My pup is all grown up

One year update on Rossi, my Tibetan Terrier.

Rossi our Tibetan terrier turned one in June, and August marked one year since we have had her. She is such a bundle of joy and has enriched our lives more then I described. As she has grown up she has changed and developed a lot, so it felt like a great time to do an update now she is no longer a puppy.

I did a post one month after getting Rossi, Click here to see some adorable pup pictures if you missed it! As she is no longer a puppy, I felt it would be a great time to update you on how she is getting on. This past year has gone so quickly and watching her grow up into the sweet dog she is has been such a joy. Getting a dog is a big commitment, but I can honestly say it was the best decision. Rossi enriches every part of our lives and really is my partner in crime and always by my side.

Training

In my last post, Rossi was still rather young and training was a daily and necessary part of her routine. Both in getting her house trained (will talk about that later on) and making sure she understood house rules and was safe with other dogs and people.

Training is hard work, puppies are adventurous, excitable and like to test boundaries to see what they can get away with. It required a lot of constancy, and a unified front (if they know one member of the family will give-in they will behave differently with them) but it was so worth it.

Puppy Classes

My husband and I did take her to puppy classes, which I highly recommend but they only last a few weeks and are usually only a couple of hours. So you still need to train and teach your puppy how to behave for the rest of the time and on wards.

Most lessons we learned at puppy classes where transferable skills. Essentially the core is constant positive reinforcements, both with treats and praise and ignoring bad or negative behaviour. Rossi has always been a kind and sweet dog, so we have never had issues with aggression, but she did like to chew things she shouldn’t, and bark/cry to get what she wanted.

Daily Training

It took time and patient and like I said daily training. Alone time is important for puppies to ensure they don’t get anxiety when you leave the house as well. There are so many resources, books, videos and blogs out there, so I want go too much into detail about how we trained her but we got through a lot of treats that’s for sure.

I’m glad we put the time into training her properly, every month she required less training and supervision, and I can hand-on-heart say she is a model dog now and so well behaved. Was it easy? Not always, was it worth it? 100% yes.

Toilet Training

Rossi learned that she needed to go outside to do her business very quickly, but I would say we were still having accidents in the house until 6 months old. One of the main reasons was she would wake up, or be playing and not have enough time to get the garden because her bladder was so small. So we would end up with puppy puddles on the route to the back door. We did crate train her at night and would take her out at various points. Once she could sleep through the night and only needed to go out in the morning we got rid of her crate.

Opening up the house

We didn’t give Rossi run of the whole house to begin with. She had run of downstairs, when we were with her but would sleep in our kitchen when she was very young. Gradually she was allowed in more of the house which we opened to her with baby gates while supervised. Then downstairs alone. The whole house at night, and eventually the whole house alone. We did this for a few reasons. Mainly teething, Rossi had a taste for skirting boards and wires, which was pretty concerning. We wanted to not only minimise damage to the house but remove risk to her as well, as she was learning what was okay to chew and what wasn’t. We also had some trouble teaching her not to dig in the garden to begin with, so it’s only been recently that she can go in the garden unsupervised as she has curbed the habit.

The allure of socks

Rossi has learned to stick to chewing only her toys, except when it comes to socks. There is something about a sock that she just can’t get enough off. We made progress with tissues, and she stopped chewing the skirting board but socks… socks are still on the menu. She is only 14 months old so I’m sure we just need a bit more time on this one. Everyone has a thing, and Rossi’s thing is socks.

Brushing

Tibetan Terriers don’t shed their fur, and are hypoallergenic. However, they do have high grooming needs. Getting Rossi to let us brush her is still an uphill battle, even chicken can’t get her to be still at times. She just doesn’t like it and gets fed up with me after about 10 minutes. Ideally Tibetan’s need to be groomed every day, and thoroughly. As they have very thick, hair like fur, which grows very long if you let it.

Grooming

Although I love her with long fur, it’s currently just not practical for her or us. She gets soaked in the rain and gets knotty easily. We have found an amazing groomer which has had a breakthrough with her and we are working towards getting her coat a little longer to reach a happy medium. Currently she is clipped quite short, so we have a good starting point and she will be going every 2 months to the groomer from now which I’m excited for. Our breeder advised us not to get her groomed until she was nearing a year old, as it can affect the quality of her coat. I’m glad we held on, as she is incredibly soft and fluffy but It has been easier having her groomed now she is old enough.

Walks

Talking Rossi for a walk has become one of my favourite activities, seeing how excited she gets rain or shine makes me so happy. She did pull on the lead when she was a puppy and training her to walk along side us took a lot of stopping and starting, but it was worth the effort. She only pulls now if she sees a bird or a rabbit, so I always have an iron grip on her lead just in case. Rossi loves to meet every dog, and is often confused when the feeling isn’t mutual. But its not long before she sees a stick and everything is right in her world again.

Hiding Treats

Rossi isn’t very food motivated, if she isn’t hungry, she won’t eat which is unlike any dog I have ever meet. Sometimes this can be a pain but more often then not she grazes at her own pace. She does like to bury her treats and chew toys, so I find them all over the house. The most popular spots are under my pillow, down the side of the sofa and under my blanket that she thinks is hers. I do think its really cute, especially when she bury them by scooping her head against them, making little effort to make them hidden. 

Coming Home

I think if you ask any dog owner, they will agree one of the best parts of their day is opening the door to be greeted by an excited and happy pup. Rossi has a 6^th sense for when I’m coming home and sits at the top of the stairs to wait for me (she has a better view of the street that way) it’s honestly the best thing to see her wiggly butt dance around the floor. I will never get tired of such a warm welcome.

Paw-fect

There are so many things I could say about our darling pup, she is the sweetest thing and we love her so much. I don’t think I will ever be able to stop gushing about how wonderful it is to have a dog in our lives. If you have a dog, are thinking of getting a dog, or just like dogs, I hope this was somewhat interesting, at the very least it’s some cute doggo pics to enjoy. I will be back to beauty content next, but sometimes you just gotta stop and show the world your pup. Thanks for reading.