'STAY'....'NO, YOU STAY'

I’ve had Mattisue for almost three weeks now.  She is great company to have around.  She makes me smile and brightens each and every day.  Some dogs, no matter how great they are, seem to have at least one little thing that might be a negative, but not Mattisue.  She doesn’t do even one thing that could be annoying.  She sleeps on the bed all through the night and doesn’t get up until I’m ready to go downstairs to start the day.  She walks really well on leash (never pulling) and is reliable off leash too.   When I take her outside for her last pee of the night she bounces alongside me batting at my hand with her paws, she does her business and then on the way back home she goes out of her way to go to the truck.  She stands at the truck and looks at me waiting to go somewhere.  When she really believes me that we aren’t going anywhere she comes back home with me.   

When I foster a shy dog, for the first while, I work 100% on confidence and safety and 0% on obedience.  Safety includes not darting out of doors and things like that and confidence comes through new people, dogs and surroundings.  Mattisue has sure opened up in the last week.  She now runs down the beach towards other dogs to solicit them to play a chase game and she explores a little further away from me than before.   She accepts pats from new people with less and less ducking and she more easily approaches people with outstretched hands.   The only thing she needs help with is when the occassional big dog approaches too fast she lets out a scream even though they haven't even touched her.  I keep her close around big dogs so she knows she's safe.

In the first week, Mattisue would not accept a treat from me unless it was offered on a flat hand.  She now accepts a treat being held in my fingers and she will pull it away from me if I give some resistance.  Yesterday I started working on a bit of obedience with her as she seems ready.  The first time I asked her to sit for a treat she just stared at me but eventually sat.  I praised her so much and she got so excited and look proud.   When we went out to the grass at the end of the night I asked her to sit and she did.  When I praised her she did long excited loops around the lawn.   She is also learning to lay down for a treat.   On our walk last night we were on the back path at McDonald Beach and I held out my hand and told her to stay and she stopped in her tracks and stayed while I walked 25 feet away and then called her.  How the heck does she just naturally know what I want?  What a smart little dog she is.

It was funny though, because after a few times of telling her to stay and then calling her, we turned to go back towards the beach and she then did things in reverse.  When I told her to stay...she was the one that ran 25 feet away and then waited for me to call her back. We’ll have to work on that so she knows who does the stay and who does the walk away part. 

After a good walk and a few runs with some dogs, I sit down to brush the sand from my feet and Mattisue joins me and waits. 



just checkin to make sure you're still there

 She is ready to go as soon as I get my shoes on and happily trots back to the truck.  She is happy to go but I know she'd also be game to carry on if that's what we were doing.   She seems to have really good endurance, but is great at going with the flow.