A little brother to play with.

I just got a little brother a few weeks ago. He is a toy aussie like me. I had never played with anyone before but we are having a ball playing chase and wrestling. He may be ok after all.

Braving the World alone

It is starting to get cold here. Occasionally, we decide that we need to go in the middle of the night. Mom doesn't like going out in the cold at 2 am. I have finally got brave enough to go out on the retractable leash with mom standing in the door. Those puppy classes have helped me to become so much more cofident. Mom just got a electric fireplace. I have decided that laying on the love seat in front of it is a great place to be.

Obedience School

Arianna is about half way thru obedience school. It has been wonderful for her. She is so much more confident. I have learned that being to easy on her was not helping her. I have took a more domiant leader position with her and it has helped her so much. I can put her in a sit and stay and acutally walk out the door without pushing her back in at the same time. She got extra homework. She has to go two new places each week and it has been very good for her. She is barking at strangers a lot less and is becoming a little more sociable with other dogs. Would definetly recomend taking your dog to obedience school. I also changed the living room furniture so she no longer has a place to hide. She will actually set in the chair with me when we have company now. I am sure she thinks she has been sent to boot camp but she is doing great and seems so much more relaxed and happy.

Arianna will sit for treats.

I guess trick or treating is good. Over the last few days, I have been working with Arianna to teach her to sit. I started with gently pushing on her hips as I gave her a treat. She loves the yogurt drops. Finally this evening, she started sitting with out touch. Yeah!! She has such a sweet personality. She is starting to come out more and loves to snuggle in the bed. She has finally started staying on the bed if I start to bed and forget something. Slowly but surely she is gaining confidence. We have had a little bit of a house training set back the past few weeks. My roommates brother took ill and passed away. As a result, the dogs were home a lot by there self and had a lot of strange people and dogs in and out of the house. This caused a little bit of stress. We were also on the road with the dogs a lot. But things are improving again now that we are getting back into a routine. If we could just teach her not to get on the back of the couch to look out the window for us when we come and go. My roomate hates her standing on the back of her couch. But at the same time she is so so cute looking out the window. To everyone who has rescued a dog I have one word. Time!!!!!! Nothing happens over night but it is all worth it. Especially when you see their personality start to show.

1 year in my new home.

It is hard to believe that it has been a year since I moved to my new home. I am making lots of progress. I am finally let Wanda ( and occasionally a few other people) take me out to potty if mommy is gone. I have had several away trips now. I did great on all of them except the last one. I escaped from Uncle Larry thru the rails on the porch and took an adventure in the woods for about an hour before I decided to come home just as mom was frantically coming home to look for me. I was fine except for making Uncle Larry take a very long and hard walk thru the woods. I am staying out a little more now and sleeping thru the night with mom most nights. I have learned to bark at strangers ( although when I am done I usually go hide). I only try to slip out the door now when I want to go in the car with mom but I understand when she brings me back in and says I have to stay even though I really would prefer to be with mom over anyone. I will grab toys now but I tend to take them and hide them under the love seat. I am a healthy 11.4 pounds now. I was really calm when I went to the vet for my yearly shots a few weeks ago. Hopefully, I will gain some more self confidence soon so I can show everyone my personality like I do mom.

Sleeping in the Big Bed!

For the last 4 nights Arianna has been sleeping with me and Precious. She likes to get under the blankets and make sure she is touching you some how all night long even if it is just with a paw. She is so sweet now. She is still shy but getting better. She is definitly holding her own with Precious. There will be no petting one dog with out the other allowed. Her coat has came in so beautiful and soft as silk. I knew from the first picture that she was going to be beautiful. All she needed was some time and some good food. She has barked quite a bit this weekend. It is so cute. She sounds like a puppy trying to bark. She is also very smart. She was under my recliner and I didn't know it. When I started to put it down she yelped and I raised it back up and she came running out holding up her left paw. I called her over to me and loved on her and made sure it was ok. When I got up she put the left paw down and held up the right paw. Didn't take long to pick up on that. It is so great to see the change in her.

Happy Easter

Arianna took a nap with me yesterday. She must have really enjoyed it because she decided to sleep in the big bed with me and Precious last night. She had a few bites of a peep tonight. It was very funny to watch her. At first she put it in her mouth then spit it out. Then after she ate it, she wanted more.

Denatal and on a Diet

Arianna went to the vet for a dental yesterday. She did great except she now weighs 11.4 pounds. The vet said I need to cut back her food by 25% because she gained 2 pounds since December and is loosing her waist line. But she is looks so much better. I am adding a picture from 6 months ago to show just how much she has changed. She doesn't even look like the same dog. She is staying out most of the evening now. She is improving so much.

Eating from Wanda's Hand

Thursday night and tonight both we have let Wanda give the dogs the lamb flavored training treats. Both nights after a little incouragement Arianna has took treats from Wanda's hand and let her pet her. We are going to try to do this each night until she gets used to getting treats from Wanda and is not afraid of her. I spoke with a trainer today about enrolling Arianna in a Cainine Good Citizen class in March. At the end of the 6 weeks if she passes she will have both her Cainine Good Citizenship certificate and her therapy dog certificate. The class will be small ( 3 to 5 dogs) but I think it will be good for her. Her sister that helps teach the class is a dog psychologist. My main goal is to help her overcome her fear of people and other dogs. It is a little expensive but if it will get her over being afraid of people it will be worth the money.

Jumped up in the chair on my lap!

I was sitting in the chair studying and she was trying to tell me it was dinner time. I petted her several times and the next thing I knew she jumped up on my lap. She jumped down and did it again in a few minutes. This time she stayed a little bit and licked on me and let me pet her. Little by little we are making progress. :-)