Our Growing Family - Four legged style

We have a new addition to our family and she comes with four legs. She's black, has big ears and really big feet. We're hoping she'll grow into them otherwise she'll be kinda awkward looking. I call her all sorts of names, but officially she's Coco. Since Sean and I have agreed on traditional spellings whenever we talk about our future family, I figured I would change things up for our pup.

And since a picture is worth a 1,000 words, let me introduce you all to our baby girl:

She's an adorable black lab and hound mix. We adopted her from a shelter and she came with the trifecta of puppy problems: fleas, tapeworm and kennel cough with an additional GI parasite. I love her dearly but I don't think I would adopt from that shelter again.

But back to Coco

Once awake, she likes to be on the move, doing random sprints in the backyard, searching through the jungle of plants that I believe was once a butterfly garden, fetching her ball, stick, tug of war toy, really anything that you throw. Since she's still a puppy we get up at least once during the night to go out. I normally hear her coughing, which functions as my monitor that she's awake.

Her likes:

     soft blankets, especially on the tile floor

     being played with or being near people, like she's sleeping on my lap now.

     eating. She is not afraid to nudge her bowl if she thinks it should be filled

     relating to eating, she loves raw hides and we love them too. They keep her busy and out of of             trouble.

     playing with toys, mulch, sticks. She will chew just about anything, like shoes and cords.

     digging is a lot of fun, but not allowed.  

     playing with other dogs or seeing other people.

                                     

Her dislikes:

     initially she refused to start going on a walk. I would pick her up and carry her to the grass and      

        then she would walk. She also didn't like coming into the house either.

     other dogs barking at her. Scares her and she runs away.

     Getting in and out of the car is a blatant refusal. I think my puppy struggles with transitions.

     Being left. She's crate trained but she still whines every time she goes in. Fortunately it doesn't   

         last that long, but last night she started barking her disapproval of the situation.

We love her and it is so nice to have her cute face to come home to. The secret is that I forgot how much work puppies are since she is my first dog that's mine. For most of my life I had a dog, but I was not the primary caretaker. She is a lot of work, but a lot of fun.