Puppy Excitement

Another post solely about the puppy. A couple new exciting (to us) things have happened in the last 2 days. First, on Sunday, we found a new hike that was off-leash. It had extensive trails on this mountain (maybe here they'd only call it a large hill?) that is great for people AND dogs. It was a little too hot to stay as long as we would have liked, but we walked around looking for mountain lions and rattle snakes. No joke, there were signs posted telling you to beware of them. 

Another exciting thing here is that we decided it was time to give Echo some new tricks. The first is just obedience more than a trick, but she has to wait at the door before she can enter the apartment. The idea is that she's not allowed to rush through any open door like a bat out of hell. She has to let people in first and wait until she's calm. We will transition this into not crowding the door if people knock and not rushing out of the apartment just because the door is open. The new trick is "search". We used the green ball/egg you'll see in the video posted below. One of us took Echo into the hall and shut the door while the other hid the ball. Then we opened the door and the person who hid it led Echo around the apartment saying search as she sniffed/looked for the ball. She picked this trick up faster than any other trick. We thought maybe it was a fluke, like we were leading her straight to it or she would just grab it because it's a toy. However, Nick hid the ball in her toy basket with other toys, and when she got to the toy basket she rustled to the bottom and pulled out the ball!!! We were so proud! We're also introducing "crawl", but she's having a hard time with that one. She'll do it once and then just stand up to walk. 

New toy!! At the pet store we found a new plush toy that has balls/eggs inside that they're supposed to pull out. It looks like a turtle. The idea is that instead of shredding a plush toy and spreading fluff all over the house, she is SUPPOSED to pull the balls out through an existing hole. This also satisfies the instinct to rip open prey and pull "the stuffing" out. Watch Echo demonstrate the appropriate use here.

In not so exciting news, we're a week and a half from getting Echo spayed. They told us to keep her calm for 10-14 days after surgery....I give it 2-3 days before she's running around the apartment like a chicken with her head cut off from lack of exercise.