We don't negotiate with terriers

This is Holly, our rat terrier. The breed is also known as Feist Terrier. It gained its name "Rat Terrier," when Teddy Roosevelt's White House was infested with rats and mice. His Feist Terrier named Skip deftly removed the rodents from the White House and the breed became known as "Ratties." (Enough with the history lesson, right?)

So little Holly is now 11 weeks old. That picture is at around 6 weeks old. She's much bigger now. She's about 2-3 pounds in that picture. She's now around 4 pounds. She's a tank! What she lacks in size though, she makes up for in terrier feisty temperament.

I'm trying to be a good pet owner. I try not to yell at her, never have rubbed her nose in her numerous accidents around the house, and have never spanked her. I guess having kids has shown me the way to better patience. However, I almost sent her flying the other day when she playfully nipped at my face and bit my lip. I know she was playing. But it took all my self control not to throw her on the opposite wall when my lip started bleeding. You'd be proud of me. I left the room and then did some research on how to stop this playful nipping.

I did the stuff the books tell you to do, like substitute and reward an appropriate chew toy when she is chewing on something wrong, like my fingers. But this nipping thing! I was at a loss. I did my BING search (yeah, we love Bing and are rarely using Google now) and discovered that the puppy's litter mates and mother teach the pups what is appropriate with biting and how to inhibit their urge to bite. What she needed was play dates with other puppies.

Holly had her first play date last night with Julia's two Havanese pups, who are a few months older than she. It went really well. It was a strange experience for me because if my human kids were to bite and jump on their playmates, I'd have to intervene. But whenever the other pups nipped at Holly and she scampered away, I felt an inward thrill of self satisfaction. I did not jump up and say, "So what, Holly? You can dish it out but you can't take it?" That'll learn her good.

All in all, they seemed to have a fun time. There was a bit of "King of the Hill" played over Holly's bed. Whenever Messi or Deco would get on her bed, Holly would run to have them give chase, circle around, and then jump back on her bed. When they turned their backs, she'd jump on them and then run back to her bed. Very clever, Holly.

She comes when called and responds to her name. She's learned how to sit and wait for about 10 seconds and we're increasing it. She's also pretty solid on doing her business outside. She still does use the puppy training pad in the bathroom from time to time, but it is getting better. She's learning how to walk on a leash without pulling. That part is a constant struggle and makes walking with her take ages, but hopefully these summer walks will make for pulling-less fall and winter walks. Crate training is finally going well. She sleeps in her crate nightly and it makes for my nighttime slumber to be more sound.

Now I don't know how I went this long without a dog in our home. She's such a welcome addition to the family.