# Welcome home, Cava von Tafelberg!



## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Cava came to us all the way from Salida, Colorado. Some friends of the breeder helped transport her here by way of Los Alamos and Albuquerque NM, and we picked her up at the AWDF championship in Galt, CA on Friday, which is about an hour and a half away. Cava is 4-1/2 months old, and is a super happy, friendly puppy. She's been officially ours since 8 weeks old, but with Halo in the late stages of DM, the plan was to wait and bring her home after Halo was gone. But Halo is still here and Cava was getting older, so she's finally home. I have some photos from when she was younger, and then some of her here. Enjoy!




























Last vet visit before her big trip:










Meeting Keefer and Halo:























































Yesterday there was a small flyball practice, so I took Cava to meet some of her teammates. She's too young to do much yet, but she did some recalls to a tug. This is Halo's old flyball tug, which seems to be a hit with Cava as well:


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## Bramble (Oct 23, 2011)

Congrats! She is precious, what a cutie!


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## RuthArt (Oct 25, 2017)

oh Debbie, she's beautiful, what a fun time you will be having with her.


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## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

She's gorgeous! Congratulations!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Thanks, she's going to be a lot of fun! Too bad we can't get her to settle in the house, though. :rofl:


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## sitstay (Jan 20, 2003)

Congratulations! She looks like she will be a whole lot of fun!
Sheilah


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

There she is!!! :happyboogie:


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Cava is basically 40 pounds of pure joy and exuberance. She is SO happy, and it's incredible how quickly she's adapted, especially since she went from 32 acres in the country to a house in the suburbs with a tiny yard, complete with geriatric/ill dogs. 

On one hand I'm sad I missed out on the early puppy phase, but it is nice that she's sleeping through the night and is going outside to pee and poop. She knows where the house and garage water dishes are if she's thirsty, and she likes to stick her head in right next to Keefer and drink with him. I need to get a picture of that, it's so cute. :wub: She tried it once with Halo, who was not quite as tolerant, but she's learning boundaries, and that if they grumble at her she needs to back off. We have some work to do on house manners, she counter surfs and will launch herself on you if you're sitting down, but so far it's going really well.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Fodder said:


> There she is!!! :happyboogie:


Come meet the fuzzy munchkin any time.


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

She’s a beauty!!


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## kelbonc (Aug 25, 2014)

Gorgeous pup!! Congrats!! :smile2:


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

All right, congratulations Debbie. I guess sprawl isn't exactly the same as settle, but she'll get there. Lol.


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## Stevenzachsmom (Mar 3, 2008)

So awesome! She is gorgeous. I'm glad she got to meet the seniors. Bet they will enjoy her. I am so happy for you. Jealous, but happy.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Steve Strom said:


> All right, congratulations Debbie. I guess sprawl isn't exactly the same as settle, but she'll get there. Lol.


It's a work in process.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Stevenzachsmom said:


> So awesome! She is gorgeous. I'm glad she got to meet the seniors. Bet they will enjoy her. I am so happy for you. Jealous, but happy.


It's hard to even think of Halo as a senior. Technically, at 9-1/2, she is, but without DM she would still be in her prime. 

Cava is already completely reliable with Keef, and Halo is much more tolerant of her than we thought she'd be. I didn't think he'd be a problem, he really likes other dogs, but we thought Halo would be nasty towards her. We expected it would take a couple of weeks to be where we are on day 3. I ordered an x-pen, which was delivered yesterday afternoon, but I don't think we even need it. It's in the garage, still in the box, and I may just send it back. 

We met Cava less than 48 hours ago, but she's already bonding to us and seems to enjoy being around the dogs too. She was pretty wild the first day home, but she'd spent 14 hours in a crate the day before, and 5 more by the time we got her home on Friday so that's to be expected. She's MUCH calmer today, other than random puppy zoomies.


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

What a bright eyed and happy expression she has!Love the flying yellow pig picture!Congratulations on your new girl


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## GypsyGhost (Dec 29, 2014)

I’m so happy for you! Congrats!


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## dogbyte (Apr 5, 2002)

what a cutie patutie...Love the look of the coated ones...but I HATE grooming.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Today we went for about an hour hike:



















Which resulted in this: 










She has totally crashed behind our office chairs. Does that count @Steve Strom?


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

Welcome home pretty girl! Hope you have great adventures and much success


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## Mei (Mar 30, 2018)

She's one nice lookin puppy!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Thanks everyone! Today we're meeting a friend with a 10 month old GSD at another park with a lake, so maybe she will get to swim.


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

That had to some exciting day watching the championship and picking up your pup - gsd excitment! She is a beauty - love that flying yellow pig toy lol!!! I’m so sorry to hear about your sweet halo - cava will keep you going through all of this ! The best of luck with her can’t wait to see more photos!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

I wish we'd had time to watch some of the championship. We were originally going to meet the woman who brought her here from Albuquerque at 2, so the plan was to arrive a little early so we could check out the AWDF goings on, but then she messaged me that morning and said she'd be there by 10, so we could meet earlier. We got there at 11, and took her right home since dogs not entered weren't allowed in the stands area anyway. 

Yesterday she got to go swimming and meet a new friend - Archer is 10 months old, and he was great with her. As soon as his owner tossed a ball into the water for him, Cava jumped right in and started swimming too. 

Here are the two of them together:


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## Pytheis (Sep 23, 2016)

Cassidy's Mom said:


> I wish we'd had time to watch some of the championship. We were originally going to meet the woman who brought her here from Albuquerque at 2, so the plan was to arrive a little early so we could check out the AWDF goings on, but then she messaged me that morning and said she'd be there by 10, so we could meet earlier. We got there at 11, and took her right home since dogs not entered weren't allowed in the stands area anyway.
> 
> Yesterday she got to go swimming and meet a new friend - Archer is 10 months old, and he was great with her. As soon as his owner tossed a ball into the water for him, Cava jumped right in and started swimming too.
> 
> Here are the two of them together:


Very cute! She sounds like my kind of dog.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Here are some videos I took yesterday, the first one is the second time she jumped in the water. I was still fumbling with my phone when she ran in the first time and I missed it. She loses the ball and is swimming in a circle trying to get it so it's not a very graceful effort, lol. At the end, Samuel, Archer's dad, is saying "okay, water's no problem".  I love her confidence and fearlessness!











Chasing toys together after swimming - Cava and Archer are running back with the ball the same way Keefer and Halo used to do all the time. :wub:


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## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

She's a beauty! Congratulations!. Did you do your intros to Keefer and Halo at home? Puppies are usually an easy "add", but not sure if it's the same with an older one. We have one coming at the end of the week.


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## Hineni7 (Nov 8, 2014)

What a precious and beautiful girl! Love the confidence...


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Nigel said:


> Did you do your intros to Keefer and Halo at home? Puppies are usually an easy "add", but not sure if it's the same with an older one.


Yes, we introduced them one at a time on the front lawn before we brought her in the house. She met Keef first, and then my husband put him away and brought out Halo. We couldn't really take them for a walk together, or at least not with Halo, since she can't walk. 

We didn't expect Keef to be an issue since he really likes other dogs. We thought Halo would be more of an issue than she has been - she's not fond of strange dogs getting in her face, but gets along well with all her flyball team dogs. Cava is learning her boundaries quite well, she will back off if Halo snarks at her. And then suck up to her with a muzzle lick, lol.


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