I picked up Mississippi from Rockin’ Roxy’s on Friday and I’m pretty sure they swapped my troubled, frustrated dog with a happy, well adjusted, awesome dog. Suddenly she has almost completely stopped barking for attention. She lets us sleep until 8am and instead of waking us by barking, whining and destroying, she wakes us up with kisses and shows patience while we stumble out of bed and make coffee. She can play in the backyard with little supervision and she lets us eat our meals without too much of a fuss. Instead of barking for attention, she asks us for scratches and belly rubs. She behaved so well today at a gigantic dog park today (8 acres!) and was fairly easy to keep an eye on. She would even occasionally come to us if we called her. Yesterday we had a BBQ with three small children under 5 and a 1 year old baby. We of course had to watch her a lot but she was very nice with the kids. We even got her to do some tricks for treats with the kids. At night she’s been letting us relax and watch tv. Now instead of destroying things or playing keep away with our treasured belongings, she now will occasionally take a sock or a shoe, take it to where we can see it and drop it at her feet. She stands there, wagging her tail, smiling, and when we approach, she lets us take it back. This very cute, non-destructive behavior means lots and lots of love and scratches from us. She’s starting to learn nicer ways to ask for attention.
Something magical has happened to us. She is shaping into the dog we knew she could be and she’s doing it fast. We still have some work to do with her barking at other dogs while on a leash, she still jumps, she still gets a little overexcited, but things are so, so, so much better.
We’ve been able to open the front curtains now that she’s stopped most of her barking. We’ve also been keeping the bedroom doors open most of the time. We’ve had the backyard door open most of the time during the day this weekend and have only needed to bring her in occasionally when she starts to bark at passers by or starts to dig too much. Our house is breathing a sigh of relief. We can see the light! No more closed curtains all the day.
I think all the hard work is paying off. Our work with Tim, her half days at Rockin’ Roxy’s, all our practice and love, good times at doggy parks, all of this is making her an awesome dog. She is starting to understand we want her to be a happy dog and she’s responding to that. She smiles so much. We haven’t even hit the two month mark with her yet. I think we’ll have to throw her a special party on June 6th to celebrate two month with her.
There is lots more work to do but it feels so great right now. It was wonderful to show her off yesterday at our BBQ. We are just head over heals in love with her. Hurray! As we ate dinner tonight, with our happy dog laying by our feet, Tom said “Who’s dog is that?” She’s our dog. That cute little fur ball is our wonderful dog. So Roxy’s, if you did accidentally give us the wrong dog on Friday, please break it to us gently. It’s been such an amazing weekend.