HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
It's hard to believe that we have had Nella with us for two months! It feels like we have had her forever. I admit, I was nervous about how well Scout would accept her into our family, and how the added stress of training and having a puppy would be for Caleb and me. The puppy horror stories freaked me out - destroyed shoes, non-stop barking, peeing in the house... I knew things like that would drive me crazy! But we have been lucky and Nella has been a fairly easy puppy (so far, fingers crossed she stays that way! Knock on wood!). She continues to sleep thru the night, loves her kennel, has yet to even nibble on pair of shoes (or anything else she shouldn't be), I think I have heard her bark like maybe five times total (we have to teach her to 'speak' ...not sure how that will go!), and is pretty much totally house trained.
Scout and Nella continue to get along well, and while Nella certainly some added work to our lives, she is also fun to be around. She is very smart and catches on to things quickly, and we learned a lot with her in puppy kindergarten (which she finished up with this month)! One interesting thing is that prior to getting Nella, we were told she would quickly learn that when her cape was on she was working, and when it was off she was not. I thought that idea was weird - how would a dog understand that difference? But this month it became obvious that Nella clearly understands that when he vest is on, she needs to be on her best behavior! She is night and day different when she is working, and when she isn't - it is so adorable!
I don't want to downplay the work of having a puppy but really it has been quite easy and a really fun experience so far. Nella started losing some of her teeth this month, and is a serial toy killer (as I like to call her), but her destroying all her Christmas toys in 2 days was really the hardest thing for me this month. I was pretty annoyed that some of the 'extra tough' toys I got her lasted less then a day - but we have found some that she can't destroy so we will just stick with those from now on!
Really the most notable things-
*Nella is great at fetch! She will run, get something and then 'drop' it, it's adorable
*Her 'wait' is getting longer and longer
*We practice 'here' when she plays with Scout (her biggest distraction) and she has been rocking disengaging and coming to play with us lately!
*She knows that she isn't allowed in our room and will sit by the door instead of coming in. (Prior to getting Nella we decided that our room would be only Scout's space so we never let her in there)
*Nella loves Kongs! They are such a great distraction for her, I love them too! :)
*Working tires Nella out. Which means she always needs a nap when we are doing being out... it's pretty cute, we can always count on her passing out when we get home from a trip out with her.
*as always, all options are my own*
Scout and Nella continue to get along well, and while Nella certainly some added work to our lives, she is also fun to be around. She is very smart and catches on to things quickly, and we learned a lot with her in puppy kindergarten (which she finished up with this month)! One interesting thing is that prior to getting Nella, we were told she would quickly learn that when her cape was on she was working, and when it was off she was not. I thought that idea was weird - how would a dog understand that difference? But this month it became obvious that Nella clearly understands that when he vest is on, she needs to be on her best behavior! She is night and day different when she is working, and when she isn't - it is so adorable!
I don't want to downplay the work of having a puppy but really it has been quite easy and a really fun experience so far. Nella started losing some of her teeth this month, and is a serial toy killer (as I like to call her), but her destroying all her Christmas toys in 2 days was really the hardest thing for me this month. I was pretty annoyed that some of the 'extra tough' toys I got her lasted less then a day - but we have found some that she can't destroy so we will just stick with those from now on!
Really the most notable things-
*Nella is great at fetch! She will run, get something and then 'drop' it, it's adorable
*Her 'wait' is getting longer and longer
*We practice 'here' when she plays with Scout (her biggest distraction) and she has been rocking disengaging and coming to play with us lately!
*She knows that she isn't allowed in our room and will sit by the door instead of coming in. (Prior to getting Nella we decided that our room would be only Scout's space so we never let her in there)
*Nella loves Kongs! They are such a great distraction for her, I love them too! :)
*Working tires Nella out. Which means she always needs a nap when we are doing being out... it's pretty cute, we can always count on her passing out when we get home from a trip out with her.
*as always, all options are my own*
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