Rosie Update

Rosie is a good dog.  We hit a rough patch for a few days last week.  It wasn’t entirely her fault but it was still frustrating.  She must have got a sour tummy when I switched her food (even though I did it gradually like you’re supposed to) and she kept having accidents in the house.  At frustratingly inconvenient times and in ways that required breaking out our steam cleaner.  Urg! 

She also has proven that she’s not 100% housebroken to begin with (sneaking off to have pee accidents in the other room instead of going to the door).  Also, always at my busiest moments and right when I was thinking “She’s been doing really well, I can probably let her off the leash for a while.”  ERRRRR-wrong!

So poor Rose has been living attached to me by leash or in her crate when I can’t have my attention on her behavior.  Sadly, I can’t just let her outside for any length either because she chews up the kids’ toys.  Once the weather is warmer and our schedule less busy (i.e. when school lets out) I can be outside with her and scold her when she chews on the wrong thing.  She is amazingly responsive to a stern voice.  Rarely do I have to tell her “No” about something more than once – at least when I catch her in the act that is.

She has chosen me as her person and hates when I’m out of her sight.  She really only likes to hang out with other family members if she can still see me.  I hope she relaxes on this a bit once she’s had more time to settle.

While I still suspect she has some Jack Russell Terrier (or as I call them Jack Russell Terrors) she does NOT have a Jack personality at all. She’s my co-couch potato.  The cushion next to my usual spot on the couch is now her place and when I get up she follows me but only to entice me back to the couch.

I’ve been catching her and Towzer in some pretty cute moments lately.  He likes to give her big kisses and they love to play.  Yay!

And today she was most adorable.  Gabe stayed home from school because we’ve been passing around this ridiculous Really Little Cold.  Rosie apparently thought we still needed to get to the bus and WE WERE LATE!  She started frantically jumping up at the baby gate to the laundry room so I opened it for her, she’s never done that before.  Then she scratched at the door to the garage so I opened that too.  Then she dashed around to the side of the van and put her feet up so I opened the door and she jumped in, settled in the back and looked at me like “C’mon, we’re late!”

I had a dickens of a time getting her to come back to me to take her back in the house.  Poor thing was very confused about why we weren’t going to the bus stop.

Yep, she’s a good dog.