Kleo update

Jaiden laid into Kleo earlier. She's been going up to him, right in his face, and licking his mouth (sign of submission, I've read), or taking toys right out of his mouth (definitely not a sign of submission). For the most part, I've been telling her NO whenever she pulls that crap. It annoys Jaiden, but he'll mostly just toss his head away from her and/or move away. When it comes to food, though, NOBODY will take that away from him (except people). I had given them each some peanut butter because she's still on medication for kennel cough. Jaiden has a habit of licking his arms after eating peanut butter, which he was doing today. So of course, Kleo wanted to know what he was eating, went right up to him, in his face, and without missing a beat, he snarled and lunged toward her. That was the end of it.

But not for Kleo! She yelped as if he drew blood, ran behind me, tried jumping up on me, and basically acted as if her world was coming to an end. She's such a drama queen. She's lucky to be living with a such a patient dog. I would have yelled at her if I had seen it quickly enough, but it happened too fast. I didn't scold Jaiden, though, because I want her to learn she needs to keep her space when it comes to stuff like that. He gave me a look that said, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I love my food!"

On a walk earlier, Eric and Kleo had fallen behind, so I stopped to let them catch up. Jaiden immediately got down into his "hunting mode". He reverted to his Ridgeback-lion-hunter roots and laid down flat (even though he could easily be seen). As soon as Kleo caught sight of him, she sat down and refused to move. Very wise of her. ;)

It's funny to think that a couple of days ago, I was seriously ready to get rid of Kleo after having her for less than 24 hours. I was just expecting too much out of her. I haven't had to deal with puppy behavior in many, many years, and I guess I figured that she'd catch on much quicker than reasonable. I didn't give her enough time to get accustomed to her surroundings, and probably made things more stressful for her. Anyway, she's much more relaxed than when she arrived, and I'm starting to learn "who" she is. Turns out she's a morning dog. Sigh. She's pretty energetic, and seems to be getting increasingly energetic. Sigh. She's been playing with toys quite a bit, and it's pretty entertaining. She'll lay on the big dog bed, and growl at and chase her tail, her legs (???) and Jaiden's toys. Jaiden couldn't have cared less about toys until Kleo came around. Every now and then, he'll decide that whatever toy she's playing is suddenly really interesting. Damn dogs!

The kennel training has been going fairly well. Her new kennel came in yesterday, and I set it up right next to Jaiden's, hoping that maybe his gung-ho attitude about kennels would wear off on her. This morning, Eric woke up at 4AM and we took the dogs out. He went on an early morning run, and I decided to just leave Kleo out of her kennel, but closed the door to our bedroom. She jumped on the bed, I pushed her off... she laid on the floor, and about five minutes later, I heard her get into her kennel. SUCCESS!! She still doesn't like being crated during the day, though.

There are two other dogs I can't stop thinking about: a very frightened 7-year-old Chihuahua (he was the one sitting on a chair after his bath, taking a break from the noise) and a 7-year-old black lab mix. The older ones never get adopted, because people always want the younger dogs, the ones who'll be able to live long lives with their owners. I always feel badly for the older guys, and I'm kicking myself for not considering the lab mix. She looked like a sweetheart, and I swear it seems like the older ones understand exactly where they're at and what's going on. I mean, I'm glad we got Kleo, but the older guys really tug at my heart strings, and next time, I'll really get it into my head to consider them more seriously. The only thing with the puppyish dogs is that they adapt more readily to a family that already has dogs.

Sigh... :( There are far too many dogs out there that need a safe home! I wish the majority of dog breeders out there would just STOP.

New dog

I've been wanting a new dog for a long time, and I finally was able to convince Eric that we needed one. ;) So, over the weekend, Eric and I went to the local humane society and looked at two dogs we really liked. One was a 2-4 year old Catahoula mix named Brandie. She had a brindle look to her, with light brown eyes--gorgeous! The other one was a 10-month-old Carolina dog named Kleo, and when I saw her on the website, I thought she looked exactly like Jaiden, just with a little black around her nose. She ended up being a LOT smaller than I thought she was. We let Jaiden meet both, and Brandie's hair immediately raised up. I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything, but I already have one dog who gets really excited about meeting other dogs... I was kind of hesitant about having two of those. When Kleo saw Jaiden, she yelped and hid behind Eric, but kept tugging at the leash to go meet him. It was weird and funny at the same time. But now I had a hard decision, because Jaiden seemed to get along with both really well.

I went back the next day (yesterday) to decide. Brandie was in one of the runs, and another dog was in the next run. I watched how she acted... she seemed fairly intent at times on wanting to say "hi" to the other dog. That was pretty much my deciding point. It's a pretty weak one, but it was all I had. So, I took Kleo home. Well, actually, I took her to the vet. She has kennel cough, and I figured while I had her in the car, I might as well take her straight to the vet. She peed in my car before I even got out of the shelter parking lot. Trying to look on the bright side, I figured maybe she just didn't want to get her kennel all messy and had held it for so long. Anyway, the vet gave Kleo an antibiotic/steroid shot, gave us some meds, and we went home.

I let her wander the house a bit, following her if she wandered where I couldn't see her. Eventually she wandered into Eric's man cave, I followed, and before I knew it, she was peeing on Eric's underwear (LOL). I took her straight outside. About an hour later, she peed in the house again--after she had just been out not too long ago, and did nothing. I was hoping that maybe it was just the steroids she had been given. At that point, though, I decided some crate training was in order, like NOW. I put her in Jaiden's kennel (hers will be here tomorrow). She whined a bit, but mostly just slept. Perfect! She didn't have another accident, and hasn't since.

That night, we kept her in our room with us and Jaiden, and she slept in the kennel. I didn't hear too much out of her. We did hear her reverse sneezing right around 3:30AM, and we figured we should probably take her out. After coming back in and putting her in her kennel, she whined for probably 10 minutes, but eventually settled down.

This morning, after Eric left, I put her in her kennel again. She began whining, but this time she didn't stop... and in fact, the whining turned into downright yelping. I put a blanket over her kennel, hoping that would calm her a bit, but no dice. So I went into the bedroom (the kennel was out in the living room at this point), left the TV on for her, and hoped she would just settle down. Nope. She got even louder. I took Jaiden outside, and I could hear her yelping out there. Ugh. Her yelps are deafening. She really learned how to make herself heard in that kennel. On the one hand, I want her to be loud so that she can maybe scare off intruders (all 30 pounds of her, lol), but on the other... OMG, the yelps make me want to rip my hair right out. It's enough to make Jaiden leave the room, giving me a dirty look on the way out. I had read that when you put a dog into a kennel, you leave her there until she calms down, and don't give her any attention (good or bad) until she calms. I tried to ignore her, I really did. When I took the blanket off, she began digging. She dug so fervently that she ripped the corner of the foam bedding to pieces. I yelled at her, she dug harder, started getting into the carpet, and I threw a slipper at her kennel. I know, that sounds bad. I was just so frustrated. The yelping, the digging... I'm not used to that much noise and destruction, and my brain was on total overload.

I gave up and let her out. I mean, I couldn't let her ruin the carpet. I was on the verge of tears, thinking I'd have to take her back. I've never had to deal with a destructive dog, and I didn't know how I was supposed to keep her contained without hurting the house or herself. So I took her and Jaiden on a 30-minute walk, on the verge of tears the whole time, thinking I'd have to take her back.

Every time I put her in the crate, I make sure to make it a positive experience... I give her toys (not interested) and food, but once the food/treats are gone, the yelping begins. For now, I've taken a break from the crate training. My brain (and Jaiden's, I'm sure) just can't handle that much yelping. I've ordered a new kennel with a plastic tray, and I'll be getting a plastic floor protector to put under the kennel in case she manages to destroy the tray. If we're going to keep her, she's going to HAVE to deal with being crated, because there's no way I trust her enough to leave her out. Unfortunately, that means Jaiden will have to deal with her. :(

I brought Jaiden up to be an upstanding citizen (I get compliments on his manners all the time), so I'm no dummy when it comes to dog training. I didn't expect to get a well-trained dog or anything, but I wasn't expecting such high maintenance. It's really taken the joy out of getting a new dog, and a small part of me regrets this decision. I know that sounds awful, but I'm finding it very hard to bond with her. In the meantime, we'll just keep working on things.

She'll definitely need some car training. When I first got Jaiden, he'd happily ride in the back seat, but as soon as I stopped the car and opened my door, into my lap he'd come, all 70 pounds of him. Kleo does the same thing, but at least she's only 30 pounds. I've trained Jaiden to be patient and wait in the back seat, and he's a champ about it. Kleo will eventually have to learn to do the same.

Of course, she'll need the crate training, and for now, she's being pretty good about doing her business outside. She's fairly good on the leash. She tends to jump up and grab treats out of my hand, and she's tried counter-surfing a couple of times.

She does have some really cute personality quirks. She occasionally watches TV, especially when there's a barking dog, and she chases bugs. When we're on walks, she really likes to stop and watch the cars go by, and she gets distracted by birds flying overhead. All in all, she's a really cute dog, and I haven't given up on her yet... but if she doesn't start behaving in the kennel and/or if she starts yelping at night... well, I don't know what we'll do. :(

2-Year Anniversary

Eric and I rented a cabin near Bryson City, NC for our two-year anniversary. We decided on this cabin:

http://watershedcabins.com/cabin-details/items/journeys-end.html

We left on Friday for our two-hour trip up into the mountains. There were, of course, a ton of twists and turns, and I was literally feeling dizzy and a teeny bit car sick. Seriously. I never get car sick. Jaiden was getting really antsy, too--the poor guy just couldn't get comfortable, and he kept getting up and whining.

We finally turned off the highway and onto the residential road near the cabin. Just a few more miles to go! The first thing we ran into was this not-too-inviting bridge:

Next thing we saw was a landslide that had slid onto the road and hadn't been cleaned up. It was blocking about a foot of the right lane.

Anyway, we continued on, over another sixteen bridges, with a fast-moving creek following us along the way. The road became a gravel road, and we began feeling more and more isolated. I mean, part of the attraction of a mountain cabin is seclusion, but it was kind of creepy at first.

The first thing we did after arriving at the cabin was HOT TUBBING! I'd give anything to be able to have a hot tub. Or even just a jetted tub in our bathroom (which we're working on--hoping to move out of here soon...). They're so relaxing.

One of the lamps in the bedroom was one of those touch lamps--you touch it, it turns on/off. So I touched it to turn it off when we went to bed... and an hour later, I woke up and it was on. Kinda creeped out, I got up, turned it off again... and an hour later, it was on again. I did this a couple more times, got sick of it, and unplugged the thing.

The next morning, Eric and I ventured into "town" (basically just a little convenience shop and a couple of restaurants). The Nantahala River was right there, too, along with the Appalachian Trail. We couldn't have picked a better spot for our cabin. There was so much to do. We took pictures of the river, which was gorgeous, hiked a little bit up the Appalachian Trail, ate some lunch, watched the kayakers, and just took in the sights.

We made our dinner in the cabin that night, had some delicious champagne, and watched HGTV and HBO (hey, cable TV is a luxury for us!).

The cabin had a guestbook, so we were going through the entries, and read the last one (left March 4, 2012). It basically said, "Thank you for sharing your cabin with us and allowing us to get to know one another after being apart for 30 years." EEK! Eric and I were dying to know the story behind that. Had they known each other in high school, drifted apart, and got back in touch after each divorcing? Had they had an affair? Was it a one-time thing, or were they going to continue seeing each other? Sigh. We'll probably never know.

It was sad to leave. It's never been so nice to have absolutely nothing that we *had* to do. Before we left, I gave Jaiden a couple of Benadryl to hopefully help him sleep and not be so whiny. ;) We also left the chair up so that he'd have something to rest against when the car twisted around the hills. Worked like a charm.

Okay, pictures!