Vinlands Saga

The female Icelandic Sheepdog puppy named Saga turned six months old too (of course) and, like her litter-mates, is doing very well. Look at that face!

I'm going to copy and past from the latest email from her family.

"Saga is doing great! She is such a great puppy!! She graduated from basic manners class last week and has started puppy agility this week. She learned about half of what she needed to learn in basic manners and we will keep working on it. Lay down without a treat or toy is something she still does reluctantly. Chipmunks just drive her crazy. The "leave it" command is working better with this than "no bark" (still works only about half the time, haha). I think her favorite command right now is "front". She seems to respond better to that than "come".

Her favorite game right now is to put her in a sit/stay and to catch any toy tossed to her (she has no idea she is learning basic manners). She learned in puppy agility this week to touch and get on strange objects, feet on a board,  and a course jumping over a hurdle, running through tunnel, then over a hurdle. Of course everything is very low to the ground. Homework is having her weave through our legs. She loves this too!

I am finally able to cut her nails. The first time I tried I cut to close on one and that was it for her! Then the vet did it the next time and everyone in the lobby thought she was being murdered. Very slowly with lots of treats/praise I did one nail a day. Now she will let me do one paw at a time. Still doesn't like it much but we are getting the job done."

Don't stop giving treats as rewards for responding correctly to commands. I still reward Kata, my "yellow dog", who is almost eleven years old. If you stop rewarding, they soon start to respond lazily. Make sure the treats are something they really like. You have three ways to reward your dogs: - treats, praise, and toys (like Saga's yellow ball). Be sure to use all three and mix it up so they never know which reward they are going to get. That builds interest and suspense for the dog.

 

I'm so glad Saga's family is cutting her nails. That's not easy - - is an understatement. It's hard. It sounds like their approach, their training for that job, was perfect. That shows that Saga is beginning to trust them. Nail trimming is definitely not the easiest nor the most fun job.

I think she likes her yellow tennis ball! I can't leave a tennis ball alone with my dogs; they chew off the fuzz and then break up the ball. I'm afraid they will swallow a piece of the rubber. I always pick it back up and put it high up on a shelf or on top of the refrigerator. (They know where I keep them.)

 

Saga is definitely a shorter haired Icelandic Sheepdog. All of my Icelandics have a slightly different fur length and fur texture. I admit that I personally slightly prefer the shorter fur but the longer lengths seem to be more popular.

                                                                             (Clicking on photos enlarges them.)