It’s a shame, really. Poor Pearl, our new beagle puppy, just isn’t adjusting well to life with our family AT ALL. She’s having a rough time of it. Can’t you just see how incredibly agitated and upset she is?

Yeah, right. Obviously, she’s adjust quite nicely. She has really good energy so she loves having two kids to play with. That soccer ball was her favorite, but alas, a dollar store dog toy is no match for Pearl because it’s already destroyed. We’ll get her a new one. The kids both love playing with all of her toys with her, but it makes me laugh that some of the specific dog toys hold little to no interest for her. Other than the soccer ball, she really only plays with the two pull toys. She is full of disdain for the squeaky toys, and really? I’m FINE with that, thanks very much.

The things she generally likes to play with are an old dish towel and a rubber glove. Hayley in particular enjoys throwing the towel over Pearl’s head and calling out, “Oh no, where did Pearl go? Where’s Pearl?!” until she rushes out from underneath it, tail wagging.

We’re still having accidents, obviously, but I’ve figured out her rough schedule which appears to be a need to pee every hour and a half. I’ve managed to keep the accidents to a minimum just by watching the clock or by taking her out the second she starts to wake up. Crate training is going exceptionally well, which is a relief since I had zero experience in that area. Luckily she enjoys it and often goes in on her own to curl up for a snooze. I only close it up if no one will be with her (such as when I’m putting the kids to bed) or at night when it’s bedtime. George walks her late at night and then she stays in there until I take her out first thing in the morning and so far she’s held it in until she gets outside – perfect!

Walking her is great because she’s really caught on to the “heel!” command. She walks pretty well anyway, but if she starts spending too much time sniffing a post or tries to pull up ahead, I just have to give the leash a short tug and say, “Pearl! Heel!” and she comes right up beside me again. More often than not, the leash is slack which is exactly what I want. Meanwhile, she knows her name and comes when you call her, she gives kisses on command (Hayley LOVES that), and she’s just starting to get a grasp of “sit”. When they say beagles are trainable, they’re not kidding.

The kids are both loving having a dog. Breanna takes a personal offense to any time Pearl goes to sleep. She’ll see Pearl going into her cage and she’ll yell, “Mommy! I don’t want my dog in there!” It will take some time for them to adapt enough to her presence to understand that it’s okay for her to take a break when she’s tired, but they’re learning that when Pearl is in her cage, that’s her space, and we don’t touch her. We can call her if we see she’s waking up but no poking at bothering.

George is happy with the dog too. He’s much more of a dog person than a cat person so he never bothers much with Cricket (who is totally unimpressed with the arrival of a dog but isn’t concerned either since they have mostly separate turf). As for me, I’m ecstatic over having a dog. She’s good for me too. I told George yesterday that my legs were killing me from all the walks and going up and down four flights of stairs so many times a day. Getting a dog was cheaper than a gym membership, will apparently give me the same benefits, and is way more fun.