The Second Week

Our second week together had a few speed bumps. First Etta started losing interest in working. She was more interested in playing and horsing around than siting and heeling. I immediately stopped and took a step back. I had worked with her for 10 days straight. I stopped all wok/ training right away before I burned my dog out. I felt so bad. She was just going so well it was hard to not ask for that little bit more. We went on weekend mode and only played fun games and went on walks.  Which leads us to her body. She had been showing signs of minor body soreness that I noted but took as normal for her change in routine. As soon as she started loosing focus in work activities I checked her over physically as best I could. I found her feet to be sore. Her previous hone was all grass, ours is not. This property is mostly gravel and our main play area is mulch. This is all surrounded by lava rock. First things first I asked Andrew to bring her home booties. 

 

 

These, abet cute, green and cheap did not work out for play time or much of any time. I am definitely holding on to them but they were not what we needed. Enter lots of interneting and researching and comparing. All in all we were kinda stuck with what was at the local Petco since everything cost a similar amount and ratings ran about the same. We ended up with these: 

 They are not bad. They do a great job walking around on the property and the street. They do not do a good job staying on for more then 15-20 minutes or at any speed besides walking. They do help though and she is happy wearing them. I hope her feed toughen up so this will not always be an issue.  The big highlight of our second week was on Friday night/Saturday morning I woke up at around 4 am. Etta was sitting next to me licking my arm. I realized I was low right away. ETTA WOKE ME UP! This may be her first alert! I woke Andrew and he got me juice and Etta got a half a hot dog. Super exciting!