Izzy On the Road Update - ADD Dog

So, Izzy's visit with his Grandma continues. I am handling a large dog in a small apartment pretty well. We try to take her out several times a day and for the most part she behaves. I do have to say that this dog has one bad case of ADD when it comes to pooping. We have her on a good schedule. She comes out of her crate every morning, goes out and poops and pees. Comes in and eats and drinks. Then before we crate her for the day, she pees again. But then she doesn't poop again until night time before being crated again for the night. Getting her to poop is sometimes so simple. You take her out, she sniffs twice and goes. Then, there are mornings like this morning where she is distracted by every bug, noise, breeze, car, sound, bird, her own tail. I walked her around the small field back and forth, back and forth, she sniffed a couple thousand times, watched about 25 cars, ate about 10 bugs, chased about 5 birds and never once pooped. But of course, once I got her inside, took my soaked shoes off, and got involved in something - she decides it's time to go out again. And it's not like she is the type that walks over to the door and sits by it to let us know. Nope - she is the drama queen of dogs. She leaps at the door, scratching and yelping like Lassie trying to warn Timmy about a fire. But she does get her point across. So out we go again, sniff sniff, car, sniff sniff, bird, sigh.

She did eventually complete her business and allow me to go back in and finish my breakfast and get started on my own day before she needed to go out again. Gotta love em.

Tails From The Road

Izzy is visiting with her grandma for awhile in Williamsburg. Her parents are buys trying to find a new home for them where Izzy will have a yard and lots of room to play. So for the time being, she is with us, destroying, I mean visiting us in our apartment. Here she has a little human to play with.

The two of them are partners in crime. They both keep us on our toes. We are keeping a close eye on both of them. I am enjoying having a puppy in my house again. But it has its challenges. We are working on leash training, not jumping, and her issues with her other dogs. While we are not making much progress, she is really a good dog for the most part. When her parents get her back, they will be taking her to formal training which will help more. We have actually found something that really seems to help. It is called a ThunderShirt. It is a stretchy vest type thing that she wears. It is similar in concept to a weighted vest that they use to calm children who are on the autistic spectrum. And it does make a huge difference with her. While she is not completely calm and behaved, it has made a difference. We noticed it when we first put it on her. Then after a week or so, we thought we would give her a break from it. Yeah, as soon as we took it off her we realized what a big difference it had made. It went back on and basically stays on. For the most part, when she wears it, she doesn't whine and cry in her crate all night. She doesn't get as wound up as easy, and she focuses better. It's not a perfect solution, but it does help. All in all, a very sweet, loving dog, who we are happy to have, and will be happy to send home - just like real grandkids.