Mocha update. Sorry I haven’t written one in a while, Mocha and I have been busy. She is doing great. As of June 22, she is up to 32.5 lbs.
Weather permitting, we go on a 2 mile walk every morning and a 4-5 mile walk every evening. She loves walking and is usually well behaved. We spend a lot of time working on “not pulling” the leash. We also always do a special “sit and stay” once the leash is on and the front door is opened. That took a while to learn, but now she understands that she has to be good before the walk will start. J
She has another set of puppy shots tomorrow, I think this is the fifth set. They seem to be never ending. She loves going to the vet because they make a fuss saying hi to her and it’s the same building we go to Puppy School in. She graduated from Puppy Kindergarten with “exceptional merit”! Not sure exactly what that means, but the diploma is on the fridge door, front and center. We are now attending the follow-up puppy course. She enjoys it, but gets too excited when another puppy starts barking or acting up. The instructor seemed amazed that I adopted an Aussie after I had helped raise two other Aussies. J Yeah, she’s a bit high-energy and can be a spaz, but come on! Aussies are awesome, and she’s a very fast learner if I am consistent and engaging with the lessons.
Special thank you to Melanie and the others who warned about the bad reaction some of the other puppies had to that one shot. I had the vet put the printout in Mocha’s file and they gave her a shot of Benadryl before the other shot and she had no reaction at all! They also said that the first shot would make her drowsy, and the Benadryl would make her doubly sleepy that evening. No such thing. J She was her usual wonderful crazy self that night.
Mocha naps in the crate every workday morning and afternoon. I live 5 minutes from work, so I come home for lunch every day and we spend some time together and usually go outside. She is great with the crate. She knows when I am ready to leave for work, and she comes in from last potty break right away, cause she knows she will be getting two puppy biscuits when she goes into the crate for nap time. She always does her peepees when I tell her to go potty or do peepees. I don’t want her in the crate with a full bladder, THAT wouldn’t be fun.
She gets along great with my three cats. They have accepted her into the pack. She is a bit rough with them sometimes when she is all excited, but she is usually fairly careful to not squash them when they play.
Yesterday a large buck (male deer) had jumped the fence into the back yard and Mocha stood stock still for 30 seconds when she noticed him. Luckily I had noticed him first and had taken her collar first. When she started looking more excited than afraid I released her to go and chase him out of the yard. She really enjoyed that. It was fun to watch this huge buck go running away from Mocha. She didn’t bark until he was over the fence and she had to stop chasing. I wanted her to chase him because I have planted a garden this year and it only has rabbit fence protecting it. Deer wouldn’t break stride stepping over it to eat my veggies. Hopefully this will keep them out for a while.
I let her sleep out of the crate since she stopped having accidents in the house. She sleeps on the floor near me or on a half of the couch with a puppy blanket on it. Every morning she wakes up with the sun and comes over to wake me up. Sometimes she just licks my face or arm, but other times she climbs up and walks on me a while then lays down on me somewhere to really get a good angle for face licking. That usually wakes me up pretty good. Sometimes she lets me go back to sleep after lettering her out to do her business.
She loves playing with Jester and Quin, my friend Kim’s two male Aussies. She adores them both. Quin enjoys playing with her, but Jester is more grumpy around her. I think it’s because she won’t give him proper alpha-dog respect. Hopefully she’ll develop proper dog respect when she gets a bit older. Jester looks and sounds vicious as he tries to intimidate her or scare her away, but she doesn’t buy it. She seems to just know that he won’t really hurt her and just ignores all his theatrics as she torments him. It would be scary if it weren’t so funny. J I can always tell when she has been playing with Dah Boyz, because she sleeps like the dead on those nights. Serious puppy play is hard work!
We haven’t gone swimming yet, because it has pretty much been raining the entire month of June here so the water hasn’t warmed up enough, but when we get a few sunny days in a row the water will warm to the mid 80’s and I will take her swimming. She will love that. She doesn’t mind getting baths and she never seems to mind or even notice the rain. Unfortunately she also seems to really enjoy mud. J You win some, you lose some.
I’ll try and get some more recent pictures posted also.
Schroeder also has to learn to respect his elders. He wants to jump all over them. Any dog over 4 years old finds him annoying.
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