Echo at 15 weeks and some progress!

Echo is now 15 weeks old and 48 pounds. She experienced her first snow yesterday and was very curious. She thought the best part of it was eating it! But she definitely HATES the cold!! I literally have to push her out the door and then she takes two steps and pees instead of going to the back of the yard where she usually goes. I will post snow pictures with the next post.


The above picture shows Echo doing what she does best......latching onto anything that comes close to her mouth; in this case, my hand. This is why doing something as simple as petting her is very difficult. She won't even let your hand get close to her without clamping down on it....and it hurts! This morning I decided that things HAVE to change. She's missing out on such crucial socialization because no one can get near her for fear of her chewing them up.....quite literally! So, this morning, I spent a good while standing in front of her and attempting to pet her. Latching on to my hand was the first attempt (as well as many subsequent attempts). After this first time, everytime she started to go for my hand, I pulled it away and signed "no." I then waited and when she was "calm," I signed "good girl" (thumbs up) and attempted to pet her. Eventually, she let me touch her without trying to take my hand off. I was signing "good girl" to her with the other hand the entire time I was petting her.

She finally decided that having a good ole head rub wasn't such a bad thing. As soon as she would move and show her teeth, I stopped petting her and just kept repeating the whole process over and over.

She finally relaxed SO much that she was like butter in the chair, enjoying a good head scratch. This may not seem like a big deal to others, but this is HUGE.......!!!! She will still go after things with her mouth but I feel like we made a breakthough and with work, she will actually begin to learn that someone touching her is a very positive experience and one to desire!!

This LWT has a really horrible smell. Can't quite explain it. So this morning, she had her third shower! She does really well and actually just stood there, waiting for me to finish washing her. If I got close to her face, she would try to latch onto my hands or the shower head, but otherwise, she did well!

I have renewed hope that things WILL get better!!

All relaxed after lots of good scratches!!

I got out Zen's old kuranda bed for Echo and of course....she LOVES it! Here, she was watching me wash dishes :)