Coda

Blog, meet Coda.
Coda is ridiculously hard to take pictures of because she is so black.

I couldn't get a picture of her standing up but Coda is a pretty big dog.

She likes to wait for you to rub her belly.

Coda likes playing fetch and eating snacks, especially her ham bone. She likes crawling under my bed and sniffing EVERYTHING. She's very nosy and must know what you are doing and what you might have in your hand. She is very smart and catches on quickly.

Coda does not like loud noises, walking with the leash (we're lead training right now and she does not appreciate not being able to pull all she wants), being told she can't get up on the furniture or jump up on you.

Since I brought her home last Friday, things have been going really well with Coda. Aside from a few puppy antics, Coda is incredibly well behaved. When I got Coda I knew she was supposed to be house broken but I took that with a grain of salt, luckily I need not have, she has yet to have any sort of accident in the house. I also figured I would have to crate Coda when I went to work and was astounded when I left her home alone for 7 hours straight (after I made sure there was absolutely nothing of value she could get into) just to see if she would get into anything and she didn't.

Day one with Coda was interesting. Obviously, she was a bit anxious not understanding what was going on and the excitement of leaving the Animal Control Center and meeting new people didn't help. But once we got home and it was just her and I she calmed down a little. She quietly explored the house, leaving no inch unsniffed. I put her crate together which she hated immediately and frankly, after living in a cage for the past few weeks, I can't blame her.

After a few hours I started to pick up on Coda's quirks. For some reason she likes crawling under my bed. I've never seen a dog do that before so I'm not sure what that's all about. I thought at first maybe she was scared and hiding from something, but when I got down on the ground to check on her she just laid under there, tongue out and tail wagging. Another thing that I can only guess Coda picked up from her previous owners is that she will not sleep anywhere but in front of the front door.

Something that surprised me though, once I got Coda home she barely barked. When I saw her at the control center she was barking up a storm in her cage and would get the other dogs barking too. I figured with some training I could teach her to stop but that wasn't necessary. The only time she does bark is when she thinks she hears something close to the house, which I am very grateful for since the neighborhood I live in is not the best, but it's not the worst either.

The first night was a long night because she would not settle down. I crated her thinking she would need it until I could figure out if she was going to destroy my house, it took a while but after a couple hours she fell asleep. I set my alarm to get up in the middle of the night and let her out, not knowing if she could hold it through the night or not yet. When I let her out I decided since it was pretty warm out I would sit on the back steps and make sure she went to the bathroom before I let her back in. I could hear a train passing by and Coda was wandering around the yard when all of a sudden the train blew it's horn and all four of Coda's paws came off the ground. I have never seen a dog jump so high from a flat standing position like that, and let me tell you it is really funny to see.

After I comforted her and stopped laughing Coda and I went back inside. When she still refused to go back into her cage I decided to just let her sleep where she wanted and see how she did the rest of the night. As I expected she slept in the living room where the front door was, but when I came down in the morning I found her in an arm chair after I told her she couldn't sleep on the couch, the brat.

The second day was interesting as well, on top of everything I also learned that Coda is a dominant dog. I kind of figured she would be, since she pulled on the leash so much and was quite adamant about not doing anything she didn't want, such as going back in her cage or giving up the ball in fetch (which I taught her to bring the ball back, now she just won't give it up). She made it quite obvious she wants to be the boss and I made it quite obvious that was not going to happen. Which is subsequently why she hates lead training. After the first time I took her for a walk and my hands and wrists ached from her pulling so hard I knew there was no way that was going to happen again and bought her a Halti collar. She fought it very hard at first but after about half an hour she was walking without pulling anymore.

Coda also decides when she wants to listen, she knows commands such as "sit" and "down" and "come here", but if there isn't any incentive for her to comply she pretends she doesn't hear you. We're working on that. With all that being said Coda is still a great dog. She's very social and loving and will sit in front of you all day if you just keep petting her. She made me laugh the first time she flopped down in front of me, belly up and feet in the air, waiting for me to scratch her stomach.

So far the things Coda and I are working on is:
-Lead training (going very well)
-Getting her to listen to and obey basic commands EVERY time not just when she wants
-And teaching her not to jump up on people (she doesn't jump up on me very often anymore but she gets very excited when visitors come over)

Coda and I will continue to work together and hopefully make some better progress.