Puppy Love - a year in review

So in case you don't know me real well, I'm a huge animal fan...all shapes, sizes and breeds (for the most part, however I'm not a huge fan of little yippee dogs, some thing about them makes me want to climb the walls!). I had a dog that I had for seven years, Loki (goddess of mischief - and she definately lived up to the name!), whom I loved tremendously - DH would argue too much some times. And when we moved into our home over a year ago, the plumbers let her out and chased her away within 3 days of our moving in. Heartbroken doesn't quite express the grief I felt -but the world keeps turning and you learn to move on, I didn't say forget, but move on. So after Loki had been gone for about 3 months, DH thought it would be a good idea to get our daughter a puppy to grow up with. Now....everybody raise their hands who has housetrained a puppy, a lab mix no less, and who thought it was soooo easy and fun! NOT! Try as I might to talk him into an older dog, he's like my third child and I have a hard time saying no to him....so we got a puppy.

Sox has been a sweetheart from the beginning, and my daughter loved her tremendously and wholeheartedly - at first. Then puppies do what they do and they grow and they jump and they chase and they nip, and my daughter was not so happy anymore. So training got tossed to the wayside and Sox has spent a lot of the past year of her life in her kennel in the kitchen. She got let out for brief "potty" walks, but very little if any play time. Our fault completely. Life happens and we probably shouldn't have ever gotten a puppy - but we did.

So now we are trying to make up for lost time (meanwhile we've added a kitten, which they LOVE each other -seriously! - and a new baby to the mix, nothing like a challenge right?). We've gotten a wireless fence from the money made from selling my daughter's clothes at a consignment sale and we are starting obedience classes. Wireless fence is so worth every penny for us! Sox is able to get out and run soooo much more and play outside for hours, making her and us much happier! The classes just started last week so that will be for another time. Our ultimate goal will be to leave her out in the house.....maybe one day!