Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Getting to Know Maya

When Darren said "Lauper's got a home!" and things were about to be finalized, Maya gave me one of her famous hugs.  It's like she knew, too.

On the way home, I called my Mom to tell her all about the intro:  how great it was, how I instantly knew Lauper was my Maya, how happy I was at how well Darren handled everything, how relieved I was that everyone was so happy to have such a perfect fit for our little family.  I cried happy tears as soon as I started getting into it.  I couldn't stop, I had to put myself back together to drive.  Maya really is amazingly perfect for us.

We stopped along the way for dinner, where I let Maya out.  She peed right there in the parking lot.  No shame.  She took treats, even as she took in the loud, busy city world she'd never really experienced before.  She was mesmerized by a man on a bike -- also probably not something she was accustomed to seeing.  She rides in the car well, though doesn't know how to jump in yet.

Since we've had her home, there were a few issues that needed sorting out:

  1. Dolce needed to learn how to share his toys with ANOTHER dog besides Zenzi.
  2. Zenzi needed to feel comfortable enough to have her gear put on for walks without going into bitchy mode.
  3. Maya refused her food from the rescue.  She barely ate for a few days, and I decided to go all out and give her JoJo's leftover frozen Instinct raw bites.  She lapped it up, and now eagerly/happily eats an Orijen 6 fish kibble + Instinct raw bites mixture.
  4. Maya has sleep startle (mildly, not nearly as severely as JoJo) and we're working on counter-conditioning by gently waking her and then immediately giving her a treat.  No thrown socks, toys, treats, or anything to trigger a reaction.  Just creating a positive association with being awoken and disturbed.
  5. Maya needed to learn house training. She has never been in a home, so why should she know?
  6. Maya had almost zero leash-walking skills, so I installed those with no issues.  She walks almost as well as Kibeth and JoJo now.  Perhaps it's an instinctual greyhound thing to walk nicely on-leash?
  7. Maya learned her name in a couple hours, and we turned it into a pretty good recall in just a few days.
  8. Maya learned how to climb up onto the couch, one paw at a time.  She has jumped up onto it a couple times in the heat of play with Zenzi and Dolce, but doesn't seem to understand how she got there out of context yet. ;P
It's currently day 10 of Maya being home.  I'm happy to say she's had a grand total of 4 accidents, and seems to be 90% house trained.  She, Zenzi and Dolce all play nicely together, with and without toys. Maya can hang out in the living room with my other two while I'm gone, no more being segregated behind a baby gate in the bedroom.  We can all get ready for a walk without bitchy Zenzi emerging.  Maya loves to snuggle when it's on her terms, and enjoys being treated for disturbances during a hardy slumber.


This past weekend, she went on what I believe to be her first dog park outing.  She had a great time.  She was a little unsure at first, but warmed up quickly, and was giving all the humans hugs and all the dogs play time in a few minutes.  She's the fastest grey I've ever owned, and the tallest.  I've made a video, and it's processing on YouTube.  I will post it soon in a separate entry.

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