Mon Sept 14, 1998 We picked up our new beardog from the Potters on Sat, Sept 12, 98. A most amazing animal. We are accustomed to smart dogs as we have two border collies right now and have had others including an extremely intelligent white shepherd in the past. Lika is incredible. Already we find ourselves matching wits with a 9 week old puppy and not always winning. She has learned her name in 24 hours. She is fearless and very calm. She displayed no anxiety at all riding in our van for two hours, her first vehicle ride. We visited a friend on the way home and Lika stood up to a 40 kilo German Shepherd, growling and woofing at it from our feet. She has excellent instincts and knows exactly how to behave with our collies, displaying correct submissive behavior to both dogs. She has her own pen and running line and of course her own food and water dishes. When first put in the pen the cats (we have 6 outside) came right over to steal her food. She allowed this as she did not know what the house rules were. I showed her only twice that the cats were not allowed to take her food by chasing the cat from her dish and she instantly understood. She does not allow the cats to approach her food. Last night she whined and then howled to be let in the house, probably so she could sleep in our bed with us. This is not in the cards. I finally got up at about 1:30 am and went out and simply told her to be quiet and lie down. She did exactly that and we did not hear another sound from her all night. I have a feeling that even spelling will not work around this dog, our shepherd learned to spell and I am sure Lika will too. We shall have to be very careful what we teach her. I'm not sure yet but I have a feeling she will make an excellent tracker.

Fri Oct 2, 1998 Lika is growing like a bad weed. She is learning quickly how we expect her to behave. Our old (15 years) female border collie plays with her and can still teach her a thing or two. Lika shows her instincts for hunting very clearly when playing with Freja. Lika will attack from behind and underneath, nipping at the throat from behind, ducking in and out. It is clear how this dog is able to harass a bear and survive. We have to keep in mind she is only three months old and yet can play-fight like an old, experienced dog. I would not recommend this breed of dog for someone with little experience with dogs. We will have to stay on top of her at all times but I see her becoming one of our all time favorites. She is absolutely ecstatic to see us in the morning when we let her out of her pen at 06:00 and would happily turn herself inside out if that would please us. Discipline needs only a slightly harsh word and even then she may sulk for quite a while. So far she is very quiet with no barking except when trying to intimidate our totally deaf (from birth) inside cat. Of course it doesn't work but she keeps trying. The cat won't take any guff from Lika and has ambushed her several times. Lika just avoids him for now. One of her Instincts when running outside is to dive into tall grass and hide. She instantly freezes and is almost invisible. She loves to chase the outside cats but the game is becoming a bit too rough even though the cats aren't complaining (they attack her). We will put a stop to it now. I should explain that our outside cats are totally dog friendly. They think our female border collie is a large, misshapen cat. Since Lika is black and white, similar to our collies, she must be no threat. As a result, Lika gets no respect from the cats despite her best efforts to intimidate them. This must be a severe blow to a BearDog! Check here in two weeks or so for more on the continuing saga of Lika!

Nov 8, 1998 Lika is now over 8 kilos and growing as fast as ever. I suspect she will be over 20 kilos when full grown. She continues to amaze us with her intelligence. The cats are no longer a problem, Lika and the cats sleep together. She is still very protective about her food. She loves a soup bone but is completely deaf to us when she has one. She will skitter away from us even at supper time if she has a bone so that it will not be taken away. She has the most amazing sense of smell. I was about to reprimand her for digging in the yard when I saw that she had dug up an old bungie cord, buried over 15 years ago, at least. She has on one occasion sniffed an old moose bone a hundred metres away and went straight for it. Lika is extremely friendly to people including a 2 year old child that was playing with her a few days ago at my office. This is the first time she has met a small child and I am very pleased with her. She is still very quiet, I wish she would talk a bit more, she only barks when something really bothers her. She is very affectionate and likes to sleep in our laps. This could prove to be a problem as she grows larger!

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