Brushing Abby

Abby does really well while we brush her except that she hasn't quite figured out that it's not a game. lol

Four-Month Update

Abby Stats: 1 year old

Abby has turned into a very confident and happy dog. She’s not afraid of anything. She is a regular barker and guards the house well. In fact, just yesterday my mom came to the house while we were at the neighbors’ and rang the doorbell. Both dogs barked of course, but Abby also stuck her head through the cat door to see who was outside. Mom put her face to the window, and Abby, head still stuck through the cat door, growled menacingly at her. I had to laugh when I saw her do it; she looks a little ridiculous with her head sticking through the cat door. It makes me feel good to know that Abby will do a good job intimidating would-be burglars.

Abby walks really well on the leash, though she tends to try to lead. When we take her and Samson out to the square, she will sometimes bark at other dogs when we try to pull her away from them. I think she is just doing this because she is confused or is unsure of how to behave around other dogs that are leashed. It’s definitely something to do with the leashes, because she is always very friendly when she meets dogs when she is free in the back yard.

Other than that, she eats really well, has gotten into a regular schedule about going out, and plays with Oscar regularly. She loves digging in the yard (to our chagrin) and playing with Samson. She gets jealous when he is outside on his own and will bark and whine wanting to go out where he is. She doesn’t seem to mind as much when the situation is reversed and she is outside on her own.

She likes to cuddle and play with us in the floor. Her personality is so much like Ellie's sometimes, but minus all of Ellie's fearfulness. Abby really has been a Godsend for us.

She is very fond of chewing on her toys; we bought her a Kong Extreme about a month ago, and she’s already chewed off a few pieces of it. She also really likes the bones that she has, and has done a very good job of not chewing up much that she is not supposed to. The Christmas tree, however, had its trial by fire not long after we put it up. Somebody (probably Oscar, but possibly also Samson since he likes to get into tight spaces…) knocked the tree over, and we came home to find a bunch of chewed-up ornaments. Luckily none of our good ones were destroyed (it was only the inexpensive decorative ones), but we scolded her really well and she hasn’t paid any attention to the tree since then. She seems to learn very quickly when she does something wrong, and rarely does it more than once.

Also, we discovered today what appears to be a third dew claw on one of her hind legs. It looks so weird and is not like the others. It's sort of soft and looks as though it could just be pulled out or something. Gives me the heeby-jeebies just wrting about it. We might have to have it removed just for being so... creepy. lol

Is that really comfortable?

Abby stats: 9 months old, 80 lbs.

Abby sleeps in variations of this position all the time. Ellie used to do it a lot, too. lol

Abby Loves Playing with Sam

Abby messes around with Samson like this all the time. She has really taken well to him. Samson on the other hand, just sort of puts up with it. lol

Settling In

Abby Stats: 8 months old

Abby is much more confident and comfortable in her new home. She loves going out in the back yard and playing with Samson (though he gets tired of her). She tries to play a lot with Lilly and Lola (a pair of boxer mixes) next door through the fence. She’s very good about going to the door when she wants out. Problem is, she’s not learned when it’s ok for her to go out, when it’s a bad time; she likes to wake us up in the middle of the night… that’s getting a little old.

Abby is left; Samson is right.

Ellie Remembered

Here's the shadowbox that I made and a memorial video as well.

Abby Meets the Fam

Abby Stats: 8 months old, 65 lbs.

Abby is already starting to act very comfortable in the house. Travis’ mom came over, but we did a poor job of introducing Abby to her, so Abby didn’t really want much to do with her. We did a better job when my mom and dad came over; we met them outside in the garage before they came inside and let them both give her a treat. She took to them very well. We’ll have to retry it with Travis’ mom the next time she and Jimmy come over.