On Her Own

Mia has become a lot more independent in the past month.  Meaning, she's completely willing to leave my side for hours at a time so she can go snooze upstairs on our bed by herself.  She never would have done this before, and she was always allowed to go into our bedroom with or without us being there.  Of course it's the most comfortable spot in the house, and she curls right up on a super soft throw blanket.  The dog trainer we used about a year ago told us that dogs don't care about soft things or soft surfaces, they just don't care.  He was wrong, Mia cares.  She will hunt out the softest place she can find before curling up for a nap, you'll never find her sprawled out on hardwood floor unless she's over heating or something.

It's kind of sad that she's so willing and able to leave us and do her own thing around the house since I'm used to her being my constant shadow.  However, she's also become more independent outside.  Our free ranging sessions have become less frequent because she doesn't stay in the yard anymore and I have to retrieve her each time.  She'll run around the yard like a maniac and then end up in the woods completely focused in fun smells, and I have to jump into the woods with her leash to get her back.  She also tends to hop in and out of the street too, which makes me nervous.  For the most part, she is technically in the yard, but going 15 feet into the woods is not a good time for me when I need her to come back.  An invisible fence is looking more and more appealing for the spring time.  She just loves running free so much, but she just has to be contained otherwise it's just too stressful for me.  I'm afraid she's going to get hit by a car, or another dog is going to come walking up the street and she's going to bolt and greet him, or she'll just start walking down the street without me like she did once.

Also, I've now spoiled the shit out of her - for my own benefit.  I've started giving her chicken with each meal.  So 2 cups of dry food, 1 spoonful of wet food, and then 1 piece of chicken - the size of a tender which I microwave and then tear up into shreds.  This means that she now eats her entire meal every single time (when before she'd often skip meals here and there and generally not eat breakfast), and she's actually excited to do so.  Now I don't have to listen to her stomach growl, bring her outside only for her to eat tons of grass knowing it's because she's starving, or worry that she's not eating and is too skinny.  This is more work on my end, but not too much.  It may become an issue if we ever need to leave her somewhere and someone else needs to feed her, but then again with the baby on the way we're not going anywhere for a long time.  She hasn't had a stomach issue ever since I started this about 3 weeks ago, and she hasn't skipped a meal, so it's a win/win for now.  This is probably like bribing a kid to eat their dinner so they can get dessert... oh well.