Snow Training

After our first real snowfall a week ago, Neva was afraid of shovels and didn't like snow deeper than an inch. She avoided snow by walking next to the house and she ran away anytime the shovel was deployed. So we worked on making friends with the snow shovels and getting her to romp in the deep stuff (three inches).

The most recent blizzard brought seventeen inches of snow to our doorstep with no way to avoid it. A foot and a half of snow provides many training opportunities. Neva spent a couple hours supervising my shoveling. Accustomed to the scraping and movements of the shovel, she began to think of it as a chew toy that throws snowballs that need to be chased, broken apart, and gobbled up.

She has no fear of the two feet high snow banks and attempts to summit them and take a shortcut to the door. She is relegated to hopping since the snow is taller than she is. After cutting a narrow path down the sidewalk, I turned around and we worked on the BACK command. Too high to jump up and too narrow to turn around, Neva was forced to backup. This technique also works when I break a fresh trail or we use our potty paths.

Neva's most favorite natural wintertime gift are icicles. When she is a very good girl or I need a lure (and out of kibble), we let her bring them in the house. She pushes it around the floor, pouncing on it until it breaks, then she wonders where it goes after it melts.