Delilah as Superman

Too many elephants in this house - sound recording

Too Many Elephants In This House - Auslan

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Bonding

Looking deep into Daisy's eyes I can tell she still misses her companion Dharma, however I think she has come to terms that Delilah is here to stay. Every night that we let the dogs inside for play and cuddle time Daisy is beginning to respond to Delilah play requests. They grab each end of a toy to tug and wrestle. When she has had enough Daisy retreats to the back ledge of the couch for some calm time. Using her paws Delilah lightly taps Daisy prompting her "come on, I wanna play more" she evens barks at her to edge her down.
I too miss Dharma immensely, the simplest of things can trigger memories then the teary emotions take over. To nurture our relationship Delilah and I had a mummy and puggy day. Phil dropped off Daisy to my mums to have a play date with Abby.  We went for a drive to watch Phil play football where she got lots of admiring looks and cuddles from kids wanting to hold her and take her for a walk.


At the start of the drive she wouldn't sit still not happy on the passengers seat wanting to be on my lap, however the longer we drove the dopier she got, content to rest her head and just watch me straining to keep her eyes open.

She has become my little shadow, especially when inside at night, if i get up off the couch to do something she is at my feet.  Even when one night I was finishing a uni assignment she she stood at my side with her tail between her legs until I picked her up to lie on my lap whilst I typed.

Training

A new puppy let alone one that is now nearly 6 months old requires a lot of attention and guidance.
Repetition, reward and praise generally works but for a stubborn puppy with attitude may require patience too.

Phil on the inside of the shed me on the outside both squatting at either side of the doggy door. Using Daisy as the instructor we called her in and out, Phil giving the reward of a pat and "good girl" me offering a liver treat on the other side.  Delilah got whacked in the head/nose several times with the back swing after Daisy went through, but after persistent coaxing and holding the door slightly for her she finally got it.  Daisy especially loved the training with a full belly of treats. 

Now that she had the idea of doing something on instruction = reward, time to intensify her teachings.

Next was sit and stay, sit she mastered quite quickly but its hard to stay put and resist a treat when its placed in front of you :-).  She sits on command or whenever there's food around that she thinks she is entitled to a piece of.

I'm currently working on "bang bang" which is enabled by a "finger gun" with Delilah from a sitting position rolling over for a tummy rub.  Even though I taught Daisy this trick as an older dog, Delilah is taking awhile to put it all together.

Reflections

Delilah found her voice when in the back yard late one night,  the sheds outside light was casting my shadow onto the fence.  Well, she thought we were being invaded, her hair on her back stood up then the low grumble of a growl turned into a full on barking session.

Following this amusing event we thought we introduce Delilah to her reflection no words required see the video below....