New old dog: it's love again.

So - Pacco was discerning re the sun. He was raised in a coastal area with highs in winter being 53 and in summer, 63. His breed was comfortable in Wales. So, in Abq, he liked the house interior in heat of summer and I didn't have to worry about him baking too much from sun love.

Katy, whom I'm guessing is a southern california born dog, likes taking charge of my back yard, thereby to guard against - or maybe just suss out - the neighbors. She likes sun basking. She settles in a position of defense of the Estate.

It's getting hot here now, though nothing like August. I'm timing her out there with my kitchen clock: I don't want her to get too hot. She, on the other hand, seems happy and doesn't zone in on shade. Yet. She gets plenty of water.

Any advice?

I doubt you'll have any problem with breakage. My dog often tugs and resists when is in arbitrary mood or scared (loud noises). I have to be dog psychologist often. BTW, this resistance hurts neither him or me. The nylon material in the leashes about which I wrote is incredibly strong. I don't think you'll have an issue. Some people may have one trouble weith the securing hardware on one brand. Who knows? I beleive the brand of harness that I have is Top Paw. I have the Kong lead, though.

I'll soon have what you have, and thank you so much for the help.

Today is another day. Her fascination with the back yard has waned momentarily - it's warm with gusty winds up the kazoo here. Just yesterday she couldn't wait to get out and loll, and today she can't wait to get back in.

Just got her stainless steel name tag in the mail, with my info, a relief. Still haven't received from the city the registration form to be presented in person for changing ownership re the rabies license or the city license, or from the microchip people - nor the proof that I am owner from the whatsit people.
Well, I'll yammer tomorrow.

Meantime we've established her wanting something with the nose on the bed with active prancing or her showing up with big eyes. Whether to pee etc or loll outside or be a watching neighbor seems to vary.

I think in fairness I need to mention the stainless steel tag company as other companies are getting notice on this thread and they have actually been short and speedy.

www.Boomerang Tags.com

Plus I like Pismo Beach.

So now I have four wire circles clinging to the collar. I've wrenched these off before. Annoying.

Down to three circles.

Meantime, it's even clearer she does not like big wind.

I kind of figured out that cats don't like strong wind because it ruffles the hairs inside the ears, making a distracting sound on the ear drums. Could be the same with some dogs.

Doing a bit of catch-up reading & found this:


Good on you, osso.
Excellent solution!

I hope your sister's not seriously ill, Roger.
It must have been hard for her to realize she could no longer look after Katy.

The Princessa de Petroglypha is giving mixed signals on wanting to go out. Sometimes the signals are more emphatic than others, more waggy, more insistant. Our spot is a behind a wall behind a pathway along Unser Boulevard, which winds around the Petroglyph park. We're in a sort of doggy neighborhood, so barks happen. Girl wants to check them out.

Girl also wants to spy on duplex neighbors, where there are sometimes toddlers and a small dog named Max in their back yard. She doesn't bark, just seems fascinated. My neighbors are seemingly supporting other family members. I like the neighbors a lot, the family members are clods (so far).

Anyway, she wants out for noise or to pee or def or to bask at the universe. She signals me for any of those, including waking me up at midnight, nose at the bed.. or 3:45 a.m. She hears way better than I do, so I can't suss barky triggers.

So communication is still a work in progress, or Katy's just her own dog. I have the utmost faith in both of you.

True, work in progress.
Got to say it's still a delight to see her go out enthusiastically.

As I'm sure you're seeing already, in a short time she'll become more acclimatized to her new environment. She will relax and gain confidence and more of her fearless personality will shine through.

After 3 to 6 months in our new place (2 yrs ago), Brady, a skittish dog, blossomed. It takes them time and once doggies see that there's no bad stuff or trauma, they'll let you know what they need as far as outdoor access-wise ... in a big way.

I've got a friend whose dog jingles the jingle bell hanging on the door. I hear that is not hard to train many dogs to do. Bribing with tasty treats and association with positive experiences that follow, once they make the jingle sound, works well in most cases.

I used the bell thing with Pacco. Katy is bell avoidant. It's almost funny. It does work as a way to signal her to come back in.

She does tell me when she wants to go out, nose to my elbow, sincere eyes - it's her motivation for going out that I can't read for sure yet. This most recent time, in the last hour, she scooted briskly right to the fence between me and my neighbors and lay down, nose to fence. I let her stay there quite a while - just call her in so she gets enough water (the days are getting hotter).

Sounds to me like you are both learning each others signals very well. Yeah, the steady hot weather has arrived here too. Frankly, though, it's only going up higher (to mid-80s) during the day which means about 5-8 deg more. This area is so unreal...so consistant that it's eerie. Just wish it would rain a little here 'cause that sea breeze moderates things.

Love bringing my dog in the good comfy weather to the park for play time as that's where he shines.

When the weather here gets warm, and my dog is in the backyard, I keep a filled water dish out there so she can drink and cool down whenever she needs to. If you're concerned about Katy getting enough water when she's out, perhaps you should leave a dish of water out there with her.

I used to use a bell to signal one of my dogs to come from wherever she was, and it worked like a charm. In fact, it generally worked much better than calling her, particularly when she was older, perhaps because it was easier for her to hear the bell.

That same dog not only hated the wind, when she moved from puppy-hood to adulthood, she flatly refused to go out in the rain. If I took her out in the rain, she immediately turned around and pulled non-stop to go back in the house. The solution, in her case, was to buy her a raincoat. Even though the only one I could find at the time lacked a hood, just covering her body made her willing to walk in the rain. She let me know what she wanted.

It sounds like you and Katy are learning to communicate well. As long as she does signal you that she needs or wants to go out, it doesn't really matter how she does it, as long as you recognize it as a signal. Whichever signal you respond to, by letting her out, is the one she's going to repeat.

What does she want at 3:45 am? Does she need to go out then?

I'm loving this thread. I'm so glad the two of you found each other.

osso, Enjoying every minute of this. Human-dog communication. You get her message; she gets yours.

I suppose I'll give up and put water out there - but there are often winds and this area gets sand in the air sometimes. But I suppose I will so I don't worry about it. We'll see. She might not like going out as much when it gets to be 96 and above (August, mostly). Now I'm getting that the back yard (sounds big but it isn't very) is her kingdom to sit and survey.

Dunno what sound or urge prompted the middle of the night wake up nose. She came in afterwards fairly fast though.

Yeah..

the dear thing is when she leans against you with one of her "play with my ears please" moves.

That's a wasted signal. Katy always wants her ears scratched or rumpled.

Katy does not have interest in outside water (same bowl). It is very suspicious.
She looked at the fence, looked at the bowl (20 feet from the fence, out of the sun), looked at the fence, looked at the bowl, moved away. Turned toward back door.
Came back inside with me (x3) to get inside water.