Friday, July 8, 2011

Begin...the rest is easy.

That's what my fortune cookie said yesterday.  One of the few I've remembered after five seconds.

Reilly woke up before I did this morning, and was rather impatient at how long it took me to get up and out.  I stayed up later than normal last night, so the bird's dawn chorus hadn't woken me as usual.  Still, we went out and played a bit, then came back in for breakfast.  I'm still trying to think how to do his breakfast, as opposed to Murphy and Jake.  In this growing stage, he doesn't need supplements; in fact, they can be detrimental.  He also doesn't need his feed reduced/diluted, by giving him fillers, which is really what the rice breakfast is for The Boys, but their nutritional needs are different from his.  So far, I'm simply giving him a dog biscuit to entertain him while the big Boys eat their food.  Giving him something that simple shows me that he can be very food oriented.  He gets very excited over his biscuit!  Absolutely attacks it!  I do not want food to turn into a task reward, but it can be useful at the beginning of training to get him to focus.  I picked up some chicken-and-grain-free training treats, and we'll use those judiciously to start with.  If he exhibits too much of the frantic food behavior, then I'll have to remove them from the picture.  But, time will tell, and his reaction may easily change as he matures, so the usefulness of training treats is yet to be determined.

He's wanting my barn shoes, but he doesn't want to admit it.  He moves them to his kennel.  I take them back, put them where they belong, and tell him they aren't his.  He looks at me, looks at the shoes, goes to his bed and lies down, and heaves a  heavy sigh.  When I leave the room, he often gets up and goes to where the shoes are to snuggle with them, but it'll be a while before he moves them again.  He has untied the laces on them, but not chewed at all.  He'll learn quickly, especially since he's not chewing on them yet.

We haven't formally introduced him to the chickens.  I'm waiting for Chris to return from his trip, so I have him with me.  Bob the tom turkey has started taking exception to The Boys entering the pasture, and I don't want a situation I can't handle on my own to develop.  However, the half-grown birds often come into the yard rather than sticking to poultry yard or pasture, and this morning a half-dozen of them came over to where we were.  Reilly walked a few feet toward them, and when I spoke, telling him that was far enough, he agreed, and just sat and watched them attentively.  No fear of them, and no attempt to chase them.  Good puppy!  We'll take him out to the henhouse this weekend, and then start taking him almost every day.  We'll be doing the same with the sheep.  He's seen those as well, but again, no formal introduction.  I've got the rabbits to groom too, and I bring them indoors one at a time for that, so that intro will be easy.  And there's a rat snake living in the henhouse he can meet, too.  He needs to learn to leave snakes alone.  This one's nice and calm and non-venomous, so a good intro.

So many critters to meet, and so many things to learn!

3:15 pm:
Got an email from Martha to all puppy owners that one of them has been found to have coccidia, so best that all be treated.  It's a hard thing to pick up on a fecal, for sure. (My first degree was as a vet tech, so I do know that one first hand.)  And the sample we got from Reilly was small, plus he has no symptoms.  He could be free of them, but chances are he's got some in there, so I'll be picking up treatment for him this afternoon.  And even though adults are less susceptible, for the big guys as well.  Particularly Jake, since he just had surgery and his system has enough to deal with.  I appreciate Martha letting everyone know.  Just another example of her good follow-up, and making sure even the negatives are brought out into the light.  Best to get it cared for now.

The heat index here today is 102, so Reilly is quite happy to just go out to potty, then come back in the a/c during the hot part of the day.  He's abandoned the crate again, in favor of a bed pillow next to it.  He doesn't want the pillow inside the crate, either.  Silly pup.  I do need to get him his own beds, but I'll need to decide what kind for the car, for the office and for home.  The home ones we use are the orthopedic beds with the fake sheepskin on top, but that's too bulky for the car and the office.  They make a thinner egg-crate foam bed with sheepskin that I think will work for both, if I can find it big enough.  For now though, a bed pillow is just right.  Or so Reilly says.

5:55 pm:
Got the Albon for the possible coccidia picked up and he'll start that tonight.  All is well.  :)

During the evenning, Reilly decided he was an attack puppy.  Or maybe the Tasmanian Devil.  He was a yippy little whirlwind, biuncing and pouncing and attacking leash, ankles, skirt, cane, chair, toys, everything.  Growling and yipping and shaking things until I stopped him or the toy was completely dead.  It's hilarious to watch him go through little spells of behavior.  The vocalizations are interesting.  I've never had any puppy of any breed "talk" as much at this age.  Everything is yip-worthy to Reilly.  If he sees a leaf blow across the yard and feels he must give chase, the chase must start off with a yip and a jump-twist.  If he decides to race back to me, it also must start with a yip and jump-twist.  If he's sitting in the kitchen floor and decides it's mealtime, it takes a yip and jump to get him going.  Like he's punctuating his decisions.  I wonder how vocal he'll stay.  It would be better if he didn't do a lot of talking as a service dog, but I do like it, so perhaps it's cueable to keep at home and not while working.  Or he may outgrow the urge.

Another day gone.  Wow.

Meg and Reilly

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