Happy 7 month anniversary of me having Poppy in my life! I meant to write last month on the 6th, but I was swamped at work and things weren't going to well at hone, so I wanted to wait until it past before updating.

Daycare: I no longer take Poppy to the cheap-on-Tuesdays daycare. On the 3rd week, when I came to pick her up, I always take a look in the pen to see what she is up to before she can see me and I get her. She was curled up in the corner "sleeping" with a cute beagle like…

I rarely write here anymore and I was actually going to see if I could wait until the middle of May for an update because that will have been Poppy and my 6th month anniversary together! But the last few weeks have been kind of up and down and I feel like updating today. I actually can't believe it's been so long since my last update!

To start off good, things have been going pretty well. Hardly any barked and whining when I leave. Even when I have to go out at night or run errands on…

Well, it's been a while! We've had our ups and downs, but for the most part it's been all going very well. Poppy and I finished the shy dog class and it was excellent. Her corgi came out near the end when we started on the agility toys and she barked her head off when the other dogs went before. She didn't even need food motivation to get over the A-frame! I was debating signing her up for agility next, but instead decided to do general obedience. The class is just okay. 10 dogs (up from 5…

I am trying not to post too much here about the bad, but since it's rare that she really is "bad", I figure I just need to vent now. Usually Poppy is really good about doing her business when I take her outside. She knows the schedule and gets it all done then. But last night when I was trying to go to bed, she was being extra whiny. I wasn't sure if she needed to get more energy out (we didn't go for our normal hike this weekend, which I now know she NEEDS to tie her over for a few days) or…

Things have been going very well for both of us. It took nearly 3 months, but I think Poppy finally knows the schedule. There has been no pee in the pen while I have been at work in nearly 3 weeks! YAY!

The shy dog class we go to once a week has been good for both of us. We are both learning new skills and while she isn't exactly "treat motivated" (so un-corgi like!) I feed her her dinner by practicing our skills and that seems to work well for about 10 minutes a day. Also, I forgot…

I just realized I haven't updated here since the 15th! Oy! It's been a very busy week and weekend. My schedule was totally off last week, thanks to jury duty (dismissed, YAY!!!!) but I was worried about what I would have done with Poppy if I had to sit on a case. Thankfully that is a non-issue this year and Poppy didn't even notice, except for the fact that last Tuesday was a verrrry long day.

There is a really nice daycare place about 15 minute drive away that does $20 Tuesdays, so I…

Well, it's been quiet an uneventful week/end!

Every time I left the house last week, Poppy was very quiet, which was so awesome! I was so happy! Though today when I left, she cried and barked when I was getting ready for work and then I waited outside for about 5 minutes and she was fine, but then I started walking down the hall and could hear her starting to bark. I video taped her today (totally forgot last week) so I can't wait to see what she did after I left. I hope she'll catch…

Well, it's been quiet an uneventful week. YAY! Out of the 4 times I have left the house in the last 2 days, only yesterday afternoon was there minor barking and whining, which stopped after only a few minutes. I had 3 times of NO BARKING! YAY!

Shy dog class on Tuesday was interesting. I am the only single person there with the most crazy dog who is also the youngest and have had my dog the least time. She was quiet distracted (a big problem for us) when we did the exercises, but when…

Well the last 24 hours have been a roller coaster of super highs and super lows.

We'll start with the lows (because I want to end on the highs):

-Came home at lunch to pee in the pen, AGAIN. Same thing happened on Friday and I even made the pen smaller and Poppy still pee'd. I was so annoyed. And this has only happens in the morning too!

-When we got back from our late night walk, she drank a lot of water, slightly more then usual I noticed, but didn't think twice.…

Well, this weekend was interesting. I came home at lunch on Friday to pee in the pen, which hasn't happened all week. I wonder what brought it? It frustrated me, but since it already happened, there wasn't much I could do to Poppy at that moment. What I did do was make her pen smaller so there is really only room for her bed and food/water dishes, which is something I should have done a while ago. She only seems to pee like once a week, but maybe this will help is not happening again. We'll…

Since things have calmed down a lot, I am probably not going to update every day, a good thing!!!

The worst thing was on Wednesday when I took Poppy outside for our midday walk, she pee'd on the stairs in my apartment building, which she had never done before. Grrrrrrrr. So since then, I pretty much run her down as fast as we can.

In other news, I video taped her in the afternoon (which I wrote about last time) and then I video taped her in the morning, after a shorter walk and…

We had quite the uneventful week. YAY!!! We met up with some friends who have a 5 year old corgi mix for our first afternoon at a local dog park and we both had tons of fun! So much so, that I took Poppy back a few days later on my way to my parents house, but it was a bit of a bust as the small dog side was empty. So we went and played with the big dogs and it was fine. Poppy gets alone with dogs of all sizes as long as they aren't aggressive.

I got some calming dog treats from…

I break into our regularly scheduled vacation to update myself on what has been going on.

Poppy did very well (from what I can tell) in the 5 days/4 nights of boarding. So far I have only found one flea and no coughing, but sometimes these things don't show themselves for a few days. When the worker brought her out to me, she was so tired (a good thing!) and it took her a minute to recognize me. By the time I got her home, we were back in the swing of things. Apparently she slept in a…

Everything yesterday was fantastic. Finally nothing new or exciting to report. She whines and barks when I leave and I am still trying to find a remedy to that, but since it is during the week days, I don't worry too much. When I go back to work in the new year, I am going to try to video her, to see how long it lasts. When I come home 4-5hrs later, she is silent, but for all I know, she stopped the moment I walked up the stairs.

We went to Centinela Feed at night so I could get more…

Of course, when things are starting to go well, I am going away this weekend for 4 days! Already not looking forward to the return next week, but on the upside, I don't really have to be at work, so I can spend a lot of time with Poppy for the next 6 days.

Yesterday was great. She cried and barked when I left in the morning (with Rescue Remedy and Thundershirt, but none seem to be working when I am not in the apartment). When I came home at lunch, she had moved everything in her pen…

Days are getting better (or maybe I am just getting used to having a dog) but either way, everything is getting better.

On our quick walks around the block (first thing in the morning and when I get home from work) Poppy is slightly freaking out when we walk along one side of the block as they are doing some light construction and the noise and trucks scare her a lot, but I keep walking past it, trying to get her used to the sounds. Not working as well as I'd hope, but I am going to…

Yesterday was a pretty good day. There was some leash pulling on our morning walk as they are doing construction on one side of a block we walk on and the trucks and noise freak Poppy out, so the walk is usually really quick. She cried and barked and whined way more then last Monday when I left, even though I did the same thing I always did, including putting Rescue Remedy in her food. The same thing happened after lunch too, which was a big disappointment. The evening went by as normal,…

We had a fantastic weekend! Friday started out a little rough (barking and whining when I left, unlike the rest of the week), but I came home for an early lunch to no barking. We went for an eval at a place very close to my apartment and Poppy did well of course. Unfortunately, they won't take her for boarding over the holidays because she has had kennel cough in the last month, so that was a huge disappointment. The owner of this training, boarding and daycare center was very thorough,…

Yesterday was like THE! BEST! DAY! EVER! Started off a little strange during our morning walk, Poppy kept turning around to look behind her and wanting to "go home" until we got to the half way point and then she pulled me in the other direction to get home as fast as possible. It was very strange. Quiet as usual when I left in the morning. We had a good walk at lunch (but not so quiet when I left after that) and after work I had to run some errands in the neighborhood, so I took her with me…

Finally, a really good day! I put Poppy into a different daycare today (first day free!) because I had a work function at lunch and couldn't come home to walk her. She seemed to do really well. I liked the place better then where I dropped her off on Monday, if only because I and anyone could look into the area where the dogs play and are kept all day. They are split into large and small dogs and while there isn't much stimulation for them, it was clean and I could see what was going on.…