To the dog owners out there this is nothing special, sit takes a matter or minuets to master but for a fox kit, no two fox kits to learn this together in the space of time it takes a dog to learn it is just amazing when normally if the two of them are in a room together they resemble speedy Gonzalez and the roadrunner running round the room and will not listen to a word I say.
The two of them seemed quite into learning once they found out food was involved so I continued teaching them and now they know sit, paw and lay down!
For sit I pointed at their tails which was funny as it made them sit as they did not want me to point at their tails. For lay down I got them to sit then follow the treat to the floor and for paw they did what Sprite was doing as they saw she was getting goodies and they wanted some.
I shall try to film it at some point. I tried on Thursday but filming using a camera phone totally failed.
I do not imagine them taking up agility lessons but I do like getting them to work for their treats. In theory it should make taking photos of them easier. . . Maybe hehe!
Now things I have missed as I have been so busy. . .
On June 17th Valla and Freyja went to get their second lot of shots (distemper and parvo). They were very brave little tots I was so proud of them. Valla being the smarter of the two saw the needle and snuggled her face into my neck. I think she knew there was no getting out of it the same as the time before. Freyja seemed to have no idea what was going on, just that she was having a nice hug and then her back felt funny hehe.
After the vets we went to meet some friends of lunch which was very fun, we had a great time! (Thank you Laura, David and Ken!) and we got to meet one of their prairie dogs named Trigger who was SO tiny and adorable! They got to meet Freyja and Valla. Valla did not seem very into standing in a car park though as the cars worried her but Freyja really seemed to like hugging Laura hehe.
I am now aware none of my photos of Valla give you any idea how tiny she is so I found something she would not walk off with and took a photo, I give you Valla on a sofa hehe:
Valla is very proud of herself now that she can fit a mini Kong tennis ball in her mouth hehe. She kicked them along before but now she can actually run with one in her mouth so no one else can have it so she is a happy kit.
The two little kits managed to totally maul Valla's cuddly kitty toy which was quite shocking. Valla becomes more like Elspeth every day. Elspeth always chews the legs off her toys and now Valla does the same. Freyja liked removing ears for some reason. . . Hey whatever keeps them happy.
Every day Freyja gets more and more white, well silver. It is amazing how much she has grown, she is now bigger then Sprite the papillon! She is also sometimes too rough for Valla to play with. Valla will now often sit on my knee and watch Freyja play as she knows if Freyja has just woken up she is just too rough.
Harry has been quite the parrot as of late which is odd as he hated parrots hehe. I was walking along the hall and heard what sounded like Freyja calling. She has a very individual way to call Valla and her humans. I followed the sound and found Harry stood in the hall! I think he was seeing if it would work the other way around and Freyja would come running. It was so odd. . . None of the corsacs normally make that sound. . . Valla has been doing similar and trying out barking like Sprite but it sounds so funny I cannot help but laugh!
The other day a parcel arrived for Harry, Elspeth and Audrey from some friends in the US. (Thank you Nikky, Bryan and Bella the swift fox!). I was trying to take photos of Audrey with her gifts and suddenly Freyja was on her lap. I decided to just keep clicking hehe:
Over the last few days everything for the Ark exotics day has arrived! My gazebo, tables, metal crates for the foxes and weights for the gazebo so it does not blow away (Imagine Harry's face if it did! There might be birds!!). There is still more to come but it feels it is all taking shape.
I very much look forward to seeing some of you there!
Kong balls are the greatest toys ever for foxes! We gave Kenti one and it was the only toy she couldn't destroy! haha! She would toss it around, chase it, even run up the stairs and toss it down just to chase it.
ReplyDeleteFreyja definitely looks huge now! They grow up so fast! *sniff*
Training them commands is definitely difficult. The only ones we were able to teach Kenti were "sit", "no", and "nice", and even then "sit" was the only one that really stuck.
Hopefully there won't be any birds to scare Harry!