June 4th 2012 7:01 pm
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I am happy to report that Angie definitely knows her name and is coming when called. Today while hiking she came every time I called her, regardless of what was going on around her. In the past, she's followed Yuki to me, but I made certain to call her when they were not close together and not to call him. I am very pleased with this progress. In the house, she does not always come when called but she is still worried at times that I am going to put her in the crate, so I am not pushing that issue too much.

She is learning what is and is not a dog toy. She is exhibiting a new behavior of trying to pick up various things and chew on them. She seems to like decks of cards and plastic lids from bottles. She clearly has figured out that anything in the dog toy basket is fair game, but the items not in the basket are still unknown for her. More than once this week I have caught her with an item, waiting for my attention before starting to chew on it, almost like she's testing the waters and trying to figure out the rules.

The other nice bit of progress I can report is that Angie now knows which food bowl is hers. This is making dinner time much more pleasant, as she no longer tries to steal food from Claire or Yuki.

On a related note, that I have not mentioned before, she has an extremely soft mouth, particularly when taking treats.