Remi Chocolate Labrador Retriever Female, 2 Years Old

Remi received her goodie box today. Wow, there are so many fun things to play with and treats too.

I was excited to receive and try out the ez-walk harness. So we set out for a 3.5 mile hike this afternoon with the new harness. WOW, what a difference that makes. Remi did very well on it. And I think my arms might survive now.

Remi is doing very well. We have noticed now that she’s comfortable here with us, she’s finally showing us a little of the ‘crazy Remi’.  When she is excited she is a lot to handle. It’s been kind of rare, so it’s hard to work with her on it, but she’ll jump up quite a bit. The mouthing is not as much a problem, I don’t think. But the jumping can be intense.

Remi and Sadie are learning to get along better too.In fact, I think there may have only been one ‘intense’ play session today. When Remi wants to play, it’s tough to distract her to do anything else.Oddly enough it seems her crazy time is right about now every night. So I better get ready to referee.

Here are a few pics of Remi enjoying herself out here in the woods and even napping with the kitty.

Remi is settling into our home very nicely . The mouthing (that we were so prepared for) is nearly non-existent. In fact, we have to purposely get her excited and wound up for her to go into that mode. Only when super excited (meeting a new person that happens to have treats) does she go into crazy jumping, mouthing mode. We’ve maybe seen that three times total and she comes out of it fairly quickly if it’s us, so it’s hard to correct her.  She does jump, but again, only when super excited. With a couple redirections and a stern NO,she backs down. She only wants to make you happy.

Her first day was super! She and Sadie got along good and any ‘flare ups’ were instigated by Sadie. I think this is as much of a learning curve for Sadie as it is for Remi. They do wonderfully until they have to run. If they have to run with each other (fetching or just running in the yard) Sadie gets assertive/reactive (not sure why) and if Sadie reacts (growling, barking) then Remi will react in kind. She doesn’t back down. We can call Sadie off, so it hasn’t been an issue, but it did happen a couple times. We will continue to monitor this closely (on leashes) during our walks to see if it improves. although I’ve already seen some improvement already as they get more used to each other.

Remi knows many commands: sit, shake, laydown, come, stay (somewhat) and she is extremely good with the kennel. As soon as we head to the basement, she goes directly in there (even if not being asked to). She never made a sound that we heard. Goes in at night and sleeps all the night through til without even so much as messing up the blanket. When we get her out, she’s calm and lays there calmly til we open the door.  She LOVES toys and has repeatedly emptied the toy box.  She will also chase and retrieve and ‘leave it’ after a few requests (which is way better than Sadie who never gives it back.)

When we picked Remi up she would not get in the car and would play dead and had to be lifted into the car. We are

very active and take the dogs many places, so this was our first priority, as I cannot lift her.  After 15 minutes, some treats, and Sadie showing her how easy it was, we conquered that. She will now jump in and out (sometimes you have to ask a couple times) without an issue. Once inside the car, she is the perfect traveler, never tries to get upfront and very quickly lays down and rides that way the whole trip.

She’s a puller on walks. The harness helps (although we need to take a break from it because of some chafing) and with minor correction she will walk nicely (at the end of the leash).  I took her down rails to trails for 3 miles. She did wonderfully. Even when we ran, she would ‘slow down’ when prompted and keep looking back at me to be sure I was good. Her trot is a bit fast for my jog, so we had trouble finding our rhythm, but she did great. I have to anticipate her distractions, smells, etc and say NO early so she doesn’t bolt off to seek out the smell.  If she does, she’s taking me for a ride.

Food. She’s not real enthused with eating.We’ve been doing  1 1/2 cups twice a day (her paper said 2 cups twice a day, but that seems like a lot).  If I hand feed her a few mouthfuls, she’ll begin to eat on her own, but only if I stand there the whole time. If I walk away, she stops eating and follows me.

Oh and we have a cat. A very old (19) and deaf cat. Luckily she is super tolerant.

The initial meeting was not the best, seemed like she wanted to have the kitty for dinner. But after reining her in and trying again, she quickly figured out that the cat was part of the family. She is still a little curious and will sniff the kitty, but then will walk away. And if old lady kitty so much as looks at her cross eyed, she jumps away from her. It’s kinda funny. She’s learned to respect the old cat.