The Honeymoon is Over?

At about 3:30pm today, I will have had Miss Bria for exactly a week. 7 days of dog ownership, and the honeymoon is mostly over. Don't get me wrong, I still love the pup to bits, but combine a bad night's sleep and a less than stellar mood/attitude and the little pup's antics dive from amusing to downright obnoxious. I cannot say that the dog is dumb. Quite the contrary, she's insanely smart. Smart enough to know she can push every issue. And smart enough to watch for when my back is turned to do something she's not supposed to...such as sneaking into the horse paddock.

Tsk tsk to me for not having the patience today to shoo her back out. Instead, she got to be attached to my belt while I finished cleaning the horse pen. If she wants to be in the pen, I guess she can be right next to me.

And what is it with Miss Pup and dead mice?! Twice now, I have caught her with dead mice in her mouth. She isn't hunting them, simply finding the smooshed dead things and deciding it's her new toy and proudly prancing around with it dangling out of her mouth. Thank goodness she will come to me and knows "Give", although I would prefer she could "Give" or "Drop it" without me putting my hand near her mouth. I suppose I cannot have everything. And at least she does it with a little insistance. I have to make sure I kick it or stick it somewhere she can't get to again, or 30 seconds later, she's found it, and we start the whole circus over again.

Speaking of "Give", she has also pretty well learned "Sit" and "Down". Now for being only 11 weeks and 3 days old, I'm quite pleased with her. I have to remind myself, however, that she IS only 11 weeks old and that she has her whole life to learn things. Don't push the training sessions. I have been trying to teach her to "Shake Paws", but that's not going so well. Oh well. I shall persist, and she will learn eventually.

My big problem is pushing the training too much. I've really backed off the training sessions and just ask her randomly to Come, Sit, or Down, as well as using Give when I'm playing tug or whatnot. She's learning. I don't think it'll be long before I can start teaching her tricks. She is, after all, a brilliant Border Collie.

So there are my thoughts for this morning. I may have more to add this afternoon, but I figured I better write it while I thought of it.