Delilah's First Gotcha Day!

Delilah has lived with my boyfriend and I for exactly one year today!  We're both so happy that she's in our lives now.  There have been a lot of challenges that I didn't experience with my last dog, Mia- bonding, training, behavior, and health- but we've also had so much progress and she's been completely worth it.  We look forward to the years to come!

Here are some photos from her homecoming.  She was transported up to Brattleboro, VT and my sister and I drove down from Burlington to pick her up.  It was one of the most exciting days of my life.

The first time I saw Delilah in real life.

Delilah was the last dog off of the transport.  Each time they brought out a dog I was hopeful it would be my dog, but I had to wait until the very end.

Delilah was so scared when she got off the transport.  She didn't want to come anywhere near me or my sister.  We sat in the lot behind Burger King with her for a while until she peed and pooped and calmed down, and then we began the journey up to Burlington.  When I got Delilah, I could see every bone in her body, and her spay incision was so swollen that at first I thought they had given me a boy dog instead!

On the way home Delilah curled up in my lap and fell asleep.  She must have been exhausted from being shipped all the way up from Tennessee!   She napped for most of the ride home.

We will do a follow up post with some of the cool new gifts she got for her Adoption Day!  

Agility Practice

Thanks for the Welcome!

We'd like to give a big thanks to the Blogville Welcome Wagon for featuring our blog and to all of our new viewers and followers for the warm welcome!

Delilah and I spent the weekend in Massachusetts at a family reunion.  Delilah's a little nervous around people but as long as she was outside and everyone ignored her she was fine.  I played catch with my cousins and Delilah spent over an hour running back and forth trying to get the ball.  She finally stopped when we left with my sister to go back to Vermont, otherwise I don't know when she would have.  She just doesn't get tired.

I don't have any photos from the event because I don't have a camera anymore, but here's a picture from after we got home of a sleepy Delilah.

Doing some Exploring

We went on a walk by the tennis courts behind my neighborhood.

I found a raspberry and a blackberry patch.  Yum.

Raspberries

Blackberries

Delilah found a hole.

Happy Independence Day!

Today is my first day off in forever!  I'm spending the weekend hanging out with the animals.

Everyone have fun and stay safe!

You Know What Delilah Reminds Me Of?

The 'raptors from Jurassic Park!

Intelligent, agile, fierce... and yet... able to be tamed?

New Gear: My Quest to Find a Tiny Dog Harness

So the other day Delilah ate her generic back clip harness.  I left it on her in the car and she just casually gnawed through the chest strap while I was driving.  Over the past couple of weeks I've been on a quest to find her a new one.

She had an Easy Walk Harness in the past, but it always rubbed under her armpits, leaving red marks and once actually cut the skin.  I quickly pulled out the other harness, a nylon strap back clip harness which didn't seem as bad, but still left red marks on occasion after a long walk or hike.  With both harnesses she did NOT want them on- she'd run away and shake when I picked up the harness or asked her if she wanted to go out.

My criteria for a new harness:

- Soft wide straps, mesh, or padding so it wouldn't hurt her skin.
- Doesn't physically restrict her movement.
- Durable so that it can withstand hiking, pulling, and... chewing...
- No clips against her skin that could pinch her or feel uncomfortable.
- And lastly, finding one in her size was going to be a challenge!

We went to PetSmart and were disappointed that the harnesses they had there didn't come in a tiny size for Delilah.  The extra small could have fit a dog twice her size!  They had another design that fit a little better but it restricted her movement rather significantly- she could barely walk!

I went home and started looking at harnesses online.  Julius K9 has some really nice harnesses that look like they would fit her.  I hesitated though, because the appeal for me would be getting custom patches to put on the harness.  It did not appear as though the company sells custom patches for the Baby 2 size.  They had some odd premade patches though- like "Dylan."  I mean, who names their dog Dylan?  I can't imagine that's a best seller.  I would have done "Bella" or "Riley" or something a little more popular...

ANYWAYS, while I was worrying about all of that, my boyfriend took the initiative to buy Delilah a harness on his own.  I'm actually impressed by how well he did.  It's a Precision Fit harness by My Canine Kids and so far has been great!  It's an awesome highlighter yellow color that looks really good on her.  She seems really comfortable in it- she doesn't try to chew it off and she's not scared of putting it on.

I was a little skeptical of the design- two straps came up over her back and velcro'd together, each strap with a D ring at the velcro end so the leash could clip the two straps together.  I was glad that there was no buckle that could pinch her, but I didn't think the velcro would hold up against her pulling.  I'm probably one of the very few owners out there that not only lets their dog pull, but encourages it.  But so far it's been great and she's pulled me all over the neighborhood!

Sam also picked up a Lupine training lead.  It's super helpful to have out in the yard where she's not allowed to be off leash- this way she has room to play and train!  Very soft and comfortable to hold as well.  It's kind of annoying to manage it though, I used it on our hike today to practice recall and it kept getting tangled around the trees, undergrowth, and even roots.  But it seems like it will come in handy on occasion, especially out in the yard.