Sally is 14 weeks old.  You can’t see in this picture, but she is really developing this pretty golden coloring along her back, she is such a pretty girl.   Last night she had her first obedience class, but we may switch to a different class.  She was one of the best doggies in the class.  The others were much more hyper and out of control.  It made me feel like she wasn’t doing so badly!

 

She has been doing better the past few days.  We are learning to handle her times of biteyness or when she comes to bark at us.  We are beginning to understand what she wants during these times and know how to deal with them better.

 

We have started taking her on one longer walk each day, and one or two short ones around the block. Since she got her second round of vaccines we feel it’s safe to take her on the path towards the park.  This tuckers her out a bit.  Tonight she was perfect for me on the way out, but when we turned to come back home she could hardly control herself and wanted to pull me all the way home.  I think she wanted to get back to the rest of her pack.  I stopped often to make her sit and try to get her back under my control.

 

A few days ago I was panicking and feeling that she was too stubborn and energetic a dog for us.  I was not prepared for attitude problems with a dog, especially a golden.  But now I am reassured that everything is going to turn out just fine.  She tends to nip at Daniel, and whenever she does she gets a squirt in the face from a water bottle. I keep assuring Daniel that she will grow out of it and grow up to be a good dog.  Our obedience teacher also told us that if she ever bites, we are to tell her no (we say “off”) and turn away from her and leave her alone.   Apparently, especially for a golden, the worst punishment is not being with her person.  So if she realizes that nipping makes us go away, she will stop.  We’ll see how it goes!  It has already been getting better.