I had to give up publishing 'Poodle Moments '01' as a 'newspaper' style this year due to my busy days. Why am I so busy? You'll soon know the reason why.
So, here comes Poodle Moments '01 on line!
2001 started with a good news. One day in January, I received a letter from my friend breeder in USA. At the end of her letter she wrote "We'll be having puppies the end of January." Wow! I called her immediately and asked if she would have a chance to have some cream or white puppies in the litter or not. I have been waiting a cream or white pup for some years from her.
At the end of January, she had some puppies but all of them were black. However, her co-breeder had a litter of creams at the same time. This was a great news for me.
About six months later, I was at PCA, but my heart wasn't there. Of course I enjoyed it very much but my primary purpose of making a trip to USA this time was picking up my new puppy and taking her home with me. Soon after the PCA is over, I flew to Chicago to see my friends and my puppy.
Having a new dog is always so exciting, especially when it is a young puppy.
We have many things to do, from grooming to obedience lessons and each moment we share is a new experience. This should be the pleasure of having a puppy, shouldn't it? It is so much fun to have a new dog, but when it is a Standard Poodle pup, you know, she makes me busy all the time!
When I took her home for the first time, funny thing happened.
Leanne was living with her litter mate and several adult dogs. So, I thought she should be happy to see another adult Standard Poodle, Nanako. When I opened the door, she hesitated to come inside and tried not to see Nanako. Nanako also tried to ignore Leanne and she seemed to be confused.
Fortunately, Leanne knows very well how to behave around adult dogs and Nanako is not mean to other dogs. She didn't get angry against Leanne but didn't welcome her either. Basically, they are still ignoring each other at most of the times. To me, this is good. Before having a new puppy, I was worrying if my new dog might work under Nanako and Nanako might subordinate her. However, Nanako becomes jealous sometimes and Leanne tries to take a provocative attitude against Nanako when they are outside to play. Anyway, I think they are enjoying their own moments everyday.
At my office, one day she noticed that every time when fax comes, Nanako goes to it and gets some treats. She was just watching it for a while. Then, she becomes to react to the fax sound and comes to near it. I thought Leanne also could learn how to retrieve a fax.
I tried to teach her to take a piece of paper in her mouth first with click-and-treat method. Soon she learned how to take it from my hand. Then I put it on a desk or somewhere and taught her to take it from there, which was an easy job for her. Next step was to take it from the fax machine. Our fax is put on a bit higher desk, so she needs to use a box as a footstool to get a sheet from there. Seems it was a bit difficult for her because she was cautious and hesitated to get on it.
I waited until she would try but I was impatience. I held her body and put her front legs on the box. She didn't understand what this meant for the first try but soon she knew what to do. (Smart puppy!)
With only a few trials, Leanne learned to get a fax at last.
Oops! There's another problem. Leanne can't tell if it is a fax paper or other type of paper, and she seems to think that taking a piece of paper deserves treats. Sometimes she steals my note or documents from my desk elatedly. She needs more lessons anyway.
Nanako has turned eleven this November. She had a big trouble last year (please read Poodle Moments '00) but she has been all right all through 2001 and I am really happy about this.
Due to her age and disease, I feel Nanako's physical strength declining.
She used to love to play fetch even in a house, but she seemed to lose interest in playing with toys in these days. She was living very quietly. Then, a new young dog came. I think Nanako's mood has been changed a bit since then. She sometimes invites me to play with a toy and even tries to take a toy out of Leanne's mouth. I guess she does such things from jealousy but living with a young dog seems to give her some good stimulus.
Now the problem on this point is that Nanako gets too excited when playing fetch outside with Leanne. I have to take care of her condition and have to avoid her from overwork. She also excites every time when fax comes. Since she knows very well that retrieving fax is her job, she is now competing with Leanne.
