Her first week in as a part of the Krueger pack, River has shown remarkable progress for a pup of barely 3-months.
With many thanks to her foster parents, she is completely crate trained. In our home, she has two crates to call her own. The larger, designed for two, is her bedroom quarters. It is complete with her Hope Blanket and several favorite toys and her bison horn. While she usually joins the puppy pile in our bed every night before lights out, she with little protest goes to the bedroom crate for nighty-night. River sleeps or with the help of the previously mentioned soft toys and her bison horn rests quietly for the entire night. Her daytime crate is a smaller and more portable single version and sits in the kitchen area or family room with the door open in case she feels the need to rest nearer to the normal daytime and evening activity in the house. She is using this option less and less as the days pass opting to lay or sit on one of the many dog beds, rugs or therapeutic mats placed throughout the active spaces in our home.
River is smart enough to know she is supposed to go outside for potty but just fuzzy-headed enough to forget until it’s too late sometimes. She has easily mastered the doggy door to the outside and no longer even looks for a treat on the other side every time she goes through. She does not yet have the confidence to consistently use the doggy door to let herself out when she needs to but will always follow Cooper out and will always relieve herself if she is outside. She’s a little scared to be alone, does not like the dark much and is not too sure about rain. But she is remarkably well potty trained for her age and has strung days together without an incident as long as we are a little bit vigilant.
A few warm fall days afforded River the opportunity to spend time with us on the 3-season porch where she has learned to jump up on the couch to cuddle or rest. She is learning from her older brother and sister that dogs should not have to lay on the floor if a perfectly good couch, chair or bed is available.
River’s older sister Peekaboo (12) has, in protest, kept herself mostly out of the puppy business, for the time being. Her brother Cooper (5) has been instrumental in teaching her habits both good and bad. This week she has learned to climb on the porch couch, use the doggy stairs to climb on the bed, use the doggy door from the porch to the backyard, tear ass-over-tea-kettle around the backyard “racetrack”, sit pretty in the “food semi-circle” (the area around the cupboard we keep the treats), jump on her Mom and Dad just like Cooper does, growl (but she’s not sure why), bark when Cooper gets picked up and boop Cooper on the head with her giant paw when she’s feeling playful.
We’re not new at this. As longtime owners of another high intensity, high energy, highly intelligent breed that loves to work – terriers – we are pretty familiar with the ins and outs of managing all that will and all that energy. They need tasks – Cooper brings my lunch bag to the kitchen every day after work just as his fore-brother did before him. Peekaboo manages his work as her fore-sisters did before her. Cooper also carries various laundry, kitchen towels mostly, to the kitchen to be put away. He does this because he had been taught at Max’s knee that this is the family business and an honorable one at that. Boo supervises his work and takes her cut of the treats as she is in management and so entitled. River seems to understand the need for tasks. She routinely herds Cooper around the house and yard, much to his displeasure. She also routinely tries to interfere with the completion of his assigned duties also to his displeasure. She is currently being tasked with finding loose socks under the bed and bringing them to the laundry room. This is meeting with mixed success but we have high hopes for her future development assuming she can still get under the bed in another month or two.
River is learning to wait her turn for treats and for her breakfast and dinner. She has a slow-eat bowl but she’s learned to tip it over. She is a good sitter especially in the food semi-circle but still charges for the treat and swallows the hand giving it to her. She has not quite learned her place in the treat getting pecking order 1. Peekaboo, 2. Cooper and 3. River. She feels it is unfair and should be 1. River, 2. River and 3. River. She’s a little thin so we’ve increased her feeding schedule and suspect as she matures and learns that there will always be more food she will calm down enough to train. Strangely, if we hand feed her puppy kibble from the kitchen table she sits pretty, waits her turn and takes it “easy”. Now to translate that to other food behavior.
River came home on a weekend to a fairly unstructured environment. But once the new week hit on Monday at 5:45 AM she was introduced to the Krueger family morning routine. The terriers like structure, and none so much as Max. The other two, with Max’s passing, have lapsed into a much more leisurely routine of wake up for morning medications, go back to bed, get up for breakfast, go back to bed, say goodbye to Dad, go back to bed and so on. River seems to respect the morning routine and I feel it helps her start the day right. We wake, go outside, take a shower (me not her but she’s in the room), go outside, get dressed (me not her but she’s at my heel), make coffee, eat breakfast, leave for work – every weekday. Same way, same time, every day. She hears my alarm and is ready to get up and get started. And she’s happy because it’s consistent, safe, known and comfortable. Just what one rescued from unknown conditions by a kind foster Mom and adopted just a few weeks later by her new family needs.
In all, she is very healthy. She is energetic but can be calmed. She’s willful but responds to a firm voice, she loves to come to a whistle, to have her name sung to her in the tune of various popular songs, to lay on her Mom and Dad’s head, and to give hugs. She is bright and inquisitive and loves to explore the house and backyard but tends to stay within sight of her people when indoors and Cooper when outdoors. She leans toward the naughty if she doesn’t get enough nap time the day before, she is always at my heel but naps willingly if I settle down long enough. She is her Mom’s Sweet Pea and my Sweet Girl.