A Few Early Reflections on the New Doggie

1. Hard choice. Going to the APL was a great thing to do, but there were several that would have been suitable and the girls liked other dogs, too. It's (somewhat) easy to say no to dogs you know off the bat aren't going to work for you, but it's pretty difficult to leave a dog at the shelter--even a non-euthanizing, well-run, friendly place like the APL--that will probably be a pretty good dog for your family.

2. We chose a 2-year-old (roughly) female, medium-sized, quite sturdy, strawberry blonde mutt dog. I can't remember what mix of breeds they guessed she was at the shelter because I went off and left the folder there (duh, have to get it tomorrow). But my estimation is some variety of Shepherd/Retriever mix with probably other stuff in there. She got excellent "Safer" scores on her temperament tests and is outstanding with the kids.

3. Points of comparison with the previous dog: I suspect she's going to be much more trainable than Wacko was, because she's very people-focused and is always watching us like she's awaiting orders. So we're going to have to get started training her right away. Wacko didn't necessarily have a strong objection to doing what you asked as long as, you know, he didn't have anything better to do. I'm guessing that she's not going to be nearly the flight risk that Wacko was. She also really digs being brushed and combed, and doesn't mind having her paws and toenails held and touched, so she'll be much easier to groom than he was. On the other hand, I don't get the impression that she's quite as confident (yet, anyway) as he was, so I don't know if she's going to have separation anxiety issues, which is not something I ever worried about much with the Wack-job, at least after the first few weeks. And I'm fairly sure that she's not going to be much use as a watchdog, which was something Wacko did quite well. Part Chow, he was.

4. She and the cats still have a few....issues to work out. She's not aggressive and she's pretty friendly. But her first feline interaction consisted of an attempt to sniff Tango, whose reaction was, "The way things work around here is you stay away from me and I don't introduce your nose to the business end of my claws." Dog backed away yelping. Then later, when Pearl tried to come in the room, Dog remembered the earlier interaction and took out after Pearl, which resulted in a time-out in her crate. So we're still learning.

5. Her name is Ruby (Ruby Tuesday, heh). And she's excellent.