For the next week Hanna and Tuck will get in all the snuggles they can. :)
We have really been having a good time with Miss Hanna. She is such a sweet girl; she really is just looking for a best friend. She still does not go out and wrestle with Tucker, but she does play tug of war and light wrestling with him in the house. It is either Tucker's size or the layout of our backyard (we have a u shape, not a large space to run freely) that is holding her back. When we've taken her to friends houses where there is more open space she runs freely with their dogs.
She most definitely loves her Tucker...here she is demonstrating her "Who, me?" technique of getting Tucker to pay attention to her (aka sit on him until he starts chewing on you)
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Well, time flew and here we are, almost two months into Hanna's relocation. She took a while to warm up to the city - the first month had me worried she 
would never adjust as she was so very skittish. Then she took some baby steps...
3 weeks ago we took her on a home visit to meet a family with a greyhound. While we were there she jumped and played and ran around like crazy - something we'd never seen her do. A week after that, she sat watching the world from her favorite perch at the back open door. A huge squirrel decided to jump on the top of the fence and when Tucker took off after him, Hanna could not contain herself. The two chased the squirrel up and down the length of the fence three times before he took a leap to the other side. Tucker was barking the whole time as he trailed the very fast and agile Hanna down the fence line. We never heard a peep from her but she did bounce up the fence a few times to try to get a closer look. I'm so impressed by this girl's athleticism!
That moment seemed to be a turning point for Miss Hanna, as she started freely venturing out into the backyard without any of her people. Tucker is slowly learning not to wrestle her quite so enthusiastically, but she has discovered that she can quickly outrun him and has found a few places where he cant fit even if he did catch up to her. She's also started to wrestle him just a little bit, some tug-o-war and good hearted neck nibbling. Its also been a big help that Champ (the world's best dog walker) has been taking Hanna and Tucker on play dates with two of Tucker's Labrador buddies.
Hanna still pulls towards home if a large truck or noisy motorcycle passes too close on a walk, but she is really becoming a different dog. Her greetings are the absolute best - I'll try to get one on video. A Hannah hello makes you feel like the most important human in the whole wide world. :)
A few more notes about Hanna...she is potty trained, has very good recall, loves her sleep - do not expect her to wake early - and she does need guidance if expected to stay out of her family's beds. :)
We are working on teaching her "sit" - she is very food motivated so I don't think its going to be hard. Really love this little girl!!
In her first week with us Hanna has certainly proven to be a love bug. She likes to sit in our son's lap and cuddle up with our daughter (us too!). She goes out to do her business and comes right back in - not a lot of stopping to play as she is still unsure of all the road noise out there. Every now and then, though, Tucker will run out back to bark at a squirrel and Hanna forgets her worries and follows him to see whats up. She is not very vocal but definitely interested in seeing what the fuss is about. I can see when she runs up and down the deck stairs that this girl is quite an athlete - when she jumps it looks effortless.
Our big Tucker is possibly a bit rowdy for her yet which may be part of what's keeping her in her shell a little bit. The two of them do love each other though - Tucker thinks she makes a great pillow and she doesn't mind it one bit. In the morning she gives him little love nibbles in his scruff which he mistakes for wanting to play. In reality, this little girl could sleep for a few more hours, and she usually does, once we've stopped making noise around her.
I've been super busy the last few weeks and haven't sent out an update on Hanna in a while, so here's a quick one.Well, I have to say that Hanna is the nuttiest dog I've ever fostered. Hands down. Ever. She's a total sweetheart through and through and when I'm not shaking my head at something she's done or gotten herself into, I'm laughing my ass off at something else she's cooked up. She has finally started to calm down in the house, and is actually sleeping in the evenings instead of bouncing off of the walls or skidding around on the wood floors. And yes, she gets more exercise daily than the average dog! She hasn't climbed my privacy fence in a while and I'm "trusting" her enough in my yard now that she doesn't have to drag the checkcord around : ) Her favorite toy is a half deflated basketball that the previous owners left behind and she's hilarious to watch as she hauls it around and hides it along with all the other yard toys. She's insane on birds, and has the speed and desire in the field that's almost refreashing to see. She's not afraid to barge into any kind of cover, or even climb a tree after something that interests her. She still is completely deaf in the field, and totally ignores the whistle and sometimes her collar, but we're working on this! She's also getting better with regular household noises, but we're still taking everything fieldwise sloooooow and I'm just letting her have fun. Everyday is a good day for this girl, and she's getting better about going places and meeting new people. When she's not going 100 mph, she's actually a real lover. I'm attaching a few pics I took of her today when we were out roaming some fields and ditches. She has a line on because one of our field collars has been acting up, and believe me, it's not nearly as much fun to run her when you're attached to the other end! In the first pic she was watching some field sparrows take off and she seemed to think it TOTALLY and UTTERLY unfair that she couldn't chase....
Hanna loves to roll around in the grass, but I've never seen a dog head dive into a pile of leaves and roll around! She seriously disappeared into the leaves and the Weims were wondering what was going on- she would then burst out of the pile and take off like a crazy puppy!
