Snug as a Bug

While Lizzy does like to keep busy she has also really become a snuggling aficionado while she's been in foster care. She likes to burrow in close and then falls asleep, occasionally with cute little snores.

Chima sometimes takes issue with Lizzy's choice of where she wants to snuggle, especially since Liz invariably walks over the top of other dogs to get the prime location.

Love this little gal!

Lizzy's New Toy

We received our Barkbox in the mail and Lizzy got to have the Muscle Cuz squeaky toy. She absolutely loved it and spent the better part of her day chewing it.

It didn't make it through the day intact but she made sure she squeaked every last big of fun out of it.

Stop and Smell the Flowers

Lizzy says "it's time to stop and smell the flowers". Or eat them. Or walk through the middle of them. Or dig up some nice yummy compost chunks to eat.

Ready to walk through the middle of some dahlias I just planted

"What?!"

"I was just going to sit here and look at them!"

Let's just say Lizzy doesn't believe in being gentle. Too much puppy in her and she likes to bounce still and doesn't always know where she will end up landing. The good news is that she is easily redirected thanks to her short attention span and the fact that she thinks just about everything is fun and exciting.

The Hunt Is On

Lizzy has puppy brain. Meaning her attention span is limited to whatever happens to be currently in her sight line.

Today Chima and Salinas had sniffed out a mouse in the bamboo thicket. They were running around crazily, as they do, barking and screaming like someone was torturing them. Lizzy thought it was a really exciting game of chase and would follow them everyone jumping in their face and trying to see if maybe they wanted to wrestle instead.

This is how she has always been when the girls are crittering, however today she finally awoke the terrier within and all of a sudden, instead of just chasing the other dogs, she was climbing into the bamboo after the mouse.

This girl is a machine! Chima and Sal, bless their hearts, are not the best of hunters. They are all noise and bluster and get so worked up that they are clumsy and spastic in their efforts. While Lizzy didn't catch anything this time, she has the makings of a great ratter. She was quiet, coordinated, and fast. With practice she will be amazing.

Can you see her in there?

Even Chima and Sal were impressed with her ability to get all the way into the middle of the bamboo and they let her have the job of flushing the critter out while they waited on the edge to "catch" anything that ran out.

Chima paces around the thicket, hoping a mouse will come running her way

Good job, Lizzy!

Lizzy Does Rattiefest

Lizzy attended Rattiefest on Sunday and for the first time since we've had her she actually wore herself out. I guess two hours straight of running will do that to a dog.

A rare photo of Lizzy standing still

Lizzy (R) running

and running some more

and running some more

Here she is on the left hanging out with the crowd and seeing if treats are being handed out

There were about 35 Rat Terriers attending and at the end of the event we called up adoptees and talked about their new lives together with their adoptive families. At the end current New Rattitude fosters Sparrow, Lizzy and Cody took a turn as well.

Dexter, formerly New Rattitude's Royal, and his dad Bruce during the "Rat Walk"

Two of our 3 past fosters for 2015 were there as well. Remember Magill? His name is now Loki and he and his brother Frodo came over from central Washington to attend. He was as happy and friendly as ever!

Loki-Magill

And our sweet Rigby boy was there as well! His mom did a great job at keeping him from scoring treats that he might be allergic to. He sure tried to get some though. He knew where all the people with treat bags were and kept his eye on them.

Rigby getting the sniffdown from Pippa after just arriving

Not Just Another Pretty Face

While Lizzy is about as beautiful a little terrier as you can find, a lot more than looks needs to be considered when shopping around for a dog. I always am a bit concerned when I have such a gorgeous, young, female foster dog because it brings out in a lot of applicants who are so focused on looks that they gloss over the realities of living with a high energy dog.

My plan for the morning - newspaper and coffee on the deck listening to the birds. Lizzy's plan - standing on my newspaper, drinking my coffee and barking at the birds

Don't get me wrong - Lizzy is a very nice little dog. While her constant movement can annoy other dogs, she is pretty respectful for a dog her age. But think of a stereotype of a terrier and you pretty much have a description of Lizzy. She is very smart and with a double dose of energy and wants her brain engaged at all times when she is awake. That means if you aren't watching and making sure she has lots of appropriate play options she will make up her own fun - carrying your shoes out into the yard to throw around, chewing on a pillow after she wrestles with it a bit, barking loudly and 

frenetically at the birds coming to the bird feeder. 

Lizzy wants to experience everything. Here she is sniffing a pot of seedlings before stepping in and munching on cilantro seedlings. 

She is also what we terrier lovers like to call a drivey dog. To many this intense need to move, move, move and hunt, hunt, hunt is a negative. To someone who loves to participate in dog sports with their dogs it is a sought after trait. And to successfully live with a drivey dog means their family spends a lot of time making sure that dog gets a ton of exercise and lots of brain engaging toys and activities. It's time consuming and necessary. For a terrier lover this time is a blast but for your average family it is a chore.

Octopus wrestling

Lizzy is not the cute house dog who peacefully naps while you are at work and then comes to snuggle with you on the couch when you get home. She is not the dog who can be left in the back yard unattended either. Lizzy is pure athlete in a beautiful long legged, lean, teenage puppy body who is confident and doesn't mind speaking her mind. She is a dream dog for terrier lovers. She is a nightmare dog for people just looking for a cute spotted dog with adorable floppy ears to keep them company while they watch TV. 

Wanting to go outside again and play with the flirt pole toy after she played so hard she made herself vomit after drinking water.

Pausing for a short moment on the couch to see if I was done with my email yet.

Personally, being one of those slightly masochistic terrier lovers I think she is wonderful and she keeps me both laughing and swearing on a regular basis. 

Lizzy Meets Chima

As much as I joke about how bossy Chima sometimes is for the most part she is a very tolerant dog. In fact it is not because Chima is "dominant" or "bossy" that introducing new dogs to her in our home is more difficult, it is because she is insecure. 

Dog's show their insecurities differently and where some will cower or shut down, others will feel the need to guard the resources they feel dependent on (people, home, favorite buddies). 

There's a very easy way to keep introductions friendly with Chima though. I just make sure I have a treat pouch with me because she is so food motivated that her attention is focused more on the treats than the other dog. Of course I need to keep moving so she doesn't start focusing on guarding me and the treats from the new dog but after about 10 minutes of moving around and tossing her a treat for behaviors I like (sniffing the new dog politely, choosing to ignore rather than react to a puppy's rude behavior...) the novelty of the new dog wears off. 

Chima did amazing with Lizzy. While Lizzy is a complete spaz who has no clue where her body is in space, she also has some great social skills for dog her age which definitely helped her introduction to Chima. While she prefers to greet a dog face to face (not ideal since dogs often feel threatened by this) she also is careful not to stare or look a dog in the eye and her body is soft and wiggly, letting the other dog know this is not a signal of aggression. 

Her and Chima took turns sniffing each other and Lizzy would pointedly "get interested" in something giving Chima time to sniff her butt. Chima would then reciprocate. I was impressed with both of them. 

That doesn't mean there haven't been some tense moments. Lizzy tends to throw her body around leaping and jumping and often landing on dogs nearby. Chima is NOT cool with that and Lizzy is quickly learning she needs to give her some space and she isn't allowed to attempt to steal a toy that Chima is currently playing with - all great learning experiences for a teen punk puppy with a double dose of energy. 

I predict more scuffles in our future but the dogs are always supervised and for the most part management makes those scuffles few and far between and the ones that do happen are teaching Lizzy some necessary social skills.