Friday, May 30, 2008

The words my newfs know

After almost six weeks in her new home, Aquila (formerly Nova) has settled into our routine, and is showing her personality. She has quite a fun personality, is a Mommy-magnet, and likes squeaky rubber toys. She is the sweetest thing, but she definitely has a few quirks (as we all do!). One in particular is her difficulty understanding "our" language. For example, The Hubber dug a trench in the back yard, and to keep the rain from moving the soil back in, he covered it with a tarp. When I go outside, the dogs go out with me, and they follow me everywhere, sometimes under foot, and other times they mosey. So when they reached the tarp-covered trench, I said, "Orion, stay off the plastic." He looked at the plastic, looked at me, and went around it. Good. He understands! Next comes 'Kee. "Aquila, stay off the plastic." 'Kee's head is transparent, I can see what's in it. And you know what she was thinking? "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy...." So I yell, " 'Kee, walk around the plastic!" 'Kee says, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy...." I yell, "No! Not on the plastic!!" 'Kee says, "Mommy, Momm--whoops!" Into the hole she goes. This is pretty typical Aquila. So it got me to thinking, what's the different words my two newfs understand?
Orion knows all his commands (sit,stay, down, go around, wait, come, etc.), plus things like, "Go for a ride" "Go for a walkie" "Go potty" "Go poop" "Eat" "Go in your crate" "Daddy's home" "Bed time", and "Drink of water". What he doesn't know for certain, he pretty much figures out.
Aquila knows (so far) "Drink of water" "Go potty" "In the potty pen" "Go poop" "Where's the yucky baby?" and "Where's your squeaky toy?" Everything else is "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, must find Mommy, must be near Mommy, etc." We've been working on the commands, but she is still finding our language to be alien. Nonetheless, she is just the most cheerful thing, especially first thing in the morning (when The Count wishes he were still in bed, His Highness prefers a late get-up time). This morning when I let her out she ran all over the yard just as happy as a clam. If a dog could show pure joy, this was it! Of course, if she's running like mad all over the yard, The Count must come out to see why. Was he ever happy to find her feeling playful, he has been waiting for her to play with him since we brought her home. So the two bears ran all over the yard, wrastling each other, tackling, jumping and playing. It was truly an awesome sight! Tomorrow I will bring out the video camera in the hopes of capturing some, I'd probably do best to bring it every morning, since you just never know when they'll want to be playful puppies again.