Saturday, October 02, 2010

Londo's first day

Here is a pic from the first day. Londo and G'Kar are getting along quite well.



So far, we've noticed a few things that are very different between Londo and G'Kar. All of these may change with time, of course, but her personality at this point shows some marked differences from G'Kar when he was her age.

1. Londo is sooooooo less pushy and dominant than G'Kar was. We have to tell Londo 2 or 3 times to stop doing something - say chewing on the rug, or a blanket, or us!. With G'Kar it was closer to 10 or 15 times (no kidding).

2. Londo has absolutely no fear of heights as far as I've seen. She loves to walk on rocks around the perimeter of our dog run and she climbs stairs like they're not even there. It took G'Kar weeks before he'd climb stairs. Maybe she saw stairs more than G'Kar did. She has no trouble jumping off our couch and she tries (with no success) to get up onto it. G'Kar

3. In general, Londo seems more "laid back." G'Kar was extremely food aggressive. Did I say extremely? Is "very, very extremely," redundant? In order to have him stop eating from Dune's dish, we had to physically remove him from the dish 10-20 times every time we fed him. And this was weeks after we'd had him. Perhaps Londo doesn't care because it's the same food, but... wow. We had to put G'Kar into the alpha position every couple days because he would NOT stop going for Dune's food. Londo just eats where she's put down.

In the run, when we're wanting her to pee, she will just lay down and not move. G'Kar would run around like a tornado. Either way, they're not doing what we want and sometimes have to leash them just to get them moving, but the difference is interesting.

4. Which brings us to the next difference. G'Kar was ravenous. Londo doesn't seem to worry about food much at all and so far (only one day, I realize) seems to want to nibble (which makes bathroom time a challenge, so we're trying to control that). 

I often start my puppies out with a bit of training where I hold a piece of treat in my fist and let them try to get it. After a while, they sit down, and then I give them the treat. Soon they learn that if they want something, they need to sit. I'm sure this is a typical bit of training most owners do. However, with G'Kar, he would work to get the food out of my hand for over a minute - absolutely not giving up. It was one of the hardest things he learned. And each time, with each new treat, the process would begin anew. With Londo, she sits after about 5-10 seconds.

I have to say, though, she has no trouble holding her own with G'Kar. He's being amazingly gentle (for him) but she doesn't just give in to him at all and when the do a tug-o-war, she hangs on tight.

5. G'Kar could almost never hold still. If you touched him, or held him, he had to spin around to see what was going on. To this day, he jerks his head around when you try to pet him because he wants to "play." Londo doesn't seem to have this problem.

I've only had one day with her, but so far, it's looking like she's going to be a much calmer dog than G'Kar, but she has real undertones of confidence and almost no fear. She's also incredibly adorable.