Welcome to Our Home

Riley has been with us for 3 nights now. We were up all night Saturday with her whining. She is only six weeks old, and it was her first night away from her mom and brother. I felt bad taking another puppy from the family, but it was going to happen eventually. Anyway, we had a hard plastic crate that has the narrow slits in the top half. I decided that not only did it look uncomfortable, but the windows were also very small, making her very confined and lonely. On Sunday, we ran by Target and got a fabric crate with screened windows so that she can see out on three sides. We waited to close the crate until right before bed, and she was asleep in it by that point. Lucy slept nearby facing Riley, and that seemed to keep her happy because we didn't hear a peep out of her all night. In the morning, Lucy herded her out of the house to the grass where she immediately went to the bathroom (no accidents in the crate, and no whining to go out!) When we let them back in while we were getting ready, Riley wanted to stay outside and play. Lucy kept running in, then running out, circling Riley, and running back in. At one point, Riley turned her back to the door, and Lucy ran back out, turned her around with her nose and her paw, and went back inside. It was so cute that Lucy was trying to help her! Last night I watched the dogs play really long and hard in the yard. It was really great to see them getting along so well. Lucy is SO much bigger than Riley right now, but she seems to understand how hard she can and can't paw and nip at her.

We put Riley back in the crate before bed, and waiting until she was asleep to zip it up. Mitch hadn't zipped the bottom, and Riley didn't want to be in there this time (she had woken up when the zipper was going down), so Riley just pushed her head out of the bottom and unzipped the crate. While she did stay in most of the night, Mitch heard her stirring a couple of times and opened it up to put her out. At 5am, we just left it unzipped and she came out and slept on the floor. Another night accident free!

This arrangement is working out better than expected, and Mitch and I couldn't be happier with the decision to go ahead and get another dog! Lucy finally has a playmate (Jude wouldn't even acknowledge her existence other than to growl at her), and Riley seems very happy. I must admit that I am a little worried each day when I get home from school that she's not going to be there. She's so small! I'm just nervous that we haven't puppy-proofed the fence enough. It's probably just paranoia though. It happens every time we get a new dog.