Life with a new dog has been working out quite well. We’re getting used to each other and have settled into a fairly predictable routine. I really couldn’t imagine a better dog for our family. She’s still a puppy so we do have a few bad habits to break, but nothing that is really major.

For one thing, she loves shoes. I’ve never seen her actually chew them, mind you. She just goes over to our shoe rack by the door and she’ll pick one up (she’s particularly fond of a slip-on pair that Hayley wore in the summer and which need to be tossed since they’re too beaten up to save or donate), carry it into the living room, and lie down to lick it. I don’t want her to keep that habit though because I’m sure eventually licking would turn to chewing. Besides, I don’t want to be running around early in the morning with one shoe on while frantically searching for the other one. Luckily she’s pretty good when I say, “No!” and she drops it.

Her other bad habit was begging and it was pretty intense so I think she was used to sharing snacks and getting scraps from the table. What’s good is that she’s smart and pretty eager to please so she’s gotten a lot better. We’ve taught her to stay out of the dining area when we sit down to eat which is much better.

When we first got her, the girl told me that she was used to sleeping in a crate at night and being in there when she was left alone but I was warned that she would usually bark for a couple of minutes to voice her protest and then she would settle down. That’s why the girl wanted to make sure we were allowed dogs in our apartment because people would hear her now and then.

It did indeed happen for the first two or three days but I managed to make her more accepting of the cage. I can tell she still doesn’t love going in there, especially during the day when she’s wide awake – it’s always easier at night when she’s tired anyway. However, I stuffed some cushions in there for her to lie on so it’s very cozy and I took a cue from something I read recently and started casually tossing dry kibble in there from time to time. Eventually she would walk by and smell it, and when she’d walk in to investigate she’d find food so she made a positive association with the cage. When it’s time for her to go in, either because we’re heading out or because it’s time for bed I just throw a bacon treat in there and tell her “go get your cookie!” She always gives me a LOOK, almost like she’s saying, “listen, I know what you’re making me do and you kind of suck but FINE, those are tasty so I’ll go.” Then she wags her tail and heads in. The barking has stopped; she doesn’t make a peep once she’s in, so that’s amazing progress considering she had been doing it daily for months and I got her to stop in only a few days.

It seems as though she’s learning her name. Before I could call out “Winnie!” and she wouldn’t really react. Then again, I could also call her by her old name and it had the same (lack of) effect. Now I find that she responds about 80% of the time, so that’s better. I think it’s entirely possible that she does know her name now and when she ignores me it’s because there’s something much more interesting going on.

The best thing is watching her with Breanna. Breanna was the biggest target when we had Pearl and it was almost impossible for her to play with her at all. Now that we have Winnie, Breanna has a furry best friend. They play tug of war, she’s been teaching Winnie to “find it” with rawhide sticks (it’s amazing to see my not-quite-five-year-old training a dog!), and they chase each other around. Our living room, kitchen, and dining area all open onto each other so you can essentially travel in a circle from one room to the next; Breanna will run one way and Winnie will run the other way, then they turn and race back the other way. Other times they just run around and around in circles, Breanna laughing hysterically. When they’re both tired, Winnie will crash out on the rug in the living room and Breanna will lie down with her head on the dog’s belly. It is ADORABLE and exactly the way it should be with kids and their dogs.

Hayley is enjoying having a kid-friendly dog too. Winnie doesn’t jump when you walk in the door but she does run right over to greet Hayley when she gets home from school and she likes to play lap dog with her. Hayley is also thrilled with the run-around-chasing game so that gets picked up again.

Between both the kids playing with her and the walks with me, Winnie is the laziest energetic dog I’ve ever seen. Yes, when we’re outside she’s raring to go (though after one particularly long walk in the woods she actually sat down on a lawn on the way back home and stared at me like she thought maybe I could carry her the rest of the way) and when she plays with the kids she’s ecstatic but then in between those times I frequently find myself looking around for her, only to find her passed out cold on the floor, sound asleep. It’s a good mix.

As for me, that dog follows me everywhere I go. I actually tiptoe past her when she’s asleep just so she won’t wake up and jump up. Even if I’m just going around the corner to another room for a second, she comes too. If I have the baby gate up to block the bedrooms (at night when the kids are sleeping) and I climb over to get something, she’ll sit and wait until I come back. She loves me and that’s fine by me.

She’s also quite protective. While she’s extremely gentle and even the kids can feed her because she’s not prone to trying to grab the dish, apparently she is very On Guard when it comes to her home and her people. We’d only had her for less than a week when she was lying in the hall by the front door. Somehow none of us locked it when Hayley got in from school so when the door at the top of the stairs opened, the draft blew our door open just a crack. All Winnie knew was that her four people were inside with her, the door was open, and she could hear someone out in the hall. Despite her short time with us, she immediately jumped to her feet and started barking and growling, putting herself in between us and the door. No one was getting inside without our okay, let me tell you! That made me rather happy.

So yeah. Great dog. We all love her.

In other news, this damp weather is sucking. Rain is supposed to be a regular feature in the spring, not the fall. And yet we’ve been getting quite a bit of it lately and even on the days that it doesn’t rain I find it pretty damp, at least early in the day.

Today was my first day back up at the breakfast club at the school and it was pouring when I got up. Let me tell you, nothing makes you want to crawl back under the comforter for the rest of the day quite like that. My alarm blared at 5:30 am and it was still pitch black outside which was bad enough. Add in the rain and it was just UGH. Once I got up and got to the school it was fine. I wondered if I’d forget all the things I had to do but it wasn’t too hard to get back into the swing of things and I really do love doing it.

On that note, between my early morning and the chill in the air I think it’s time for a nice hot cup of coffee.