She's Learning!

Last night, we put Jazzy back in her kennel, with the door to it open, in my closet, with the closet door open. She likes that "nook" best. In fact, she walked herself to the kennel and fell asleep all on her own last night. So, we just put down a couple more "wee wee pads" in the bedroom/bathroom area (all hard surfaces), and closed the door to the rest of the house. We decided, if she woke up, to just encourage her to go potty on the papers, and then go back to bed. No cuddling with Jazzy in the middle of the night. Get her trained! So, she slept from 10:30 to 2:30-her longest at one time! She woke up, walked to my side of the bed, I heard her (she didn't even cry), took her to the papers, told her to go potty, she did, and then I walked her back to her kennel. She didn't stay, so Russ got up and encouraged her to stay in her kennel. So she was back asleep by 2:50 a.m. and so were we! Then, again at 5:30 a.m. I heard her sort of crying, and noticed she had at some point in time, gotten out of her kennel and was nesting on my fuzzy robe by the side of the bed. No biggie-as long as she let us sleep. I took her to the paper, and she didn't do her business, so I took her back to the kennel and went back to sleep. When we woke at 6:30 a.m., we noticed she had taken herself to the papers to do her business again without us. She's LEARNING! AND-she let us sleep!

Also, she is learning to scratch at the door when she wants to go out (when we are awake and in the great room). She loves going outside when the weather is nice. When weather is not nice, she begs to come back in by walking up a step or two as a big hint. "No playing around, I'm getting cold!" She shivers like a bowl of jello!

This afternoon, we both took her outside, to have some play time. After she did #1 and #2, I gave her her first treat outside (normally we wait to come in). She looked all over for the perfect hiding place for her treat. She dug a hole, buried it, ran away, ran back, removed it, took it elsewhere, buried it...you get the picture. Our question was, would she eat it or leave it? She did decide to leave it behind, after burying it at least 5 times. So, I gave her another treat when we came inside, to reward her for learning delayed gratification (if a dog can really learn that), and she hid that one too! I have a feeling she will hunt it soon, as it is her favorite treat!

Just in the past 24 hours, she has had a couple of interactions with Libby. Libby (our calico cat, almost 10 years old) has decided to be a part of the family even though there is an intruder in our household by the name of Jazzy. She watches over our activity and is nearby as often as she was prior to 1-3-06. They are both curious about each other, so there is much sniffing and face-offs. When Jazzy discovered Libby's tail, Libby learned to quickly relocate it. But when Jazzy was within inches of her, face to face, Libby decided to let out her first hiss to Jazzy, just to let her know who was really the boss. They seem to have come to an understanding, for now...

And the funniest moment of the day was when we could hear Jazzy clunking around in the closet, and we heard her dragging something out of my office and into the hallway. What to our surprised eyes we did see...Jazzy with a mouth full of a billy club. I wonder what that caption would read? "Walk softly and carry a big stick!"