Exercising, Warmer weather, and training routines.

The Christmas holiday break had interrupted our exercise and training routine and I could feel myself becoming a little exasperated at times with Lusi, hence the posts on "mannerliness" in the home and so forth.

We have had something of a winter
thaw for a few days; blue skies and
above freezing temperatures.

We have enjoyed a warm weather winter interlude for the past week with lots of good walking opportunities which included a trip to the forest which made a nice change and gave us a chance to do some recalls in a different location.

We have also got back into our short indoor training routines with the result that Lusi has been much better mannered and will actually nap for intervals too! I noticed that she is beginning to get back her previous conditioning which she started to lose in October at the start of the colder weather. We seemed to have difficulty keeping weight on her and she started to get quite picky with her food. It was not just that you could see her rib outline, as opposed to just not quite seeing it which is how it should appear for optimum weight, but her coat had become somewhat coarse too. I started adding some salmon to her diet once or twice a week.

Lusi happy in her crate

Lusi fast asleep in her crate

I have noticed that Lusi is choosing to go into her crate for naps, especially in the evening. I am delighted with this because we are beginning to see her adopt her crate as "home" and clearly views it in a much more positive light than 


before. The feeding crate game has certainly helped in this regard. I also want to get a crate for the truck. Lusi is a great traveller and has a car restraining harness which I thought was the ideal way of travelling with her. Then one day I went to a tracking meet and saw just how comfortable all the dogs were in their crates. I had to admit that they were all much more relaxed and calmer in their crates than Lusi was, who was not crated. The worry that she might engage in a bout of "truck chewing" has also prompted a more serious consideration of crate use. In fact, Lusi has missed out in coming to the barn twice this week because she has been going through a chewing phase and I cannot risk the new truck being destroyed! 


We missed our tracking lesson this Friday, despite the warmer weather interlude because Annika who has been riding Dande was abouts to leave Canada to return to Germany, and we wanted to get a video of her riding. 

I love this Martha Stewart Dog Curry Comb!
It's great for shorthaired dogs because
the rubber points are so soft and it gives a
nice massage as well as loosening hairs!

The "zoo routine" during which I handle Lusi's extremities, is becoming incorporated into our daily lives quite nicely. I think that Lusi is beginning to enjoy her foot massage each evening and I now have the chihuahuas queuing for their turn. I found that a little vaseline on her pads gave enough lubricant so that I could massage her paws and I am starting to take a hold of them quite firmly too, as though I were trimming her nails. In reading another blog, I was introduced to the idea of using a dremel to keep her nails in shape, so I have also started to desensitize her to the sounds and appearance of a dremel, so that we can work towards filing her nails rather than cutting them.

Lusi's trip to the vet. Nail clipping and getting more information about de-worming.

Lusi's nails need clipping. She needs what I call a "zoo routine"! Years ago, on a trip to the zoo with the children the animal keeper had explained how they maintain a regular daily training exercise of handling all the large animals. Touching all the body parts; inspect ears, open mouth, lift paws and so on! Well, we are a little remiss in our zoo routine at the moment. It wasn't that Lusi was afraid of the vet office; on the contrary, she bounded in like a jack-in -the -box, the ever wagging tail swishing across the small space between the chairs. What she didn't like was her paws being held very firmly and the fact that the vet tech would not let go of them until the job was done. I do hold her feet at the door for wiping when she comes in from outside but that is scarcely up to what we needed here for nail clipping. So one more routine to add to the daily list, the "zoo routine"!


Her weight is now 48 lbs, and Lusi is 71/2 months old.


We had a faecal test done at the end of November which was negative. I wanted to check how frequently we should be doing this since Lusi was going to be back down at the barn again, now that Dande had recovered from his injury and I was recovered from my foot injury and the several other ailments were now all behind us finally. Our vet recommended that we repeat the faecal tests every two months until the age of I year old, at which time a regular program of worming every 4 months could be established.

I had trained Lusi when she was first going down to the barn to "leave it" when she picked up horse poop up in her mouth and ran around with it, or worse still ate it. But a recent visit to the barn, as we maintain Lusi's equine socialization with our Morgan horse, showed that she had forgotten some of her earlier lessons! There she was ferreting through the shavings and hay in the stable to find pieces of poop. I have to admit I didn't realize what she was doing at first! I also caught her stealing a frozen dog "poopsicle" on our walk last week.