Little Lily is growing up.....she has been a member of our family for about 10 weeks.  She has gone from the 12 pounds when we picked her up - to about 35 pounds.  She is becoming a good "garage' dog, and getting used to all the noises I make when working.

I somehow caught a cold from somebody, and yesterday afternoon I was exhausted and went home to crash on the couch.  Lily and the cat Boo enjoyed having me home in the daytime, and did their best to keep me warm. (My foot is sticking out of the blanket on the lower left side of the photo). 

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 02/16/16 at 13:32:46:


The cat knows it's in charge.  

Best regards,

D'awww

Dat purty baby

Beautiful puppy you have there Dave, it's a commitment but well worth it. We lost our 14 year old Australian Sheppard in August and only have one now who is 2 years old. Been looking around for a second one and found a little girl puppy which we will be picking up in about five weeks.
 Luck with the new kid, they become family.

Our cat lived through 2 Golden retrievers and 1 Newfie; but as the first of the Goldens tried to retrieve the cat, she really didn't like the dogs that much.  Female doggies wander much less than their male counterparts. Good looking critters, congrats.

It is interesting how different our previous dog Sarah and new dog Lily are:



Our previous dog Sarah was a Black and Tan Coonhound, and she passed away about 1.5 years ago.  She was our dog for 15 years and she was a really special girl.  Sarah was extremely gentle and easy going - but she was fearless.  She would never provoke or start a fight - but she would never back down from anything.  The few times that another dog started a fight with her...she came out on top.  You only had about 8 seconds to get your message to Sarah....as her mind would wander away after that length of time - she had no desire to chase a ball...she did like playing tug of war with a rope.  Her sense of smell was incredible, she would be laying asleep on the living room floor and suddenly jump up and want to be let outside - and when we looked out the window there would be a deer 1/4 mile away in the hayfield.







Lily has a lot more energy and is just a bit too rough with the cat.  She drags him around by the neck...the cat puts up with it, and we are trying really hard to teach Lily to be more gentle.  Lily started out being very timid, and she is very submissive to anything and anyone.  She is gradually getting more bold as we keep taking her to a dog park to get her socialized and more confident.  A couple days ago she actually chased 2 deer away from our bird feeder.....and just stood and watched as a flock of turkey flew up into the trees when we surprised them on a walk (a few weeks ago Lily would have put her tail between her legs and run to the porch at almost any sound or movement).  She is learning that she has some authority in our yard, and that squirrels and deer can be chased out of the yard.  She has a lot more focus, energy and attention span that Sarah.  Lily loves to fetch a ball and do any kind of play.  If I am picking up sticks in the yard Lily will wrestle one away from me and run off with her new toy......then come back a few minutes later to steal another one away from me, and only about 80% of the sticks every make it to the burn pile.

Lily is a great puppy, and is going to be a great dog and family member, and she is going to love sleeping with MMRanch in his tent!

Yep....we are working on the leash and will eventually graduate to "heel" without a leash.  Lily is just a bit too young and peppy to understand the need to stay right at my side when were are walking - but I am sure she will learn before long.  I do take her with me to Tractor Supply, the hardware store, auto parts store.....any place I am running errands that doesn't mind if you bring your dog inside.

Monday night I was able to get Lily to "catch" a ball in her mouth 3 times....which is not always a natural thing for dogs.  Sarah never did get it....she would open her mouth and try to catch things - but she never understood how to watch and follow the motion - if you threw it exactly right and the timing was perfect it would land in her mouth - but she couldn't do anything to move her head and mouth to help.  She just wasn't wired well for coordination - too many of her wires were redirected to operate her nose!