Soooo turns out I may be the lucky someone ending up with foster pooch number four! I am officially considering adopting Pasha and am in the process of "test driving" our arrangement, I want everybody to be happy! I've owned a dog before but Lulu was a tiny (super duper amazing) maltese who potty-wise was like a house cat. I am a big fan of wee-wee pads, not instead of all walks but they sure can come in handy and make it possible to go out after work once in awhile and keep the poor pup from crossing her legs if she really has to go(!). We'll see what we can do, I'm sure paper training is totally possible and since that's my only reservation I think I'm going to get right on that (I am teaching her the words "go potty", poop and pee when we go out for walks, I think she knows what they mean! but she's so proud of herself for being housebroken she doesn't want to go on the pad, she feels like she'sbacksliding ;)
As my friend Jeanette pointed out, she is both cute and ambitious!
I love her to death, what a find!
Who am I kidding, she already has her Pasha Kelly dog tag and the enormous doggie bed is coming in the mail! When you are a "single parent" (certainly feels that way!) it's extra important to make your pup a solid canine citizen who is welcome everywhere and whom people will delight in babysitting, at the moment I am working on avoiding bad habits!
My big plan:
1. Teach her to walk perfectly on her leash! she already pretty good but she's strong and low to the ground so any pulling is unwelcome. I'm not too worried about this.
2. Barking? she doesn't :)
3. Beggin'? nope, not really, but just to be sure I tell her to "go" and point away from the table and she has to wander off a few steps.
4. I made the mistake of letting her on the couch for snuggles ( I figured she wouldn't be staying for long anyway), and then she started jumping on everyones couch when visiting! easy mistake Pasha but now we've gotta change the rules on you. Luckily she catches on quickly!
5. Letting her sleep on the bed (see above)... the fancy plush dog bed will make it up to her though right??
6. Jumping up on people to say hi! again, pretty unwelcome by most people, she's kinda big and her paws are muddy if she's in the woods or dog run... teaching her "up" and "get down" so she can be invited up if somebody wants hugs! also I'm teaching her to sit for pets when I come home instead of the jumping.
7. Attempt to teach her to ring a bell when she needs to go out for a squirt, first I need to find a bell though, it's not christmas time?
I'm sure there's other stuff which I'll remember later, but for now we are in pretty good shape, she needs a few tweaks but not a major overhaul! and don't worry this does not mean the end of fostering for me, once she's settled in we may get dog number 5 in here and they can learn from her good example:)
xoxo
April and Pasha!
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