They grow up so fast

Tonight we took Barley to the vet for a check-up and her final shot. She was so well behaved during the visit. Part of it I am sure was because of her training, and part because the vet's office only had one other patient...so she didn't get overwhelmed with stimuli.

She also treated the doctor a lot better this time. No biting, and only a slight growl. They became fast friends as Barley learned to trust her; eventually letting her do whatever was needed. We even managed to get that last shot without any real issues. Of course despite most things going well, when the doc wanted to see her teeth Barley wasn't having it. So I stepped in, and opened her mouth, pulling her jowls out of the way so the vet could see what she needed to see. It's true, Barley will let me do just about anything to her, she trusts her pappy, a lot.

Speaking of teeth, Barley lost a puppy tooth last night. El Googeley tells us it's normal, but at first it was just shocking. Really, if you saw that sharp of an object laying on your bedroom floor, you'd be shocked too.

Tomorrow is more group training with Jim. Amen, she needs more socialization still.

Place

Barley's home!

Today, we took Barley home after two weeks of in-kennel training with Jim at Chicago Canine Academy. She's come such a long way in those 14 days. We're extremely proud of her and very grateful to Jim and his team for helping us put our girl on the way to becoming a confident, strong and happy pup.

We're going to keep up with all the lessons Jim taught us, and we'll also be taking her for weekly updates at the Academy. 

Here's our girl doing her favorite training exercise - place. According to Jim, this teaches her that she needs to sit and stay in that exact spot when we tell her to do so. That way, whenever visitors come or if an emergency occurs, when we give her the command to "place," she'll stay put - no matter who enters the room or how chaotic the environment is. 

Puppy Love

Sure, he's cute.

Sure, he's cuddly.

But, dammit, so am I!

Sigh. Ok, look, I get it. Scott's the one who wakes up at 3 a.m. every day with our girl Barley to take her out to potty. And he's the one who can come home during lunch to walk and feed her during the week. And he's usually the first one home after work and is with her by himself two nights a week while I'm in class. I get it. She's got the puppy love for Scott because he sure does take good care of her.

But, man, a gal's ego can really get blown when her boyfriend leaves the room and the puppy starts to pout. Seriously. Barley straight up pouts when he leaves the room. She'll plop herself on her belly, put her head on her paws and whine. The first time she did this, I tried petting her to keep her from getting so upset that she peed, but instead of feeling like she had a nice substitute, she was annoyed. She even scooted her body away from me so that she could pout 

in peace. Harsh, right?

Now, Barley's in her last few days of in-kennel training at Chicago Canine Academy, and tonight we worked with her for about two hours. Even though she's been away from us, specifically Scott, for more than a week, she still can't get enough of him. If Scott's in the room, she's staring at him. If he moves, her eyes follow. Don't get me wrong - Barley likes it when I'm around. She's very affectionate with me, but, really, her heart belongs to Scott.

Scott says it'll take some time, but eventually she'll love us both equally. Kinda sounds like when parents say, "I love you all equally, just in different ways." 

I call bullshit. You know there's a favorite. But because she's the cutest little puppy ever, I guess I can live happily being second best. After all, my sorry butt is soooo not waking up at 3 a.m. to take her out.

Button pushing

We saw our Barley girl today for the first time in a week. Let me back up a bit here and say why it's been so long. See, once our little furry angel of a puppy got comfortable in the house, she also got a little out of hand. She also pulled like crazy when I tried to walk her, which meant shorter walks...which meant more energy left over after the walk. Add the extra energy to the added level of comfort and it equals one out of control lab/shepherd. She was really starting to push my buttons and we knew she needed some obedience training; training I was not qualified to give.

About a week ago we took her to Chicago Canine Academy.  The plan was simple, we wanted to check them out, and they wanted to make sure we'd be OK too. So we attended a group training session on a sunny Saturday morning. In the hour or so we were there, Barley made amazing strides and was so much easier to handle on a leash. After the group lesson the decision was simple, we left her with Jim the trainer for two weeks of in-kennel puppy training. 

So yes, we saw her tonight after a very long week. She was smelly and dirty (she clearly is getting her exercise with the other dogs), and very excited to see us as well. She had some basics down pretty well, but was easily distracted by the presence of her people. We worked her for about 40 minutes, and quietly bid her farewell. We'll be back there tomorrow to work with her more.

No, that isn't Barley in the pic, but I can imagine that's how she got so smelly.

The vet visit

As outlined in our adoption agreement we had our Barley girl checked out by a vet within five days. I should point out that the only real issue that surfaced during her initial intake was that she was very "vocal" and bothered by the vet's examination of her. The note was vague but seemed to indicate it was just likely because she was frightened. 

Well, this time she wasn't frightened (much). The biggest problem she had, and really who can blame her, is when the vet tech put a thermometer up her butt. Since I'd react with howling and whimpering too, I couldn't really fault her. I could fault her for when she tried to nip at the vet's hand. There she was, up on the exam table, leaning into me when the nice vet lady reached out to see how polite Barley was. We quickly found out Barley lacks all manners; at least when it comes to me. The vet figured it was just Barley being protective of me since she isn't normally aggressive. The options were, examination in a room away from me, or muzzle. We opted for exam in a different room.  After that everything went fine. 

She is now up to date on her shots and her last one in three weeks. We left some poop with the vet (yeah I know how that sounds but there's really no other way to say I was carrying around a bag of dog crap) and it turns out that testing of the poop showed Barley has coccidiosis. It's a relatively common and minor bacterial infection in the digestive tract; it's easily treated with medication, which she is currently taking.

Our Girl

Don't ask me how this happened, but in addition to a brand new condo, Scott and I now have a brand new puppy. We adopted her from PAWS Chicago on March 7, 2009 (my nephew Andrew's birthday!). 

Here's the story. Scott has been wanting a dog for such a long time. So we decided to go to PAWS and check out the puppies on Friday night. We saw some very cute dogs, but one in particular stood out. She was this pretty little 

black labrador retriever-shepherd mix, and her collar said her 

name was Adrianna. She was in a room with another dog who was, let's just say, rambunctious. But little Adrianna was so well-behaved. She let us pet her and didn't jump or bark. And while we were playing with her, she suddenly rolled on her back and looked up at us and basically said, "Love me." And we did.

So the next day we decided to go back to make the final decision. Prior to arriving, I think we were about 95% sure that we wanted to take her home. But the moment we saw her again, the last 5% just came barreling at us. And that was it. We completed the adoption counseling with a wonderful volunteer named Melissa and signed all the paper work. 

UnfortunatelyQWEAwz2111111 (whoa, sorry - that was the puppy - she wanted to type hi). Anyway, unfortunately we found out that the couple who saw her earlier that morning had wanted to adopt her, too. We felt horribly bad, but there wasn't really anything we could do. Hopefully they'll find another wonderful puppy at PAWS soon. 

And now, here we are on day two with the newest addition to our household. Everyone, we'd like to formally introduce you to our girl 

- Barley Adrianna Cheaudry. Barley, her first name, is of course for all the home brewing Scott does. Adrianna, her middle name, is so that we don't forget the name the nice people at PAWS gave her. And Cheaudry, her last name, is a hybrid of our two last names. She's about 15 weeks old (born Nov. 15, 2008).

We tried our best to take her stats this morning, and here are our unscientific results:

3/8/09:

Height: 17"

Length: 26"

Weight: 30 lbs

Our next tasks as new puppy parents is to take her to the vet this week. Our adoption counselor Melissa told us that her first visit to the vet was full of anxiety and fear. We'll let you know how visit #2 goes.