Oh, Happy Day!

Aydan having some sweet moments with the dogs.  Although he is having a good time, he seems to be the only one not smiling :)

Soooo in Love!

I don't know how you can look at an English Bulldog's face and not fall in love!  Every time I look at Scuttle, I just want to kiss her sweet, slobbery, flappy cheeks!  Well, that's after I get my towel and lovingly wipe her cheeks first :)  She is doing so well and overcoming her fears every day.  Tonight while I was making dinner she was just casually walking in and out, checking things out.  Not to mention the evenings are 100% better!  She settles right down and goes to sleep.  However, I have NEVER known a dog to drink water throughout the night.  Last night I had to re-fill the water bowl because she finished it off.  There is water available all day and because she still isn't comfortable eating or drinking (tried again tonight) in the kitchen, we keep the water bowl in the living room where she is most comfortable.  She's so funny!  She still doesn't rest easily during the day so I'm hoping as she becomes more familiar with all the noises she'll start resting better throughout the day.

Now that the weather is cooling off here (HUGE sighs of relief over here), we are keeping the doors and windows open pretty much all day.  I think the dogs are loving the weather too because they can come and go as they please!  We have labeled Sailor, our Golden, a lizard hunter.  He's a little obsessed so this is his favorite time of year too because he can go huntin' any time he wants :)  I need to post a picture of him too!  Maybe I can get one of them together. 

More to come :)

Houston, we have a problem - Day 14

Okay, so I might be exaggerating just a bit!  While Scuttle seems to be getting more and more comfortable in the house, she now seems to want to attack everything!  She hasn't bitten anything or anyone, but man, she can be pretty intimidating.  We are remaining calm and not showing excitement in her fearfulness but rather taking a calm approach and trying to introduce her to the things she seems to be fearful of.  I had to leash her up this morning and take her to the item she was growling and barking at.  It took her a minute but she finally seemed to be okay with it and didn't bark at it again.  Yesterday I juiced and the juicer, which is pretty loud, scared her and she barked at it.  I just kept juicing and eventually she stopped but then started getting all excited, in a bad way, about me stirring it in my jar because of the noise it made.  I just kept stirring it and making noise on purpose and each time she would come and look at it, sniff it, and walk away.  I did it over and over and she eventually got to where she was okay with it.  Soooooo...we'll keep trying to introduce her to the things that keep scaring her in hopes that she'll eventually calm down!

She is doing really well at night!  I can't say the same for me though :)  I'm not used to the snoring and she seems to LOVE to sleep by my side of the bed.  All night.  All kidding aside, I am very happy that she doesn't pace back and forth anymore.  She pretty much lays right down and goes to sleep and stays there until the hubby wakes up to get ready for work.  Most of the time she won't settle after he leaves and I get up at that point.  However, on Monday, she went back to sleep...sweet sleep! 

More to come soon! I'm going to work on her fearfulness for the next couple of days and hopefully have a good update!

Personality!

I love that Scuttle's personality is starting to shine through!  She gets so excited if she hasn't seen you in a while.  I'm starting to learn her body language too.  Since she doesn't have a tail that wags, it's hard sometimes to know if she excited or scared.  Sailor, being a Golden, has a tail of steel!  When that thing gets going and he's excited you better watch out!  I've lost count of how many glasses he's knocked over with it!  But he wouldn't be him without his tail :)  Scuttle on the other hand, just wiggles her but....just a little.  Just enough for you to see she's happy to see you.  It's really sweet!

All-in-all, today has been a really great day.  I can see areas where she has improved and some things are still yet to be conquered.  My oldest daughter was bringing me a 3-ring binder today and she did not like it at all!  She barked and growled at it and seemed like she would attack it.  She put it on the ground for her to sniff and look at for a minute.  She came over, still not sure of this weird looking thing, and eventually was okay with it.  Yesterday, my son was standing in front of the window and she looked at him and barked a couple of times before I finally made him move so she would stop.  I should have leashed her up and walked her over to him so she could see it wasn't a big deal.  Too bad I just thought of it now!

With all the rain, we haven't been able to go on walks.  She really likes her walks and does really well.  We have to be mindful of our pace and not go to fast.  It's supposed to be raining all weekend too but hopefully we can get a walk in tomorrow :)

"I wasn't in the flower pot!"

Have I mentioned that Scuttle LOVES to be outside?  As far as I can tell she's not a digger but loves the flower pots!  She came in from being outside today and we couldn't help but laugh!  Silly girl! 

Oh!  And look at that cherry-eye!  It's looking good today.  She's on a different antibiotic to see if that will help with the little pimple-like bump by her eye lid. 

Day 7

I absolutely love Scuttle's energy that she has in the morning!  She is so spunky and playful.  I love how she puts her big head on my lap to get my attention and just leaves it there.  One thing about today that was really cool is that she came in the kitchen while I was making coffee and just hung out there with me.  The cat was in the kitchen eating his food too and while she really was curious about him, she didn't seem to really care that he was there.  I am so happy that she is getting more and more comfortable with other rooms in the house.

Things between her and Sailor have been going pretty good.  I have been working on her being around Sailor when he has his toys.  This morning she started to lunge at him when he had his toy but my daughter was able to intervene at the right moment and she immediately recovered.  At least we know what to watch for and so thankful that she has a good response when were correcting her.  I really wish I knew what was going through her mind because she doesn't even like the toys.  Now, give her a rawhide chew and she's in heaven!

On another note, we have been working on her "sitting" command.  She is so funny...she'll sit, sometimes with a little help, get her treat, and then immediately get back up!  Once she has this down, we'll start working on a "stay" command and see how she does :)  She is a bit stubborn so I think we have our work cut out for us!


Stay tuned!

Day 6

The morning started off a bit rough.  We got up and did our regular routine...bathroom, breakfast, bathroom... :)  Scuttle and Sailor were doing great.  Then, he walks into the room with one of his favorite toys and she lunges towards him.  I got onto her and she immediately recovered.  Sailor, of course, got his feelings hurt and tried to bury his head in my lap.  It's hard not to love on him but I don't want him to become psycho! 

I took them outside and they actually started to play...for about 5 seconds when she must have gotten to close for comfort because Sailor "voiced" his opinion and that was the end of play time :(  She did respond well to him and left him alone right away.  The rest of the day was pretty, well, boring!

She continued to pace for a while this morning and felt most comfortable in my room.  I just let her be in there as she hadn't rested at all for the whole morning.  It also gave me time to focus on home schooling and getting some things done.  Come mid-afternoon, it was time to get her out of the room and bring her in where the family was. 

She's been pretty nervous since then.  She did come into the kitchen while we were all eating dinner!  Yay!!  That's huge considering she wouldn't come near it a few days ago!  But she hasn't eaten her dinner and it's 8:30 at night...baby steps, baby steps...time to put the food away.  She is, however,  enjoying sitting on the floor next to my husband.  She's probably been waiting for that ALL day!

As I'm writing this she is finally eating!  And she's doing something new too...my son brought out his Gators blanket (I had to throw that in there) and she seems to think it's an animal or something!  She seems like she really wants it and will even try to get it.  We put it on the floor and she could care less...it's only when it's being held.  We did it with a different blanket and she reacts the same way!  I think she thinks that it's the cat...hmmm...

Stay tuned....