A Great Sous-Chef

Yesterday, Hershey kept me company while I did some Christmas baking. She sat or lied down patiently under the table, not needing toys to keep her busy, watching what I was doing and just enjoying the quiet time.

She was very interested in the smell of the gingerbread dough, sniffing the air when I added the spices to the flour. She got to try a bit of one of the cookies that broke and enjoyed it a lot. She got quite a bit of flour and sugar crumbs on her fur when I was measuring out ingredients, but was very good about not getting fur in the food in return!

So, after two big batches of cookies and decorating these too, Hershey got to sleep on the bed last night. Pretty sweet deal!

(shhh... Christmas doggie baking will occur next weekend - don't tell Hershey!)

Getting warmer...

Hershey is slowly warming to strangers - and we're thrilled! Yesterday, on a day off, we took Hershey to the dog park where she wandered around on our walk and then met with a cute little white dog named "Squirt" and her (?) owner Dana. We had a nice chat with Dana, who told us about her experiences with the dog park - she had an attitude very similar to ours - if dogs want to play rough, that's fine, but she wants no part of it for herself or for Squirt. In fact, she told us about how one dog was wrestling so badly with her little dog that Squirt actually had bite marks that were bleeding all down her stomach. How awful!

So Hershey enjoyed playing with a fun little dog. And shortly after, to our surprise and delight, she let Dana pet her! It wasn't a long pat, but she was totally cool with letting a relative stranger come pat her!

Later on that day, I had some friends over for games, and Hershey was on her short leash and Chris was clicker-ing her whenever she was calm. She did a pretty darn good job, although she did have a few barking fits when the guys were loud or surprised her by coming into the room. Nothing that was out of hand though - and that's another big improvement. For the most part, her whining and barking was more of a "I want to come over" call, but she's not ready for that yet, especially in the tight quarters of our kitchen.

Anyhow, we'll try this again next week - and hopefully she'll get more and more used to guests!

'Tis the Season!

There has been an awful lot of craziness this weekend for Hershey - and I'm not sure that she understands what is going on! First off, I rented a car this weekend, which is not a-typical, but nonetheless, Hersh knows that something is up when there's a second car in the driveway.

While Chris stayed home to prepare for his thesis, I kept leaving the house for extended periods of time and then returning with big bags and telling Hersh to get out of the way. Hmmm... and no toys or treats, which is also not normal (Hershey's so spoiled).

Finally, after 3 days of shopping (and I'm 90% done with Christmas stuff now), we put up our fake-o-tree! Hershey didn't know what to make of it - she's not scared, but she's not interested in smelling it or anything either. We've put balls and some other ornaments (but no lights, as we won't be around for the holidays - hence no real tree), and Hershey's had a few close calls! She chased one of her toys at the tree's base, going round one side and coming out the other, with a few balls swinging away on the branches. I think we did a good job of clamping the hangers down tight!

Anyhow, no presents under the tree for a while. She's still sneaky and mischievous! Today, for instance, during my breakfast, she tried to steal the banana peel from the kitchen table while I was sitting right there! I noticed, of course, it was right under my nose, and said "Hey! I see you!" Hershey, of course, knew she was trying to do something she isn't allowed to do, and stopped right away with the guiltiest look on her face. Silly girl. After getting her to sit and do a few other commands, I brought her to her room and gave her a treat for paying attention to me, and to confirm that doggie food is for doggies and stealing is never permitted.

So, I can't wait to celebrate our little Christmas here before going home. Hershey will be getting a few nice things from me, including her first fashionable apparel (that stupid diaper didn't count - poor thing)! But, just like the dog, you'll have to wait and see!

Snowy snowy dog

It's become winter very quickly here - and Hershey's been enjoying the snow!


She loves putting her nose into the snow, pushing it around so that she sniff what's underneath. She get snow mustaches - so cute!

Things have been going well again this week - Chris has been staying home for most of the day so she's got company - mind you both of us are tired and aren't taking her to parks or walks really right now. She's also being more of a homebody - I think some of her treats went bad and she apparently puked on Monday during the day (and subsequently ate it up too - gross). I spent all Monday evening cleaning her stuff, washing all her toys, blankets, and cleaning up the floor too. We've thrown out her cookies - and so I'll be making another, smaller batch this weekend.

By the way, I haven't posted about her toys recently - she's got two very favourites (when she gets to play with them) - a stuffy radio and a stuffy drill. The radio's been chewed beyond recognition - but here's a picture of the drill. She's just like her dad - she loves radio and tools!

Dog park!

Yesterday we decided to give the off-leash dog park a try. We have been very happy with Hershey's behaviour lately, and it would be a good next step to ensure that her socialization continues, both with dogs and with people. Chris and I drove over to check it out sans-chien after dim sum and were pleasantly surprised to see lots of people and their dogs playing very well with each other. There's a fairly-dense wood surrounding the park/meadow, so dog's are likely to stick to the open area. There was also a little canteen trailer which sold coffee and dog treats - it looked like a good place.

We drove back home and picked up The Hersh, and drove over to the park. It's about 15 minutes by car, which isn't too bad. When we got there, Hershey was all ready to go play - she saw all the other dogs, and was frantic on her leash to go running. We got to the meadow and let her off leash. She immediately began to play with an adorable furry Nova Scotia Duck Toller named Lexi while the owner chatted with us for a bit. Hersh also played with tons of other dogs, as big as full-sized Huskies and Great Danes, to a tiny Miniature Pincher and this cute but unlucky brown Lab puppy who got peed on by on of the big dogs.

I was very happy to see her play so well with everyone, and the people being so friendly and respectful of our wishes to not pet Hershey. She got tons of exercise and socialization, which was great! She came when called fairly regularly, and didn't wrestle or play aggressively at all when other dogs came to get her kong-on-a-rope. We're looking forward to going back, maybe on a weekly basis; it's been a very encouraging experience for us what with visiting Chris' parents and Tess (their golden retriever).

A long-deserved update

Hershey has been doing exceptionally well in the last few weeks. We have been trying to do training with her, and keeping a regular-ish schedule (as close as we can with our crazy jobs) and making sure we give her lots of love and positive reinforcement.

We have been leaving her for several long hours to go to work and run errands even through the weekend, and she has been wonderful. No more tearing things apart chewing, and she's been totally into playing and having fun with us, which is good.

Hershey's confidence is apparent to us especially ini that she hasn't been affraid to follow us down into our scary basement - she's happy to race down the ricketty stairs and then nimbly go back upstairs when told.

Things are good and we look forward to them getting even better.

I recently made "BBQ Cookies" for her (which was a great way to get rid of BBQ sauce bottle dredges, and she loves them. I look forward to doggie Christmas baking this year! Hershey has also been spoiled with a few Dollar Store toys - a frog theme has emerged!



She's also enjoyed playinig outside while we've been doing fall house cleaning and outdoor preparations for winter. Chris had put out a big plastic tarp to dry out and Hershey has been LOVING running all over it, jumping on it, leaping over corners and scuttling her toys over its slippery surface. She's hillarious!

And finally, for this mini-update, we didn't have Halloween, but instead we went on a walk and went trick-or-treating with Hershey. She was excellent near the doors of our two groups of friends' houses in the neighborhood. Perhaps next year she'll be ready for Halloween at our place.

Unfortunately, I have to spend the rest of the week away from home (and Chris and Hershey), so I'm off now to enjoy some final moments with my dog for the next while!