welcome home, violet

lee and i just got a new puppy. her name is violet. most of you have seen her pictures on facebook, but here's she is again:

violet is doing pretty well on her crate training. although i've got to say that people keep telling us that she'll eventually love her crate and see it as her special place. i feel like they're lying. she goes into it, but only if we make her. and she lays down and goes to sleep, but only after a resigned sigh. if she actually uses this on her own ever, i'll be surprised.

housebreaking is a different challenge. she's just not speaking to us. we know when she has to go do a number 2 because she gets fidgety and barks or groans. but peeing is a different story. we'll be playing or something, and she just drops the toy and pees. we've tried to get her to ring a bell when she needs to go outside but it's not working yet. so this will take some patience.

walking on a leash is going fantastically though! she's great at this and loves to walk--which is good because she gets about 3 or 4 walks per day. she has so much energy and loves to walk, so we do this and she's sleeping like a baby at night. she gets up between 2 and 3am for a leak, but otherwise sleeps well without even a whine in the crate. also, once she gets settled down in the house (after walks or playing) she also goes right to sleep in one of our laps. this is helping us keep our sanity. because otherwise she barks a lot. and i hate barking. she barks so loudly that lee and i had to buy earplugs. we're hoping this is just separation anxiety and will go away. if not, we'll be remedying the situation with anti-barking methods...

anyway, violet is a puppy and also chews a lot. i'm waiting for this to end as well. but all in all, she's a sweet animal and we can't wait for her to settle down a bit and be the kind of dog we can take for hikes and more. she has a great disposition and is super friendly, so she won't make a good watch dog :) but that's ok!

i'm so glad we found violet.