Karen, thank you.
I am really excited about this puppy. She has very good conformation for performance, she is very beautiful and comes from a line with very nice temperaments as well, all things that don't always go hand in hand.
The last two days were full of learning for me and the puppy.
She amazed me by not having a single housebreaking accident so far but letting me know through wining every time she needed to go outside. This is a habit that she continued from being born in a kennel where the puppies have access to the outdoors all the time and will eliminate away from their sleeping area. Since Moon Dance is still so young, barely weaned, I wanted to make sure that she is not left alone for more than a few seconds either during the day or at night. This means no use of a crate (except for emergencies) with the door closed. She snuggles up with me at night and I think this helped her to not miss her Mom and her litter mates. During the day I kept her with the smaller dogs, a Beagle, a Cocker another female Whippet and a Chinese Crested. She also got to meet all the bigger dogs and had no fear except for Ray's big Akita who she only saw outside through the fence. We continued socialization by taking her for another car ride, visiting the vet where she got no shots or other unpleasant events, just liver treats and gentle handling and lots of oohs and ahhs.
It is always amazing to me how well even tiny puppies, esp. hounds, cue into our body language and tone of voice instinctively and learn to read us and anticipate our actions within a couple of hours.
We also did lots of socializing with sounds (radio, traffic, cats, ducks, water) and different textures to walk on and to taste.