sorry for the lack of posts as of late…it’s been a busy few weeks. the good news is that little miss sinka has really turned a corner. she hasn’t had an accident inside in two weeks! she has also mellowed out noticeably. sinka finally seems completely comfortable in our apartment. she used to be too antsy and energetic to sit still and she would constantly be sniffing and exploring everything around her. now, though, she is quite content to lie around on the couch and cuddle with lady, osman, and me. this does not mean that sink has stopped bugging lady to play all the time. lady will be calmly relaxing on the floor, and sinka will pounce on her out of nowhere and start corncobbing her or biting her legs out from underneath of her. photographic evidence of this below.
interestingly enough, lady has picked up several new things from sinka. sinka’s taught her how to jump. now they both jump whenever anyone walks in the door. lady has also picked up some of sinka’s boldness…in fact, lady has become the instigator for their playfights. i’m actually glad that lady has stepped up a little bit in that sense. lady has definitely come out of her shell more with sinka around. when sinka plays, she acts confident and often makes the first move. lady has really picked that up from sinka; she is much more brazen now than she used to be. i’m proud…they’re both tough pups.
i think that picture is so funny with little sink licking her chops.
one of the major training tools we’ve used to help sinka turn this behavioral corner is the spray bottle (thank you, chris, for the suggestion). we picked up a couple plastic spray bottles at target, filled them with water, and use them to squirt sinka whenever she is misbehaving (e.g., when she begs for food, when she and lady play too roughly). it has worked remarkably, and i highly recommend it. we have only had to spray sinka a handful of times for her to get the message. now, even just picking up the spray bottle is enough to get her to back off or calm down. she does not like the idea of getting sprayed with it at all (even though it’s just a harmless squirt of water…) and she’ll stop whatever she’s doing almost immediately to avoid it. she definitely knows that the spray bottle means business. but, like i said, she’s been doing so well that we’ve barely had to use it. our little stink is growing up!
osman’s newest nicknames for the girls…twinkles and stinkles. i’m sure you can guess who’s who. best new nicknames in a while.
^that is lady’s favorite new way to sleep…her whole body in her bed, but her head and neck hanging out on the floor. it’s amusing.
it’s a good afternoon for the dog park. off we go.
