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A True Belle
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
By: Sandra Maxwell
A True Belle
She's very smart and doing well
We renamed her Belle, and she's doing great. We're finding that she is very smart and extremely talented athletically. She could walk on a leash the second day we had her, and that same day, she socialized with a bunch of children and adults (and a couple of dogs) at an outdoor homeowners association meeting. The kids loved her and she remained calm and gave the love right back - too bad she hates belly rubs ;-).
She's eating well - just kibble so far; we bought her a product called Holistic Select (the puppy formulation) on the recommendation of Specialty Pet in Plymouth. She likes the food and we're augmenting it with a limited number of treats, mostly Zuke's Mini Naturals. We feed her half a cup of kibble twice per day.
We addressed her crying during the night by moving her crate into our bedroom each night, and equipping it with a little night light, a ticking clock, and a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel. If she's sleepy enough by bedtime, she's fine for the whole night.
Her housebreaking is getting there, but not quite perfect yet. We correct errors in the house by yelling, "Bad dog!" right in her ear, a technique which worked rapidly with our previous dog. We compliment her to the skies when she gets it correct outdoors.
She does try to bite our fingers, which we're trying to correct by saying, "Bad!", and snapping a finger against her jaw or cheek. She loves her walks, and loves ramming around her limited part of the house and around the yard on a long lead. She's loving, cheerful, and funny as hell.
In short, Miz Belle is firmly entrenched in our hearts after only two weeks. The future looks wonderful. Oh, and we did buy a good reference book specifically on the Australian Cattle Dog, and we sent in a DNA sample to Wisdom Panel to find out what's mixed into her.
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