Saturday, May 30, 2015

Tully Lulu

I had a nice email from Tully the Icelandic Sheepdog's new guardians. It looks like Tully has it made! I've heard that a smart dog can easily learn 300 - 400 words. Tully is well on her way!
 
So much to say and share. Tully is a special sweetheart of a puppy. I must thank you a million times over for helping bring her into the world and entrusting us with her! The first day she was home Tully and I got to take a nap together (She got home in the middle of the night, of course.) As I was snuggling with her tears spontaneously welled up in my eyes. What a special healing heart she has. And those loving Icelandic eyes! You know all of this well, I'm sure. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.
 
Bastian and Tully Lulu
 
We love the full name Tully Lulu and use it about half the time, especially in a loving way. In training we use the shortened "Tully." People like the name and those from Portland say, "Oh, like the coffee shop." We may have to get some merchandise from there for fun, or at least take a photo of her by a sign.

Tully is very good in the car. She is very calm and often goes right to sleep. She did very well on the 4 hour drives to and from my mom's house on the coast in Washington. She waits in the car without hardly a complaint when we leave her there during a short grocery trip (only in cool conditions, of course).

Tully

It's hard to believe that she is only 3 months old! Tully is so very smart in almost an 'old soul' kind of way. Her intuition is amazing and she picks up on our energies quite easily. Tuning in with her is quite calming and rewarding. She picks up new commands very quickly and is eager to interact. She is making very good progress with sit, stand, down, stay, wait, come, heel, spin, wrap, drop it, get back, leave it, feet up, feet off, quiet and is learning the names of her toys! Amazing! We can see in our puppy kindergarten class how well adjusted she is, and how people oriented, too. 

 
This weekend we bought a pop-up kids play tunnel at a garage sale.  When we got home, we taught Tully the command “tunnel” within about 10 minutes.  So fun!
 
Tully in Her Tunnel
 
I'm so happy to have a gardening buddy again! Tully has some typical "naughty" puppy moments, which can mostly be attributed to her wonderful curiosity and exuberance. She likes to snatch a blossom here or there and shred them up. She has an uncanny ability to find grubs in the grass and pull them out. Yes, I can tell she likes to dig, but she is good about stopping when I say "leave it." So far...
 
Every day is a little different. Tully likes to keep an eye to the sky while we're in the garden. Today she was quietly fascinated by a huge dragonfly. She particularly likes to bark at crows. The crows seem to want to antagonize her. On the beach she barked at the seagulls and a little bit at the bald eagle that gave us a flyover. The most fun she seems to have with it is barking when other dogs are barking too. I do love the range of vocalizations she has. Gives her quite the personality!

David, Bastian, Tully
 
Tully is getting along with our 8 year old son Bastian quite nicely.  At first she wanted to herd him constantly and nip at him whenever he moved quicker than a slow walk.  All of that is getting better as he works with her and as we teach her what is appropriate.  Bastian and Tully play fetch in the back yard and he takes her out to go potty sometimes, too.  Bastian loves to snuggle with Tully and cannot wait until she can sleep on his bed all night.  It’s sweet to see how Tully gets restless in the morning while she waits for him to get up.
David, Tully
 
Tully is doing very well and growing bigger by the moment.  Of course she was born mostly black and then changed to mostly tan.  Now she is starting to grow some black longer sleeker hairs on her back.  How interesting to see the changes!  The vet told us how dogs have a gland on their tail and that is one reason she has a cute spot on her tail.  Her first new molar erupted today.  She weighs almost 14 pounds.
 
I’m really enjoying the updates on your blog, so please feel free to use my note and photos.  How is Totty and the gang these days?  By the way, my gardening blog of sorts is on Instagram.  Tully is the star of the show.  You can find me as @gardenflute if you want to take a look

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