Clocks, snow, and walking to heel

Clocks going back

It is now the 5th morning since the clocks went back and I am yet to be successful in my bid to persuade Inko that she needs to stay in her crate a bit longer in the morning because her body clock is still clearly on British Summer Time? Unfortunately my body clock has now adjusted to the new time so each day the pre-6am starts feel earlier so I feel it's more of a strain getting up (on Sunday and Monday it wasn't too bad as it still felt like BST to me too!). As I still hadn't fully adjusted to getting up some time between 6 and 6.45, this is even more painful!! Although it does give me plenty of time to write this update before I even need to think about getting ready for work!

"I like snow!"

On Tuesday evening we got snow!! Inko seemed to quite like it, trying to eat lumps of it off the ground (she must have thought it was great - liking having one big ice cube to play with!!). Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a decent photo of her outside as it was coming down because I only had my phone camera with me and despite it being a reasonably good camera for one on a phone it was just too dark to get a good pic without a decent camera. I did, however get this picture of her looking like she had rather a bad case of dandruff when we finally got her in!!




On Wednesday morning much of the snow was still on the ground but it had turned rather icy over night so Inko had the very strange experience of the ground crunching under her feet so it was quite slow walk around initially until she got used to it...she quickly discovered that this weird new crunchy stuff also tasted like ice cube so had fun eating some more!! She was rather confused when she wandered over to the lid of her sand pit to have her usual drink out of the swirly grooves in the top which collect rain water (which she likes to use as a nice outdoor drink bowl!) to find that the grooves has disappeared and had been replaced by more cold stuff - rather like a long swirly ice cube!! So she had a lick!

Training update

I was very pleased with Inko's 'stays' last night at training class even with all the distractions of the other dogs who, despite her reluctance to interact with them in the first couple of weeks, are now great fun to play with she thinks!

Our main issue now is walking to heel, or even just consistent loose lease walking - we need to be much better at investing more time in this than we have...we've been too lazy and not always doing as instructed, such as changing direction or stopping every time she pulls. She's quickly learning to walk how she wants, not how we want! We need to get this right, or at least vastly improved on what we've got now if we are going to get the KC puppy foundation certificate at the end of the training class. It would be such a shame not to get this when her other stuff is coming along so well.

I have found that on some walks having a small amount of food in my left hand while walking along helps keep her pretty close to me as long as I am regularly giving her the treats along the way so that she doesn't feel like she's just being teased. I find that when I have done that for bit she will walk with just my left had down at my side without a treat for a little while too so I need to make sure we do more of that, as this seems to show that she is starting to work out that my hand at the side and walking near it is a good thing. Other times she pulls either to the front or occasionally to the back, or weaves in front of me or behind me, nearly tripping me up on occasions. And then other times, when she's really not up for doing as she's told she just won't walk without jumping, barking and chewing at my ankles. I've tried pulling her away with the lead but this is tricky if I want her walking on my left and have the lead in my right so that I can have the treat in my left hand! All very confusing!

I'm wondering whether she is doing this is she needs to go to the loo when she's out. She's really reluctant to poo or wee when out on a walk around the roads. She'll do both fine when off lead (or on lead for that matter) when out in a field or woods as grass is definitely her preferred place to go. I've started taking her out for a short walk up the road as soon as I get her out of her crate so that I know it's a time she'll be desperate to go. I've managed to get her to do a wee on the pavement (well actually in the gutter each time so far - she just steps off the kerb to wee!) but still haven't manage to get her to do a poo. It's after the wee that she actually starts her jumping and nipping. I always take her into the garden when we get back and she usually then does her poo, which does suggest to me that maybe that's a big issue here. Just don't know how to make her do it outside. It's hard to just stand around to allow time for her to give in and just do it on the pavement when she's yapping and barking because I'm not sure it'll endear me to the neighbours having her do that at 5.30am!!!

Paula