Moving

So, the question is, who is more ready to be settled, the animals or the humans?

The car rides:

Zuzu is now okay with long car rides.  She still hates short ones, but seems to know when we're in it for the long haul and settles right down.

Koshka Kitty hates all car rides.  In or out of her crate, long or short rides, any time of the day.

The only thing that makes car rides better is when Darby and Tressa are there.  Darby scratches Koshka's head in the back of the car, while Tressa has Zuzu in the middle.  The last trip (Florida to Virginia) the girls were in Alaska.  No head scratches for the animals.

The people are DONE with car rides.  Yuck.

The hotels:

Zuzu does not like hotels.  Too many noises, smells, not enough room to play.  She does like that she can get to Koshka and that Koshka seems to tolerate more puppy antics in a hotel room.

Koshka seems quite content in hotels.  No cage, sometimes places to hide, shelves to climb, window sills to sit on.  She even teases Zuzu some and rubs against her and lets her lick her on the head.  Weird.

The people are DONE with hotels.  Yuck.

Visiting Family in Nebraska:

Koshka liked Nebraska - she got to stay in the hotel.  Refer to previous section for details.

Zuzu was okay with Nebraska. - A little freedom, some kids to play with, some walks.  It was a little too hot for her tastes though, so she chose to come inside whenever she was allowed, where she had to behave.  Behaving is boring!

The people had fun in Nebraska.  Family is always fun!

Visiting Family in Florida:

Koshka was in heaven.  An ENTIRE house to explore! She was one happy, happy cat,  She thought we were done and got to stay forever.

Zuzu wasn't sure about Florida at first, because the house was not a puppy playground.  She heard "No" a lot there.  But, when Pop Pop taught her how to play tag around the big circle of the house that was the  kitchen, living room, dining room, and entryway, she was so much better!  Then, she learned to chase around the pool, and she got to run with a neighbor dog in the back yard a little.  And once she discovered that the ocean wasn't going to eat her, she learned to love her walks there and playing in the water.

The people loved Florida.  The people are going back to Florida as soon as possible and might never leave.

Virginia and the new house:

Hotel, house, hotel, house, hotel, house......we're all ready for that to be over!

Koshka is okay with Virginia so far.  She is staying in the hotel.  It has cool cupboards over the desk that she can hole up in.  And a nightstand that she can fit under where the people couldn't find her for half an hour one morning.  That was tons of fun for Koshka.  Not so fun for the people.  We won't bring her to the house until the furniture is delivered.

Zuzu is confused.  The girls are not here, which makes her sad.  The hotel is boring. The house is empty.  She doesn't know what's going on, poor baby.  We try to keep her with us whenever we can, which means short car rides.  She ate through a seatbelt when we got out of the van for five minutes to pick up my car from the delivery truck.  She could see us just outside and the doors were open, and she wanted OUT!  That was a nice $300 we didn't budget for.  Oops.  She loves the new backyard when we're outside with her.  There is a nice big fence and tons of shade trees to keep it cool.  She hates when we're inside.  My puppy, who used to beg to be outside even in the pouring rain, now sits at the back door and cries if we're not outside with her.  She hates the stairs, but has learned to climb them to be near us.  Last night, even though we were super tired, we took her to the dog park so that she could have fun.  She was so happy!  She ran and sniffed and played and sniffed and wandered and sniffed and ran some more.

The people are ready to have furniture and a home and have no more driving.  The people are DONE with moving.  Yuck.

Water Dog

Zuzu is not a water dog.  Maybe some day she will be, but water is definitely not something that she was born to love.

She hated the ocean in Northern California, but then so did I!  The beach was always fun, but that Pacific Ocean was so cold.

Here in Florida she seemed to be expecting the same water.  We took her to the beach for the first time at night, and she was pretty petrified of the waves.  Jim pulled her into the water once, and she quickly ran right out.  She didn't mind wandering in the standing water and she loved running on the beach.

The pool was no better for her.  She would just pace around the pool like a lion, sometimes barking, sometimes coming up to the edge of the water to sniff whoever was playing in it.  Even when we played catch with one of her toys, she just looked sort of curious, but never enough to join us.

Then, when we took her for another walk on the beach yesterday, she surprised us.  First, we wandered just in the area of the water that she liked, just enough to wet her paws.  Then slowly, she started wandering into deeper water.  Once she realized that the little waves weren't actually attacking her, she wandered even farther.  After about an hour, she was playing, jumping, and even swimming just a little bit, next to Jim!  She still didn't like when a big wave came crashing down near her, so she would run from those, but her fear of the nice, warm, Florida ocean had finally disappeared.  The only challenge was when Jim tried to give her a shower in the men's room afterward to rinse off the salt water.  She didn't like that nearly as much as the ocean.

We went back this morning, and as soon as we hit the sand, she made a beeline for the water.  Most of the walk was spend with her in the water up to her knees, and when it was time to play she went in even a little bit farther than yesterday. And today, we stuck to her normal bath of the hose outside of the house.  That went much more smoothly!

Maybe there will be a lake in Virginia that we can try out next.  I bet she'd love it, and maybe some day she'll be a real water dog!

Getting Better

I was happy that she was doing better and just laying on the rug.....until I was in here proudly uploading this picture and I heard, "Zuzu!  NO!"

Chewing again.  Bummer.  It's locked up again (the rug, not the dog).

The Flokati

In case you don't know, a flokati is a type of rug.  It's shaggy and it's normally white and made of wool.

The bad news is, my parents own one.  Well, I guess it's not bad news on its own, because the flokati didn't actually cause any of the problems intentionally.

This flokati has been around for years.  So long, that Snickers (our old dog), who never bothered anything in his life after his first birthday, used to attack it on a regular basis whenever he visited.  Snickers was a lap dog - a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  If a lap dog thinks this is a fun thing to attack, just imagine how an Estrela would feel!

It took Zuzu about 10 minutes in the house to find it, chew on it, and start CARRYING it around the living room from the entryway while shaking it.  Put it down and tell her no, and it just became a giant game of "I can bite your flakoti way faster than you can swat me away from it" with her tail wagging and barking the whole time.

So, my mother put the flakoti away.  Until yesterday morning when we were expecting company, when the flokati got put back out.  Because that's the BEST time to put something out that your puppy loves to mess with, right mom?  (And I know you're reading this....I love you!)

Jim and I took a couple minutes to try to train her, standing on either side of it and giving appropriate ah-ah's when she tried to bite it and she finally got so frustrated that, just as the company pulled up in the driveway, she walked behind me and peed on the living room carpet!  AAaargh!!  She hasn't had a mistake since we went out of town over a month ago.

So, the pee got cleaned up, the company came in, Zuzu got dragged outside to pee more, and the rest of the day went okay.  She loved the company and was a good girl inside the house and around the pool after that.

This morning, I'm in my bedroom and I hear strange, high pitched barking coming from somewhere in the house.  I head out to the living room and see my mom standing in her superman pose (legs shoulder width apart, hands on hips, like all moms do so well), telling Zuzu to stop biting the rug...in calm, complete, full sentences.  Zuzu is laying on her belly completely sprawled out over the rug, head turned sideways with her mouth on the rug, looking up at my mother, tail wagging.  As soon as mom stopped talking, she would gnaw gnaw gnaw, then as mom was saying, "Now, Zuzu.  You really do need to stop chewing on that rug," she would begin the high pitched barking (talking back), then she would stop, watch my mom, and start gnawing again as soon as my mom appeared to be finished speaking.

When she saw me, she happily hopped up, ran over, and her eyes denied the whole thing.

Silly little brat!

Road Trip and Lincoln, NE

Here's a short snippet of the trip so far.

  The road trip has gone AMAZINGLY well!  A couple of drops of calming chamomille (Pet Calm, by Richard's Organics...thanks, Ron!) each morning, and after a few minutes of looking around, Zuzu would snuggle up next to Tressa for the long ride each day.

The visit in Lincoln went perfectly too.  She was sooo good with all of the little kids running around, even babies.  And she loved playing in the backyard.  We even got one trip to Uncle Ken's golf course and a trip to Omaha where Zuzu met our friends with a nice big fenced in back yard and a short haired collie named Jade to play with!  

We're in Florida now and as we walked in and my parents met her for the first time I told my mother that she's been perfect for a week, so after reading my blog, what should she expect?  She said, oh, thanks!  (Because she knows every time Zuzu is a perfect princess for a while, her next step is to let out the demon!)

So far it's been going well.  She is curious about and a little frightened of the pool, but hasn't jumped in; she has climbed the stairs in both directions on her own; and she is hating the heat, but enjoying being with everyone.  And my parents seem to love her!  Yay!!

Getting Ready

Getting ready for the move....here she is in her new seatbelt harness.  Her crate won't fit with everything else in the van!  She has her seat cover on the seat underneath her as well.

Her last vet appointment here was today.  She weighed 72.7 pounds!  The vet said she looked great.

Now, our only challenge is to continue the packing and sorting while dealing with a bored, sometimes neglected puppy.  Plus, Tressa's still in school, so she doesn't even get to play with her best friend until late afternoons.  We'll be in a hotel starting Wednesday night, so blogs will be sparse for a while.  I'll try to still write, but they might get posted in big groups.

On Our Own

This has been a good week for the ladies in the house to bond.  Mainly, Zuzu and me.  Jim had his last TDY to DC this week, which is good, but always makes for a sad, quiet, and lonely house.

The first day, Zu was still riding on her high of Daddy being home all of the time and she was perrrrrfect!  We had the most amazing walk.  She never pulled, staying right by my side, sat every time I stopped and for every person and dog she met, and did all of her training for me in the park even though people were walking by.

Then, Daddy didn’t come home. She waited, and waited, and waited, and went to sleep sad.

Wednesday was more challenging, Thursday was better, and then there was today.  I keep trying to tell her that Daddy comes home tonight, but she’s not buying it.  

It started off poorly when I let her come outside with me while Tressa left for school.  She didn’t handle it well at all when her favorite sibling rode off on a bike.  She almost pulled her leash right out of my hand trying to launch after her!

She got over it, then I had to go run some errands.  When I got back, she was laying with her back to me in the crate, and she wouldn’t even look at me until I opened the crate door.  Then she thumped her tail once and glanced in my direction.  She slowly got up and walked out, then leaned her body into me and looked up at me with her big brown eyes like the drama queen that she is!!!  It must be soooo hard being a baby girl Estrela!

I let her out and we played, then I came inside to get stuff ready for our walk.  She barked and barked - at me!  If I looked out, she stopped.  If I looked away, she barked.

Then Darby came home with Parker and they hopped the back fence to go through the school grounds to eat lunch downtown.  When they disappeared over the fence, she barked and barked and ran around and cried at the fence.  Of course Darby forgot something, so up over the fence she popped!  Zuzu was elated!  Until Darby grabbed what she needed and disappeared once more.  Zuzu didn’t leave the fence until I had her leash and collar in my hand.

Our walk was like she was three months old again.  Super slow, pull pull pull, drag drag drag, sniff sniff, try to run!  At least she still sat at intersections and meeting people, so it wasn’t a total disaster. 

When we got home, Darby and Parker were sitting at the front of the house and she was soooo excited!  Unfortunately, she only got five minutes of soccer with Parker before they went inside to watch TV.  Apparently a week of finals is tiring for high schoolers.  

I let her stay outside, until she began throwing her entire giant puppy body at the screen door to get in.

Then, I became her victim.  Growl, Grrrr, BARK, play bow, bite, grrrr, wag wag BITE!  And why does she ALWAYS bite my bottom when I try to ignore her?  She even managed (and I still don’t know how this was possible) to snap my bra from behind.  Only a girl dog would have thought to try that.

It ended up in a little Wrestle Mania III, where I had to prove that I’m Alpha when Daddy’s not around, then she had some quiet time in her crate for 15 minutes, and now she’s lying next to me watching me type.  She doesn’t want to be outside today, unless someone is there with her.  

Poor little baby.  I think today she would look cute with a pacifier and a tiara.  ;)

DONE!!

I've HAD it with your crazy training and your pictures!!!

  
I will NOT sit, stay, come, or heel.  I will lay here on my back and cover my face.  Do you HEAR me?!!!!