The dog has gone and lost her mind

This is Sophia Rose. Yes, she gets a little excited when people come to visit, but all in all she's a good girl. Yesterday, however, she went a little insane.

While Princess and I were upstairs getting ready for the day, Sophia Rose was downstairs shredding an empty carton of heavy cream. This adventure was followed by shredding a used (EWWWW!!!) tissue. As if that wasn't enough, when Princess and I went out to run some errands, Sophia Rose dug through my basket of stuff, that I take with me almost everywhere, to find a Clif Bar with chocolate in it. She ate the whole thing. Chocolate is poison for dogs. After calling the vet, my dog guru friend and researching on the internet, I determined that the level of chocolate was low enough not to worry.

Did you think she was done? Oh no, no, no! Once the chocolate panic/drama was over and I was finally relaxing, I turned around to find the dog standing on the dining room table!!! What the heck?!?! Can we get back to our regularly scheduled dog now? Please?

Wardrobe Wednesday

Poor puppy! It seems Sophia Rose has developed an infection. She is on an antibiotic, which she loves because she gets to have peanut butter.We're also applying ointment to the area (which she hates with the fire of a thousand suns), thus the lovely fashion accessory, to keep her from removing the ointment. She looks so sad, doesn't she? I can hardly get her to go outside. Seriously! I think she's embarassed.

Head on over to Heathen Family Revival to check out their fashion statement.

Wardrobe Wednesday

This is a slightly different Wardrobe Wednesday. Here I present Sophia Rose the way she looked when we first got her. They had shaved her fur when she arrived at the rescue place because she was so matted.


Here she is two months later. Fur is growing in and she's getting all fluffy. LK refers to her as Fuzz Ball. Isn't she so cute?!

She is also totally housebroken now and has been for about a month. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about that part because I've never done that before. Positive reinforcement goes a lohohohong way, as does realizing that when they potty in the house it's pretty much the fault of the person, not the dog.

My friend HerbiFaery recommended a book called The Tao of Bow Wow. It is a fabulous book and I highly recommend it. The Dog Whisperer DVD with Paul Owens has a lot of good information as well. This one really helped with the fact that Sophia Rose is a small dog. It's harder to train them to sit the way you would a larger dog. We used the "magnet game" and it worked beautifully. I think that these two things complement each other well.

Happy Wardrobe Wednesday! Head on over to Heathen Family Revival to see what the founder of Wardrobe Wednesday is up to.

How ever did you know?!

Princess has accepted the fact that we won't be having a baby. She is actually in a place that she likes being an only child. She has not, however, accepted not having a pet. A real pet. Fish don't count. I started thinking about it and talked with the Lizard King. Yes, you all guessed it. But really, it was pretty easy. ;) We decided we would get a dog. Princess was elated.

This isn't such a simple thing because we are all allergic to dogs. Well, I suppose it would have been easier if we went to a breeder, but we wanted to adopt a dog. I've spent the last several months checking PetFinder on a daily basis. Often, I found nothing that would work for us.

Last Friday I found that the Pet Adoption Network in Albany, Oregon had gotten 5 potential dogs and they were having an adoption day at a park in Albany. We went and LK did the allergy test. He is a brave man. He didn't react to two of them, one of which Princess was instantly drawn to.

Meet Sophia Rose.

Sophia Rose is a smart little pup. They say she is around 1 year. She has already learned to sit and lay down...well, in one particular spot. We are working on house training as well as other commands.

This Wishing Tree really seems to work. Several of my wishes have come true, I am shocked to say. I just wish I had been a little more specific in my wishes. Again, you'll have to stay tuned to find out the details. You may have to wait a little longer for this one.

Have a beautiful weekend!