YOKOSO

Meet our new baby!! Her name is Panda.
She was graciously given to us free yesterday. TY Tammy!
She came with a winter jacket, a t-shirt, leash, and food.

So far, she hates being alone. It seems she may have separation anxiety, but I hope to take her on daily walks, and spend lots of time trying to train her for her new environment. I must admit, last night was tough. She wouldn’t sleep alone, in the bed I made for her, at first. I had to sleep on the couch, while she slept in the ‘her’ bed beside me. She only whimpered once that way, and when she did I put my hand next to her, just to let her know I was still there, then I pulled it away, turned my head toward her and closed my eyes. She soon settled down and fell asleep.

I really hope she will get use to sleeping on her own with the cats in her own bed, like the cats do. Everyone sleeps upstairs. Our baby’s room is just outside our bedroom door, so we’re not too far away! hehe

The cats are still getting use to this new invader of their space. They have never seen a dog up close before! So they are curious as to what it is. Panda is really patient with them. And oh she is the quietest dog I have ever known!! The only sounds she made was at bedtime, and even those weren’t that bad, just a bit of whimpering. I’m hoping the whimpers were not begs, and just sadness. I really hope I did not ‘give in’ to any bad behaviour, and I hope tonight she can sleep alone with the cats.

Last night, we were up till 2 am geocaching and of course we brought our geodog with us. I even put her jacket on her, because it was chilly out there. She however, couldn’t take much of that cold. She kept jumping up on me, so I kept hugging her to warm her up a bit, till she stopped shivering. Then, for the rest of the night she wanted to stay in the van while we braved the cold. She was the smart one! hehe

We weren’t gone long, but when we returned, she was all wags and jumps. Overly excited!! I’m hoping she will calm down a bit, and learn when it’s ok to jump. I hope she’ll wait for commands before jumping up on people. Although, secretly I do like the attention. She reminds me of a real child, who wants to be picked up by their Mommy!! I just hope she, like a child would, will grow out of it. She’s heavier than I anticipated.

I found a bag of holistic dog food for only 6.96 yesterday too and she seems to like it, but apparently she eats everything, which is handy. She even likes cat treats, i noticed, she ran to eat them before the cats got to them yesterday.

I got her some dental rawhide bones, that as you can see from the picture she loves! I think if she is frustrated this will help.

At first, it was hard to get her to walk on her leash, especially when others were around. She seemed to be fearful, but she was relaxing a bit more each minute.

I haven’t heard her bark yet, while with us. She only barked one time and that was when she was with her other Owner and saw me for the first time. I think this could have been an aggressive dominant trait in her, protecting her Owner.

What I’m trying to teach her now is who the pack leader is in our home. Basically, that it is not her!

So far, I think she got the point when she noticed the cats, Nacho in particular, showing off HIS domineering personality. He always tries to get away with doing things that are not allowed when seeking attention. When the cats do things that are not allowed they get sprayed with a water bottle and this teaches them real quick, for a couple days anyway, until they want to get wet again. haha

When I was displining Nacho today Panda seemed shocked. But she right away realized that the animals do not get away with much here!

So far she is a good girl, very quiet, and very affectionate. We had company over yesterday, a couple and their two kids. Panda was very good with all of them. She loves attention!! So who ever was willing to give it she took it. The kids loved her too!!

Next, I hope to learn how to clean up her eyes and the staining on the one side from them. I read that tear-free baby shampoo is great for washing her. Will try that soon…

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009, 12:02 pm   |   posts  |  RSS feed Comments and pings are currently closed.