Amber: Day 1

Amber’s first night was challenging for her. She was already dealing with leaving everything familiar, the long drive, meeting new people, and then being moved a second time into another unfamiliar environment with two animals and yet another human she didn’t know. Top that off with being bedded down in a completely unfamiliar kennel… It was a lot for her to deal with. She expressed her stress by pawing hard at the kennel door and being vocal. She did this until we went to bed – about 20 minutes. She stopped as soon as she realized she was no longer alone. She fell asleep then, and she slept through the night.

Yesterday was Amber’s first full day with us. She practiced navigating the stairs, potty training, working with the leash, learning house boundaries as well as Glimmer’s and Violet’s boundaries, and resource sharing, and she had her first bath and a bit of a trim around her eyes. She wasn’t thrilled with the bath, but she allowed it without protest.

Throughout the day, instead of putting her on an umbilical leash, I kept her on the 6-foot leash. Because she is already very sensitive to the collar and leash, I felt this would help her to become more attuned to the energy being transmitted through it. Amber responded very well to the exercise.

Bedtime – and the entire night – was a challenge. Amber was not happy about being kenneled. She protested off and on throughout the night. To make sure that her protests weren’t actually potty alerts, she was taken outside… where she did nothing. She just didn’t want to be in the kennel, and she was letting us know. However, she eventually accepted that she was not going to win, and she surrendered and went to sleep.

This morning, she ate all of her breakfast, and for the first time since she arrived, when I took her out to potty, she finally had a bowel movement.

Amber is starting to get a bit destructive now – and I am really happy about that. It means she’s feeling much more secure and that she’s ready to start working on learning her basics. She’s a very smart little girl with a lot of energy to burn off; keeping her brain engaged is important. Teaching her basics and teaching her appropriate ways of fulfilling her breed instincts will engage her body, her mind, and her spirit. By the end of the day, little Amber should be more than happy to bed down – without protest.