Johanna Speaks

So this morning, my dad and I were training Ria to come to us whenever she heard our voice saying, "Come." We also make her sit after she has come to us. We put a leash on her and lightly tug, saying, "Come." When she does come on her own without us giving her the tug a lot, we give her a treat. She is getting the hang of it, but we will need to practice this daily with her. We have a thirty-foot-long leash, but we only use about four feet of it. At the end of our training, we did it about fifteen feet away, and she came to me. I already knew she would come anyway because she knows me a lot. But the only thing is if she would come to my dad. So we tried that out too and she was heading towards his direction but went a bit off at the end. So my dad tugged the leash towards him and said, " Come". And she did. 

We are starting to train her because she has a super high prey drive. When we are on walks, she literally chases anything that is moving, such as people ( even though she is scared of people, she will go bounding towards them if they are jogging ), dogs, cats, birds, and deer. I try to snap her out of it each time, but it just gets worse and worse every day. So, we also need to teach her to " leave it." I've been watching videos on how to stop dogs from chasing anything that is moving fast. Here's a video I found:

My dad wants to teach Ria someday how to salute, too! 😂 So I searched it up, and there's a thing called the " Shy" trick, where the dog puts its paw over its head for a few seconds and then takes it off. But instead of us calling it the " Shy" trick, we can call it " Salute!" It would work the same. 😁 

Ria's been pretty good lately but is still scared of people. She isn't scared of my mom petting her, which is great! I think she lets my dad pet her, too, but I forgot. Sophie is fine with petting her, but Ezra definitely isn't. I still don't know what's wrong with Ezra and Ria. For some reason, Ria hides or runs from Ezra whenever she sees his face. And she even one time tried barely barking at him. This is the first time we've heard her bark because she's never barked at anything yet. But she will probably start barking at things the longer she stays here. 

But she is making more and more progress. Oh, and she loves going on bike rides! My dad started taking her on some just on our street, and after that, I started doing it a lot. She lets my mom put on the leash, which is good! But not my dad yet. We will be going camping soon in July, and I can't take Ria because my mom said that I would have to be around Ria all the time, and that isn't fair to me. So I have to leave Ria home for two days. And I don't think anybody will be able to put the leash on her except me or my mom, but hopefully she will let our friends do it because they live near us, and Ria is totally fine with them petting her, and she actually loves their family, which is good. I just need to invite them over to try it out because they will need to exercise her a lot while we are gone.

We took Ria to the lake and swam! She loves swimming and rolling around in the grass, and she's super cute when she does that. I bought her a thirty-foot leash so she can explore and have fun as if she were off-leash. We probably won't ever take her off-leash when we are at the lake because we are scared she might run off or something. But she loves it!! 

Julien came on Saturday at around 4:00 in the afternoon. His mom's friend dropped him off. And I think he will be staying until next Saturday or Sunday. So far, I think he is enjoying his stay!😊 We went to the pool yesterday and planning to go again today with him! And right now he is doing a blog post just like me! And Sophie has been doing her schoolwork since she doesn't have a blog to start writing on yet. But she wants to have one of her own. Ria likes Julien, which is good! And he chases her around the yard which I think Ria likes. 

She even sometimes barks at him while she's being chased. I'm not sure if she loves being chased, but I think she kind of likes it because her tail is never between her legs. 

But Julien is doing well! He wants to go to a bike park, so hopefully, we will be able to. And he tried out Sophie's bike and it fits him! We just needed to raise the seat a bit and it fits him perfectly. 

Ria's been pretty good this past week. She's definitely getting better with socializing. She is still pretty skittish around people, but when I take her on walks and if she sees somebody, I can actually feel her tug on the leash to the people, which in my mind is great! I never allow dogs to tug on the leash or get in front of me, but this time, I will because she wants to go to a person, and I want her to be like that if we go to parties or something and not be so scared and skittish of them. I obviously don't let her pull me to them because the people walking probably wouldn't want that. But I let her pull just a little bit. 

She loves bread. I give her little pieces of it as treats. And I just taught her how to spin! 😊 So whenever I move my fingers in a circle and say, "Spin!" She will do it. She can't do it the other way, or she will get confused and try different tricks instead. I am still trying to teach her how to stay, but she is getting better... a little. 

And about every day, I go on a walk with my neighbor Claire! Claire, I think, is maybe 12 years old. Maybe younger. She has a German Shorthaired Pointer. Her dog's name is Sidney, and it is almost a year old, just like Ria. But Ria is a couple of months older than Sidney.  Here is what the German Shorthaired Pointer breed looks like:

I love that breed because they are so cute when they point at something! Here’s a pic of when the breed is pointing!

Claire and I love walking together with our dogs! We usually go walking on a street called Freshwater and not the path because our dogs will get so many stickers, and Claire said that when Sidney goes and gets a sticker on her foot, she whines so much. So we walk them on the street. It's probably better for Ria because then she can get used to people walking by and lots of different sounds, too. 

Ria is so cute and sweet towards me and Sophie. ❤️ 

We finally got a dog!!I named her Ria because it means river in Spanish. She's super sweet and will be a year old on June 12th I think. 

The only down side is that she is afraid of everyone except me and maybe Sophie. She won't bark at all but just run away if she see's or hear someone coming to her. So I have been wanting to borrow another dog that loves people and is fine with other dogs so that Ria wouldn't be so shy of people and learn from that dog. And I am playing loud noises very quietly and then gradually making it higher so that Ria would maybe be able to go to the lake club for Fourth of July and hear the fireworks. But it's probably going to be too stimulating for her. 

My sister's husbands family dog is a pretty small black lab and loves people and is super sweet, so hopefully my sister would be able to bring her over and meet Ria. And she's also a female so that's good because Ria isn't fixed. And we want to keep it that way too. 😊

But other than that she is super sweet and pretty submissive. And yesterday I took her for a walk and then a run on my bike. That was her first time going on a walk since she came here. And she came yesterday morning. 

She is a Siberian/Malemute husky. We have a little kiddie pool for her to go in if she's too hot. And I walk her though it too. So far she seems to like it which is good! And there's plenty of shade for her too. We also got her a pad that keeps her cool when she goes in her kennel. So she will be fine in the heat. 

She won't be a indoor dog but a outside one. Manly because of how much fur she has and we can't have any fur in our lotion. And because the dogs we've owned in the past were outside dogs and we like it that way. 

My brother in-law actually found her on a app ( where you can find people who are getting rid of their dogs locally) and he found Ria! The guy lived in Redding so it was perfect! My parents didn't want to do anything yet about getting the dog but they let us go and check it out. And we all knew that this was going to be a good dog for us! So we talked it over with our parents on the phone and we came to a decision to get her. She came with a kennel, leash, collar, a couple toys, some food and a harness. 

Here is my beautiful dog Ria: 

She knows how to Speak, Sit, Lay, and shake. I'm trying to teach her to stay and wait.