A Very Much Over-due Pup-Date

Maple is growing like a weed. She is now approximately 14kg (30lbs), tall, slim and leggy. Because she is so long she can reach up well onto the kitchen counter and steal anything and everything that might be up there.

She now also loves playing in the water. Unfortunately she gets car sick, and the river is a 10 minute car ride away along the highway. It is not far enough that she actually vomits, but far enough that she feels nauseated and miserable. So even though she loves all the places that we take her in the car she now avoids the car and does anything she can to avoid a car ride because she knows that the car makes her sick. However, we keep persevering with these short rides to very fun places in the hope that she will outgrow it.

Sorry for the video footage, but we forgot the good camera and just used the phone to take the following video of Maple and Gromit playing in the Murray River 2 weeks ago.

Perfect Day for Water Play

Today is a gorgeous spring-like day. Bright, sunny, 17 degrees celcius - in other words, the perfect day to skip out on the housework and take the dogs out to the river. It only takes about 10 minutes to drive to my favourite spot to take the dogs out for a good walk and a swim in the Murray River.

Even though it is a friday I was surprised that I didn't meet anyone else walking their dog. There is a paved walking/bike track along side the river which is normally quite popular as it is nowhere near any houses nor roads.

Gromit must be part retriever. He was happy when we got to the part of the river that he could swim and splash around in. If I threw a rock into the water, he would run out to that spot, look around for the rock, and even stick his head fully underwater in the search for the rock.

Maple, on the other hand, is not so fond of water. She did brave the river up to about her elbows but then would run back to the shore and run along the shore waiting for Gromit to come back out of the water. The longer we were there, the slightly braver she got, but Maple never got to the point of wetting more than just the lowest part of her undersides.

I had my first suspicions that Maple might not be a water loving dog when I had to give her bath at approx 10 weeks of age, and she fought it like a cat - and repeated the exact same behaviour the next time she had a bath.

Both dogs had a great time playing along side the river and running around the river flats. They are both sound asleep outside right now.

Since the walking track seemed to be deserted, I decided to try walking Maple off leash. She was very good and mostly kept very close to Gromit. I did practice lots of recall with Maple, and she was fairly good at it, but she still needs a lot more practice before I would be comfortable allowing her off leash with anyone else around.

I didn't take the camera with me, so no pics or videos - hopefully next time.

Maple and Her Sister Musings

Maple had a great time visiting with her sister. They were together for just over 24 hours. It was amazing to see how different the two girls were.

When we arrived at Bella's house, Maple was outgoing and curious whereas Bella was very nervous and frightened. Bella kept escaping to the bedroom to hide under the bed. Even after Bella was carried outside to play with Maple, she kept on hiding under her human mum's chair and growling at the kids and Maple if she got too close.

After about 5 minutes Bella's curiosity got the better of her and she decided to venture forth to see what Maple was all about. And then they started playing. Bella seemed to thoroughly enjoy playing with Maple, but she kept an eye out for what the kids were doing and would once again become skittish and hide under the chair if one of the kids tried to play with the pups or come near them.

Bella and Maple not only have different personalities, but they look quite different too. Bella is much stockier than Maple. Maple is definitely leggier, but Bella's feet were larger. Bella was ever so slightly darker in colour and her fur was a bit longer than Maple's. It is probably difficult to see these differences in the video in the post below, but in person they were quite obvious.

It was not surprising that Maple slept the whole 3 hour car ride home from Bella's house.

Littermate Reunion

Maple and Bella are sisters from the same litter. They were separated at 8.5 weeks of age, and met again earlier this week at age 16 weeks.

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Maple at 13 Weeks Old

Now that Maple is 13 weeks old, so is getting quite large, and is starting to look a bit more like an adult Murray River Curly Coated Retriever.

The fur on her legs has grown long enough to look feathered, and her ears are getting quite long and curly. Her eyes are not as dark as they were when we got her 5 weeks ago, but it looks as if they will probably not be the bright golden yellow of some MRCCRs, but rather a deeper, browner gold.

Puppy Preschool: Week 2

Last night we attended the 2nd session of puppy preschool (PPS) with Maple. It went better than last week, although Maple was still a bit of a bully.

It would seem that Maple does not like other female dogs very much. When she was off lead with 2 of the girls, she was somewhat aggressive, but when we picked her up and then put her down with a couple of the males to play with, she was much happier. They didn't play with each other very much, but at least Maple wasn't trying to dominate them.

We were sitting next to one of the female pups - the boxer. Maple was interested in her, but often growled aggressively when they got too close together. However, by the end of the evening, Maple and the boxer were starting to play together a bit and enjoy one another.

So we are happy as it seems that the socialization that Maple is getting a PPS is helping her to be somewhat habituated to other dogs. We are not really learning any new training hints however, but that is more than likely due to all our research into training that we have done on our own. Maple is so clever and picks up new things quite easily, so it has been fairly easy to train her at home without the input from an expert.