Johanna Speaks

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. 

So today I watched a Cesar Millan video about a dog that is super aggressive towards everybody and barks and tries to bite them. Cesar comes and helps. 

Dogs name is Jake. I don't know what exact breed the dogs are though because he doesn't mention it. The owner has two of the same breed. But only one is super aggressive towards people. And the owners name is Leland. 

When Cesar knocked on his door, Jake went crazy and barked the whole time while the other one didn't bark at all. So Leland put him on the leash so that Jake doesn't try to bite Cesar. 

The first thing that Cesar does is tell Leland about how to use a calm energy when working with an aggressive dog. Cesar says " because if you don't have a calm energy than you won't be able to solve the problem. I have been staying in a calm energy this whole time." And also the owner of the dog actually has a super calm demeanor. But only when Jake starts barking, he gets tense. So that's manly the problem. So he started to learn how to control his energy. And then Cesar showed him how to snap Jake out of barking. But the wife of Leland asked Cesar " how can you be so calm even when there's a dog coming after you or snapping at you??" And Cesar said " Well if I am intense or scared that won't do any good or even help the situation. That's why if you have a calm energy than you can start actually doing something good. You just need to stay in a comfortable state of mind. That's why I need to take a deep breath and slowly breath it out if I feel a little fear coming in. " 

And so Cesar worked with Leland and they started making progress!

Here is the video:

So about two days ago my mom signed us both up for a Spanish course. The course is about what Spanish words to use in different situations and why it's used differently. Here's an example, " Que or Eso?" They both mean " that". When to use them then? And now I know just from watching his videos! The course goes to one month. So each day he puts about five videos out. And so I usually watch them in the morning and my mom does it at the end of the day because she doesn't have time to watch them because she has to get her orders out. But we both find that the course really helps! Plus we already know a lot of Spanish but sometimes it's confusing when to use " Que" or " Eso". 

Here's the link to the course:

LearnCraftSpanish.com

So recently I have been walking a dog for a neighbor across the street because their dog is always barking and never gets walked so I asked if I could walk her and they said yes that would be great! So about everyday I go over to the owners house around lunch time and walk the dog for them. 😊 I enjoy it very much! I even take off the owners leash and but on my Cesar Milan leash because that gives me more control over the dog and plus the owners leash is pretty loose on the dog anyways. 

The type of breed of the dog is a Boston Terrier. I noticed that Domino ( the Boston Terrier ) seemed smaller than the actual breed. And even has two different color eyes! One is blue and the other is brown. It looks cool. I don't love small dogs but I'm ok with them. I would much rather have a way bigger dog though.🙂 But I do like to know more about smaller breeds and I love walking dogs so it's a win win.  

It was easy walking Domino but she is interested in everything. But I say "tch" and tug on the leash for a sec so she knows that's something she can't do. And yesterday when I was walking her, she stayed right by me and never went in front or on the side of the road to smell something. 😃 I think she learned that I was leader and that she was a follower. I almost wanted to drop the leash because she was just trotting along and stayed by me and I didn't even need to tug once! I pretended I dropped the leash on her by putting a lot of it on her but she still stayed by me!! I was just so happy! I even handed the leash to Sophie! But after about 3 mins she started to go ahead of Sophie so I stepped in and got her back into her place. Sophie said " Jo how do you keep her behind you?? She goes in front of me when I have the leash! But not with you! " I just smiled at her. 😌 It's hard to explain things sometime. Which that time it was. 

And one time I was passing a house which had a front yard with a gate and there was a much bigger dog than Domino and that dog was going crazy, barking, whining, jumping up on the gate wanting to go to us. And then Domino started to act up and twirled and jumped. So I corrected her and she stopped! So whenever she put her ears up that meant she was alert and about to go into action. So I wanted to stop that from happening so I barley tugged at the leash for a sec and said, "tch". And if that didn't work I would use my leg and bump her on the side and what that does is distract her mind and look at what had touched her. So after that whenever she started to put her ears up in alertness I would do those things and she stopped and kept walking. And so I kept walking back and forth in front of the barking dog. And she now was calm and didn't care about the other dog. 

Sophie asked me " Joey why are you going towards the dog that's barking? You want Domino to go crazy?" And I said well yes and no. I do want Domino to go crazy so I can correct her. So then she learns that's something she doesn't need to get worked up about.  And in general I don't want her to go crazy. I wouldn't want any dog too about another dog. 

Domino was always making pig noises! Like snorting and stuff like that. So I searched it up and it's called a reverse sneeze. So it's basically a irritation in the dogs throat and it could be that they have allergies or just from eating food. And apparently it's not harmful thank goodness. I'm guessing it might be allergies because I also have allergies from the pollen and always sneeze and have runny noses. I'm probably so wrong though about that.😂

Meet Domino!!