3 weeks with violet

well, we've been with violet for 3 weeks now, and it's been a crazy 3 weeks. i never really, truly realized how much my life would have to change for a puppy.

• i now get up between 2 and 4am every day to take her out for a leak.
• she gets walks at 6:15am, 12:30pm, 5pm and 9pm every day
• she gets fed at 6am, noon and 6pm--these times are not always convenient for me...
• her crate is very ritualized so that she can learn to become comfortable with it and might go into it someday on her own
• we have to watch her like a hawk to prevent messes and potty training is mixed--some days are good, some not

anyway, we've also had some fights: violet and me, not lee and me. she somehow told herself that lee was the alpha and that she didn't have to listen to me. i was to love, but not to respect. we've been working on that, and she's seeing me as more of an authority these days.

all in all, i'm beginning to enjoy it. no--i did not always enjoy her company at first. but we're getting there! and here's 3 weeks of photos to prove it :)

she learned to fetch by the end of day 1. unfortunately, she chewed the hell out of this little ducky (and yes, it was a teething toy of sorts) and so it was thrown out at the end of week 1. she has also completely chewed through 2 nylabones.


wrestling with lee on the floor. she won!


she has claimed our kitchen mat as her own bed... i then bought her a bed and she has been way to excited by it to actually use it--she scratches it, chews it, throws it around, but she does not lay on it. so for now, the kitchen mat is hers. we'll try the bed again in a few weeks...


and this shows what she'll look like if she gets german shepherd ears...


look at those jowls! i think her face looks like a muppet's :)


the first time she voluntarily got into her crate was when we gave her a puppy kong filled with peanut butter. she drooled and immediately ran to her crate to keep it from us. that has not happened again, but tonight she got into her crate on her own when she smelled that our dinner was done! we always put her in the crate during dinner and it worked! don't know if she'll do it again, but yay for conditioning!


when we got her, she was 11 lbs. in three weeks, she has gained 6 lbs. we think she'll be bigger than we originally thought. who knows what went on with her at the rescue--there were a lot of dogs there, so maybe she didn't get enough food or something. but look how much she's grown!