Maya is my dog—er, I should say puppy, as she's only three months old. Maya is red and white Irish setter. She was born in Kentucky on Dec. 17 and came to us via American Airlines special cargo on Feb. 21.
She might look dulce, but she's a terror with vampire-sharp teeth. And apparently giving her plenty of exercise, two walks a day, is supposed to be keep her calm. It was the opposite! In the morning we walked to the park, with me keeping to my left and close by, trying to make her heel and walk either beside me or behind me for 50 minutes. She did well. Then in the afternoon we took another brisk walk for an hour. We walked up the hill and into some fields near some woods. The ground was pretty wet and the grass from last year thick and uneven.
I think it was all too much for Maya. She didn't seem too happy on the way down the hill, and tried to give up but I kept her moving. When we got home, she started running around like crazy, attacking a couch cushion and running with it. At one point she started pulling on my sleeve and really gripped onto my elbow. It hurt and I had to put her in time out—we have a blocked off area on the stairwell that keeps her out of trouble and safe. And later, she knocked over my glass of Guinness and crapped in the stairway.
When I finally put her in her crate she crashed and didn't even wake up when the girls came home! So, the walks worked, in part.
The next day I went to her puppy training. I felt like a parent who can't wait to consult with the teacher about an unruly child! The trainer knew the problem immediately: restless spirit.
Restless spirit, if I understand it correctly, is what the dog longs to do because of it’s breeding. A herding dog want to herd, a retriever wants to retrieve, a guard dog want to protect.
Maya is field bred, meaning she was bred to do what Irish setters were developed to do: flush game bird. She’s essentially a hunter and needs to play at that. Maya was tired but still restless for the hunt.
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