Her name is Bella and she's a 2-month old black lab/border collie mix. When we saw her at the pound (we were just going to go look, we weren't going to come home with a dog! yeah right...) we knew she was the one. Much smaller than the other two month old labs they had, she was adorable, cuddly, and all alone... we were goners from the getgo.So why pick a bigger/shedding breed for an indoor dog, might you ask? Well, I blame it on my husband -Gary's childhood best bud had been a small black lab named Spook. Slept with him and everything. He's been fixated on a lab since then, biding his time until my willpower was low! Friday he emailed me dog pages on the web all day. I admit, they looked pretty cute. Then he came home from work and said, "let's go look at dogs from the pound!" And sucker that I am, I went along with it.
Little did I know that getting an indoor puppy is like having a newborn. In order to properly housetrain her, I have to know when she eats, how much she eats, how often she poops, where she poops, how long her naps are... seriously, a newborn! Luckily, having done the newborn thing three times now, it's a very familiar routine and I'm going with it. We've got chew toys and baby gates all over the house (this dog is staying on the tile!) and are working out strategies to get her to sleep through the night and not chew the furniture to bits. I could never do this if Spencer wasn't potty trained, but as he is, and as Maggie and Sophie are old enough to help with her we should be okay.
Little did I know that getting an indoor puppy is like having a newborn. In order to properly housetrain her, I have to know when she eats, how much she eats, how often she poops, where she poops, how long her naps are... seriously, a newborn! Luckily, having done the newborn thing three times now, it's a very familiar routine and I'm going with it. We've got chew toys and baby gates all over the house (this dog is staying on the tile!) and are working out strategies to get her to sleep through the night and not chew the furniture to bits. I could never do this if Spencer wasn't potty trained, but as he is, and as Maggie and Sophie are old enough to help with her we should be okay.
My only real complaint is that we have to take Bella out in the middle of the night to pee! At least with my babies I could nurse them in the comfort of my own bed at night. Luckily, Gary and Maggie both are whooped over the pup and Maggie is the one who takes her out at night and first thing in the morning. Bless her. The dog sleeps in a crate in her and Sophie's room - we're "crate training" and so far so good. This may turn out to be a great thing, it may be a fiasco and my furniture all may be ruined (over my dead body)... we'll keep you posted!
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