It is snowing here today. And Beaulah, our new puppy, loves the cold white stuff on the ground. I think it distracts her from the cold, cold air. Having a new puppy parallels having a new baby. She's all I think about. When did she last poop? Why isn't she eating more? What am I teaching her? Its all similar to parenting except its much more expedited because by the time she's 9 months old she'll enter dog puberty. She is learning very quickly. She already knows how to sit on command! I am very proud of her.
My only beef with having a new pup is that it doesn't come with "maternity leave". There's lots of fatigue and exhaustion with both a new baby and new pup. I'm constantly watching her every move and correcting her. These first two weeks would be a lot easier if I was unemployed. But I am thankful for my job... don't get me wrong. My j-o-b allows me to take trips to Petsmart. I took Beaulah for the first time last night to pick out a new toy. She picked a Kong Squiggle. She loved being there and she was really calm. I love being her "mommy".
Last Sunday Jacob and I completed a large task together. In an effort to solve our dilemma of what to do with Beaulah during the summer while we work, we decided to construct an outdoor pen. The spot is perfect because it is shaded and not manicured (so digging isn't a problem), but it did require us to cut trees and clear some brush. We started early and pretty much had the spot cleared within two hours which was encouraging and made each of us believe we'd be finished by lunch. We were wrong. Constructing a fence is hard work. Jacob build a wonderful gate which is pictured below. We bought wire mesh fencing and metal posts so the gate really put it over the top on the WOW scale. By 5:15 we had pretty much finished, but I had long expired. I'm not sure what we expected from Beaulah when we put her in the pen. I sort of expected her to love it, but I wasn't terribly surprised to see or hear that she really hated it. She barked and whined and ran around franticly. All the dog books say to ignore her which we were doing well until we realized that our perceived success was a lie and her silence was due to her escaping the pen. NO!!!
So the use of the enclosure is halted until Jacob returns from Colorado. Currently I am feeding her meals inside to try to build some positive associations with the area. Yeah I just typed that. I think way too much about the psyche of the dog. Thank you Cesar Millan. But she's pretty awesome so I guess she's worth the work.
