adjusting..

things are going pretty good with miss Ellie! :) No more worried calls about where the dog is, the doggy door is taped shut, so she cant get in the house while we are away. Let me tell ya, she THINKS that she should be able to get in that house though, scratching at the door when she feels left behind. I dont know if Russell loves being an outdoor dog, I'm sure he misses his comfy recliner but he seems content with what he has.

Ellie is quite the character and proving to be as smart as Aussies are known for... I picked up some tiny soft treats yesterday and she was trying to get into the unsealed bag before I even had them out of the shopping bag.. she could smell them and was fanatic about getting into that bag!! something to worry about.... garbages beware. I worked on the command "come" yesterday for the first time and she was doing soooo great at that! If I say "come" and tap my leg, 85% of the time she comes running! Sometimes I reward with lots of praise, other times she gets the treat. I've started using the treats every time I ask her to go in the crate too.

Russell is really coming around with her.. He only growls on slight occassions now, he lets her run under his legs (yes she is still small enough to fit even under his short squatty legs!), lets her cuddle up next to him, she is starting to bite his nubby tail and his neck.. most of the time he acts like she doesnt exist and just ignores her, she attempts to play and he just keeps on walking.. but give it a few more days and I think he'll be chasing and running with her, not past her. :)

Putting him in the crate with her at night has made an amazing difference! In the evenings we let her play real hard for a couple hours to tucker her out... The crate is all open/wire type, so she can see from all directions. When she first goes in, she does whine a little even though Russell is with her, but as soon as she's in, I lay on the bed which is right next to the crate and put my fingers in the side, she will come over immediately, sniff/lick my fingers and lays down right away, curls up and goes to sleep. If I dont put my fingers in, she gets upset and will sit there whining.. so she definately is comforted by our touch and once she goes down, she's out for the evening! :) Monday night I got up once in the middle of the night to let her out to potty when she whined and then last night she didnt even stir.. she slept til 6am when I got up.

It's still tough to figure out how to get anything else done besides playing with her! :) She is a barrel of monkeys all in one little fur ball of a dog! She goes crazy and is so fun to watch run and scurry.. she loves to run full speed and squat her butt and lay down before she's even stopped moving practically... very typical Aussie behavior in her play. I bought her about 10 toys yesterday, they are scattered all over the yard and living room.. I want to be sure she has lots to chew on.

Tomorrow she is 8 weeks old, I think we'll have to give her another flea bath or drops if she is old enough and she might have some ear mite issues.. need to get up to see Andrea to have her take a look.. otherwise she's happy and healthy and we love her to pieces. She's a lot more energy than we initially had set out to get in our "next" dog, but that's okay.. I'm looking forward to working with her, training her and eventually maybe get into agility...

Just what we need, another hobby to take up the little spare time we gripe about not having! lol Plus when we get Cooper, we plan to train him and do field hunts/trials with him too... something will have to give at some point.. housework maybe? cooking? household projects? It's not that we need more time in the day, we just need more money to hire someone to do that crap we dont want to make time to do... LOL

on a side note, Shannon is starting to get some interest in Oakley, his online video has been viewed almost 250 times!!! Yeah... that is exciting! We are shooting more video tomorrow that I will have to piece together.. I might try to figure out more with this video, could be a decent side cash job I could do for horse owners.. I come out and video for them and put it all together... I suppose I could do it for other animals too, maybe I should take a video class at the college, I could really enjoy that as a side job!!!