Safire is now a week out from surgery. She is doing well and getting her spunk back. This is rather stressful for me since she is still supposed to be resting, but she really wants to not be resting.

Thankfully there are a few behaviours that I taught her (sometimes accidentally) as a puppy that have made this all more managagable:

Crate training
Safire LOVES her crate. It is her safe place where she feels happy, and she will head straight back to her crate after each toilet stop or cuddle session. She was also relaxed in Hospital and wasn't worried about everything else happening because... safe place!

Walking on lead
I wouldn't quite call what I do with Safire loose lead walking, but she is generally polite on lead. She understands moving in the same direction as me and I don't feel like my shoulder is going to be dislocated or damaged.

Not going out every single day
This is a bit of a weird one. But my dogs don't get out every single day of the week. They know sometimes we are jut having a chill day at home, and that is okay. They will have special time with me instead and the sky isn't going to fall down. Safire hasn't been going stir crazy because she knows that sometimes for whatever reason we stay at home and be quiet.

Activity toys
Safire plays politely with her activity toys. I can't say the same for all the rest of my puppies. But with Safire it has given me lots of options for food delivery and enrichment while she is cooped up.

Toileting on cue
1am in the morning and I can focus her on going to the toilet. By 1:05 we can all be tucked back into bed and off to sleep.
Also toileting with an audience. She is not shy about it.

Quiet cuddle time on the bed
Safire hasn't had to miss out on cuddles as she knows when we are on the bed we are relaxing and enjoying each others company.

Harness happiness
This little girl LOVES having a harness on. It makes her feel special. She has the absolutely wonderful Help-Em Up Harness which allows us to easily support her rear and avoid mishaps. It is incredibly helpful to have her happy in her harness.

Being picked up
This is one we had to work on as a puppy. Safire was rather undersized and freaking adorable. As such she got picked up a lot by people who were not HER people. She would be quite unimpressed and usually sulk after being picked up by random people.

Now I wouldn't say its her favourite thing in the world, but she is neutral about being picked up. We used choice games to get her to offer paws up and then sitting on my arm to achieve this and have maintained the behaviour through the years. She has been picked up a LOT the past few weeks.

Traveling
Being a dog sports tragic, Safire tagged along on many many looooong drives. She sleeps happily in the car and isn't too concerned about being in different environments and buildings.

There are a few things on this list that not all of my dogs are great at. So I will be prioritising training some of these behaviours with my other puppies so if disaster strikes we are prepared.

Things I Would Keep