Alice has been a real trooper here in her few days with us. She’s starting to fit into a household life very well!

She loves to play with Cow, and often they can be found chewing on a toy together. Since we only have near-indestructible toys such as ropes, Wubbas, Jolly Balls, and fire-hose stuff, she is learning the difference between Alex’s toys (our kid) and hers. She LOVES trying to eat his Elmo slippers, but doesn’t get farther than running away with it before she’s chastised and gets the toy swapped.

Today Alice met the nail clippers. While she didn’t need her nails clipped, it’s important that we introduce her to as much as possible before she goes to a new home. I laid her down on the couch next to my leg and trimmed her nails while she was calm. To keep the experience positive, I fed her treats between each cut and cooed at her. It went well! There was once when she tried to escape, but treats kept her committed long enough for me to finish!

The rest of today was spent working on recall, sit, and down. She was also extremely snuggly today with all the dogs and me. Below is a video of how well Alice is doing with her commands. She’s a VERY attentive learner… Possibly an ideal trick dog, or participant in agility?

I really enjoy how much Alice looks to Cow for answers. Cow’s an extremely well-behaved dog and will likely rub off good habits on Alice. Cow also looks to Joe and I for direction, so in essence Alice does as well. It’s also just cute that Cow has a brindle shadow.

Today puppy met:

• Nail clippers
• Bath tub
• Nail polish
• Pop corn

Today puppy worked on:

• Sit
• Out
• Down
• Off
• Nail trimmings
• Potty training
• Crate training
• Having feet touched/squeezed/rolled