Day 11 - Out to do things

For the first time since I got Tera, I had a full night's sleep again. This little champ slept for around 9 hours without toilet breaks! I am so proud of her.
The crate in my bedroom is still big enough, but I would be genuinely surprised if that is the case next weekend.

It is getting annoying now

Tera's crying in the crate is starting to get out of hand. This morning, when she was still upstairs and I was drinking my morning tea and preparing for the day, she suddenly erupted. I had been gone for at least 15 minutes already– and she knew that– but for some reason now was the time to go crazy.
I tried leaving the room for a very short amount of time, come back and praise her for being nice and calm, but her reaction was very unpredictable; sometimes she started whining after 10 seconds, and the next attempt the moment I left the room. I will play with this again tomorrow. It might also be a better idea to take Tera downstairs with me and put her in the crate in the living room while I start the day. This gives me a bit more control. Covering the crate also seems to work a bit, so that is also an option.

After her first proper walk of the day it was time for her to relax and take a nap again. I waited until she was calm in the crate and I went out shopping. From the moment I left to the moment I came back, she was barking, crying and howling. She even managed to push away the puppy-separator in the crate– giving her a potential place to go to the toilet in the crate, away from the sleeping area. I am happy that I have a camera pointed at her crate, so I could monitor this. Luckily no toilet accidents happened, but I now know that this needs serious attention. This can not be allowed to escalate.

Out adventuring

I wanted to spend a decent amount of time socialising Tera. With all her barking and nipping, interacting with her started to become not something I was looking forward to.

Around noon I took Tera to the parking area of the garden centre again, and we sat there for a few minutes. Then I decided to take it a step further; I took Tera from the crate, got the towel she sat on and put her in a shopping cart on the towel. She was disoriented in the beginning, but she quickly accepted the cart. I did not want to go inside yet, since it is sort of a maze in there and pretty loud with all those Christmas decorations. If she were to freak out, it would take minutes before I was outside again. Instead, we went to the 'lobby' where there was a small bakery and a children's play area with music. People came and went. Most ignored her, and one family kindly asked if they were allowed to pet her. I thought it would benefit her, so I gave permission. After about 15 minutes, she started to lay down and was pretty relaxed. That was my cue to start to leave. Her last memory of that place was relaxation.

I decided to check on the next socialisation location for decent parking spaces. I wanted to take her to a local 'forest' and have a little adventure. Upon arrival, I saw a parking space right in front of the entrance and I just had to make use of it.
Took Tera out and we went through the gate. Almost immediately after entering, away from the path I saw some big logs and branches. Perfect for a little adventure. We did not do a whole lot, just some walking around on the soft surface, and I enticed Tera to hop onto a log, which she did. A very short and simple adventure, but a valuable one in my book.
Tera's whining in the car is down to a minimum– and not worse than in any other crate at the moment.

Project MAGA

'Make Amano-Iwato Great Again' should be extended to all crates. Once she is inside, she is sort of fine– I can't call her tantrums fine, but she does settle eventually. She does not go inside voluntarily anymore, though. I did not focus on this too much today, since I experimented with covering the crate to see if that would calm her. I did try something that in retrospect I should have done better: I gave Tera a puffed chicken foot for dessert today, but I did so in a closed crate. It did likely raise the value of the crate, but it might have been more awesome if I kept the door open, so it was clearly her choice to go in and stay there. Tomorrow is another chance.

She is playing with me

A lot of Tera's nipping and mouthing comes down to her trying to play with me. This became obvious after I gave her a bit more supervised freedom today. She is running around, but in a way where she is trying to involve me in it. Trying to get me to chase her, for example. I have to comply to an extent, since I want to be able to grab her in a split second, were she to decide this was the perfect spot to empty her bladder, or worse. On the one side I am very happy that our relationship is good enough that she wants to play with me, but mouthing me seems her way to have a good time. I also do not want that high level of energy inside my house– things will break. I will look for things we can do that do not require her to bounce around in the house. I also need to figure out what she sees me as; does she see me as a fun littermate, or as a leader. This is very important, since it determines the type of play and respect.