Run! It's a Mutt!

I picked up Mia today at daycare, and it was a day like any other.  There were actually less dogs in crates waiting for pickup than usual, it must have been a slow day.  Another dog came out with her - must have been one of her buddies since she is a "special dog" and isn't part of the general public of friendly happy dogs.  So I say Hi to the boy, say Hi to Mia, and we headed towards the door.  Right before Mia got to the door, it suddenly opened and two women in Army uniforms were standing there and they FREAKED out when Mia started barked at them.  It was unfortunate.  She was startled by their sudden appearance, she only barks about 50% of the time at people when we are leaving daycare, which is a lot less than a year ago but still it's not such a good percentage.  It was bad this time though because she was caught so off guard.  The women were So Scared, like it was as if a monster started to attack them.  It is the same reaction that I would have if someone pointed a loaded shotgun to my face, or if a zombie suddenly came running towards me at full speed, or if a shark suddenly appeared and I was snorkeling in the middle of the ocean.  The looks on their faces plus the defensive body movements didn't do anything to calm Mia down.  They ran out of the gated area and let us go by, but they were still completely scared of my dog and may have peed their pants.

I've never come across dog owners that were so afraid of dogs, I mean usually if Mia barks at another dog owner, they're all like whatever.  I wanted to stay and see what kind of dog they came back out with, I bet it was a tiny little 5 pound thing that can barely be considered a dog.

If Mia was trying to be the most vicious dog on the block today, then Mission Accomplished.

Scary Things

Mia is deathly afraid of this super cool elephant balloon.  She avoids going anywhere near it and/or barks at it like it might come attack her.  I had to move it in order to get her to walk down the hallway to the garage this morning.  Something about balloons that she really hates, maybe that they move...?

Over the weekend, we had many guests in the house.  She did her usual "I'm going to bark at you for 1-3 minutes and then I will want to be your friend" routine with the adults.  With the kids, she was her usual asshole self where she feels the need to bark at them on and off repeatedly.  Luckily, she is still afraid of her bark collar.  All we have to do is show it to her and she will stop the bad behavior for a bit.  I mean, it doesn't stop her for good, so we have to keep waving it around through the day but it works really well considering there is no battery in it.  We did put it on her a few times, and she would put her tail between her legs and go sulk in a corner somewhere.  The collar is probably the last thing in the world that she would ever want near her, even more than this balloon.  She did a really good job overall though.  It's not often that we have guests in the house.

Dog Show Watching

Just Mia and mom watching the dog show Friday night.  Decidedly Mia looked most like the pointer, but she still is a dog that is like no other.  I don't think she enjoyed the dog show as much as we did.  She gave it a shot though, and then went to sleep - per usual.  I will never understand how these people are able to train dogs so well that by the age of 2 (still a puppy really) they are able to stand still and run around an arena will all other other people and dogs there to distract them.  It makes no sense to me.  I know that we have like one of the most disobedient dogs out there, but I still will never understand it.

Winter Warmer

Ok, so yesterday morning was a lot colder than this morning's walk but I wanted to see how she did in her winter jacket.  It's funny because she hates the Thunder Jacket and she hates her hot dog costume, but she will wear her LL Bean sherpa lined coat all day.  I think she knows that she only wears it when she's going for a walk, which is like her favorite thing ever.  You can even see her tail slightly wagging.

It's Getting Cold!

Morning walk in 32 degree weather.  It was cold, mom was freezing her ears off.  Mia came back inside and while she didn't seem to be cold at all, her skinny legs were pretty chilly when I was giving her a tick check rub down.  Yes, we still have ticks out here in the country.  Before we got inside, I flicked one off of her head.  How did it get up there?  I think the next morning walk will require her warm winter jacket.  I don't know about other dogs, but she hasn't fully grown in her winter coat yet.

Couch Potatoes

Mia watching TV with her daddy.  Yes she is always this un-ladylike.  It almost looks like Abe has a thought light bulb going off over his head.  I assure you, they weren't watching anything that would give someone good ideas.

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.  

Welcome Home

Oh my princess!  Ignore that scratch on her nose... she totally didn't get that at daycare from another dog because she deserved it.  This was a text photo update from one of the daycare people while we were en route to Maui.  She looks so cute, sort of like she's wearing her tail for a hat.

I figured that she'd probably be boarded for 8 days and then come home and be a little insane for like 3-4 days getting back into her routine.  That was not the case at all, she was back to normal like 24 hours later.  She was basically normal the first night she came home, the only weird thing she did was a lot of extra backwards walking in the kitchen (which she usually does) and she didn't go right into her crate at bedtime (I had to scoot her in there).  I feel like the difference here is that we boarded her at her daycare where she knows the people and the dogs and the smells.  My childhood dog Buffy would be boarded when we went away (at her vet), and when she came home, she was bat shit crazy for like a full week and her eating and bowel movements were all off.  She was so confused and annoyed and surprised all at once for a full week, but not Mia.  We picked her up on Monday, and by Wednesday the house was her's again - including her favorite nap spot on the bed.

I did miss her a lot when we were away, but... not as much as I thought I would.  I mean, I love her and her company but it also felt kind of nice to have a week where my life didn't revolve around her needs like my weekends typically do.

I picked her up yesterday at daycare, and two boys were telling me how they took her to the agility course in the back yard to play fetch and they were like, "your dog is So Fast!!  We'd throw the ball and she'd get it and bring it back in like 4 seconds!  She was jumping over all of the course obstacles, she's such an agility dog."  She's totally super fast and athletic.  Sometimes when she's in the yard, if I turn my back for 2 seconds, she's gone... usually she's just in the front yard running at top speeds for fun, but man she's crazy fast.  Later that night, I noticed that she had scratched her upper foot pads... like the ones on her ankles, they are all scraped up like the equivalent to little kids skinned knees or something.  I sprayed Neosporin on them but since she doesn't actually use them to walk, I figured they'd heal on their own.  I think I have a full first aid kit in her cabinet at this point: hydrogen peroxide, tweezers, gauze, athletic tape, athletic wraps, Neosporin, Claratin etc.  I'm happy to patch her up at home when I can, it saves us the $65 vet visit, but why must she be so rough and tumble?!