Ahhh; a Luna update…
- Posted on 15th November 2010
- in Belle 2009
- by jvfairbanks
hi vicky,
thanks for writing! luna is fabulous. we love her so, so much, i can’t imagine life without her! she is a very happy dog and is a wonderful member of the family.she is sleeping with her head resting on my knee right now. she loves to rest her chin on arms, hands or legs. and she does like to nestle her head into soft things while sleeping, just like you said chief and belle do. she loves ball and playing fetch. she will run for a ball over and over again. we mostly have to entice her to give the balls back with treats, but she does love to run for them. what really gets her barking is for want of a ball. if one is stuck under a piece of furniture, or if we are holding one, but not throwing it, or if the kids are playing basketball, she will bark and try to get the basketball. never mind that it is too large for her, she will put her front paws on it, almost like she is trying to dribble it.
at the dog park she adores playing with other dogs. she likes to chase and be chased and wrestle any size dog. most of her friends are large, black labs. she just finished a second obedience class last week. it was a good class, but we felt like it was a lot of review for our little genius. her challenges have been coming back when called from far away, like across the park, and loose leash walking. but she has gotten way better at both of those. if i have a squeaky ball in my pocket and she is far away not paying attention to me, i can squeak the ball to get her attention and back she flies. she impresses everyone at the park with how fast she is and how well she can corner while running. she is very agile! i just got one of those front attach harnesses, which really stops her pulling while walking, and she is better when just walked on her collar, as well.
she is still good at her tricks, her most noteworthy are nap (laying with her head down on her side) and bang (laying on her back with all her paws up in the air). she is very food motivated, but prefers her treats, to her regular dog food. i may have spoiled her early on by adding in chopped veggies and cottage cheese, yogurt or grated cheese all the time. so i have cut way back on the extras in her food and try to wait until she finally eats it. but she will skip meals that way, which of course worries me, but i really don’t think she will starve herself, and then she gobble it all down when she gets really hungry. and we do still treat a lot, which may be part of the cause, too.
i have really tried to entice her to sleep with xxat night, as has xxx. but she always leaves her room and would rather come to ours. xxx isn’t so keen on her in our bed (which i love!), so after hanging out upstairs with us, i take her down to her spot on the couch right before lights out. she seems to be in the swing of this routine because when the kids and xxxxare already asleep and i am just about to go to be at 11 or so, she’ll jump down and come over to let me carry her down for the night. we all still like to pick her up a lot, she is the perfect size, but i don’t think we spoil her too much on that. 🙂
i just love to watch her walk and run, she has such a cheerful gait. her tail is pretty much always curled up, like a scorpion, the dog trainer noted. i think that is her main indication of happiness. she doesn’t wag her tail constantly with us, just keep it curled up. she really wags her tail when she meets new people and dogs and if she has a toy in her mouth and we say “i’m gonna get you…” she wags like crazy and waits for us to start chasing her.
she seems to do very well when home alone. i always leave her something to lick out of her kong toy and then hide a few treats around the family room for her to find. i think she pretty much goes right up to her spot on the couch after that and never gets into any mischief while we’re away. she hasn’t been a big chewer on our things, but she does still have a penchant for stealing lego and stuffed animals. once we discover her, she drops them right away. we do have a room that is pretty much devoted to lego so that is a major test for her all the time. she mostly leaves it alone now, with the occasional tasty lego piece.
she will mostly only chew bully sticks now. i have bought lots of other kinds of chew treats, she’ll take them from us and then run around the house whining and looking for a place to bury them, but she never really goes back to chew on those, just hides them. isn’t that funny?
well, that’s about all i can think of for now. we have loved checking in on your puppies on the web. they look so cute, we wish we could see them in person! if any of them come to portland, feel free to give their owners my email address. it would be fun to meet them in the park when they’re ready!
i hope you have a great thanksgiving. xxxxx my parents will have luna part of the time and our good friends with two kids will have her for the other part. so she’ll have a good vacation, too!
all my best,
xxx
