Double Dog Duty

We are dog sitting this week. It's an interesting process watching someone else's dog for an extended period of time. You don't realize how many quirks a dog has until you need to deal with the quirks of a dog you don't love like your own child. It's kinda like your family. You don't really think about how many quirks your family has until you get married and have to start dealing with the quirks of a whole new family. What I find funny is that with both dogs and family it's the quirks that make you love them when they are yours, yet it's the very same quirks that make you crazy when it's someone else's. And thus poor Gracie has reached the point of driving me crazy. Only one more day to go so we are good, but wow, I will know from this point forward to never agree to a 2 week dog sitting stint.

Gracie is a Pomeranian who we are pretty sure was abused when she was a baby because she is very wary of new people. So when Cynthia dropped her off we were a little concerned that she may not take to the whole new family for a week experience. She dropped her off Saturday night, so Sunday morning was the first time I need to get her out and take her outside. Now, I am an animal person. I am comfortable with animals, and they are generally comfortable with me. Gracie, however, was most definitely not. She was fine with the idea that I would let her out, but she was definitely not fine with the idea that I needed to grab the collar around her neck and put a leash on it. And thus for an entire hour of my life I sat on the floor trying desperately for Gracie to agree to the leashing process. Finally, after three bites (she's small so the bite doesn't hurt that bad, but in my world a bite is a bite, and it's not ok, even if you are scared) we needed to exert some alpha dog vibes. And thus, I took a blanket, threw it over the dog, pushed her against a wall, and put the leash on. It was a very non-invasive, low pain way to get the much needed leash on the much stressed dog so that she could go out and use the bathroom. She was (as can be imagined) not very excited about this experience, but she apparently realized just what I was trying to teach her - I'm not going to hurt you, but I am in charge. And so, suddenly Gracie was much nicer to be around. I didn't take the leash off for the next two days just to make sure we didn't need to reenact the alpha dog experience, but by the end of Wednesday she was letting both Sandor and I pet her, playing with Kaylinn, listening to me when I called her and following me around like a doting dog.

And thus enters the quirks. Once she felt at home with us, she decided that she was safe enough to start running under our feet, circling us with the leash in the morning because she was excited, running under our feet, jumping up and down to get us to look at her, running under our feet, barking to get us to let her out of the crate at 6am, and did I mention running under our feet? Now, Kaylinn loves to be in the same room as us, but this is out of control. Gracie is literally UNDER your feet - as in you stepping on her when you walk from the sink to the stove. It's infuriating when you have a hot pot of dinner and you are trying desperately to both not spill it and not step on a dog.

However, I am happy that Gracie decided that we were in fact not all that scary in the end, and has let us be her friend. She is in total love with Leia. Every time she sees her she gets excited and runs over to her. Leia is not quite as excited with Gracie, but she allows her to sniff her paws as she bats at her. Kaylinn has also realized that Gracie is now comfortable enough to play with her, and so has taken to trying to wrestle with her. It's is really quite cute to watch because Kaylinn realizes that she can't play with her as rough as she does with Dudley and so she does this funny bumping her with her body thing instead of leaping on top and pushing her over. It's quite entertaining, and Gracie seems to love the playing.

I think, however, above all things I will be most excited to not be back in the mode of wondering at any moment if someone is peeing on my floor. It really hasn't been that long since Kaylinn was a puppy, but she is definitely to the point where you can let her run free and know she won't randomly pee on something. It's not that safe when you have a dog you aren't sure how they will act. I don't know if we'll be getting another puppy anytime soon...although I'm likely to forget how crazy it was seeing as how I already have and this is just a reminder :)

Gracie and Kaylinn before I left for work this morning (yes, Kaylinn is in the process of learning how to stay out all day...we still check on her at lunch just to make sure all is well!)