Kitty, Elphie, and Jilly

Well, We're in Florida...

2009-04-18T19:33:00.001-07:00

We've been in Florida for just over two weeks now. We have a house under contract, just did the inspection and appraisal on Thursday, fortunately both went very well. Now we're just waiting to close on May 5th so that we can move in!

Meanwhile, we've been *very* busy. We went to a doggie Easter egg hunt with Jilly, who cleaned up. I swear, we're not going to be able to take her out in public to things like these if she keeps winning everything!

We went to the zoo and ended up becoming members because it was so neat. We've been checking out nurserys for plants/pots once we have our house, looking at all of the stores in the area that we didn't have in Ohio to get a feel for what's out there, and picked out new furniture. Craig and I have been running a lot (with Jilly) to get us in shape and help compensate for not having a yard right now for Jilly. If she goes two days without a run she starts to get hyper in the house.

We're staying in a 3 bedroom temporary lodging facility for now, unfortunately we have to move out of it on April 25th, so will be boarding the animals for two nights while we live in a regular room one night and then move into a smaller facility for the remainder of the time until we have the house.

We're trying to decide between private training lessons for Jilly or joining a club. We got her some little agility props and she *loves* them. It'd just be better if I knew what the heck I was doing, so I'm hesitant to try too much on our own so that I don't teach her the wrong thing.

Craig's in England right now, so I'm on my own for a few days. I found a horse that needs riding, and I'm in need of a horse, so I'll be spending time at the barn taking care of her and getting familiar with her. I do have pictures to post, which I'll do eventually, of the house and doggie Easter egg hunting.

Picture Time!

2009-03-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

Jilly got a bath today and it was nice out, so I decided to take some pictures. She's 6 months old tomorrow! And we've had her for 15 weeks. Crazy, it seems like we've always had a dog, lol.

We've been going on hikes and she loves them, even 2.5 miles. On hikes we work on teaching her that not every new person has to stop and greet her as much as she wants them to and that it's ok to walk past new people without being petted first. She's also gotten good at approaching and walking past dogs without barking at them. She's still mommy's girl, but since puppy class ended C has been doing a lot of training with her (even taught her to roll over really good!) so now she misses him more than she used to when he leaves.

Speaking of puppy class, we were kind of the Grand Champions, we won two of the contests and got second in the other, only one other dog placed in two and it got two seconds I think. We won puppy push ups (sit, stand, down as many times as you can in the time allotted), fastest down from a walk, and got second in fastest sit from a walk. Our trick for the last class was for Jilly to jump up on a stool, turn a circle, and then jump off and crawl under the stool to the other side. She did it great there and everyone was very impressed.

It was kind of hard getting pictures because it was just me and she liked sitting in the shade more than anything, which didn't make for good pictures. So...I took a bunch of balls and we played fetch and I tried to get pictures as she ran back and forth.

Tuckered Out...

2009-03-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

Oh my, we had a *busy* day today. Craig and I went to school in the morning like normal. Then late this afternoon took Jilly to the barn to see Sophie and the other dogs while we dropped off a new container of Raspberry Leaves for Sophie. Jilly *loved* Hammer, a huge Lab mix. He liked her too. I was surprised because he's gigantic and bigger than any of the dogs at puppy class, but she wasn't scared of him at all. But now that I think about it, she liked the French Mastiff the best out of the other dogs at puppy class by the end of the classes too.

After the barn we went to Carriage Hill to go for a hike. We did somewhere around 2.6 miles and had a blast. We walked mainly, but would jog for a minute or two every now and then. Jilly did great on her stretchy lead, better than the last hike. She stayed even with us or ahead of us the whole time and when she did stop she would start walking ahead of us again as soon as we reached her, never causing *us* to stop or move her out of the way.

Toward the end of the hike we were getting back over to "our" parking lot Craig said, "There's a little dog over there, did you see it?" I hadn't seen it and asked him where it was, he told me we'd walk over so I could see it. I'm thinking it's across the pond on the trail or something. Then a little white and sable dog pops out from behind the shelter right by us...it's a Papillon!!!!! It looked like Jilly's mom. It was very cute, wearing a little pink cheerleading outfit. It was very friendly and her name is Skeeter. I didn't have my camera, so no pictures, but she and Jilly really enjoyed meeting each other. She was very tall though, like a supersized Papillon!

Jilly didn't seem tired by the time we were done, she was still racing ahead and greeting new people left and right, but she actually went up to the car on her own and walked right up to my door once I was sitting down in the seat. She also jumped up into my arms a little when I picked her up, she sat right down on my lap and after I gave her a drink in her portable water bowl she laid right down for the rest of the trip home. She did whimper a little on the way to the barn and on the way to Carriage Hill, but on the way home...not a peep.

As soon as we arrived at home our neighbors were just arriving home and Mitch was in the front yard, so Jilly chased Mitch around for a couple of minutes before he went inside. And I thought she'd be tired! We put her in the yard while we walked around the front of the house, let her in, she chased Kitty a bit, got something to drink and eat, and she is now zonked out on the couch...flat on her side. I think she is going to sleep *very* soundly tonight!

In other news, we will have to house hunt once we make it down to Florida in April. Unfortunately there was a problem with the house we were buying and we were unable to resolve the problem with the sellers. So, we're still looking.

"Grand Champion" of Puppy Class!!!

2009-03-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was our last puppy class. It was "graduation" night. We started with a puppy push ups contest, where we had to have our dogs do sit, down, stand, sit, down, stand, etc. Jilly did 19, the next closest dog did 15 though most did less than 10. So Jilly got a little donkey stuffed animal.

Then we did a fastest sit competition, where we walk around with the dogs like we're just hanging out in the park or something, then the instructor says "sit your dogs" randomly and the first dog to sit wins. Jilly won her heat (there are three heats of 3 or 4 dogs each) and came in second in the final round. She got a bag of treats for that.

After that the instructor brought out a partial chute where each person got to bring their dog over and have it walk through. Despite the chute being huge and Jilly being small it still took her a few seconds to come through to my side, but she did it!

Then we had a fastest down contest, same deal as fastest sit, just walk around aimlessly until the instructor says "down your dogs". Jilly won her heat. Then she won the finals. She got a stuffed turtle for that one.

After that we were to demonstrate the tricks we'd been working on since the beginning of class (on our own). We went first, since the instructor asked who had a trick prepared and then who wanted to go first (I was raising my hand to confirm we had a trick) right away. So Craig handed me our little stool and I went to the center of the ring and put it down, then asked her to get on the stool, turn one circle, jump down to the left of the stool and crawl under it to the other side. It's so low that we have to take her harness off and put her collar on for the trick because otherwise she scrapes the harness on the bottom of the stool and she hates that. The other dogs did shake, fetch, play dead, and danced by standing on their hind legs.

Then we got our certificates and the dogs each got a stuffed animal, Jilly's looks like a sun, which the instructor thought was funny since we're moving to Florida. I really wish we could continue classes here, I did contact a dog school in Florida, but haven't heard back yet. I really want to do agility with her.

But, if you add up the "points" for the contests Jilly won, one other dog got two seconds, no one else placed in the top three of any competition more than once. But Jilly had two firsts and a second.

Jilly probably thought it was the best day of her life. She got to go for a run that afternoon (she can keep up with my jog *very* easily and loves running), then a shower, and then during class she got nothing but high value treats for performing plus she got to play with lots of toys since the dogs "picked" their prize when they won a contest.

Or maybe she thought today was the best day of her life...she got to go on a 30 minute hike in a local park with DH and I, then she got to go to the barn and smell all sorts of neat smells while I groomed Sophie. After that we set up a couple of agility jumps from the barn and she loved going over them with me. We only did a few, since we had no treats, but she enjoyed it a lot.

Poor Craig...

2009-02-27T18:17:00.000-08:00

I just put his silver chair from Ikea up on craigslist, already had 2 emails about it and it's only been up for a few minutes! He's heartbroken about losing it, but he is getting to keep his black recliner. We kept it after moving because Craig and I each have our "own" rooms here, but our two rooms are going to be compiled into one in the new house, so extra furniture has to go. Plus, it matches *nothing*!!!!!!

We Aaaare the Champions My Frieeends...

2009-02-25T18:20:00.000-08:00

Jilly rocked puppy class tonight. The first half was spent talking about doggie health care. Then we got right to heeling and about turns, she did great. Then we did some puppy push ups...Jilly was *amazing*. We did 23! The next closest dog did 17, a few were still in the single digits. She was on fire. We got an extra few in because I only gave her a treat for every other full push up, instead of every push up (tonight's push ups were sit, down, stand, in that order, as many times as possible). Even the instructor was impressed. Our only real problem was whenever she stood up from the down she would take a couple steps toward me, so I had to back up (though I couldn't back far because I was so close to the fence), so instead I had to have her back up instead. Next time we'll start further from the fence so that I have room to back! I also think that next time we'll do sit, stand, down because the instructor pointed out that going from stand to down is harder when we first added the stand.

After the puppy push ups we worked on a fastest down contest. The previous week we had done fastest sit, where a small group of dogs just walked around aimlessly until the instructor said sit your dogs and we would stop and have them sit. Jilly tied for first last week with it. This week we were supposed to have our dog lay down as soon as he told us to stop. Jilly won her heat again, and tied for first as well.

After that we did a recall exercise, which Jilly did very well with. She would stay sitting while held by the instructor as I walked away, but she did run straight to me and sit a couple feet away, right in front of me. The instructor had the rest of the dogs start working on sitting a couple feet away instead of running all the way to the owner, so it was nice that Jilly already does that.

We did some more heeling after that, and then worked on staying while the dog was in the down position. Jilly did awesome at that, didn't move at all. Then class was over.

After class we worked on her trick for the last class (which is next week!!!!). Her trick is to get up on a little stool, turn one circle, jump down, and then crawl under it. She doesn't like doing it with her harness on though, so I'll have to bring her collar for that segment of the class so that it's not interfering with her (she scrapes the clasps of the harness on the bottom of the stool and she hates that).

We also worked on our stay and recall a bit before heading home. Overall she was terrific. I think this time was better because I practiced more with her leading up to class. Last class was right after our house shopping trip, so we weren't able to work with her Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. And just didn't have the time on Tuesday.

Next class is the last class. We'll have a puppy push up contest, fastest sit contest, fastest down contest, and demonstrate the trick we've been working on since class started.

Our New House!!!

2009-02-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

This is our new home in Florida! We love it and it's nearly perfect for us. As usual, you can click on the pictures to see them full size.

This, of course, is the outside of the house.

The entry way, we're hoping to put my parents piano where you see the shelves off to the side.

This is the hallway between the two guest rooms and the bathroom between them.

Guest room number one...

The guest bathroom...

Guest room number two...

The living area...one of the highlights of this house for us is the wide open floor plan, because we want the animals to have lots of room to chase each other around. Our current living room is a good size, but the Jilly and the cats can't run around the couch or anything, because it's against the wall.

The dining room...

I think we're going to put my bookshelves in this area, with a couple of chairs pointed toward them to make a reading area, since we don't have the furniture for a sitting area like the current owners have set up.

The beautiful kitchen! We love everything about the kitchen.

An extra room, not sure what we're going to do with it, maybe put the elliptical here?

Laundry room...

We're looking forward to having a pantry because we don't have one currently.

The backyard...we really like the backyard (and *love* the view), we just wish it had some kind of fence for Jilly. So we're going to build one, once we figure out what kind of fence we can build. We were initially worried that we wouldn't be able to put up *any* fence, because we thought our house was pondfront, but while the view is there, it's not technically considered to be pondfront. So, we'll be allowed to put up a fence!

And finally, the master bedroom. It's smaller than the one we have now, but the bathroom makes up for it.

C and I will each have our own closet (one on each side) on the hallway leading to the master bathroom.

The master bathroom is huge...

Craig and I will each have one of these sinks all to ourself! We have double sinks right now, but this seems a little nicer than even that, lol.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the tour! My grandpa was nice enough to supervise the home inspection for us and the house pretty much passed with flying colors. He's living in Florida for the winter, which is nice, because we got to see him while we were in Florida, and we'll be able to see him in the winter while we're living in Florida too. There are a couple of things the current owners are fixing (actually, fixed yesterday or the day before). Right now we're just waiting for paperwork, we'll be closing in April and should be able to move straight into the house, that way we won't have to board Jilly and the cats because we need to live in temporary lodging on base.

Burned Out...

2009-02-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

Jilly is burned out on puppy push ups. It started a couple of weeks ago, during puppy class we did puppy push ups and Jilly just wasn't having any of it. She'd get "stuck" and at one point even took a walk during the segment of puppy push ups! We were only 7 push ups behind the winner of that round, but still, highly unusual. Fortunately we redeemed ourselves later in the class when we added stand to the regular routine of down and sit. There we won again because Jilly already knew stand. So we just don't practice puppy push ups anymore so that she doesn't get tired of them, even without praciticing we wont the "new" puppy push ups in the following Puppy Class, but a couple of push ups. Only one other dog was even close. Jilly has also been giving me the same kind of reaction with her trick for the last class, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm Behind, I Know...

2009-02-22T21:01:00.000-08:00

I am two puppy classes behind, plus three puppy classes behind for pictures! Aaaaaack. Jilly is still doing great at puppy class. For the fourth class we worked on recall exercises where we walked away from the dog while the instructor held it behind us, then calling the dog and running away from it, and added something to puppy push ups, stand, in addition to down and sit. We also worked on going fast and slow while heeling in addition to about faces (180 degree turns).

In the last class we changed the recall exercise a little, but having the dog come to us while we stood in one place. We also did puppy push ups, which Jilly won again (she won it the previous week too). I got stuck hanging onto the French Mastiff for an exercise again, it started out really well, and then the dog went nuts again. Oh well. Then there were more heeling exercises and working on stay, which Jilly does *awesome* at.

On the health front, Jilly is doing terrific. Her UTI is completely gone and I can't see any sign of vaginitis anymore, she's no longer licking her vulva and she's going much longer between potty trips, and she pees for a lot longer than she used to. We'll still wait until after a heat cycle though, just to be safe that her reproductive system is fully mature.

Last week Craig and I were in a bind, getting the house ready to show for potential renters, so I tried something new. Sorry about the visual, but Jilly showered *with* me. Crazy, right? It was soooo easy and fast. She seemed to like it better than being bathed in the sink (or she was just in shock). I think she got a lot cleaner too.

Craig is sick and Jilly is taking advantage of it by stealing Kleenexes from the box and shredding them. She has also begun having inappropriate relations with her octopus. We've given her "the talk" and she seems to have subsided somewhat, we're hoping it's just a phase.

We've had two potential renters look at the house, both loved it, so we'll see how that goes. We bought a house in Florida, I'll post about it in another post, when I get a chance. I posted on my other blog, but we've decided to leave Sophie in Ohio for a while after we move to Florida, which will be good for me in the long run, because Sophie will be in full training and come to Florida a much improved horse.

The Second Puppy Class

2009-02-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

I didn't post about our second puppy class, where we started learning puppy push ups (basically having the dog sit, down, sit, down, sit, down in quick succession). We also learned "down" in that class, but Jilly already knew it so we were kind of bored while everyone taught their dogs to lay down (most didn't seem to know it already, whereas most knew sit for the first class). We still practiced it the whole time the others did, I was just surprised that the other owners hadn't already taught their dogs down.

We also worked more on heeling, and we had an exercise to work on recall where everyone was in a big circle, the instructor called a dog away, and the owner called the dog to the instructors left away, until finally everyone had someone else's dog, then it started over with people calling their own dog back. *I* had to call over a big red dog, a French Mastiff I think (Hooch, in Turner and Hooch). The dog wanted nothing to do with me and wouldn't come. So the instructor had me walk up to it with my treat and make friends. It still wasn't thrilled and after it took my treat I reached to pet it while putting hand on the leash (which the owner still held) and it bolted backwards, so I let go of the leash right away. The instructor asked me if I could handle the dog or was it too big, I said "I can handle him, but I didn't think I should hang on to him with him running backwards like he's scared of me" so the instructor tried to lure him forward, which didn't work for him either, so he just grabbed the leash and pulled the dog across the circle and turned over the leash to me.

We were supposed to talk nice to the dogs and have them sit/lay down while we had a different dog and this dog wanted nothing to do with that, it started lungeing around, ultimately in circles around me. I just held on, then it started trying to take off back to it's owner and we were next to a post so I kind of ended up using that for leverage and then the instructor finally had the owner come get the dog. I personally thought that the dog was obviously not a good choice for the exercise from that initial reaction and needing to be dragged over by the instructor, but needless to say he ended up sitting that exercise out.

The puppies also had a chance to play on leash with another puppy. I think I must just get annoyed easily. There was a girl there that kept talking to me during class, first she wanted to know if Jilly was a long haired Chi, then she wanted to know the breeds of two other dogs in the class, she called on a Cocker Spaniel and I told her it was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and she told me that they were the same thing. Then a few minutes later she put her hand down for Jilly to lick and love on while I was asking Jilly to sit!!! Urgh. I am so used to people being more respectful when it comes to horses, I mean, you wouldn't try to give another person's horse a treat while they're leg yielding down the long side would you????

Our biggest problem with this class was Jilly's attention span. When she listens to me she's perfect, when she's distracted, well, she's distracted. She was particularly distracted by the regular obedience class in the ring next to ours. C took her for a super long walk before class, but it was a couple of hours before we left, and she had a nap in between. I just spend the whole class keeping her attention as good as I can and then getting it back when I lose it. I saw a huge improvement in her last night, but we've been doing more work at home, with asking her to sit and lay down for longer periods of time before getting the treat, so that she gets better at sitting and laying down when we're waiting during class...

Working on our puppy push ups...

Us, waiting for the instructor to finish talking, and then working on puppy push ups a bit. I try really hard to keep her attention even while the instructor is talking, as long as I can pay attention to him at the same time.

These next few pictures are from the circle exercise. The instructor called Jilly away first, that big red dog is the one that I was stuck trying to handle the first time around. I don't have any pictures of that, because Craig put the camera down, ready to jump the fence to protect me from the giant dog, lol.

This is me with my charge, after the red dog was dismissed from the exercise. Her name is Lucy, she's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and just the sweetest dog. Her owners had a Papillon before they got her. She was sooooo silky and loving, I just wanted to take her home with me.

This is Jilly with the lady that took her over from the instructor after her dog was called away...

Me with Lucy again...

Jilly with her new handler...

And me with Jilly right after I called her back, we did sit and down while the rest of the dogs went back to their owners, because I didn't want her thinking she could run around like a nut all the time...

Heeling...

Jilly at her worst in puppy class (it was *really* hard to get her attention away from that class). Fortunately she was only this bad for the few minutes we were on that side of the ring, and she didn't even look at the other class last night.

Trying to get her attention away from that class...

And finally, Jilly getting to play with Lucy and another King Charles that I forget the name of...

Star of Puppy Class!!!!

2009-02-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

I don't have pictures ready yet, since I haven't even gotten around to getting the ones from last class up, but today Jilly was in the top four of puppy class. She was *amazing*. We started off with puppy push ups, we were supposed to do as many as we could in 30 seconds. So Jilly and I got to work, it ended up being closer to a minute, and Jilly got stuck a few times, I think she was tired because she had a walk right after he bath and then we pretty much went to class.

So we did our puppy push ups, and I was a little worried because she got stuck, even with me holding a treat right there to back up my hand and voice signals. After time was up, the instructor went around the group, starting with the dog just to my left, asking everyone how many they did, the answers ranged between 2 and 10 with a couple around 14 or so. The instructor skipped the Weimereiner and finally, I was asked how many puppy push ups Jilly did. So I gave my answer, feeling foolish, compared to the other dogs...."29". Fortunately, the Weimereiner did 27 puppy push ups, because I was starting to be afraid that I'd counted wrong. I even dropped a couple from my count because I wanted to make sure I wasn't counting too many. The female instructor told me that Jilly was flying, right after that, and asked if we were going to do agility with her, she was pleased when I said yes.

We also worked on stay, which Jilly did awesome at. It helps that she knows it at home, and today she was *on*. She was by far the best at stay, we would have the dog sit in the heel position, then wave a hand in front of the dog, say stay, and walk to the front of the dog and feed it treats for as long as it stayed sitting (while standing on the leash). I went ahead and did it that way in the beginning, but that wasn't very hard, so the next time I scooted the leash out way in front of Jilly (as far as it would go) when I went to in front of her. Then I would walk a couple of steps to her, give her a treat, back up and repeat. I was the only one standing for most of the exercise, and one of the only ones not saying "stay" everytime she got a treat.

Our biggest problem was the running recall. I've been practicing it differently at home (backing away from her instead of turning around and running away from her) but we practiced it a bit after class was over and she's doing great with it now, so we'll practice it that way at home so that she's perfect at class.

Her attention span was much better today, normally she's so busy looking around and at the other dogs that it's hard to do things because she's distracted. As soon as she looks at me she's fine doing exactly what I ask. She also did great on the car ride over, no whining or whimpering at all, just some panting. Also, she only whimpered a couple of times during her bath, and just a little more during her blow drying. She also stood stock still for her bath, it was amazing, she's such a great little dog.

We also worked on doing 180 degree turns, which was a little bit of a problem for us because while heeling she isn't paying attention to me much, she's mainly sniffing the ground the whole time. So we worked on that more after class was over, we really need more changes of direction as opposed to walking circles around the ring, to keep her attention on me.

We worked a little on "watch me", which I'm not sure I see the point of, but we'll keep practicing it. I really need to focus on teaching her stand. She'll do it with being lured, but not from just a hand signal, just a voice signal, or even a combination unless my hand is close to her. Fortunately she already stays when sitting, laying down, and standing (we practice that at doors and gates) so I can focus more on getting her to stand when directed.

For now Jilly is passed out on the couch. She had a busy day with the cleaning for the property manager (she's going to be handling the renting of our house for us), a bath, a walk, and then class. I was really displeased with the behavior of some of the other dog owners. When we're standing in line, waiting for our turn to do the recall exercise (only 2 dogs at a time do it) and the other owners are letting their dogs bounce around and play with other dogs (including jumping on Jilly >:( grrr). Meanwhile, I'm working on getting Jilly to lay down and sit for longer periods of time between treats. And the two worst offenders tonight are also the worst dogs in the class, go figure. But I'm still so, so pleased with Jilly tonight, she was amazing. We're going to try taking her to PetSmart to practice around distractions since she's awesome at home but not quite as good in class because of the other dogs and people that she wants to socialize with.

I Feel Sorry for Big Dogs...

2009-01-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

Jilly's toys have gotten progressively bigger. She plays fetch with her little toys, but really, she prefers the big toys. We often buy the biggest version available (like the octopus and the giant Crazy Bird we found to match her teeny Crazy Bird). So what do big dogs play with? If our little Papillon puppy is playing with the biggest toys out there, what about those full sized dogs? What do they wrestle and attack?

On another note, I would be very surprised if Puppy Class happens tomorrow. We're getting a lot of snow, and under a Winter Storm Warning until Wednesday afternoon. Just 7 hours before Puppy Class. Plus Puppy Class seems to be cancelled if the schools are.

Jilly's Favorite Toy...

2009-01-26T21:01:00.000-08:00

Everyone that sees this thinks it's too big for her and that she'd never play with it, but I just new she had to have it, and look!

Jilly's Trip to the Emergency Vet...

2009-01-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we took Jilly to the emergency vet clinic. She threw up once Saturday, and we thought she must have gotten into something, especially since she seemed just fine otherwise. Sunday I ellipticalled, did push ups and showered while Jilly stayed in her pen with her water, bed, and puppy pad. I was gone for about two hours with all of that, and I didn't check Jilly in the living room because I didn't want her to get excited to see me only to have me leave again. Once I did come back out I was shocked by what I found.

Jilly had peed three times and thrown up once while I was gone. She was shaking while in her pen. I took her out and sat on the couch with her and she went right to sleep, sometimes shaking in her sleep. I was really concerned, but Craig was gone and I couldn't help but think maybe she was just stressed out by me being gone but in the house for so long. I also wanted to see her reaction when Craig came home. He was back within 40 minutes and while Jilly did get off the couch to greet him, it wasn't her usual greeting.

So I played with her while Craig called our vet, and then the emergency vet. While we were playing she had an accident, which was strange because she had been accident free for 3 weeks until that day. We took her straight to the emergency vet and she was diagnosed with a UTI. We got antibiotics for it and have been giving them to her every day for the past week. It took us a little while to realize, but she likes the taste of the antibiotics and she hated the dropper, so Craig drops the antibiotics onto my palm and Jilly licks them off.

Today she had a follow up appointment with our vet, and I took a urine sample in with me (obtained through cutting up a garbage bag and not allowing her to leave it until she peed on it, she *loved* that, lol). Her urine was full of white blood cells, and while her symptoms have decreased a lot, she still pees often and never had a really big puddle (she didn't have a big puddle often before the trip to the e-vet either). The vet thinks she has vaginitis, which means we'll need to wait until she's had a heat cycle before spaying her. It's basically a result of having a not fully developed reproductive system. Getting spayed after a heat cycle should take care of the problem though.

We'll do another follow up in a week and the vet may do a more extensive exam, depending on her symptoms. The really bad thing about this though, is that often small dogs don't get their first heat cycle until sometime after 6 months, so we probably won't be able to have her spayed at our current vet's clinic because we'll be moving before then. I think that the vaginitis is why Jilly licks her vulva so often, and why she needs to go out ever hour or so if she's awake, and why she doesn't pee much when she does pee, and why it's so urgent that she goes out ASAP when she gets to the door to let us know she needs out.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

2009-01-14T15:37:00.000-08:00

It's snowing, so Puppy Class was cancelled tonight. Booooo. Jilly is doing good. Using the bells a lot to let us know she needs to go out. Once we head toward her if she's just standing by the door needing to go out she starts hitting the bells. She hit them 6 times before one trip outside in the time it took me to pick up my jacket, put it on, and get a piece of food out of her bowl to give her as a reward for hitting the bells. She's sooooo funny. Anyway, here are some pictures of her on the couch in Pennsylvania.

Wow, Am I Beat...

2009-01-12T19:56:00.000-08:00

Jilly and I went for a mile walk/run today (she got to dictate the pace). Once we got home we played fetch hard for 10 minutes and then she passed out next to me. I also ellipticalled for 20 minutes.

Jilly has been doing great. I'm teaching her to jump on a box, turn around once, and then get off the box. We've also been working on ringing the bells to go potty, sitting, laying down, and heeling, in addition to some on leash recall.

Potty training is going *really* well still. She very consistently goes to the door or whines to let us know she needs to go out. Today she even went to the door, came over to the couch, stood for a second looking at me, and then went back to the door. It was soooo cute.

Choo Choo, All Aboard!!!

2009-01-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

My Father-in-Law is a big Lionel train collector. When my in laws built the addition onto their house they included a huge room for him to set up his trains on tracks in addition to displaying the others on the walls. They also got this cool pedal car for our future child (and their other future grandchildren). So we decided to give Jilly a chance to try it out. Enjoy, and make sure you check out the puppy class pictures below, if you haven't already.

The Smartest Dog in the World...

2009-01-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

(Pssst! Scroll down to see the pictures from Puppy Class!)

What a whirlwind day yesterday was! It seems like it was three days with everything that happened. Of course, it was Puppy Class day. Oooooooooh, right? I was nervous, I don't think Craig was nervous, and I don't think Jilly was nervous. But I was, oh wait, I said that. Jilly had a busy day, she went to the vet for her rabies shot (we thought she needed it for class, but she didn't, oops. She was getting it Saturday anyway). Then we went to PetSmart to look for a treat pouch, which we found a really nice on in purple. After that we went home.

On a whim, we stopped by the neighbor's house, so that she could meet Mitch, a Pug/Chihuahua mix. He's 3 and a little heavy, but they played great together. Mitch isn't a barker, so Jilly hardly barked at all while playing. They mainly chased each other around the neighbor's house. Man, Jilly is fast! And wiley. She was out manuevering Mitch and after just 15 minutes Mitch was tuckered out. Jilly was still trying to get him to play, but he was done. Craig took her out before I left and that got Mitch's attention. He wanted her to come back when she left, but we still had to eat and give her a bath.

She was very good for her bath and was beautiful and fluffy by the time we left for the obedience club. We got to the club and she peed outside, then we went in and registered. All of the other puppies looked a lot older than Jilly, but they were bigger breeds as well, though the Cavalier Spaniels (there were two) were about her size. She met a few of the other puppies and then we spent the beginning 40 minutes or so of class sitting in folding chairs along the wall while the instructor went over the rules and guidelines and equipment that we'd need.

One of the first guidelines was to not let your dog greet other dogs without permissioni. There was a lady that definitely didn't follow that rule. Her dog came from four chairs over to see Jilly before things got underway and at one point Jilly was in the corner looking uncomfortable. The lady also let her puppy do it during the actual class, a few times, I told her to watch her puppy finally. I'm not comfortable correcting people with their dogs since this is our first dog and I don't know what is "normal" dog owner behavior, but it was really annoying me that her dog was actually sniffing Jilly while I was asking Jilly to do stuff.

While we were sitting and listening I put Jilly on my lap, and she was so tired she actually stayed there, and then she layed down. Then she rested her head on my arms. Then she closed her eyes. And she was out. I was soooo surprised because there was a Beginner's Obedience Class going on right next to our ring, but she zonked out for most of the intro stuff. I was a little worried that she was too tired for class, but she seemed to do fine.

Our instructor is a positive training advocate, which is good with us, and the only thing we covered in the first class was sitting. Jilly did very good for being in a new environment, and I've been practicing having her sit in every room of the house while walking on her leash to get her better at it. She's alredy improved a *lot* at staying to my left side at all times and sitting while straight ahead. We've also been working at laying down while at my side. She doesn't like to lay down on the kitchen, entryway, or bathroom floors, I'm hoping because they are slippery, not because they are hard, since the training area at class is a hard rubber mat.

After class ended we practiced walking laps around the training ring while Craig gave the instructors our information so that they could email in case of closure due to weather. We took Jilly's crate with us and put it in her when we got back in the car and she passed out right away. Flat on her side, she was exhausted from her super busy day. Fortunately Craig and I read Jilly's signals that she needed to go out the two times she had to pee while in the class, so Craig took her out while I continued to listen. So we made it through our whole first puppy class without an accident!

Tuesday Jilly discovered she could jump the barrier keeping her out of the kitchen/entryway. Sigh. Fortunately she doesn't do it much when she's on her own, since she's still not trustworthy to be in the whole house by herself. Tuesday we got a wreath holder for the two bells and Craig rigged it up so that the bells are hanging off it by a string. So Wednesday afternoon we worked on touching the bells. The first time she touched the bells hanging straight up, but then didn't want to again, so I tipped it over so the bells were on the floor and had her touch them repeatedly (treat each time) and slowly tilted the stand up further and further until it was upright. Later that night she actually touched the bells once when going to the door (Craig and I kick the bells lightly with a foot before opening the door to take her out) at the end of the night, so Craig took her out and she peed! Yay! Craig said that she must be the smartest dog in the world because of that. She's already touched them once tonight and went potty when taken outside. We can't tell if she's just playing or wanting a treat, since it doesn't seem possible that she's hitting the bells to go outside already. Though two other times we've had her touch them before going outside instead of us doing it.

Today we went for a walk in the morning before school, it was only about 10 minutes, but she seemed to enjoy it (for the most part, she was a little scared of a car backing out of the drive when we were alongside it's lawn) and she definitely knows where home is! She wasn't nearly as hyper when we got home either, Craig tried to take her for a walk, but he needed a refresher on her walk cues so I went out with him and Jilly to help. She also got played with and then Mitch came for a visit!

Mitch scared the living daylights out of the cats but Jilly had fun. Though, Mitch was more interested in sniffing all of our stuff rather than playing with Jilly, much to her disappointment. One of the reasons we wanted a female dog was so that we didn't have to deal with marking and leg lifting, and today that point was emphasized, right now we follow Jilly around new houses to make sure she doesn't have an accident, but at least we don't have to worry about her doing it to mark her territory!

She wasn't crazy hyper once we got home today, but she didn't sleep until around 10 pm, now she's passed out flat on her side, sleeping away. I don't know if the meeting new dogs is helping or the extra training practice is helping, but she's a lot less vocal about the cats, and less likely to run after them. We're concentraing on not doing tricks on the living room floor (at least sit and down because she already knows them) but I added a new thing today, where she's loose and I run to one side of the room, she follows, I tell her to sit or down and give her a treat, then I run off, and we repeat. She loves it. We also worked a little on trotting forward on the lead and then I suddenly start backing up and calling her, she's great at turning around and running after me before hitting the end of the leash. Hopefully that turns into her coming period, lol.

This is the bad dog that kept coming into our space.

She tends to keep her paw up when I ask her to sit, I'm going to work on that once she's 100% on keeping her sit when I go to give her her treat.

Example of her not keeping the sit at all while receiving her treat. She's a lot better now, after we got more consistent with making her keep the sit before getting a treat instead of giving it to her just for her butt hitting the ground like normal.

Down Jilly!

Ah ah! Sit, then you get your treat. Stay sitting!

She wasn't used to sitting next to me, so we compromised in class with this position. We've been working on sitting next to me today though, so that she'll stay next to me for our next class.

Good girl, keeping her puppy butt on the ground for the treat.

But she still "helps" me find her mouth with a little guiding paw.

She *loves* training, even though she just gets pieces of dog food as her reward, she watches me like this and seems soooo excited.

Duh...

2009-01-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

Right after I posted that last entry I was thinking about everything we're going to do tomorrow and it dawned on me, take Jilly for a long walk in the morning before we go to school! Duh! Hopefully she has an easier day of it when she's done half a mile or a mile first. We'll see, I definitely think it's worth a shot.

Oh My God Hyperness...

2009-01-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

Jilly survived her first day of Craig and I being back to school. We were gone for 9 hours and she was crazy once we got back. It took three hours of hard playing and one intense training session and she is now passed out on the couch. Poor girl. We start puppy classes tomorrow, I hope it goes well, I'm nervous. It was freezing rain all day today, tomorrow it's supposed to snow, but we *will* go on a walk no matter what. At least half a mile, lol. I need her to be a little tired for puppy class, or at least not crazy hyper!

Our training session went well tonight. I worked on having her sit and down just off of words while I was standing, which caught her off guard in the beginning but she adapted quickly. I also worked on teaching her to sit until she actually got her piece of food reward. Unfortunately I was so anxious just to see that sit that I would give her the treat after she sat and she started jumping up on her hind feet to meet me half way. So now she always gets up on just her hind feet. I'm fixing it by saying "ah ah ah" and standing all the way up again and then bending down to give her a treat once she's sitting fully. In the beginning of working on it she would take three tries before she got the treat, then she was quickly down to just two tries before she stayed sitting, and by the end she was pretty good at just sitting. Once she's consistent with keeping her sit I'll start waiting for her to keep her right paw on the ground the whole time. Right now she keeps it held up, almost as if in anticipation for her next command. We also worked on a lot of touch with different items.

I'm holding off on working on any other tricks until she is 100% with sit and down and after getting further guidance from the puppy class instructor.

So, tomorrow's plan:
Potty time as normal
Some playing
Trip to PetSmart to look for a treat pouch
At least half mile walk
Bath

And of course I need to shower, elliptical, household chores, and do some homework/thesis stuff in there as well. Puppy class isn't until 7, so hopefully I get everything done.

Lots of Updates...

2009-01-05T17:05:00.000-08:00

Wow, a lot has happened in the last three days. Saturday the animals went to the vet for their shots, and Kitty got to have her anal glands expressed, boy, that was fun. She *really* enjoyed that. Jilly weighs 4 pounds now.

We've been working on sit, down, and stand more. We spent a whole training session on Saturday working on doing it off of just hand signals and just voice. Jilly is excellent at doing them based on hand signals but not so good at doing it based on voice. We also worked a bit on crawling. Sunday we worked more on the regular stuff, and added rolling over into the mix. It is *really* hard to get her to roll over! I watched a video on youtube showing how to do it, but she doesn't want to follow it over with her nose like the video, so far I've gotten her to roll over a few times, both yesterday and today. Then we work on sit and down a lot because getting her to down without a treat confuses her a lot. I can't give her a treat after down because then she sits after she gets the treat, so I just have to get her to down again anyway.

But, no more working on rolling over for a while, because we're going to Puppy Class!!!! Starting Wednesday, I'm soooo nervous, what if we do badly? What if we're behind with Jilly? What if she goes insane and won't focus? She needs her harness and leash and treats and toys. Apparently the puppies get to play during class. We'll see how Jilly is sharing her toys. She never growls anymore when we take one from her, and she doesn't bark like she used to whenever the cats played with them, but she'd never had to share a toy with another dog.

And final good Jilly news, she has taken to standing by the door when she needs to go out. It's only if she's been playing on the floor, sometimes she'll go to the door and we take her straight out, but she potties every time. We also still take her out as soon as she begins to leave the couch and if she doesn't potty she goes in her crate and is taken out every 30 minutes until she does go. It seems to be working. And she's loving her free time in the back yard whenever she does go potty.

And the last of the preChristmas pictures, or at least the December 22nd and earlier pictures.

These next two are Elphie and Kitty watching Jilly play with the spinny thing.

A Taste of Freedom...

2009-01-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

These pictures aren't from this week (they're from before Christmas actually), but Jilly has been getting more outside time. We take her out and after she goes potty she gets to run around the yard all willy nilly. She loves it. We either stay outside with her and watch, or stand at the door and watch. Thanks to the cold she has no problem running to the back door after a few minutes. I'm hoping it helps her focus better on leash training once she's got the rest of her shots (as of tomorrow).

Some of the pictures are a little blurry due to the camera lens, but you get the idea of how much she likes being outside!

Making Progress...

2008-12-31T22:36:00.001-08:00

My sister came to visit for a couple of days, and Jilly was very excited to see her Auntie Jackie. We went to the mall today and I finally got to shop in Fetch, the pet store that basically only has stuff for dogs. I didn't realize they sold dogs until we stopped in, but there they were, most likely puppy mill specials. There were two Papillons, but they looked more like Papillon/Jack Russell crosses. It was weird, the ears were right, as far as shape and size, but there was very little hair in the ears, and their bodies weren't furry. They also didn't have the refined muzzle that Jilly has. Something was very "wrong" about them, though their tails did curl over their backs the way Jilly's does.

Kitty and Jilly are playing more and more, it mainly looks like Jilly running around the living room while Kitty kind of walks after her, Jilly seems to like it though and Kitty must not be having a bad time, or else she wouldn't be on the floor with Jilly. Jilly doesn't really chase Kitty, though she does walk towards her and bark.

Jilly got her first greenie today, my sister was telling us that the Japanese Chin my parents had while I was in college would take a month to finish a greenie. Jilly polished hers off in just under 15 minutes. She *loved* it. It was the smallest size available, and I watched her the whole time she ate it, to ensure she didn't get any big pieces. The box says to give one per day, but I don't think she'll be getting nearly that many!

I've been reflecting on how much I think Jilly will like agility. She already runs up the ramp made of pillows laid on boxes, dives under couches and legs, jumps over legs, and has no problem standing on the hole box while it's upside down and laying on a long toy so that it shifts around as Jilly moves from edge to edge.

Oh, and the biggest news of all tonight??? Jilly went to the door twice to signal she wanted to go out. She doesn't stay at the door long, but she doesn't really venture onto that side of the living room when playing, so it usually means something when she does. And in those two cases tonight, it did, woohoo! I also discovered that she will sit and lay down based solely on my hand signals, with no words, as long as she's focused on me already.

I almost forgot, I clipped the nails on her front paws with hardly any struggle. I was impressed by how still she stayed and how quickly she settled down when she did struggle. I'll probably try her back feet again tomorrow.

Cats and Dogs Revisited...

2008-12-31T07:30:00.000-08:00

Cats may be better at hunting, but dogs are better at entertaining themselves. Jilly loves this box with holes in it that we had for the cats. We put her tennis balls in it and she would get them out. Then she started doing the oddest thing...after getting her tennis balls out, she would put the balls back IN! Not only that, but the next day, and following days, she would be playing fetch and take her balls over to the box with holes and put them in one of the holes. She would also try to put some of her stuffed toys in the holes as well. It was pretty amazing, and cute, to watch.

Yesterday Jilly went on a half mile walk, she loved it. We ran part of it and walked (well, I walked, she trotted) most of it. She's doing good on the leash, but one line of the walkway was stop and go because there's a line of trees that drops leaves and sticks and stuff on the asphalt. I can't wait until she's better trained on the leash, then we can do a real jog and actually get her tired out.

Cats and Dogs...

2008-12-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

It's kind of funny watching the difference between dogs and cats in play. Jilly is smart, but Kitty is a much smarter hunter. It'll be interesting to see if that changes, the way Elphie got smarter as she matured. Right now Jilly doesn't anticipate where a toy is going, she just goes after where it is. It's a big change from Kitty, who will watch the toy move for a few seconds, until she *knows* where it's going, then she pounces.

Of course, the cats can also do some crazy midair acrobatics as well, and Jilly mainly stays on the ground (we also don't ask her to jump at her young age, so keep the toys on the ground too). Last night we started working on getting Jilly to touch the bells we got for her to use as a signal that she needs to go outside. It was kind of surprising, because she really didn't seem to like touching the bell. But we'll keep working on it.

Can't Get Enough Sleep...

2008-12-29T07:44:00.000-08:00

Ironic, because a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't sleep at all. Now I can't sleep enough. 10 or 11 hours at night and then a nap in the afternoon, and I'm still exhausted. Sigh. We're driving back today, hopefully Jilly will settle down quickly. I think that Craig's parents are going to miss their granddog a lot, beyond a lot, really, they seem to be quite taken by her.

These pictures are from home (hence the fact that Kitty is in them as well).

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin', Rawhide!

2008-12-28T14:10:00.001-08:00

Jilly loves Rawhide. Fortunately we found a Nylabone that she likes as much, so that we don't have to worry about her chewing up little pieces of Rawhide, but here are some pictures of her enjoying some rawhide. And don't forget, you can see the pictures bigger by clicking on them.

She got to meet Craig's grandpa today, she loved him. It's funny watching someone she's never seen before come in. Her head cocks to the side, and then she jumps up and runs over to see them, tail wagging a thousand times a minute. She then licked his hands and would run to him whenever freed, it was very entertaining.

Jilly's new experience for today was getting to sleep in bed with Craig and I after she went out this morning. She must have realized how special that was, because she curled up in a ball and went right to sleep, even though it was 8 in the morning.

Jilly has been learning that she doesn't get to run around all willy nilly. That sometimes, she needs to quiet down and sit on the couch with us. She's been accepting that, since the first couple of days she just played 24/7, now she plays for a bit and then is asked to settle down.

New Things...

2008-12-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

Jilly has mastered a couple of new things while here. Steps, for one. She's completely comfortable running up a full flight of steps now. She doesn't come down, just up. She has also gotten brave enough to jump off the couch. It's funny how she does it, she scoots over to the edge of the couch, and kind of creeps down the side until her front paws are hanging down and then she kind of slides/jumps the rest of the way. I did like it better when she wouldn't jump down on her own, but she was going to start jumping off the couch on her own eventually.

We took Jilly to see another puppy, but it ended up being too big to play with so she was just admired by the other people, until someone brought a baby over to see her, and I had to leave, I was surprised by how strong my reaction was, but I couldn't be within 5 feet of it. The puppy's owner was amazed that Jilly didn't bite, but she kept her hand up there, playing with Jilly's mouth, so Jilly did end up mouthing her hand, but then she was commenting on how amazed she was that she didn't use her teeth hard and how gentle she was. I just wanted to ask why she was trying to get our dog to bite her to begin with.

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round...

2008-12-27T09:04:00.001-08:00

Jilly had some supervised play time with the cat's scratching toy, it has cardboard in the middle and a ball that sits in a groove that they can spin around. Jilly loved it. I think Jilly is trying hard not to go potty in her pen on her puppy pad, because she whines in the morning to wake us up and hasn't gone at all the last two nights. She also did very good with her housetraining yesterday!

Kitty and Elphie were not especially thrilled to see Jilly playing with their scratching toy, but they still watched her do it.

Winning Hearts All Over...

2008-12-26T17:19:00.000-08:00

Jilly has met *lots* of new people these last couple of days. And she has won over *all* of them. Even my father in law and my brother in law. Last night everyone was fighting over who got to hold her. She had six people playing with her and she didn't have a single nap yesterday due to having too many people to play with.

She did have a short nap today, but otherwise, has been up for the whole day. She got lots of new toys from Petco and Craig's relative's pet store. She met some really nice service dogs that go to nursing homes and hospitals to comfort people and she tried some new treats. She's been a very good girl and has *loved* meeting everyone. She'll follow a person, no matter who he/she is, as long as they're walking somewhere. Even Craig's grandma/great aunt were smitten by her.

Jilly also has a most favoritest toy in the world, a giant stuffed Octopus, it's three or four times the size as her. I do have pictures, but there's a bit of a backlog, so you'll have to wait to see them. For now, enjoy some sleeping Jilly pictures!!!

Sometimes her sleep is interrupted by Kitty...

Jilly and Me...

2008-12-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

Craig took these pictures a few days ago, I made individual draft postings with pictures at that time and have been slowly posting them, so that it wouldn't be tons of pictures all at once.

All of Her Pee is Melted...

2008-12-23T22:04:00.004-08:00

That's what Craig said, when picking up Jilly to go out for her final potty break before bed. I thought it was funny. Jilly got her zoomies out of the way much earlier today, adnd they were partly expressed with Kitty. They both played in the cube today, which was cute. I got some pictures of her wearing her little pink and grey shirt, but I probably won't get them posted for a day or two. She's *very* cute in it though. We're getting her used to wearing a shirt so that she's ready for her Christmas shirt on Christmas Day.

Nothing Wrong...

2008-12-23T11:55:00.000-08:00

The doctor that did my surgery called. They did genetic testing on the baby. Nothing was wrong with it. No chromosomal problems. At least not the common ones. No explanation.

2008-12-23T09:34:00.001-08:00

Here, I have gathered the cutest pictures of Jilly we have.

This one is my favorite. Craig thinks it's because she looks like a little horse, doing a levade.

This one is Craig's favorite, as far as cuteness goes...

Kitty has played even more with Jilly today. At one point I had all three animals sitting in the living room, watching me flick a cat toy on a string back and forth.

Ups and Downs...

2008-12-22T21:49:00.000-08:00

I've been having some really unsettling dreams the last couple of nights. And with each night of bad dreams my days get lower and lower. I'm not sure why, I'm hoping it's just hormones. I was on the verge of tears for the entire day today, unlike the regular mood with the random crying jag I've had until now.

But, on a good note, there was more Jilly progress today. I started teaching her to shake, in addition to working on sit, down, stand, and touch. We also decided it would be good for Craig to try asking her to do things, and she responded very well to his commands to sit, stand, down, and touch. I was very impressed with her responses, because I really thought that he would have to do *some* retraining, even if it was a quick refresher, but as soon as he had the hand signals right she was trucking right along for him. It was awesome.

Kitty also chased Jilly a couple of times today. Jilly wasn't quite sure what to think of it, but Kitty was getting into it. It all started when Kitty was sitting on the floor, amongst the things that Jilly was learning to touch, during our training session. She was *very* interested in what Jilly and I were doing, trying to figure out exactly why Jilly was doing all of those silly things for me I think. Once I picked everything up and put it back on the coffee table Kitty started eyeing Jilly with that "let's play" look, and she chased her a bit.

I thought it was great progress. Jilly also figured out that she could jump one of her living room barier and gain access to the dining room. That was great fun. Craig piled some towels on the ammo can that is her barrier, and she just climbed right over the towels, even quicker than jumping the barrier by itself. So the ammo can is now on a pile of books, which is successfully thwarting Jilly.

It's still very cold, but Jilly is getting better and better at wearing her little jackets, and I think they help some, when we're outside. We only go out long enough to potty and then she gets her treat and comes straight back in. Right now coming in is as much of a reward as playing in the yard was when it was warmer. Though Jilly did venture out into the yard a bit while it was still sunny outside.

2008-12-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

Jilly, sit...

Jilly, lay down...

Jilly, stand...

Jilly, lay down...

Jilly, sit...

Obviously these pictures were not taken during training, they are used here solely for illustrative purposes. We added something new last night, "touch". The previous night we had started on touching an upside down jar candle. Last night, on Craig's suggestion, we worked on it more. With a flashlight, magnet, wallet, closed knife, and burnt out light bulb. It was amazing how quickly she caught on. When I added something new and pointed at it while saying touch she would go through and touch everything we'd been working on, before finally coming back to what I was pointing at. After that, she would have no problems touching it. I think that knowing to "touch" is going to come in handy for teaching her to ring a bell to go outside.

I was using the clicker while teaching her to touch, which I think helped a lot. Toward the end I was even making it harder by simply pointing at what I wanted her to touch and saying touch, instead of tapping it myself. Now we just need to get her some bells!

First Case of the Zoomies...

2008-12-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Jilly is experiencing her first case of the zoomies since coming to live with us. I had to crate her while I ellipticalled (she was fine on the bed for the first 17 minutes, then she started whining and I couldn't watch her and elliptical at the same time). She also hasn't been playing in the yard hardly at all due to the cold (-14 degrees with windchill!). Though we did take her out for a photo shoot during the bit of sunlight this morning.

So now, after going potty regularly tonight, she has a case of the zoomies. It's pretty cute, especially since a great part of her zoomies includes running up and down the ramp onto and off of the couch. I think she's going to *love* agility.

On me news, I worked out today. 23 minutes on the elliptical and 2 sets of 40 push ups (mostly on my knees). I have a physical fitness test in March and I need to make up for not being able to do push ups while pregnant, and not working out to the extent that I normally would. Fortunately I didn't gain any weight, though I did lose fitness.

When Kitty Thinks of Jilly...

2008-12-21T12:23:00.000-08:00

When Kitty thinks of Jilly you can tell. Because she gets this look on her face...

Jilly is doing soooo well with her training. I wasn't sure how to transition her from following the treats into sitting/standing/downing. So I started focusing more on my hand position, so that she would associated my hand position with what she was supposed to do. I then started to hold my hand further from her when asking her to do something, and she actually did it, right where she was, instead of scooching closer to my hand, where the treat was. At the end of our second training session last night I tried asking her to do everything while I was standing, instead of kneeling in front of her, and she did them! I was surprised, because even though I didn't have my hand right in front of her anymore, I was still having my hand near the ground for down, near her face for sit, and eye level for stand. But when I stood up she would lay down, even though my hand was a couple feet above the ground, just flat though. I'm still clicking whenever she does what I asked too. We also started working on "touch" last night, teaching her to put her paw on an upside down jar candle. She caught on very quickly. I think she definitely knows what the clicker means, since if she's walking away from me and I click it, she stops, turns to me, and sits, waiting for her treat. I only did it twice, just to see how she responded to a click.

She's picked up a new habit though, she goes "fishing" in her water bowl. Sometimes she even *stands* in her water bowl and splashes around. We've replaced the towels lining her pen with a sheet of linoleum. So to make up for not being able to drag her towels into the bowl she put her bird in the bowl. It's *still* soaked. Today she got to run around outside, off leash, which she thought was fun, but she was more than willing to come in, due to the cold and the wind.

I'm a little concerned because she doesn't eat breakfast. Last night she gobbled up dinner for a change, but in the morning she has no interest in food whatsoever. She gets food during training though, and of course, treats when she goes potty outside. I would just feel better if she ate *something* for breakfast!

Two Furballs, and a Couch...

2008-12-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

Jilly is progressing right along with her training. Under the advice of a friend we have started reprimanding Jilly for barking at the cats. She very rarely barks, mainly at the cats and her reflection in the door. Of course, the cats generally growl or hiss at Jilly to begin with, but, their growling and hissing isn't nearly as loud, plus they won't be going outside where they think it will be acceptable to growl and hiss at everything. In the beginning we would try distracting Jilly with a squeaky toy or something, but she would be too caught up in interacting with the cats. So now I make my "aaaaah aaaaah aaaaah" sound, that I use on Sophie and she stops what she's doing, sits facing me, and looks. We started doing it last night, and today she let Elphie enter the living room and walk by without barking at all. She did run toward her, but she never gets too close to the cats, and she backs up from where she stops every time too.

She's becoming much better at using her ramp. Today she even grabbed her unicorn and took off down the ramp with it. She quickly tired of her unicorn and ran to her pen where she proceeded to remove every toy from her pen and place each one in the middle of the living room. The only downside to the ramp is that she takes all of her toys off the couch, so I have to get up and get them once she finally settles down on the couch.

We had one training session so far today, and she did *very* well. She is getting to be very good at sit, down, and stand. She sits without popping all the way up first from the down position. Just straight into sit. She is starting to respond to the positioning of my hand, not just following the treat. For example, I can ask her to sit from the down position with my hand over a foot from her nose, and she sits directly up, instead of coming toward the treat to sit. I'm not sure what to do with my hand during stand though. I'm just glad she's going into stand so well now, instead of hopping along on her but like she's riding one of those bouncey balls with a handle.

Smarter Than Your Average Dog...

2008-12-19T17:47:00.000-08:00

It is becoming hard to practice "sit" with Jilly. Whenever I am working with her, she sits. All the time. So we've been working on lay down and stand as well. I'm using the clicker, just to click the instant she does what I want, so that if I'm clumsy with giving her the treat, she understands she was good and did what I wanted. She's very good at lay down and sit, when I'm holding a treat. Actually, she sits as soon as I say her name, so I think that right now she thinks "Jilly" means sit. When I ask her to stand and use the treat to lure her into standing, she hops, still in the sitting position forward. She refuses to stand up, just keep sitting but moving toward the treat, it's sooooo cute. She started getting the hang of it though, and right now going from lay down to sit consists of her popping straight up into the air for the treat, then settling into a sit.

I made stairs out of boxes for her, and she didn't use it much, but then we put pillows to make it more into a ramp and she loves it. She's still doing a good job of going potty outside, and Kitty is closer to playing with her. This afternoon Kitty was sleeping on my lap and Jilly was on the cushion, by the end of the nap Jilly's hind feet were touching Kitty and neither were caring, even after they noticed.

More Torture...

2008-12-18T21:24:00.000-08:00

Today Jilly suffered through her first nail trim at our house. I only did her front feet because she really disliked it, but she put up with it and was faily good (but squirmed a lot for the last two nails on each front paw). I even did her nails without needing Craig to hold her still. I'm going to try to handle her feet every day to get her more used to it.

Jilly did very good with potty training today, she went much longer (2 to 4 hours) between potty breaks (yesterday she went out almost every hour and a half). She slept most of the day, because yesterday was the vet/pet store visit and then my parents visited in the evening, so Jilly was hyper all day, excited about the company.

I tried making her a little staircase to get up on the couch, but she isn't really using it, it's much easier for us to just pick her up! Kitty and Jilly kind of played together today. Kitty ran after Jilly a couple of times, and Jilly has become more daring in her runs toward Kitty. Jilly also started really going after her Kong and her other food stuff chew toy, which is good. She's ignored them up until now.

We're watching Gremlins in honor of Jilly, since I think Papillons look at little like Gizmo. I even made it further in the movie, normally I have to turn it off once the other gremlins start being mean to Gizmo before they turn all green.

Oh, and Jilly likes string cheese! She got a couple of small pieces of string cheese yesterday so that she'd eat her heartworm and dewormer pills (I folded cheese over each pill and she didn't even notice them. I was surprised, she ate them right up, much easier than giving a pill to a horse, or a cat!

I'm working on more pictures to share, I'll probably have them ready tomorrow.

I Took a Pregnancy Test Yesterday...

2008-12-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

It was still positive, but the line was very faint. I can't decide if I want it to hurry up and go away, or to linger longer.

Jilly's Such a Good Girl!

2008-12-17T05:56:00.001-08:00

Wow, was Jilly ever good today, and we've only been up for 15 minutes! We woke up and all was quiet in the house. Odd. The night before, Jilly quieted down quickly but started whining and crying very loudly in the morning. I was a little worried she was dead. But when we went into the living room she jumped up and started wagging her tail, so we took her out and she went potty right away! And she pooped too. She didn't "go" in her pen at all last night. Jilly was served breakfast in her crate, she wasn't too thrilled about that, even though the door was still off. The food bowl was at the back of the crate and she would walk in, grab a piece of food and back out to eat it.

Jilly got even better as the morning went on. She had a check up with our vet this morning and she did great. Only shook a little and ran around on the floor while we waited. Everone at the vet's office said she was the cutest puppy they've ever seen. They loved the way she prances too. When we put her up on the table she shook again, but by the end of the visit she was laying down, licking the table, no longer shaking.

After that we took her to Jack's Aquarium and Pet Store to exchange one of her brushes and pick out a new toy for her. Once we got home I took her out back and she went potty. She only played a little once we got back inside and she is currently passed out on the couch, she's had a *very* busy day.

Last night we were signing the paperwork to refinance our house and the woman that brought the papers over if we asked if we had kids. She then said that raising our puppy would be like raising a kid. That was kind of hard to discuss, so I went and picked up Jilly and she sat on my lap at the table for a while. Then I put her back in her pen and she went right to sleep. The people at the vet's office said that they thought we looked like new parents with her. Jilly has been good for us though. I wish we would have gotten her under different circumstances, but so far everything is going really well, and getting her was the best decision for us.

Pictures of Jilly...

2008-12-16T21:13:00.000-08:00

Don't forget, if you want to see larger versions of any of the pictures just click on them!

This is Jilly at the breeder's. You can see why we fell in love with her furry face at first sight!

Craig and Jilly during out initial meeting...

Jilly, her mom, and her dad...

Jilly's dad

Jilly's mom...

Jilly with her dad...

Jilly at home today...her left ear has been a little droopy since we brought her home. I'm not sure if it's stress or what, but it was perky before she came home!

Jilly at home today (again)

Craig and Jilly today...

More of Craig and Jilly today...

Right after Jilly licked Craig's face...

Jilly is starting to associate going potty with playing. A couple of times today, as soon as she went potty she took off toward the grass. It was pretty cute. She's doing pretty good still with sitting for her toy to be thrown, though I don't ask every time, and not first thing in the morning, because she's way too wound up to concentrate. She *almost* got Kitty to chase her today as well. Tonight she went through a period of barking every time she saw a cat, I'm not really sure why. And I'm pretty convinced that she was barking at her reflection in the back door, silly girl.

Torturing Jilly...

2008-12-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

Jilly had her first bath today. She did really well (at least to me, I'm not sure what well is for a first bath). I washed her in the kitchen sink in our dish water tub, and Craig stood by to provide an extra set of hands for when I needed to do something (and to dump the tub she was standing in when it became too full). I shampooed and conditoned her, she whimpered and shook the whole time, but stood pretty well. After that we wrapped her in a towel and hand dried her a bit. Then Craig held her so that she stayed in one place while I blow dried her with the hair dryer on low. She accepted that ok, whimpered a bit and tried to move away, but it wasn't too bad. She dried very quickly and I brushed her at the same time. She was so cute and fluffy after we were done!

Right now she's going potty outside every two hours or so, then we have a big party and run around the yard and act all crazy. It's fun. She's getting really good about running alongside us. Each time we take her a little further along the side of the house, she gets a little nervous because the gap between the house and the fence is much narrower. I'm not sure when she'll be ready to go for "walks". We'll probably discuss it with the trainer at the puppy class we take her to. I'd imagine that it won't be until she's going potty a little more reliably. One of the training manuals we read suggested teaching your dog to go potty first thing, and then go for a walk, so that it doesn't think going potty means they don't get to go for a walk or have fun outside. So when we take her outside we stand in one spot until she goes potty, then we go into the yard and play. If she doesn't go potty we go back inside.

She spent about 30-45 minutes in a little crate today. Craig took her outside to go potty and she didn't (we wait at least 3 minutes for her to go), so she got a big drink of water and went into the crate with her Kong. Craig sat next to her and when she stopped whining about being in the crate he'd praise her and give her a piece of food. She would start whining again, so he would ignore her until she stopped, and then praise her. Within 20 minutes she was completely quiet, just watching him (he would praise her every few minutes for continuing to be quiet) and 10 minutes after she quieted down she fell asleep. When she woke up she went outside to go potty and then we gave her the bath so that she would be dry before it was time to go out again.

We've started recording when she drinks, eats, and goes poop or pee, so that we can predict better when she'll need to go, and look for patterns in her behavior. We play with toys on the living room floor until she stops running and lays down to chew, then she moves to the couch and chews on her toys and eventually falls asleep. When she wakes up she goes outside to go potty, and if she doesn't, then she'll go in her crate until she potties outside.

She did great during the day yesterday, and then we had some trouble at night. I'm not sure if she's less comfortable in the dark, or what. So we're making sure to be more vigilant and give her firmer boundaries (the crate) to encourage her to go outside so that we have the chance to praise her and let her know that's what she's supposed to do.

Sit Jilly!

2008-12-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

Today I worked on "sit" with Jilly. I would hold a treat in front of her and move it back toward her head and she would beg and then finally sit. I would say sit as I did it and she did really well. I think she just thinks she has to sit to get a treat, not sit when I say "sit", but that's ok. We only did it about 10 times. She really wanted her treats because she refused to settle down and eat her breakfast this morning. She used her litterbox last night and she peed outside this morning, which was very good. After she went outside she got to play in the drain water next to the house and go for a walk around the yard. She's already doing a lot better with coming back to the house with us, on her own feet. She made it as far as putting her front feet up on the ledge leading into the house this morning.

Kitty has been growling at her more today, probably because of the whining last night, lol. She didn't whine for very long after we went to bed though. She whined some this morning, but since we're leaving her in the living room it wasn't very loud and she got tired of it quickly. She's passed out on the couch right now, having a nap. Kitty jumped up on the couch next to her and sniffed her feet, Kitty is now sleeping on top of the couch, right above Jilly. Elphie went in and examined Jilly's pen again.

Jilly has been learning fetch today. If you roll a miniature tennis ball or throw her stuffed pig she'll bound after it and then run back. Sometimes she only runs halfway and lays down to chew on it, but she generally brings it the rest of the way after she chews on it a bit.

Right now Craig and Jilly are playing fetch. I hadn't realized how far she'd come today until Craig came home and she wouldn't do anything she and I'd been doing all day with him. Instead she would just run to me. So ever since he came home we've been having Craig be the one to interact with Jilly, as far as taking her outside and playing with her after she goes potty. Then when she's tired enough to be on the couch she sits on the cushion next to me after sitting on Craig a bit. She's been such a good girl. We've been practicing putting her in her pen. Whenever we eat she stays in her pen, and then an hour after she ate dinner we put her in her pen and praised her when she was quiet. When she was quiet the second time we waited a little longer, praised her, and let her out. I'll probably continue that during the day tomorrow, to help her get used to being in her pen and waiting quietly to be let out.

I brushed her and she's so fluffy and pretty. We'll probably give her a bath tomorrow, once Craig gets back, or before he leaves. I could probably handle it on my own, but for her first bath I'd like to have an extra pair of hands, until we know what she's like for baths. I'm debating whether I should try a drier on her, it might give her a heart attack. I ran the vacuum today and she was barking at it while in her pen, it was cute. She arfed at Kitty a couple of times today, but that was because Kitty was growling at her, but she really hasn't barked much at all.

Jilly is also proving to be smarter than even we imagined. Tonight she whimpered and pawed at the backdoor, so Craig took her out, where she only wanted to play (he doesn't let her play, just stands in one spot and waits for her to go potty). So he brought her back in and within 5 minutes she was pawing and *really* whimpering at the door. We debated if she really needed to go out to potty or if we'd just taughter her to paw at the door when she wanted to go outside and play. She answered the question for us by peeing right next to the door. Oops. So now everytime she asks to go outside we're going to take her, and just be vigilant to stand in one place so that she doesn't get much playing done. And then if she does go potty we praise her, give her treats, and take her for a lap around the backyard, playing and acting as crazy as she wants the whole time. Hopefully that will lead her to only ask to go out if she needs to go potty, or at least to go potty every time she goes outside so that she then gets to play.

We were just surprised that she'd figured out so quickly to paw at the door to go out, and that she was doing it at appropriate times! Tonight I started asking her to sit before I threw her toy for her. She did a *very* good job of sitting before I threw the toy, though I still don't think she knows that "sit" means sit. Most of the time I need to hold the toy in front of her and move it toward the back of her head. I still can't get over how adorable she is, she keeps doing the cutest things!

You do the Hokey Pokey and You Turn Yourself Around...

2008-12-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

Jilly is home, safe and sound. We arrived at the breeder's right on time. We spent about an hour visiting with the breeder and Jilly and Jilly's parents. She was so much cuter in person than the pictures! Which is saying a lot, because she's pretty darn cute in the pictures. Her little face stripe has gotten thinner and is simply adorable. She greeted us along with the other dogs and her parents were very friendly and loving. We took a couple of toys in for her to see and had a really good time. I did take some pictures of her parents, so I'll get those posted in a bit. After a little more than an hour, we hit the road. I think Jilly knew something was up, because she started whining while I was holding her. We got in the car and headed out after getting a few treats out for her. Then the crying began.

She cried and cried and cried, and whined, and whined. She sounded so sad and pathetic, and she was shaking. I tried talking to her, offering her toys and treats, petting her, you name it. Then I tried singing, for some reason the first song that popped into my head was The Hokey Pokey. So that's what I sang, while making her little crazy bird toy dance. She quieted down almost immediately. So I tried a couple of other songs and she started whining again, howling, almost. I went back to The Hokey Pokey and she quieted down again. It was so weird. I must have sung The Hokey Pokey to her at least 40 times. As soon as I stopped or tried talking to her or singing something else she'd whine again.

At one point her cries got really frantic, so we stopped in a parking lot and took her out to go potty and she went right away, we were so proud of her. After we'd been driving for an hour and a half she started to doze off, her head would drop, and then bounce up all of the sudden and she'd whine a little. The last 20 minutes to PetSmart went like that, and I didn't have to sing nearly as much.

We went to PetSmart to get her a big pen and a couple of jackets. My sister works next to PetSmart, so she met us there (we arrived just as she was getting off work) so that she could meet Jilly and help us pick things out for her since she knows a lot more about dogs than I do. She seemed to like her a lot, she carried her around most of the time in PetSmart. We also got Jilly a soft, cushy pink bed.

Jilly did really well in PetSmart though. She didn't whine at all, she did shake a little in the beginning, but stopped quickly. We headed home from there and the last 2 hours of the drive went really well. She slept most of the way and when we stopped to let her go potty she didn't even shake while outside, or once back in the car.

Then we arrived at home. We gave her the chance to go potty outside and she didn't want to, so into the house she went. Kitty was waiting. Jilly saw Kitty and gave a couple of "arfs!" and Kitty growled. Jilly growled. Kitty puffed up her tail. And that was about it. They've touched noses a few times. Kitty sat in Jilly's pen with her (on the other end) for a while, while Jilly ate and then whined about being in her pen. Elphie jumped on her once, accidentally, because she didn't know Jilly was on that end of the couch until she practically landed on her. Mainly, Jilly and the cats watch each other, but Jilly hasn't done anymore barking or growling. Though she did bark at the neighbor that was outside grilling when I took her out to go potty.

She's passed out on the couch right now, on the empty cushion next to me, and Kitty is curled up on my other side. Jilly did go potty on her litter pan, despite our taking her outside every 45 minutes. But that's ok. As soon as she went potty we let her out of her pen (the last hour before she went potty she was kept in her pen and taken out every 20 minutes). She still gets too excited when going outside to think about going potty. She doesn't like being in her pen, but it's in the living room and we sit in here too, quietly working and ignoring her. She hasn't whined very badly at all, and quickly settles down to chew on her toys or sleep. We'll see how she is tonight, since she's done a lot of sleeping this evening.

Craig and I have both been working on encouraging her to come with us while on the lead. And tonight I was crawling from one end of the living room to the other, calling her once I got as far away as possible and then praising the heck out of her when she came to me. Craig came up with the idea of using a piece of my model horse shelving (the kind that sits on brackets drilled into the wall) to block off the kitchen/entryway doorways. Worked like a charm and they're only 14 or so inches tall, so the cats can jump them easily. So far Jilly hasn't tried to jump out, though I don't think it will be long before she can if she wants. She still needs us to lift her up and down on the couch, but she makes it pretty apparent when she wants up or down.

The cats are handling her appearance much better than we thought they would. Kitty will sit within 2 feet of her on the couch, Elphie isn't quite as friendly, but she also isn't hiding, so overall we're really pleased. Craig and I have both fallen in love with Jilly in just one day. She may not go potty when we take her outside but she looks so cute diving into the grass and chasing leaves. And I'm sure the potty issue will come along soon, plus, as long as she's using the litter box, we're happy!

Meet Jilly...

2008-12-14T06:43:00.000-08:00

It's kind of funny that I'm writing a meet Jilly entry, when *I* haven't even met Jilly yet, but I do have some pictures to share. Jilly is a Papillon puppy. She was born September 29, 2008, near Cleveland, OH. We're picking her up in just a few hours, but the breeder said that it would be ok for me to use the pictures she's sent me on my blog and website, so I wanted to get a baby Jilly entry up.

Craig and I were going through a rough time emotionally, we had a doctor's appointment at 11 weeks and discovered that the baby did not have a heartbeat. It was also measuring 3 weeks too small. We were devastated and in the week before my D&C, unsure of how to mourn. One night the power went out (which it tends to do for no reason which I still don't understand), so we decided to go out for dinner. We went to Outback and then did some Christmas shopping. Then we went to Petland. I just wanted to look at the puppies, because they always make me feel better, even if they are in small cages and lonely.

One of the puppies was a Papillon, and just the cutest thing ever. The girl that worked there got the puppy out and we held it and played with it. It was quiet and sweet, and had the biggest ears on its little head. I fell in love with the puppy, but not with where it came from and the price tag. So we went home and did more research on Papillons and got more and more excited about the breed. We started contacting brreders and found one with two puppies available. We started talking to breeder and working out the details to pick up Jilly on December 14th.

We're planning on teaching Jilly basic obedience commands, as many tricks as possible, and doing agility with Jilly, even if it's just using some homemade obstacles in our back yard. Jilly was being called Lola at the breeder's, but we like our animals names to end with the "ee" sounds (Jessie, Sophie, Kitty, Elphie, etc) and my sister suggested Jilly. We thought it was really cute and the breeder thought it was very British (Jilly's daddy came from England and her mommy came from Canada).

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Meet Elphie...

2008-12-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

Elphie is a year younger than Kitty and came from a Jack's Aquarium and Pets. We picked her out right after closing on our house, she was the friendliest kitten in the pet store, and reminded me of Anya, the cat I had while in New Jersey that died while I was in Korea. We asked the pet store if we could pick her up in a week, after we visited Craig's parents. We stopped by my parents house on the way back to pick up Kitty and then Jack's to pick up Elphie. Then we went on to the new house, where the two cats could meet for the first time.

Elphie's real name is Elphaba, because Craig and I got engaged the same weeked we saw Wicked on Broadway. We have since seen Wicked off Broadway two more times. (Elphaba is the name of the Wicked Witch in the book/musical). Fortunately Elphie was small enough that Kitty didn't find her too threatening, and Kitty mainly avoided Elphie while Elphie followed Kitty like a shadow.

Elphie is still in love with Kitty, though she comes to Craig and I when she wants petted. She'll sometimes sleep with me, or curl up on the couch with me, but not nearly to the extent that Kitty does. She plays fetch with Craig but otherwise he's kind of petless in a household full of pets. Hopefully Jilly is a more neutral pet, looking to both of us for affection.

Kitty wasn't quite sure what to think of this little black furry thing. I expect we'll be seeing this look a bit once Kitty lays eyes on Jilly too!

Meet Kitty...

2008-12-13T19:45:00.000-08:00

Kitty is the cat we got in Korea. She belonged to one of the Staff Sergeants that was working for me. His wife became pregnant and they decided to find Kitty a new home. So Craig and I decided that we would bring her back to the States with us, so we took her back to the base and she became the Housing Office mascot. She lived there from December through May. It was her personal playground.

In the beginning I kept her in the key closet and would sit with her for hours. Then she was allowed out during the day and put in the closet at night. Finally, she was allowed out all the time. She personally greeted nearly everyone that came into the office, when she wasn't sleeping on my lap, desk, or the window behind my chair. She would have a few visitors every day, she really brightened lives in Korea, just by being her friendly, furry self.

I have a few pictures of her, so I'm just going to post the first batch. You may be wondering about the name. Her name in Korea was Yongi. But I wanted to call her Talia, except felt weird about renaming the cat when her old owners were seeing her every day. So we started calling her Kitty around the office, thinking we'd change it when we got back to the States. Except by then she was pretty settled with the name. Oh, and you know what Yongi means in English? Kitty.

Kitty, Elphie, and Jilly...

2008-12-12T14:06:00.000-08:00

This blog is a spinoff of my other blog, Dressage Beginnings. Here I'll post my non-horse pictures, and about my non-horse life. Topics will include my husband, Craig, and our pets, Kitty, Ephie, and Jilly. Jilly isn't ours yet, we're picking her up on Sunday, but she's a Papillon puppy that was born on Craig's birthday (though years later!). Kitty is the cat we got while stationed in Korea. We hired a professional pet shipping company to transport her from Korea to the States and she's lived with us ever since. Elphie is our "kitten", though she's full grown now, we got her to keep Kitty company for while we are gone during the day.

It'll be interesting to see how Kitty and Elphie adapt to Jilly. Heck, to see how Craig and I adapt to Jilly! As she is our first dog. We're planning on teaching her basic obedience commands, and trying agility and clicker training, depending on how she likes those things.

And of course, poor Craig is now completely outnumbered by girls, me, Sophie, Kitty, Elphie, and now Jilly. Poor guy!