Chapter 6 - June 2009

She was still growing!!! During June Bronte had her final injections and we started walks outside and some more adult training. She learnt to sit, drop and wait to be fed within the first week of coming home, in fact she understood sit after the first morning. So now training was more about being a big dog and her first challenge was to learn to sit at EVERY curb, traffic or no traffic, no matter how big the street. Ok, so it took about three days before she was auto sitting. Damn she's a smart cookie.
We also started puppy school at the local vets, where she proved that when she doesn't get her own way she can be very local and doesn't hold back interrupting the speaker. This is also were I discovered that Bronte is very much a food motivated dog and not too interested in toys. For that matter, if there is food involved she could be easily persuaded to work for me rather than play with the other pups. While some of them were just learning to sit and drop, she was well beyond them in training and got quickly bored. We practiced baby length stays instead!
Bronte was still car sick and by this stage, trying a crate, trying harness, trying a ring bed, trying food, trying no food, etc etc etc, the vet had prescribed a low dose anti nausea tablet for her. Mind you - warning this gets ugly - it still didn't stop her from throwing up partially digesting cat poo in my poor poor car. I can honestly say I have never smelled anything that putrid in my whole life, even she looked green just from the smell. Well we persisted and managed to extend her travelling capability to about 30 minutes at a time. Sometimes she was ill, sometimes she just drooled like there was no tomorrow.
As a result of her sometimes positive reaction to the drugs, I managed to get her to her first doggy social outing, a trip to Kepala Dog Resort with other DOL members. She loved it. Finally her dream came true, dogs she could wear out and run with in a safe environment. We didn't have a long outing, but she certainly enjoyed herself.