Milestones: welcome to the teenie bopper years

Good Morning from the couch.  Excuse our bed head.
When we first got our little bundle of crazy, she was just that - completely and totally out of control.  We tried training her at home, we sent her away to boot camp, and then we tried more.  We didn't go over the top or anything, and sure we both work full time, so there was only so many opportunities we had to get her into situations to train (weekends mainly).  I am pretty sure that she just has a rebellious personality.  The good news is that I'm pretty sure that we've entered the dog teenage years and she seems much less crazy than she ever did a year ago.  She's willing to leave my side and go take a nap in her favorite spot for hours at a time by herself.  That is probably nothing major to anyone else who owns a dog, but it's a gigantic milestone for our dog.  She can know that I or both of us are home, and she may still choose to go do her own thing - it blows our minds.  Usually on the weekend, she's bugging us to take her for a walk sometime between 8-9am.  She'll just sit and stare at us and whine, it's super annoying.  These days, it's like she wants to go for her walk but she's much more willing to wait on it and doesn't necessarily make a huge deal of it.  Everything is a little less dramatic than it used to be I guess.  This Mia is much easier to handle than the younger version of herself, that's for sure.

Sometimes I wonder if having a second dog would make her better or worse.  Would we have 2 crazy dogs with weird habits, or would the other dog distract her Mia out of her oddness?  When other dogs are over, Mia doesn't do any backwards walking, she's too busy playing.  Would having a second dog mean that they'd play together and amuse each other or would it mean that they would just sort of be 2 dogs who live in the same house?  Either way, I'm not ready to add a second dog to the family yet.  Having Mia plus a baby, plus a new puppy is just way more than I can handle and honestly we can't afford it since doggie daycare is something that we need since we're gone all day.  If I found a way to work in my house, then I'd certainly consider another pup, but definitely not until then.  Someone needs to be around all the time, otherwise it just doesn't make sense for us.  Mia will just have to continue entertaining herself until then.

Wish List: Bones

Eagerly waiting for Santa.
10 minutes later she barked at the poinsettia.  Santa doesn't visit barking dogs Mia!

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.