Homegrown Happiness

 

 We've only had Bailey for 4 days & I already love being her mommy! She's such an adorable puppy! She's still very young so she naps a lot. I'm very thankful for those naps right now :-) We're learning her habits & she's testing us to see how much she can get away with. I'll tell you more about her :-)

She is doing much better in the crate than we expected. She doesn't whine much at all when we put her in it. She sleeps all night (We're SOOO thankful for this!). She does not like it when we leave her. We have left her twice for about an hour or so. Both times she got mad & peed on her bed. I know she did it on purpose because we took her out before we left. Obviously, I was very worried about leaving her all day while we were at work. We closed off an area just outside her crate for a potty pad. We didn't think she would be able to hold it all day & we thought it would give her some space outside her crate. 

We made sure we left time to play with her & take her for a decent walk before we left. We knew she would be ready for a nap if we played with her for a good 45 minutes or so. We woke up an hour early and this was plenty of time for us. She was ready to nap by the time we put her in her crate.

I decided to put everything valuable out of her reach just in case she turns out to be an escape artist. Turns out, I was right. We came home & she was under the bed, barking until she came out & saw Josh. She was so excited for us to come home :-) We took her out immediately & took her to the dog park for a little bit. She did really well on the walk. When we got back I went to the bedroom to inspect, knowing I was going to find a huge pile of poop under the bed & a hole chewed through a piece of furniture. She held it ALL day & she didn't mess anything up! We have no way of knowing for sure how long she was roaming the bedroom. When she escaped , she couldn't get back in so she left behind all her food, toys & water. We got a timed feeder so she could have lunch at a decent time. All the food was still there so we know she was out of the crate for at least 2 hours. All her peanut butter was still in her Kong so I don't think she was in her crate more than a few hours after she woke up from her nap.

We were both so proud of her! She definitely has her faults though :-) She's pretty good on the leash but she does pull some when we're making our way back home, but we're working on that.

Her biggest problems are potty accidents & nipping/biting/chewing. We know she's capable of holding it, but sometimes when we take her out, she'll come in & squat on the floor like 30 minutes after we get in. She also likes to bite us when she wants to play. She loves chewing on the living room rug and any rag she can find. Luckily, she doesn't mess with shoes much. It's a work in progress :-) 

Here are a few pictures:

 

 This is one of her many naps. She likes to sleep on her back

You can see her hernia in this one :-/ Overlook the date stamp. I didn't realize my mom had it on. I will eventually (maybe) Photoshop them out. I just don't feel like it right now. 

 She really likes her Kong...but her favorite toy is the hedgehog to her right. I picked it because it was cute & it made a really cool noise. It no longer makes the noise :-/

 One of my favorites 

 Another one of my favorites. I'll definitely Photoshop her leash & date out of this one.