Don has been convalescing at home this week. Not to worry…..he has had Nurse Tilly to keep him company. Here is a series of pictures of her snuggling and keeping a watchful eye on her patient.
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Tilly loves rawhide
We gave Tilly her first piece of rawhide. She wasn’t sure whether it was more fun to eat or play with it. She learned a valuable life lesson though. If you live in a multi-dog household, and you leave your rawhide unattended…someone will steal it!
Puppies have spring fever
Last week was so beautiful with temperatures well above normal…..almost all the snow was gone but that all changed. Here it is the first official week of spring and the temperature has fallen and we’ve had snow 3 days in a row. Everyone, two-legged and four-legged, is sick and tired of winter. The dogs have got so much energy but nowhere to burn it. Wally and Tango were having a good wrestle in the back yard and little Tilly really wanted to join in. I love watching them interact together but I’m always watching to make sure that she doesn’t get trampled accidentally.
Puppy mosh pit
Generally speaking, most German Shepherds are fiercely loyal and love their family but they often don’t really warm up to strangers. Tango is quite different. She is extremely affectionate and just loves all people When Don takes her out training, we have to warn the people that are hiding that when she finds them she is going to plant at least one big, wet puppy kiss on their face. When it comes to other dogs, she is not a real social butterfly. At the puppy park she is only interested in playing with the chucker and she doesn’t interact much with the other dogs. Over the years, Tango has welcomed all of our foster puppies. She is the first to play with them but for some reason she will not allow them to touch her. If they try and snuggle up with her….she will just get up and walk away. It doesn’t matter how many times the puppy tries….snuggling is just not permitted. It can take a month or more before she will start relaxing the rules….that is until now. It has taken Tilly less than 2 weeks to have a break through. It was amazing to watch. That little puppy had a plan and she carried it out to perfection. Inch by inch she dragged herself closer and closer to Tango until she reached her goal of snuggling up against her. It probably took almost 20 minutes to complete….but she was successful. When Don got up to grab the camera, Tango and Wally were muzzle to muzzle…unfortunately just before he snapped the picture Tango sat upright.
Clicker training begins
Now that Tilly has been with us for a week and she has settled into her new life, it is time to start training. We started out with ‘charging the clicker’ to teach her that a click is a very good thing and it means that a reward is coming. Then we moved on to clicking her for making eye contact with me and she caught on to that fairly quickly. Yesterday I introduced her to the Staples Easy Button and I clicked and treated her for any contact. Today she started offering a paw target, she got a big reward for the first hit and from that point on she just kept progressing. Unfortunately I didn’t have the video camera going the first time that she actually got the ‘That Was Easy’ sound but I was able to capture the second time she was successful. She is so tiny that she needs to jump on it with both paws to get the audio. As you watch the video you can see her thinking and processing all the things she has learned and when she decides to hit the button you can see the pure joy in her face and her body language. That little tail is wagging like crazy.
Filed under Clicker Training, Tilly
Celebrating 3 months
Today Tilly is 3 months old. She has really fit well into our ‘Dog House’. Wally and Tango seem to be accepting her and she is thrilled with them. Wally will allow her to snuggle with him but he doesn’t play much with her whereas Tango loves to play ‘chase-me’ with her in the backyard but she still has her ‘no touching’ rule. It usually takes Tango a month or so before she will let a new puppy snuggle up with her.
Yesterday we captured this great video of Wally and Tango holding a tug toy and little Tilly trying to take it away from each of them. Too cute!!
Family Portrait
Michelle, Grandma, Chris and Tilly
Our visit with Chris and Michelle went by so quickly. It was wonderful having help looking after the little, hairy monster. On Friday we stopped by Grandma’s apartment so that the kids could say good-bye. It was hard to get Tilly to sit still long enough to capture a few pictures.
Filed under Tilly, Two legged family
Angel or Devil???
These two pictures perfectly capture Tilly’s dual personality. When our little Tilly is sweet….she is very sweet. She cuddles and licks and loves to be smooched……..but……when our little Tilly is bad…..she is really bad! She jumps and bites and races around like a possessed devil. The good news is that the sweet times are more frequent than the devil child times.
Filed under Tilly
Everything is a toy
People can spend a fortune on toys to entertain their puppies. In reality, everything is a potential toy … as long as it doesn’t have sharp bits or is small enough to swallow. Here is a video of Tilly enjoying herself with my garden kneeler. It is twice her size but that doesn’t slow her down.
Puppy camouflage
It has been really hard leaving little Tilly at home while I go to work. I know that Don is taking good care of her but I still miss her. He brought her with him when he came to my office to pick me up. Everyone fell in love with her. So many people thought that she was one of Wally’s puppies because her colouring is almost identical to his.
Later in the day Tilly decided to curl up in Wally’s belly for a little snooze. All of us were amazed at how she just seemed to disappear. If her eyes weren’t open she just blended into all of Wally’s long golden fur……talk about camouflage….it was perfect.
Tilly exploring her new world
We had an incredibly beautiful, sunny and warm day today. A little unusual for us to be this warm in mid March. Tilly got her first introduction to the backyard and it appears that she likes to go exploring. So many things to smell and chase…including Tango’s tail.
Who switched my puppy??
Friday night and Saturday Tilly was an absolute angel. Very quiet, sweet and gentle. She was just content to snuggle up in my lap and sleep. Then came Sunday morning. I’m guessing that little Miss Tilly is feeling more confident in her new surroundings. So confident that she is now letting her true personality shine through…..meet Tilly’s alter ego……the devil child!! This morning I was greeted with a sweet little face and lots of kisses but all that changed once she was ‘unloaded’ and ‘reloaded’ again. It was chilly in the house this morning and everyone else was still in bed so I decided to go back up stairs and snuggle up to Don to warm up. I thought I would let Tilly hang out on my side of the bed to keep me company. Big mistake! My sweet, cuddly puppy was replaced by a jumping, chewing, pulling and digging machine. She was especially interested in trying to detach my pony tail from my skull.
I want a refund…….or maybe a replacement 😉
Filed under Tilly
Tilly meets Wally and Tango
Just a short video clip showing Tango and Wally meeting Tilly for the first time. Tango has this habit of using her long, pointy muzzle and ‘boinking’ other dogs when she wants to play. She almost knocks poor little Tilly right over with her first boink.
What a good puppy!
Last night everyone was just so exhausted after our long trip so we all curled up on the couch together. I just love this picture. It really helps to put into perspective just how small Tilly is compared to Wally.
I am thrilled to announce that little Tilly slept through the night. She woke up once around 11:30pm and let out a big cry…..maybe a scary puppy dream or she thought she was all alone. I stroked her a few times and she settle down and fell back asleep. By 03:00am I was starting to worry that maybe something was wrong with her. I didn’t want to turn on a light so I used my cordless phone with the backlit keyboard to illuminate an area above Tilly to make sure she was ok. By 05:30am I couldn’t stand it any more …I had to get up and check on her. Her little tail was wagging a mile a minute and I got a dozen kisses as I carried her downstairs to go potty. Its now 0630 and she’s had 3 poops and 1 pee and all is good.
She’s Ours
We had a lovely visit with the breeder, signed the paperwork and we are heading home with the newest member of our family.
Tilly seems to be pooped from all the excitement She is curled up against my neck and it looks like she is going to sleep most of the way home.
We also got a quick video of Tango and Wally meeting Tilly that I will post later.
Filed under Tilly
Tilly…here we come
The big day is finally here. We just backed down the driveway and we are headed for the highway and our three hour trip to Cold Lake.
Our house is going to be busy this weekend. Not only will we have a new puppy but tomorrow Chris and Michelle arrive to spend a week visiting us and Grandma. Michelle is an animal lover like me so hopefully she will enjoy the company of our newest 4-legged member of our household.
Filed under Tilly
3 more sleeps
I can’t believe that the big day is almost here. Back in January it seemed like it was an eternity to wait. Now we are running around buying ‘stuff’ to make sure our new little princess has everything that a puppy would need. We are digging out the baby gate, kennels and X-pens to get both our home and our cars puppy-ready.
On Friday we head up to Cold Lake to sign the papers and then Tilly will be an official member of our family.
OMG 3 more sleeps!!!!!!
Filed under Tilly
Life In The Dog House 