Entering week 2 with Abby..

[Krystle]

Wow. How easy it is to fall in love!
We knew we loved her the moment we found her but my goodness..after one week with her, she completely has our hearts!
It's interesting to look back at the labradoodle puppy we picked up 9 days ago and compare it to the one we have now! She is a completely different doodle. All shyness has disappeared.. and cheeky abby (often dubbed Darth Abby) has taken over! She'll eat anything except her toys (I honestly think she has learnt she gets more of a reaction out of us for chewing our belongings than her toys - clever little abby!) and loves her bed. 9 days ago she would not sleep anywhere except our laps or next to us. Now, if I put her on my lap, she'll get off and go and sit in her bed on the other end of the lounge! Well thanks very much Abby! In saying that, she still hates when we all go to bed and she has to sit on hers and not up with us!
In the past 5 days, she has learnt 'sit' and 'lie down'. Some times she won't obey, but we know that SHE KNOWS what she's meant to be doing! Selective hearing at it's finest! Once again, cheeky abby!
Apart from this funny behaviour, we are having a couple of issues (nothing massive - just normal puppy behaviour!) :

1) We feed her outside so she associates our backyard with good things for when we need to go out. She refuses to eat unless we're standing outside with her. I don't shut the door when I walk back inside, hoping she will understand that she's free to walk back inside when she's done, but as soon as I move away from her, she follows me. We feed her once in the morning when she wakes up and starts nipping (usually around 5:30 - 6), and once at night after we have dinner (usually about 6:30). I would love her to trust that she can have her dinner and come back inside but she doesnt seem to like eating alone out there at all (even though we attempt to spend at least 2 hours playing out there with her in the afternoon)
Also on a similar line, she wont sleep without us in the room. If she wakes up prematurely on the lounge during a daytime nap and sees we aren't there, she will wake herself up and find us to hang out.

2) She HATES her leash. She didn't like her collar when we first put it on her, and still scratches at it (5 days later) trying to get it off but is much better. We tried putting her leash on last night and she went absolutely mental, running around the backyard attacking it and jumping about like we've never seen. I'm scared that if we try again she'll hurt herself flipping about.

I know she has a bit of seperation anxiety but she has come a LONG way in just 9 days so we're hoping she will continue to get better and more independent.

We love our Abby like she was our baby (which I suppose she is!) and she is such a smart little pup so we'd love to be able to help her with these couple of issues she has. Any advice would be so fabulous!

P.S - I am new to doodlekisses and absolutely adore it already! Thank you for all your warm welcomes and I am constantly amazed at all your beautiful dogs!

[Adina P]

I love hearing puppy stories! They are each so unique and yet so similar...learning and exploring and figuring out where they belong and how to get what they want.... =)


1) I am not clear on why you are concerned with feeding her outside. You said something about "when we need to go out"--do you mean when you visit humans leave her home alone? As in your leaving her outside? Or do you mean when you as humans go outside with her? Most dogs love being outdoors but love being with their people more. Are you crate training her?

2) I would put a leash on her in the house and let her drag it around while you are supervising so that she gets used to how it feels.

I can't wait to see her grow as she is so pretty :-)