Pepper has been with us almost three glorious weeks now and she’s the calmest, best behaved puppy one could ask for. Easy to train, thanks to her desire to please and motivated by food (kibble as treats!) and we’ve reliably gotten her to now stay in place on a training mat so we can eat in relative peace. Prior to this, she would jump on the sofa between us or attempt to sniff at our plates. The training Paola and family had worked on obviously paid dividends and shows the value of a great foster placement.

She’s been great on walks, well controlled on leash and does the things she needs to on the walk. She also continues to be proactive in letting us know if she needs to go out when at home. Normal stools has been a blessing since all our Shepherds have had their digestive issues from time to time. Pepper (1) had issues for the longest period until a new vet (for which we switched to an independent family owned practice) diagnosed some pretty ingrained allergic reactions and treated those with prescription medication and a change in diet (we had tried multiple kibble types for food sensitivities and elimination diets to work out what was wrong), and so that Pepper has not exhibited diet-related issues is encouraging.

The first two weeks, when Pepper initiated play and got a little too frisky, Sage felt obliged to put her in her place with some mild growling, escalated growling and finally warning barks that put Pepper firmly in her (submissive) place. Now, Sage and Pepper seem to have struck the right balance of respect and fun and play together very well.

End of December was Sage’s 9th birthday, so there was cake. Notable is that neither dog shows any food aggression or poor behaviour and can eat happily side by side.

Finally, the two of them love the dog park. Sage likes to roll around on her back and Pepper really loves chasing balls. As at home, she likes to hoard all the toys and chews so it’s a minefield for us humans – the exact same behaviour Pepper (1) had, although Pepper (1) never played with balls. At the dog park, Pepper will fetch all the balls and put them in a small area she manages 🙂

Today she met yet another friend, a 15 month old Aussie-Doodle called “Pocket” who loves herding and the three of them ran around chasing each other. Good times.