Living with a dog

The last couple of weeks have been quite interesting. As I mentioned in the past, I never had a dog, but some cats who we kept for years living in the garden, outside my parents’ house. So, I didn’t really know what to expect, but I had prepared myself for the worst.

Hello you

On the contrary, Penny has proven to be quite a surprise. We didn't have any chewed shoes or furniture. She’s not begging for food when we eat and gladly welcomes other people, children or pets when out and about. She doesn't bark much and happily sits on her cushion napping or observing what we do (most of the time). She was somewhat house trained on her previous homes and we didn't have to do much. She also does this ridiculously cute thing of standing up on her back legs and moves frantically her front ones in the air! It’s adorable.

Someone's outside... 

New Chewy toy

The first day we got her was a nightmare though. She cried during the night and I was extremely unsettled and couldn't sleep at all. To be honest her cry didn't last for long, but it was enough to make me miserable for the whole night. I was twisting and turning fearing that we’re making the poor creature’s life a living hell, which of course is not true. During the first days, we also had a couple of misfortunes when she left us some surprises on the dining room floor.

Going frantic over a tennis ball 

Since then, we changed her eating time and I’m glad to say it hasn't happened since. We’re managing to keep a schedule of long morning and evening walks which occur more or less at the same time of the day.  We’re also adding walks during the way, but these depend on our work and can’t be daily planned. Since she’s not allowed inside shops, we can’t really take her with us when we go grocery shopping or running errands since for the time being I can’t just tie her and leave her outside, it’s too soon.

Exploring the world

Yesterday night we had a minor incident that we’ll need to look into. Penny woke up during the night when JJ left for work and started crying again. I’m not a happy camper when I’m been woken up like this at 3:30 am. I only managed to fall asleep at 5:20 for 30 minutes before I had to get up to take her for her morning walk. We need to make her a bit more independent.

During the last week whenever we left to go to work there was really no problem. She just watched us from the bay window leave and when we returned she was napping on her cushion. I’m not sure whether she didn't want to be left alone after spending the whole weekend with us, or maybe we pampered her too much. She’s started following us around the house wherever we go again.

Someone's hungry

I’m pretty sure we’ll deal with this. I was reading that there is a honeymoon period with rehomed dogs and they tend to taste the waters for a period afterwards. I think she’s now trying to see if she will be given access to our bedroom or to sleep on the armchair. She’s generally not allowed either. We have established some ground rules with Penny that we intend to keep. We fell in love with her but we also need to be firm with her, it’s the whole alpha male of the pact that Cesar Millan keeps saying...    

The loves of my life happily having coffee