The Only Child

We thought about getting a second dog so that Mia could have a buddy to have fun with around the house.  She's a very social dog and loves being around other dogs and humans so we figured - why not?  People usually say that the big jump is going from 0 dogs to 1 dog, and adding another dog isn't that big of a deal.  That sounded great to us, we love dogs so the more the merrier.

We talked to her trainer who said that he would keep an eye out for us, and we went onto Petfinder as well.  Of course there was a super cute dog on Petfinder, he is a golden / lab mix who had a really nice personality and was about the same age as Mia.  I emailed the rescue group to see what that steps were when there is already a dog in the house - can they meet? etc.  We even filled out an application for this particular dog.  A couple voice mail exchanges were made and it was left as: the application looks great, they'd call us back soon to talk.  - This was over a week ago... and they never called us back.  During that period of time, we actually changed our mind.  It's not that we didn't want that dog, I Really wanted that dog!  However, we came to the sad realization that we are just not home enough to add another dog to our family and we can't afford daycare and dog walkers for two while also taking on the financial burden of all our new house projects.  We're gone from 7am - 7pm most days, that means that Mia goes to daycare (she really loves daycare) during the work week which is in the neighborhood of $350/month.  On weekends we will occasionally need to crate her while we spend a few hours doing errands / spend the night out doing social things, and then we have a neighborhood kid come by and take her for a long trail walk (which is totally loves) which is about $10 or like $50 per month.  All of that is totally affordable for one dog.... imagine doubling that.  Mia is super important to us, and we wanted her in our family no matter the cost but we can't fathom spending over $500 per month in daycare/walking because we're not around... that's the problem, we're just not around enough.  Until one of us is home more often on a regular basis, then this just isn't possible and it likely just might never be possible for us.

This is a real bummer, but it's better that we figured that out now before we got another dog in here.  There are other more important things in life, and Mia is a happy dog.  She has lots of friends at daycare, and at the park so she'll survive without a buddy at home.

I can't believe the rescue group never called us back...

A day in the life...

Wake up in her crate and then wait on the bed for mom and dad to get ready for work.

Hop in the car and drive to daycare to see all her buddies.

Play like crazy all day.

Which results in this at night:

She's a super couch hog!

The Fears Keep Coming

And we're back to Mia being afraid of everything in the house.  Last night she was so upset by something that she wouldn't leave the office (her favorite room) but she was very frustrated by that.  She pulled her bed out of her crate and began to chew on the blanket and she even found a dryer sheet in there that she tore apart into a hundred pieces.  I was just a room over in the dining room making measurements for some wall hangings and she refused to come in and join me.  Normally no matter what I'm doing she'll make sure she's in the same room as me - watching, snoozing, or chewing a Nylabone.  I couldn't even get her to come into the family room to lay on the couch and watch tv with me, when it's one of her favorite hobbies.  Her fear of walking through the kitchen was just too much for her to handle, so I finally joined her in the office and surfed the internet for a while.  That wasn't fun for her either and she would lay in her crate with her eyes open and just stew over something.  I got down on the floor and tried to play with her and give her some good attention and even then she only seemed somewhat soothed.  Finally after hours of this weird behavior I thought maybe she needed some exercise, so I took her on a short night time walk.  The walk helped, but even that wasn't enough to calm her fears.  Getting her from the office to the deck (only a 7 foot walk through the kitchen) was a massive ordeal, it took her forever of crying and attempting to take one backwards baby step at a time.

I let her sleep on a dog bed in the bedroom last night, insisting that she couldn't join me in bed while Abe was out and it worked for an hour or so but around midnight I woke up to her standing on top of me.  This whole fear thing began on Thursday night so it was before we let her into the bed.  She is a creature of routine, so maybe there was something different that we did that day but it's causing her a ton of anxiety.  I've tried the whole "ignore it" and I've tried to sooth her through walking in the kitchen, but the only thing that really seems to work is letting it play out.  These little phases only tend to last a week or so, and eventually she's back to running all over the place without thinking twice about it.  I am pretty sure that this has to do with her being a rescue moreso than anything else, there must be something that goes on in her head that reminds her of scary things from her previous life.

Wimp.

Head of the Household

Mia now eats her dry dog food with boiled chicken breast mixed in, instead of the canned dog food.  I'm sure it's probably healthier this way and her sensitive stomach seems to like it.  The only issue is that 1. I do not believe that it is as calorie rich, and 2. Mom needs to boil chicken 1 or 2 x a week for her in big batches.  Oh well, we'll see how it goes and how long I can stand to do this before it gets old.  She loves her meals though, so at least I know that she is going to eat it!

And now for the biggest mistake we ever made with Mia.  Last night we decided that we could try having Mia sleep outside of her crate and in our bedroom because she's generally such a good night time dog.  My initial thought was that she would be sleeping on the floor on a cushion and we would be in the bed.  Of course right away she jumped into the bed claiming all my space for her own.  All night she took over the bed, made loud yawning noises, and made me too warm with her on top of me.  Finally I gave up and went and slept in another bedroom!  Maybe we will try again with her in a dog bed, but never again will she sleep in our bed at night.  She obviously enjoyed it, but nobody else did!  She is so spoiled and now we are so tired and crabby.

We've been jumping through a lot of hoops for her lately.  All morning she's been whining and afraid to walk around the kitchen and whatever, she gets scared of things sometimes for no reason.  We have to pick all 47 pounds of her up and carry her to the room where she wants to go.  Sure we don't Have to do that, and it probably makes it worse, but can you stand to listen to 10 minutes of shrill whining while she musters the courage to walk 10 feet?  I can't.

She's ruling the household these days.

The chicken and rice project

Mia seems to be feeling much better after a few meals of boiled chicken with rice - which she loves!  I'm not sure how the transition back to dog food is going to go once she's all better... since she's been on this diet she actually hasn't had a number II, but I read that this might happen.  It's fewer calories and all that so there are a few factors, but I'm sure it's going to happen at some point and I hope that it's normal!

On our morning walk in the woods I found a tick crawling on her back, so I just flicked it off and thought not much of it.  The weather has been much warmer here - today is 70 and sunny, so the bugs are coming back and everything is in bloom.  On our afternoon walk, I found 3 teenie tiny ticks crawling on her and took those right off too.  I'm pretty sure that she's a tick magnet.  She has had her lyme vaccine so that's not really a concern, but it's just gross... and the humans don't want them in the house either.  Mia loves her walks in the woods so there are going to be constant tick inspections from here on out!

Sickly

Mia is sick again.  She was sick just two weeks ago with really bad diarrhea and stopped eating, after a visit to the vet she went on a week of medicine and had her poop tested for parasites and bacteria - negative for both.  She had a good week of feeling good, and then again she stopped eating and has diarrhea.  The diarrhea isn't as bad this time around, but it's never a good thing.  She did finally eat something today but maybe she was just starving, and it came right out an hour later.  Her mood is good, and she seems to be feeling fine, except for the fact that she sits by the door to use the bathroom more often.  This time I'm going to try the boiled chicken with white rice method to see if she'll eat it and then eventually clear her system of whatever is in there.  I'm hoping that she's not sick of her food, we have a whole unopened bag waiting for her and it's not cheap!  Maybe she has some kind of new allergy?  Maybe she is eating weird stuff at daycare?  I'm not really sure what to do, but the chicken and the rice is the first step.  The second step will be another trip back to the vet.  I'm just not sure about what happens after the chicken and rice.  Say that helps her, will she eat her regular dog food after that?  What if it comes back?  I guess if it comes back then it has to do with the food that she's been eating... even though she's been eating it since December.

Sick dog.

Back Home

Mia spent the weekend with her trainer and her daycamper friends away from her usual daycare friends. She did need some remedial training - Jermaine got her back to heeling nicely while walking, but besides that he said that she was on her best behavior.  I'm not sure that I believe him, but it's nice to hear anyhow!  She's such a trouble maker, but maybe compared to the rest of the dogs she was really well behaved.

When we got home, we went on a really long trail walk in the warm weather and she's been snoozing ever since.  I was probably just as tired as she was when we got back, but I had a list of things to get done in preparation for going back to work tomorrow.  Mia was no help, she just laid around and did nothing for hours - she's not earning her bones today.  She's extra smelly, and extra sleepy!

Long Weekend

Mia met two new people and a German Shepherd named Gretchen this morning.  She didn't bark, or jump up once for the 30 second "hello".  I was so proud of her, although I'm sure the only reason she was able to keep her emotions in check was because of her prong collar.  That's ok, that's what it's for - to assist her training!  I'm sure without it she would have been that crazy neighborhood dog that everyone is annoyed with.

We're dropping Mia off today with her bootcamp trainer to board for 3.5 days while we are in Florida.  The benefit of dropping her off with him and his program is that he will do some remedial training with her, and if we had dropped her off at her local doggie daycare here they'd just let her play and socialize with no training whatsoever.  We're totally willing to drive out of our way and pay a little bit more money for a lot more benefit!  Plus she loves Jermaine and his pack.

We'll miss her.

Mia at daycare

I really want to get Mia one of these play house things - the only problem is that it's like a real kid playhouse and not like a dog specific one I don't think so it's expensive.  The daycare manager told me that's her favorite spot, she'll take a toy under there and play with it and other dogs and it's like Her house.  She thinks she's the Queen.

Happy Girl

Someone is feeling much better today : )  Seems like the medicine has worked and Mia is back to her normal self demanding lots of attention.

The More the Merrier

We are thinking about getting Mia a brother in the spring.  I know there is a lot to consider on this, but like... we just love dogs and the pros seem to outweigh the cons in the long run.  We are still considering this even after today's $265 vet visit (all vaccines plus poop analysis).  Our little girl has a very upset stomach but is negative for anything really gross, just a bug or something.  Anyhow beyond the really gross detail - things with Mia are great: she's walking better, better around strangers, and is becoming relatively low maintenance.  The highest maintenance item for her is that she is still going to daycare 5 days a week, which is expensive - but not our long term goal.  Our hope is that we can get her down to 2-3 days at daycare and home the rest of the days, especially if she has a house trained buddy to hang out with.  At some point there will be no real need for daycare once she leaves puppy-hood.

Today the vet confirmed what we have been very suspicious of - that she is older than we were informed upon rescue.  They told us she was 7.5 months back in September but in reality she was probably about 1 year.  Mia hasn't gained any weight from then until now so she's full grown at 47 pounds and on the smaller medium sized in height.  I was really expecting her to put on a good 10 pounds especially since we're feeding her like top of the freaking line foods and lots of it (1.5 cup of dry and 1/2 can of wet, AM and PM).

The upside is that each time someone comes over that hasn't been here for a while they always say, "it seems like she's much calmer and better behaved since the last time I saw her." So our work is paying off slowly - or she's just growing up and is ready for a little brother.