Rita... The BIRTHDAY Girl!

[NH homesteader]

My dogs seem to confuse us with what clothes we are wearing. If I wear my husband's jacket, they both think they can play tug with my sleeves. Otherwise they know there's no mouthing with mom! Lots of guilty faces here too, with Clara if she forgets.

I don't coddle, but my husband does a bit. When we leave she has to be crated. When I am alone she goes in fine. When he's here she'll go hide under the table and act all nervous... He feels sooooo bad for her ugh.

So does Rita not like other people?

 

[Southern by choice]

One thing that is very important and I learned this years ago when working bite work and with the suits. NEVER let your own dog do bite work with you. You should never be in the suit with your own dog. Even though you aren't doing bite work the "play bite" should not be accepted with family members either.

Yeah she is feeding off your husband. He needs to tell her to knock it off and get in her house.

Rita has fear issues. We are working with it.
I HATE fear issues. Especially because I prefer and do well with dominant dogs... fearful dogs are a PITA!
Blue and D are both HIGHLY confident dominant dogs. By dominant I do not mean aggressive. Stable and confident.
She will spend time with Silver as well. Amy we will limit as Amy is aggressive. Eliza did great with her when she was in after her surgery, she may not want her in her field though. If you all remember she didn't like sharing the field with Callie.

 

[Bruce]

"She will have mouth partially open and head tilted and then she will realize uhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's mom... hey mom"

...
"can you see if there is something stuck back there in my molars??"

@NH homesteader Children are like that too. When mine were little and in day care 4 hours in the morning, I could drop them off, nada. Wife drops them off, big crocodile tears.

 

[NH homesteader]

There is no mouthing allowed with our daughter either. I can't convince my husband not to do it with Clara, fortunately she is much better behaved with me, and is only 50 lbs. My favorite thing about this dog is she is so obedient. My chow mix acts like a cat... He listens if he feels like it, or if I have treats. Or if I use my super serious voice.

Our friend has an intact Alano and he'll bring him for rides and stop in to say hi. My dogs circle the truck barking like idiots and he sits there and looks at them... And looks away and acts bored. Now that is a confident dog.

Rita has a lot of role models to hang out with!

And @Bruce I worked in preschool. I've seen a lot of that!

 

[Southern by choice]

Rita goes out when we do chores, so she can learn the ropes and be a farmdog.
Usually she is with, as OFA calls her. "Little Bit" my youngest DD. Rita adores her. Little bit trained Bernard up, one of our LGD pups. It was her dog to train up for a family LGD.
Bernard is awesome and Little Bit has a gift. She really can train anything, I mean anything.

Today she was at a friends house and so GW and I were out doing chores. Rita met "tiggs".
Through the fence of course.
Tiggs is lonely with the loss of Callie.
Rita was submissive and at the gate. Tiggs stuck his head through and sniffed and we encouraged him.
"Good boy Tiggy, she is our puppy!" They licked faces and wagged tails and were happy... until ...

Rita got excited and went to run along the fence, at first it was ok and tiggy was right there but then she started jumping and going down on her chest but in air- really trying to play but she was downline on the fence where all the kikos were eating.
Tiggy had this posturing that the best way to explain is his posturing was saying- "ok I think you are playing but I don't like this by my goats and I am not sure wheteher I am going to go Cujo on you or not"
We told Tiggs that she was playing and called her over. The 50% pyr in her decided that was a suggestion and she opted not to come.
Tiggy was very alert and his face got pretty serious and his eyes went into that stare.
We got Rita and brought her back over to the gate and Tiggy relaxed. We went on our way.

Rita loves Amy! Amy at first didn't like her but after we told Amy she was ours she has decided she likes the pup.
Don't ask me why it didn''t dawn on me when I kept going I wonder why Rita loves Amy so much. DUH! Rita's mom is a PYR!

In the house Rita plays with Lena! (The GSD) They really play well together and I think it has been very good for Lena as her handler (my son) doesn't live at home anymore and this has helped.
Rita is POWERFUL! She is still small. 45lbs She is 4 months today! She can move though! And leap and jump. LOL she thinks she is a schutzhund dog! She will go after a sleeve or pants in a second.
We DO NOT encourage this. She likes to play rough. This is where the dogs come in!
Badger hates her but will protect Rita.

We had 5 dogs in the house at Christmas. My grandpuppy and Lena are iffy together so we kept them separate most of the time.
Rita is still a cuddler and loves to sleep with littlest DD.

Grandpuppy Sadie and Rita! Lucy leaving kitchen you can see her tail.
This is our new floor! The ugly cabinets are next! Woo hoo- they are so hideous!

Lena playing with Rita!

Doesn't she have a naughty look!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks so much for the update! She looks great and even at this age you can tell she's very muscular and is going to be a tank!!

 

[Baymule]

Nice floor! made to look nicer with the two dog accessories...... Rita is such a love, give her a hug from me!

 

[babsbag]

Mia was so good with Rita when she was here; she must have known that she wasn't staying. Mia does not particularly like my new pup, but I discovered tonight that it goes both ways. *SIGH*

 

[Latestarter]

Why are you having so many dog issues of late Babs? Gosh... you'd think they could just get along... I mean it's a semi adult with a puppy...

 

[Baymule]