Bringing up Bailey

I picked her up on Saturday so she's been here a few days now. I've got to say that she's a lot of fun. 

She's probably never been in a house before but she's learning all about that and she's a fast learner. She not only learned to the do the stairs quickly, she mastered them by her second time. Everything is new to her but she's not really scared of anything. She already has a big bark and she knows it, although she's more impressed by it than anyone else around here. She probably does have a tendency towards resource guarding, but that's understandable given her prior circumstances and it hasn't been an issue around here. She has not really challenged the other dogs for anything.

It took a couple of days for her to accept being crated without fussing about it for a while, but we seem to be past that now. Her housetraining isn't quite there yet, mostly because it never occurs to her to poop and pee when she's outside because there are so many other things to do. I kept a long line and a second leash on her in the beginning, but it soon became obvious that she wanted nothing more than to follow me around and she wasn't going anywhere without me. 

I have a DNA test kit that had been donated to me and was thinking of using it on this little girl, but the more I see of her the more convinced I am that she's a Belgian Malinois. If she's mixed with anything else, it's insignificant. She's light boned, lightning fast, and as agile as a gazelle. Her jumps aren't always perfect the first time because she's still learning about geometry, but she's damn near perfect on the second try. I seriously doubt that even a 6' fence could contain her if she wanted to get to the other side. She sails over the dog yard fence easily and repeatedly, just for fun. 

We once had a foster dog named Trouble, and that would have been a fitting name for this little girl too, although it's not a good name to attract potential adopters. She's cute, she's sweet, and she's probably too smart for her own good. Someone needs to adopt her quickly to get her away from me.

Maya drinking from my new fountain.

One ear says "I'm listening," the other ear says "I'm going to do whatever I want."

We took her on her first leashed walk today. She wasn't terrible, mostly because she wanted to keep moving forward as much as I did. I had her on a four foot leash and Della on a six footer; that gave Della a chance to keep her distance from the puppy if she wanted.

This looks like Della may have been having words with her. I hope so.

More "ear attitude."

She discovered the water hose today. It's now her favorite toy.