Nadine, or should I say my mom, survived the drive to Michigan with only slight collateral damage to her carrier. Now it was time to settle into the temporary digs. First things first, Nadine had to find a place to do her business inside. In my condo, she primarily enjoyed using the kitchen rug as her private portapotty. That was fine with me since a rug is easily washable and it was kind of, but not really, helping me train her with puppy pads. I would put them down where the rug was in the hopes she would use that instead, which she did a few times. In reality, between my mom and I, Nadine was getting a lot of different signals as to what was expected of her. We were trying everything we knew, which meant changing methods much too often. Poor dog.
At my parents, she choose the carpet in the sun room for her johnny-on-the-spot. A nice beige carpet. My mom, being totally in love with Nadine, brushed off her accidents as one might ignore a mother-in-law's touch of indigestion. To understand the significance of this, it's important to know that my mom is a bit OCD about cleaning. Growing up and to this day, I am constantly losing my half-full water glass because she has put it in the dishwasher when I turned my back. Don't even think about going to the bathroom because the other half of your sandwich will be in the compost before you've flushed.
After getting beds, blankets, secret poop locations, and food in place, my mom decided to take Nadine outside. There are three small steps that lead from the house to the garage/driveway. Mom and Nadie got to the top of the steps and my mom headed down them. She turned to make sure Nadine followed her, but Nadie was still standing at the top, looking at my mom. She leaned over and called Nadine to come - the only thing I had attempted to teach Nadine during our short week together.
"Come on, Nadine!" my mom called again, assuming the pup was just nervous about a new place. Nadine looked at my mom, looked at the steps and...jumped. Jumped off three steps on legs that are three inches tall. She flew off, paws out, and landed face-first on the cement. I never could have imagined that she didn't know steps, but here was the proof. Nadine was so eager to please her new people that rather than stubbornly sit and wait for my mom to carry her, she gave it her all and pancaked the garage floor instead. What a good dog!
And with that, number one on the to-do list became teaching Nadine how to walk up and down steps. Up turned out to be quite simple and she can now manage climbing entire flights of stairs, but Nadine has never managed more then 3 steps down. She doesn't even try. She will stand at the top of the stairs and wait for someone to bring her downstairs. She is such a momma dog and she really doesn't like her pack separated; if one person is downstairs and everyone else is up, she gets a bit agitated.
After a brief check for injury, it was on to outdoor adventures. The parental units have a large yard, but it's mostly wild. My dad had set up a long extension lead so they could tied her up outside and she would be able to run about. Nadine had other plans, not surprisingly. Almost immediately, Nadie showed her aversion to grass and wouldn't walk on it. Even worse, dew-covered grass in the morning was out of the question. In my research of puppy mill dogs, it is common for dogs to have never walked on grass or felt it between their tootsies, so they can react to it in ways we don't expect. She didn't walk in grass much at my condo as we were always on sidewalks. I was so happy when she pooed outside as opposed to in, I never considered why she was using the sidewalk and not the grass.
Those first weeks in Michigan, Nadie never adjusted to the feel of grass and was more likely to use the driveway (much to my dad's disappointment) or mulch instead. Long streaks of dog pee zebra-ed the driveway until heavy rains, or dad with a hose, washed them away.
Since Nadine didn't like the feel of grass, there was no chance she would enjoy the long lead my dad had created. While part of it was by a cement patio, that meant she was around the corner from the garden where my mom would be weeding and harvesting. After only a few days as the center of attention in our world, she was becoming very attached to her people. Being on that lead and out of sight of my mom was unacceptable. Her separation anxiety would prove a bigger problem at bedtime...
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