[nagdu] one week update

[Kerri Stovall]

Hey listers,
This is my one week update! lol
Sadie is doing remarkably well settling in, although I'm having to watch her barking and growling at who knows what. I have no idea if I'll be able to totally nip this behavior, since it seems to be a poodle trait, according to other poodlers out there. But, other than that, and the occasional new dog kind of misbehaving, like getting up to see what's going on, everything's going amazingly well. Now, I don't know if this is a novel idea that I came up with, or if someone before me has done this, but a few weeks ago, right before I got the call from Pilot, I had decided to buy a diaper genie, and use it to lock in odors from poop bags. Instead of running the poop bag up to the very front of our trailer park, and we're in the back by the way, I thought it would be easier and less of a hassle to just get one of those and fill it with poop bags and take it out a couple times a week if necessary. To me, baby diapers are just as smelly, and this contraption was invented and designed !lock in offensive odors while indoors in a nursery, so why wouldn't it work for dog poo too? So I thought I'd give that a good old fashioned shot. And, lo and behold, the night I put it together, she went poo for me, and gave me the perfect first opportunity to try it out, which was tonight. So, I'll have to let yall know how the diaper genie elite does keeping odors from smelling up the place. It kinda grossed me out just a little thinking of leaving poop inside, because my hubby and I are clean freaks when it comes to scents in our home, but I thought, well, it's kind of the point of the genie to be kept inside. lol
Anyway, another behavior I'm not used to but quickly getting there, is that she is very finicky and picky about when and where she will relieve herself. I took her out all throughout the day, first in my backyard before work, then 3 times at work throughout the day, including lunchtime, and then after work at home in back again, and she never one time acted the least bit interested or like she was uncomfortable with the need to relieve in any fashion, but when I got a hunch to try the front lawn, by gosh she just squatted within 15 to 20 seconds of me getting her to the grass. lol. Granted, when I first received her in class, she hated the relieving area which was all concrete, but after a 3 day wait, she went finally, so maybe it's just her getting used to the routine of things or the environment, or it just may be another poodle trait. I'm not certain yet, because my golden and my lab before this one, never had that issue whatsoever, so this new breed is completely foreign to me, and it's taking some learning. Also, I had her groomed before leaving Ohio, and I wish in a way I'd left her fur longer than I did, because all of a sudden, she doesn't want her warm belly touching anything cold, so she's a little more disobedient by being resistent to stay in the down position, but she has learned to lie down on one hip or the other, so her belly's not directly touching the floor. She's a little slow to go down on carpets, but absolutely resists it on tile, linoleum, the bus, etc. So I've taken to carrying a thin bath towel with me in my bag, and that seems to help. So, come June when it's time to bathe her, I may not clip her just yet and let her grow out a little. My idea was to get her back to Texas with short fur so she wouldn't burn up in this dry heat, because it can get in the 100's, but didn't expect them to clip her almost bare. But I'll leave her longer from this point on.
Well, I'll stop my novel now, lol. But if anyone has anything they want to add, or any suggestions, thoughts, tips, or opinions on what I've discussed, I'd love to hear them.
Talk to yall people soon.
Kerri and Lady Sadie


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