Digi's first Trip!! 1000km drive. EDIT: 2 photos added!!
I had to go to Simths Falls to get my car fixed. Joe, Steph & Digi came with me for the trip! Digi was a good girl 95% of the time. She peed on my sisters rug 4 times & pooped on it once. Digi still doesn't fully understand the difference between materals & newspaper.
I caught her in the act for most of the messes, so she was scolded & seem to get the point towards the end of the time we were there. My sister knew a head of time that Digi has that problem & my sister didn't care. She made a pet safe cleaner & had a roll of paper towel ready lol
There was an open field near my sisters place. We took Digi there to see how she does off leash (well she had the leash attached to her harness (one of my old Halti's), as I have no idea if she'll even come back, because if she has any hound in her, she might just run away following her nose. Running away is my biggest fear as I live in a city & there are so many cars & shes so small. The harness is always a little loose as I fear is interfearing with her breathing as shes so small. You also never know when a leash or harness/collar is going to fail & just break.
Well Digi was AWESOME for coming when she was called. She doesn't understand Come, but she understands "Digi *kiss sounds*", I always used come at the end, hoping I can ween her off of the kissing sound. But she comes regardless what the so called proper command is, so I'm very happy!!
Digi has NO drive to harm a cat. Spliff stayed out of Digi's way, but Pluto always wanted to sniff Digi, but he was scared of her too, so he hissed at her all weekend. Digi ran after him a couple times, but she NEVER touched him when he stopped running. Her face looked like, awwwww you stopped running, now where is my bone? I'm happy with that, as I do NOT want an animal agressive dog... If Digi was animal agressive, we were going to let her try to do whatever she wanted to the cats, as Spliff KNOWS how to properly tell a dog NO I'm not a chew toy, & NOT your friend. Spliff wouldn't attack, she would start with paw swats & would increase her training if needed. She trained a lot of puppies that cats are not chew toys. Shes a good cat & loves dogs. But Digi didn't need any lessons, she was good!
We left Digi alone a few times & she didn't whin.. not even a peep!!!! We think its because there were 2 cats in the house, so she was never really alone. But, I don't know.. she has been really good the past few days. I let her have full run of the house today (shes not a chewier) & she whined at the door a little, but she wasn't barking or screaming bloody murder...
We also learned that I'm her mommy & she does NOT & will NOT go for a walk without me. My sister took her for a tiny walk in the parking lot & when Digi realized that I wasn't following, she put on all 4 breaks & cried. M ysister had to pick her up & carry her heheh
Digi also learned how to get out of the tote in the car on the way home. Digi wanted to lay on the seat beside Steph. Digi got out, Steph put her back & Digi got out again. I said lets just see what Digi does... Digi gave Steph a few kisses, then layed down on the seat & went to sleep. She was excellent the WHOLE time in the car, no pee no poop & very very very little crying.
So now I'm going to turn an old Dog collar into a seat belt, incase I need to stop fast & hard.. Which happens a lot as I live in Toronto & drive on the major HWYs out there often...
Shes gonna have to get use to being in the back seat only as my airbag is on, & that could kill her when she gets bigger. So training her that the back seat is hers. is the best I think... I have teather bolts in my car that I'll be using when shes larger. She'll be in a harness, not a collar.. Breaking her neck & or strangling her, is not my idea of safe lol When she bigger I have a harness that should fit her & it has wool padding for the neck area. Its really a harness for a dog sled. I used it for my old dog. But it'll be perfect for a doggy seatbelt, as its super strong & has large Metal rings. I plan to go to a junkyard & buy an old seatbelt for my model of car & take that to a shoe maker to get it stictched properly & ubber strong!! As they don't use cheap thread (used them before, awesome quality).
So far I have to say shes an awesome travel buddy :) I cannot wait to do more trips!!
Edit: I think there are photos of her in the car, I'll have to check. I know Steph took photos of Digi driving (we were parked, I wanted to see if she was scared of the wipers, as having a spazing dog while driving is BAD.. she thought it was interesting & tilted her head lol)
