The Changes Keep Coming

Lisa still continues to improve daily. It's still amazes me how far she's come in 8 months! Her daily improvements come in the form of simply doing something she didn't do the day before. It takes a vigilant eye and attention to detail to notice them because they are subtle. However, the changes keep coming!

Recently, Lisa has become extremely aware of her surroundings. In earlier months, she would mostly sleep through any activities going on around her; not anymore! She can be found repeatedly lifting her head or sitting up to see what the commotion is. It's great! She even has begun to respond to my homecomings, of which she was previously unaware.

Unfortunately, she still wishes to take to my walls and scratch likes there's no tomorrow. She also still does this in her crate, too. I've had to step up the correction on the wall scratching because the message is not getting through - no matter how much I try to redirect, she just goes right back to it again the moment I turn away. It's certain that she is using this as an attention-getter, because she'll scratch once or twice and then look around to see if anyone is going to interrupt her. And the moment you do, she comes practically running over to you. I realize it's how she's trying to alleviate her boredom, but with her lack of understanding of toys, there's not much to redirect her towards. This scenario sets up an interesting dilemma between reinforcing the scratching behavior and actually correcting it.

Lately, I've been introducing Lisa to the couch and bed. She's not comfortable on either, mainly because they're squishy and unstable. She also has no fear of heights and will and did unknowingly take a header off my near 3ft high bed. Luckily, only her pride was hurt. Still after that, she hasn't learned and has attempted to do it again. On the upside, after some coaxing she did lay down on the couch with me for about 30 minutes. I think she quite enjoyed herself, too. I've been able to get her to do this a few times now. Hopefully, it will sink in that cuddling is good thing. She already loves to be petted, but the cuddling part is completely foreign to her.

Also, I'm happy to report that her sits are improving. She does them regularly and sometimes without me even asking! We've begun adding a down into the mix and that has taken a little work, but seems to be catching on ever so slowly.

Lisa got the first cut down of her hair. I nearly cried as I took the clippers to her. Her coat is coming in so beautifully; lush and getting long! However, her hair mats so quickly that keeping her in a full coat is not an option, nor can she stand the weekly time it takes groom a full coated dog. Keeping her in puppy cut will make everyone happy!