Dog Blog

Well, meet Bella. She's from Madison Mutts Rescue and we met and picked her up last night. What a wonderful, frightening whirlwind! They say she's about a year and a half old, and I'd guess she's in the 70 - 90 pound range--currently just kinda lean and lanky, tall and reminiscent of a training pony or giraffe. She's awful pretty, as you can see. She wasn't too into sleeping in our bedroom with us last night--there was a good half hour of her pacing before we all figured that out. After we opened the door and let her have the run of the house, Jim said he only heard her meander back into the bedroom once. We plead ignorance for the most part of German Shepherds, but I'm guessing she wanted to guard the front door, and/or was pretty darned stressed. We heard a passel of sirens in the night, and so did Bella, who sang along with them, Aroooo!

We took her to the dog park first thing this morning, and she did well. We reinforced "come" with treats and played a little with the chuck-it. She loves fetch but seems confused about mixing it in with a walk in the dog park. Fine. She also seems confused about how to stay in the back seat of the car. She jumps in the back door and slithers into the passenger seat until we can kinda get her back there again, possibly with a visit to our laps or the stick shift on the way. She LOVES having her head out the window, and it makes for some slightly distracted driving. (Jim took this one as a passenger.)



Abby, our first dog, I think is a little disgusted with us. Being the anti-social dog that she is, and so used to being the only dog, I think it will be an adjustment for her. But I think they're getting along well so far, and I hope that Abby will forgive us and find Bella as good a companion as we have thus far. Twelve hours!

Anyway, if you come to the house, be prepared for a good barking-at. But when she greeted us last night at the foster's home, there was barking and then she chilled out about it. Alert! Alert! Oh, okay. I hope it will be the same here. We'll start training with her as soon as we've seen the vet and can get into a class. Maybe agility at some point, because she seems so smart and responsive already.

That's the diggs on the dogs, wish us luck!