Hannah Update

          In case you were wondering, our little Hannah is doing well. She goes in hercrate on her own at bedtime and sleeps quietly through the night. Well, unlessI wake up and hear her snoring. She’s been alone loose in the house for up tothree hours at a time and causes no chaos. I’m sure all she does is sleep.She’s only gotten into the garbage one time, and that was retrieving a granolabar wrapper that might have had a trace of something edible on it. Does herbusiness outside like a champ, no matter the weather, and usually chooses a farcorner of our yard to go number 2.

          I’m not happy she has taken over this chair, but she is just too cute lying onher perch. I’ve heard some Corgis think they are cats, so this makes sense. Andshe still gets along with our cat Emma fine.

         Oh, but the things she needs to work on!

         We quickly trained our last three dogs to stay in the yard with the shockcollar. For many years, we’ve had a unit in the basement that sets up aperimeter about fifty feet away. Two shocks, tops, and a few reminder beeps andthey all had it.

         We’ve been walking Hannah on the leash around the yard on the trails throughthe snow that were already there. But now that the snow is melting, I’ve beentrying out the shock collar and walking her closer to where the boundary wouldbe.

         The first few times, I carried the collar, and when she heard that beep, sheknew something was up and returned to me. However, nothing made sense to herwhen I put the collar on her. 

         As soon as she hears the beep, before even getting zapped, she starts digging.She seems to think the beeping is underground, probably because she is so lowto the ground. She’s frantic about trying to get to it.

          When I try pulling her away, she fights the leash and is even more obsessed with digging faster.

         So, I reach down and take the collar off of her. Once she hears that beepcoming from my hand, she comes right to me and tries to get the collar.

          As long as I have her on the leash and stayclose enough to her for her to hear the collar beep in my hand, she won’t crossthe invisible line. But how can I let her off leash so she can roam far enoughaway from me and the collar so that she won’t hear the beep?

         We’ll figure it out. At least she mostly comes when she’s called, whether acollar is beeping in my hand or not. 

          She won’t sit for us either. She getsangry if we try to push her little butt down, so we wonder if she had beenspanked on her butt in her previous home. That’s all we can figure. And lastly, she is horrible in the car, struggling the whole trip to sit in the driver's lap. Not happening, Hannah, let it go! The joys of getting a rescue baby. 

         We start obedience training the first of April. We’ll see how that goes. But inthe meantime, she still has my heart.