Barking Insanity

Mia didn't do that great at Thanksgiving... with the kids.  With the adults she was like A+ with the kids she was like C.  She just barked at them a lot from the beginning to the end 5 hours later.  We thought about it a lot and she really is doing better all around, but it's hard to practice the whole kid thing without kids being around.  She's just barky in general, so no matter what, even if she stops after 1 bark or 2, she isn't able to fully control her initial reaction to every little thing. 

A vibrating bark control collar is on the way for her - and this is Not a shock collar, it uses vibrations only.  There are a large variety of control collars to buy for a dog from sprays to smells to shocks, but we were most comfortable with using the vibrating one that vibrates according to the pitch of her bark.  I don't know anyone who has actually used this collar so I'm not sure what to expect (our trainer did recommend it though), all I know is that Mia is driving me completely insane with her barking.  INSANE.

The day after Thanksgiving we had a family portrait taken for our holiday card this year by my brother's girlfriend who does freelance photography.  It really figures that Mia was horrible on Thanksgiving and Wonderful the day after.  She stayed completely still for the camera for 30 minutes in different areas around our yard.  All it took was my brother waving a his hands like a lunatic behind the camera to get her attention.  Once she locks in on something she will stay there for 5 seconds which is plenty of time to snap a few pics.  I'm really looking forward to seeing them!  I'm pretty sure the doggie will look better than the humans.

Mia also had a very successful overnight play date with Bodhi and Bebe.  It was successful in that the playing was so good, all very gentle and tame.  Bodhi peed in the house a few hundred times, but because he's such a well mannered dog otherwise it was hard to get mad... also he only peed on areas that could be easily washed.  Mia was great, she might have been a little bit too much puppy for these dogs who were both about a year or two older than her but they all had fun together.