Zoey

My last post in May was about my new puppy - I didn't have her yet but now she's 11 weeks old! Her name is Zoey and she's a Golden Retriever. She's so sweet and has a great temperament, but a she's little mischievous and stubborn at times. Aren't all puppies? We thought she was born potty trained because the first two days at home she was telling us when she needed to go outside by standing at the back door and barking. Well that turned out to be too good to be true. She peed whenever, wherever, the next few days until we learned to recognize her signs. Now she rarely has an accident in the house, except if we're not paying attention or occasionally a visitor will excite her so much (Kevin!) she spray-pees. Hopefully she'll grow out of that.

As far as your stereotypical Golden goes, I think we're doing a pretty good job of controlling the usual antics. Normally they're chewers and diggers, both which Zoey loves to do, but we've gotten her so many toys and bones, she's easily distracted from whatever she isn't supposed to chew. She's dug a couple holes, but I just fill them with her poo and she's discouraged. She does love to run and roll in the mud, yuck, and she has to pick up EVERYTHING on the floor with her mouth. Including hangers, dryer sheets and even my engagement ring, which spent a night in her belly and then showed up via a pile of puke on the floor the next day. At least I got it back.

In spite of her little bad habits, I love her and I think she will be a great dog. Her and Rachel get along great. Here are a few more pictures of them both:

On the first day they met. :)

Proof that even dogs take bad pictures!