Atwood-Family of FIVE: Pretty Doggy

We have now had Winnie for about 2 months. We are all still adjusting to her. Our biggest problem is we cannot spend enough time with her, so when she's out in the back alone, she tends to destroy things (hmm....maybe she and Anne are secretly sisters....). She will chew on our fence, the house, door frames, and her latest adventure was literally tearing the screens off our window and destroying them. Although this is super annoying and frustrating and, alright, maddening, we know that a big part of it is our fault for 1. not spending enough time with her. 2. not walking her every single day and 3. not letting her in the house enough. So we continue to work on all these things. We are starting to walk her more and more. It still isn't everyday but this week I think we missed one day. I would like to see us walk her 2x a day. When we walk her, we can then bring her inside (because she isn't so crazy) and she does better the rest of the day because she got some energy out and she got to spend time inside with us. She seems to be learning too, that we tolerate her better when she isn't so hyper, so when she is inside she has definitely calmed down a lot.

We started puppy classes last month and Winnie does well. She learns all her tricks unbelievable quickly. After showing her the trick a maximum of 3 times she knows it and can do it consistently. She currently knows sit, lie down, watch me, stay, leave it and drop it. However, being so smart, she knows if we have a treat she really needs to listen and if we don't have a treat, she can continue doing what she wants. Today after puppy class we are going to buy a pinch collar because she really really needs to be reigned in and needs to know that she needs to listen to us every single time. (For example, if she got off her leash, she would not come back when called and could run out into traffic or could hurt someone. So she needs to learn to listen to us when we call her.) John and I are definitely not attachment parenting puppy people.

Here are some pictures of our pretty doggy. She has gained about 25 lbs the past 2 months, which averages out to about 1 lb every 2-4 days! Wow!! She will be a very large female when full grown, we are expecting her to be about 70 lbs (which is about as heavy as the average male).