front.
  • Will be good with school-aged children providing good leadership from mum and dad. She tolerates handling very well, but is still a pup and needs to learn lots.
  • She will bark when she's bored, but is easily corrected. I usually bark when I'm bored too :P
Looking forward to getting to know this little mutt. She seems like a fun, active, playful but at the same time very cuddly companion. She'll be a great addition to most any home that is ready to take on the task of raising a pup.

More soon,
Emily

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

She's cute. Those ears... corgie ears?..elf ears.
Another one who looks similar to Bekka (the face and markings)
Wendy