We arrive on time to pick up Echo, unfortunately she grew a lot more then we thought and our crate was too small.  Fortunately she’s tired so we figure Aaron can hold her on the way home.  No such luck she barked and barked and barked.  Poor Aaron he was crying because she was making so much noise and he figured she was sad and looking for her family.  Let me tell you, it was pull over and pull out the GPS and look for the nearest pet store.  Thank goodness for GPS’s since it was only 10 min drive until we got a crate big enough for her to stand in.  So now we had Echo in a proper crate and our plan was to head home.  She’s decided that she was going to tell us exactly what she thinks of our plan for at least 45 min.  I had to explain to Aaron several times that it’s ok she’s just looking for her pack and doesn’t realize yet that we are her pack.  Aaron told me it’s making him feel like a bad parent listening to her.  By the time we hit the 407 she was asleep, unfortunately when we hit the 400 she started up again.

We got home and put her in the big play pen for her…..one of those big 8 panel dog crates and she was sort of ok in there but not really happy.  And she’s smart.  At one time while she was in the crate she sat there barking at us and then she sat down, raised her snout and howled.  Right after she howled she looked at us to see if we were going to react.  Then she howled again, stop look, repeat.  After 4 howls though she gave up seeing how we didn’t react.  She is perfectly content and happy if we close off a room and keep her with us.  She even makes the pee pad by the door most of the time.  We’ve only missed one floor poop and one floor pee.  But then by the time she’s squatted and we know what’s happening it’s too late to take her outside.

She has this great big fluffy blue round doggy bed and she either attacks it and tries to drag it around or she grabs her rope bone and tries to get on top of the bed and chews her bone, though most of the time she rolls off.

Echo defiantly doesn’t like the crate at night.  The first night wasn’t bad however last night she barked all night.  And the moment the alarm went off (I’m sure she heard it) her barking took on a new level of angry barking.  However she’s all smiles when she’s finally let out and can go outside and have something to drink.

Things that we know she likes:

1.       Being outside

2.       Digging in her doggy bathroom

3.       Being with people, the playpen isn’t good enough she wants to be right with you

4.       Playing in her water bowl.  If you give her more than a tiny bit of water at a time and she digs it all out and then looks for more to drink.

Currently the cats have no idea what to make of her and they haven’t really gotten close.  We’ve had one hiss and one panic running away of a cat but that is all.  And that’s good because the cats also haven’t gone off their food or their litter box so I believe that everything will be ok.

Echo goes for her vet check today.  On the first day I did notice something on her stomach (towards her back end) that at first I thought was from coming home and having a poop and then lying in it but now I think maybe it is her umbilical cord area or something……well obviously it isn’t a issue but it’s nothing I ever noticed on the cats but then male cats are not female dogs

Echo also loves to sit or lie by our feet and is even starting to learn the word sit, or at least she’s learning that it’s better to sit in front of us then jump up on us if she wants us to play.  She really seems to be settling down especially when she’s in the same room with us.  She chases her toys, comes over for play, goes by the door to be taken outside and is defiantly learning her name.

The neighbours have seen her and said she looks like a little bear.  And as soon as the Vet lets us she’ll be getting 3 walks a day.  We’ve had her on and off leash in the back yard so she’s already familiar with being on a leash.  We’ve got a dog seatbelt harness for her (currently the small size) and we plan on taking her with us a lot in the car for short runs so that she’s comfortable in the car. 

And lastly we’re using positive training, so when she’s jumping up for attention instead of telling her no or down we’re telling her to sit, helping her to sit and then playing with her and praising her.  She ate something on Saturday, a full cup of Dry on Sunday and so far not much today but based on Sunday’s eating she seems to eat more as the day goes on.  We put out 1/3 of a cup in the morning and it’s hardly touched, 1/3 in the afternoon and she eats most of it.  All of the food from the day’s serving in the evening and she eats pretty much all of what is left then.  She eats a bit comes for play, eats some more and comes back….generally it’s done within 15 min.  We’re feeding her the Pro-plan mixed with a bit of something called Orijin Dog food.  It’s 75% meats and 25% veggies with no grains in it.  We have some of their dry cat food mixed in with the main coon cat food which our cats like.

So at least to us it looks like things are going well…..she is a great dog and truly is happiest when she is physically part of our family. 

 So…

Long time no update but hey life has been busy.

This past weekend was Aaron’s 11^th birthday.  And for his birthday we had 2 kids come over for to see the new Jackie Chan/Jet Li Movie, Forgotten Kingdom, followed by dinner and a sleep over.  On Monday we went and picked out his present this year.  A puppy.  We had hoped to get one around his birthday but didn’t expect it to all work out.

So Introducing the newest member of our Family….Echo!  Echo will be home in a few weeks.

Additional to his birthday was our Wedding Anniversary and Mother’s day all in the space of one weekend….And how did I spend Mothers day?  Painting Aaron’s room, taking him shopping to spend birthday money, cooking dinner for mom….and of course playing on the computer J