Her personality emerges!

Capri has been with us a full week now.  She is really becoming comfortable with our routine and family.  She has discovered our basket of toys and loves anything soft that squeaks.  She also likes rope toys.  She is learning how to play with Zoe.  Capri snatches toys from Zoe in order to get her to play but our snobby 11 year old Sheltie is not having it.  She just lays down at Josh's feet as if to say, "Yeah, enjoy but he loves me best."  Sometimes I will hold Capri back while I play with Zoe to show that she gets turns too but I don't know if that does any good.


Her puppy mentality is great.  She is smart, inquisitive, and playful now that she has been de-wormed and spayed.  If she gets bored, she climbs on tables, desks, and can jump high enough to get on top of our garbage can and then get to  the counter top.  Long walks 2 to 4 times a day and lot of play time with fetch and tug help keep her from this behavior.  She loves to play fetch and is learning to "drop it" when she comes back...after a quick game of tug.

She is learning "down" and "leave it" quickly.  She learned "sit" extremely quickly.  She is struggling with "stay".  Leash training continues to go well.  She pulls on the leash a bit, wanting to follow her nose.  My 7 year old has a hard time keep up with her pace. She is very fast and strong for such a little dog.  I usually walk Zoe and stay ahead of Jordy and Capri to establish the hierarchy (Thanks Liz!).  They walk together very nicely.

She has not snarled at Emily again but Emily needed correction on her behavior towards Capri too.  Now they are buddies.  Emily has a similar energy level to Capri so they make great play buddies.  Jordy had a friend spend the night and there was no snarling or snappy at the new child...BUT Capri was recovering from her spay so she was out of it.

Feeding time has improved.  Capri wolfs down each meal.  We feed Zoe once a day 3/4c mixed with water in the evenings plus treats and chews during the day.  But Capri needs way more than that.  I feed her 1/2c in the mornings and 3/4c at night, plus another 1/4c during training sessions...for a total of 1 1/2c.  I don't think this is enough since she jumps at her food like she's starving. The feeding guide says She should be getting 2 3/4c a day.  I am going to increase it to 1c at each meal time and 1/2c reserved for training sessions.

Although I really thought a bigger dog is what would be next for our family.  It seems like this size dog fits our family very well.  We still haven't decided if we will adopt her.  I am still concerned that once school starts that our schedules will be too busy for such a young and active dog.  However, I have started getting up earlier to walk her so that she gets enough exercise.  I am enjoying my "forced" walks and Zoe is getting a lot more exercise for it too.

Time will tell.  We will need to decide by the end of the week.