Ladybug is DEFINITELY a puppy. She's past the cute, cuddly puppy phase and is into what I called with Sierra the "teenage" phase (I'm guessing 9 months to 1 year). She's long and lanky and not totally coordinated yet, she's full of playful energy, and she's into exploring everything. Very similar to our 2 year old, Jamison. Needless-to-say, they are big fans of eachother. Ladybug has quickly become Jami's favorite animal... I suspect because her name is Ladybug, but the similarities in personality probably have something to do with it too.
Another trait of the "teenage" puppy phase is chewing on anything and everything. I came home yesterday to find that Ladybug had chewed the edge of one of my shoes. Luckily the damage wasn't bad, but it was a good reminder for me of how I had to keep things around for Sierra to chew on when she was this age. I quickly went to the garage and found some rope, cut it to size, and tied some knots in the ends. She loved the rope toy and immediately went to chewing on it.
I'm convinced that Ladybug is going to be a super-adoptable dog. She is such a sweet girl and has enough Shepard in her that she is really eager to please. She is very good with Jami and loves being around other dogs. She also listens very well, which is a good sign for training. I've already made a short little list of the things I want to work with her on to make her an even better adoption for someone:
1. Teaching her the 'drop' command. She wants to play so bad with us and the other dogs, she often picks things up and runs around with them in an attempt to play. This is great puppy play, but only when she grabs things you want her to grab! She already lets go of things very easily when you take things away from her, but mastering the 'drop' command would make this super-easy.
2. Working on not jumping when excited. Again, this is totally a puppy trait, but she is getting too big to be a jumper. She is very good about not jumping on kids, but she will jump up on adults when she first meets someone. This is a pretty easy one to teach her, especially since our dogs know not to jump.
3. Teaching her to walk on a leash. Sweet thing has obviously never really been leash trained. Walks in the evenings for a few weeks will teach her pretty quickly.
That's it for now. She is so eager to please, I don't think any of these things will require much effort from us, just some consistency in action and praise when she does things right. I guess we will see!
The first puppy causualty! Not too bad, definitely still wearable.
Happily chewing on one of the 'dog appropriate' toys I gave her.
Sitka and Ladybug sacked out by the back door after running around in the backyard.
really really cool!
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