Tonight was Nadya's third puppy class. She was in seventh heaven, seeing all those dogs, some of them puppies, all of them there to play with her! During class, she heeled well, (up until the third about-turn, when she threw herself down on the grass and refused to go any further until her lowly human servant, (me), tugged and begged and cajoled until she was satisfied that I knew my place.
Nadya and Mamma at puppy class.
Finally, she stood up, stretched and trotted out to see what the rest of the class was doing all the way down at the other end of the yard!
She sat very well, almost to the touch of a hand to her tushy and she learned the down/stay tonight. In the middle of class, my friend April, offered Nadya a drink of water and several of the class members found it humorous to see Nadya dip her whole nose all the way under water just to get a drink. Her overbite is sooo long that she has to practically drown herself to lap at the water.
Wesley in his snappy tie.
After class, Nadya played with her buddy Wesley and found a new friend, Cinder who is a lovely 8 month old German Shorthair. They played and rolled around in the grass until we moms had to put a stop to it because they were just getting too rough. Nadya really cracked us up when she started nitting on Cinders ears and hinder. I think Cinder would have found it nice too, except that Nadya is used to doing this to a 110 pound Malachi. NOT a 30 pound Cinder!
She almost found another buddy, but the poor little girl, (5 month old miniature Dachshund named Penny who was too afraid to answer Nadya's play advances. Nadya stood there , towering over her and looking down at this little mite. (I was only a little concerned when Nadya started licking her lips!) Suddenly Nadya lay down in the Sphinx position and carefully tapped one big paw on the ground in front of little Penny.
She gave a little "Oof" and watched for any sign that Penny wanted to play with her. Well, it seems that Penny is NOT a stupid dog and had already seen Nadya and Cinder playing, so it was a no go. Penny poked her head out around her mamma's legs and told Nadya. "No way, girlfriend! Back off!"
Since there is a full agility course set up where we were, some of our classmates tried their hands, (and paws) at this fun sport. Nadya and I watched for a while and then decided that it might be fun to try the wide jump. This is a series of small, low hurdles that the dog is supposed to jump all at once. The first few times over this obstacle, Nadya trotted through the seperate hurdles with a great deal of agility and grace. On the other hand, her human servant, namely Moi, is not quite so graceful and tripped over one of the hurdles and ripped a hole in the back of her heel. It's so embarassing to be less agile than every single dog in the place.
Everyone also commented about how graceful and fluid Nadya's every movement is. I have to agree. There is nothing quite so smooth and beautiful as a Borzoi simply gliding across the ground. Nadya makes my Greyhounds look a bit like cockney charwomen compared to a Russian Princess.
~Sunday, July 16, 2000~
Tia attacks.
Nadya has had a few minor adventures the last few days. It seems that her new adopted sister, Tia, a greyhound, has decided that Nadya is to be used as a live lure. A very large lure at that!
Friday morning, when I let all of the greyhounds and Nadya out together, Tia charged across the yard and pounced on top of Nadya's back and came away with a mouthful of white fur. I spent the next five minutes hollering at Tia and trying to get a hold of her to get her back into the house. Nadya, it seems, was completely unaffected by this "attack", but I was furious!
I decided that it would be easier to get everyone else inside and leave Tia out. If she wanted to be outside so much, let her say out there! Everyone else came when I called and we went inside to let Tia to her own miserable self outside.
