Storm as a Trainer

This photograph might look like Sadie is in control but don't believe it. She only goes as far as Storm will let her, which is a lot further than I let her go. Thanks to Storms patients her nipping is getting under control. Whenever they are around each other all Storm wants to do is play. According to my wife Sadie has turned Storm into a Juvenile delinquent. She claims that he used to be so good but since Sadie arrived she gets him so worked up during play sessions that he will no longer listen to her, as if he ever listened to her in the first place. What she doesn't realize is that Storm initiates most of the play sessions not Sadie. I, on the other hand, look at it as a welcome break for me. If Storm is working with Sadie and correcting her I don't need to. Any of the work load Storm can take off of my shoulders is welcome. Sadie has turnd out to be much more work than I anticipated. Going from 3 dogs to 4 is not 25% more work but 100% more, especially when one is a puppy.

Sadie has not been getting out to for socialization near as much as I would like but she did manage to have a sleep over at a friends house this past weekend. She made herself at home within a couple of hours and I found out that she defiantly prefers men. She cozyed right up to my friends husband almost immediately but took a bit longer to accept her. It also took Sadie over a week to connect with my wife without showing any fear and I think she is still a bit afraid of her, but then so am I. She got along well with all the humans in the house but I understand that the cats were another story. Whenever one of the cats came into the room she would hid under the table, so much for a her hard temperament, hard head is more like it. I was told that they enjoyed her visit and are now ready for a Shiloh of their own. This turned out to be a win win visit for all involved. Maybe I should start renting her out for weekends. It would give her much needed socialization and me much needed rest.

Even though she did not interact with the cats much during her visit she must have learned something from them because when I got her home and let her out in the yard with in about 10 minutes she came prancing back to the door as prod as could be with the biggest mouse I had ever seen, head hanging out of one side of her mouth and tail drooping down from the other. Needless to say this did not endear her to my wife but I thought it was cute.

Her house training has been coming along very well. She still piddles a little when she greets me but she has started making it through the night without getting me up. However, just when it looked like my much anticipated uninterrupted full nights sleep would become a reality I got another setback. Storm. He has gotten so used to getting up with Sadie that now he wakes me and the rest of the pack up 2 or 3 times during the night. Being awakened by a 100 pound Shiloh is not the most pleasant experience in the world.

I have learned to sleep facing away from him in the hopes that if he thinks that I am asleep he will go back to sleep. My first interruption comes when he stands up. He has got this habit of shaking his head when he first wakes up. His ears hit the side of his head which makes the sound of a helicopter taking off. I try to ignore this in the hope that he will go back to sleep because I know what comes next if I don't ignore him. His next step is to come over and sit next to the bed. I know he is there because I can feel his hot breath on the back of my neck. I dare not turn move, let alone turn over and face him because then there is no chance that he will let me go back to sleep. It isn't long before his patience wears thin and he gets more insistent. The next thing I feel is a paw hit my arm and literally pull me over to face him. Now I know that at this point my only chance to get back to sleep is to tell him too "Go back to bed". Most of the time this works but then I lay there wide awake wondering if he really had to go or if he just wanted to go out to see if the neighbors dog was out and in the mood for a race up and down the fence line. Well, last night he did not go back to bed but a few minutes later pushed me with his nose and hit me in the head with his paw. By now I was getting mad because this would have been the 3rd time that I got up with him, gathered all the dogs together and walking out into the yard in my skivvies just to watch him walk the perimeter of the yard and mark each corner. This time I yelled go back to bed and he left. Big mistake. False alarm or not the next time he asks to go out I will get up like it or not. Because, the next morning when I got up in my bear feet and walked to the bedroom door in the dark I discovered that he had left me a big present right where I would step in it. Lesson learned.

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