Learning New Things

Ms. Izzo is doing well.... in spite of my absence for a few days. I was gone for a long weekend to visit my parents out of state and my hubby stepped into the training shoes and did great! I got back to town just in time to catch the last half of class last night. He had Izzo's full attention and took her through her paces in good form.

She gained another pound last night + the 2.5 from last week... anyway she is over 17pounds now and growing fast.

Jake has been encouraging me to get a paw print for her puppy memory book. And I had not gotten it done. He said, "Mom the cuteness factor is 100% based on the size of the paw print. The longer you wait the less cute it will be." So... tonight some new scrapbooking supplies arrived via mail and I attempted to get a paw print. Let's just say there were more paw prints on my floor than there were on the paper! But we got some close facsimile of Izzo's cute little (sort of) paw.

We are supposed to be working with our puppies every night touching all parts of the body. So paw prints were good for the homework check list as well!

Last week we had to expose our puppies to 8 new sounds. The week before that it was 8 new textured surfaces to walk on. This week it is 8 new "moving" objects. We are also supposed to meet 15 new people every week and this week specifically we are to get to a fire or police station.

Izzo LOVES meeting people. And that brings us to the next thing we are working on which is "4 on the floor". That is learning to not jump up when greeting people. This still needs assistance, but she is getting much better. The nipping is also getting better. Partly because she is growing out of it and partly because we are learning how to ignore/deal with it.

Izzo is doing great with her "watch" behavior (no verbal command yet) and her "sit" behavior. She is also doing well going into her kennel. We are also teaching her to start to walk into her gentle leader and backpack.

Oh yes - and I am THRILLED to learn that the WM Elementary School has decided to hold a fundraiser to sponsor Izzo and I through Helping Paws. What an awesome community we have and what a wonderful thing for the school to do. Many of the teachers know Jake (and Miles). Another individual and his HP service dog volunteer at the school as well. So Izzo and I will be making a visit to the school some time in early May for them to kick off there fundraiser. It truly does melt my heart to have this support!!

Thanks for checking in and Izzo sends wet, sloppy, puppy kisses!